By Katherine Rundell
Want to get away from the busy routines and schedules, but don’t have time to book a flight or a travel reservation? Perhaps you only want to escape into a good book and mesmerize yourself being in the book’s setting for a good while? No matter the reason, you might be interested in picking up a great book from the travel genre. Or, you might have an adventure-seeking friend who wants to be immersed in travel stories for the time being.
So, if you’re looking for a good book to read to entice your travel senses and spark inspiration on your next travel destination, then check out these 5 must-reads!
- The Beach – Alex Garland (1996)
“Written by English author Alex Garland in 1996, The Beach is a must-read for every backpacker,” says Eden Draper, a travel expert at Essayroo and OXEssays. “The novel follows a young backpacker as he searches for a legendary, idyllic and isolated beach that hasn’t been touched by tourism, along with his time there with its small, international community of backpackers.”
- Without Reservations: The Travels Of An Independent Woman – Alice Steinbach (2000)
Written by Pulitzer Prize winning Alice Steinbach, Without Reservations is a marvelous account about her travels through England, France, and Italy. With her amazing ability to self-examine and mindfully how others think and act, her willingness to travel alone and open-minded is phenomenal, especially since she’s open to new experiences and meeting new people along the way. Cautious yet calm, she describes her encounters with the people that she meets in her travels. And, for each destination, she captures the most memorable moments, and savors them, for which readers can also enjoy in this book.
- On The Road – Jack Kerouac (1957)
His second novel written in 1957, On the Road is a book based on the travels of writer Jack Kerouac and his friends across America. The idea for this novel was conceived in the 1940s from a series of notebooks that Kerouac had kept during his travels; and, it was with those notebooks that he had eventually typed out on a continuous reel of paper during three weeks in April of 1951. Originally published by Viking Press in 1957, several film proposals were made for this book, but to no avail, until the book was finally made into a film in 2012, produced by Francis Ford Coppola and directed by Walter Salles.
In the meanwhile, upon the book’s initial release, it was hailed by The New York Times as “the most beautifully executed, the clearest and the most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as ‘beat,’ and whose principal avatar he is.”
- As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning – Laurie Lee (1969)
“A follow-up to Laurie Lee’s book Cider with Rosie, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning details his life in post-WWI Gloucestershire,” says Emma Sparks, a writer at Paperfellows and Boomessays. “In the sequel, Lee musters the courage to leave his comfort zone – his cottage in Gloucestershire – to start a new life by going on a journey by foot. His only means of income are playing the violin in public and working meager jobs. During his travels, he is welcomed by many people, including the poorest villagers.”
- The Valleys Of The Assassins: And Other Persian Travels – Freya Stark (1934)
Finally, if you’re looking for an Indiana Jones vibe in the next book to read, then a memoir from Freya Stark is a definite read for travelers everywhere!
Published in 1934, The Valleys of the Assassins: and Other Persian Travels is a recount of Stark’s experiences traveling into the unknown, unmapped lands of the Middle East. In her travels, she is guided by local tribesmen. Like a real-life Indiana Jones, Stark describes how she was both courageous and unflappable, using her wits to help her out of potentially dangerous situations, especially in areas where bandits are ever-present in any corner or crevice.
As you read through this exquisite page-turner, you’ll see Stark more and more as a true pioneer of her time, meaning that she dared to explore such places that even the bravest of men would think twice about entering.
Conclusion
Like travel, a good book can take you places, especially if they’re written by people who have experienced the places that they’ve been to. Travel books – like the 5 described in this article – make you want to keep reading and reading from start to finish.
So, why not pick up a good travel book today?
Katherine Rundell writes at Academized and Essay Writing Services. She is also a blogger at Custom paper writing services UK. As a writer, she writes about books and literature. She also blogs about her yearly travels.
Get Citizensjournal.us Headlines free SUBSCRIPTION. Keep us publishing – DONATE
