A good book always transports you to another place and time. Especially a good travel book which can have you sailing oceans, conquering mountains, eating with locals or exploring exotic places with the turn of every page. So here’s a round-up of travel reads to inspire your next adventure and satiate your burning wanderlust. Be sure to have a good suitcase ready, because once you start reading in earnest, you’ll be booking a plane ticket in no time.
A Moveable Feast (Life Changing Food Adventures Around The World) edited by Don George
If you are someone who travels to eat then this one is for you. From bat on the island of Fais to chicken on a Russian train to barbecue in the American heartland and mutton in Mongolia “A Moveable Feast” has 38 foodie tales from famous chefs, writers and foodies around the world. Some of the contributors include Anthony Bourdain, Andrew Zimmern, Mark Kurlansky, Matt Preston, Simon Winchester, Stefan Gates, David Lebovitz, Matthew Fort, Tim Cahill, Jan Morris and Pico Iyer. Warning: Reading the short stories will give you some serious food lust.
A Woman Alone: Tales from around the world by Faith Conlon
In this fascinating book thirty woman travellers share their true-life tales of solo adventures from around the world. While Marybeth Bond discovers the pleasures of desert camel-riding, Faith Adiele, a black Buddhist nun enters a deserted train station at 3 am in a Thai village controlled by armed bandits. Ena Singh negotiates with Russian police to visit the blue-domed city of Samarkand. The stories are funny, thrilling, occasionally terrifying but ultimately transformative. If you have been postponing solo travel for the fear of the unknown, this book is the push you need to take that first step and see the world all by yourself.
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to The World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain
In this New York Times bestseller and follow-up to Anthony Bourdain’s blockbuster Kitchen Confidential, the food luminary shoots out a series of confessions, rants, investigations and interrogations of some of the more controversial figures in food. In the end he always returns to the question: 'Why cook?' Or the harder one: 'Why cook well?' The book also tracks his own strange and unexpected voyage from journeyman cook to globe-travelling professional eater and drinker. Highly engaging Bourdain banter.
What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding by Kristin Newman
This is an entertaining memoir about comedy writer Kristin Newman’s poignant journey through her 20s and 30s, which she spent traveling the world for a few months a year, falling madly in love with attractive locals. A sort of Eat, Pray, Love if it was written by your funniest friend.
Love with a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche
In this charming memoir Australian graphic artist DeRoche, a woman with a neurotic fear of the ocean sets sail across the Pacific with Ivan, an Argentinian man she meets in a bar. They sail to the Marquesas, Society and Cook islands, where they encounter bewitching tropical landscapes, generous natives and other “ocean gypsies” like themselves. This hilarious and poignant memoir set against a backdrop of the world’s most beautiful and remote destinations is proof that there are some risks worth taking.
Essential India Travel Guide by Mohan Kapoor
Reading this book is like taking a virtual trip to Delhi, Goa, Kolkata and other cities and states with the most well-known and significant tourist sites. Each city is covered in detail, along with some interesting information on what to see, where to dine and what to anticipate. Most importantly there is advice on significant variations in culture, safe food options and more.
Unlikely Destinations: The LP Story by Tony & Maureen Wheeler
This tome chronicles the start and rise of the company whose guidebook is probably in your backpack or on your bookshelf right now: Lonely Planet. Unlikely Destinations traces the founder of Lonely Planet — Tony and Maureen’s early, nearly penniless days as well as their evolution into world's largest independent travel publishing company. Not surprisingly, the Wheelers have an unrivalled set of anecdotes which they share in the book that’s a mix of autobiography, business history and travel book.
Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner
For years, as a foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, Eric Weiner covered a multitude of catastrophes, natural and man-made. But for The Geography of Bliss, he decided to tell the other side of the story by visiting some of the world’s most contented places. Eric travels to spots around the globe — including Iceland, Bhutan, Moldova, and Qatar — to search how different countries define and pursue happiness. Not a typical travel book but a travelogue of ideas.
The Motorcycle Diaries
Join this genuinely exhilarating motorbike ride that details Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s early life and offers a unique perspective on what led this would-be doctor from relatively affluent Argentina to become one of the 20th century’s most important political figures. Apart from being an arduous travelogue from Argentina across South America and ultimately to Miami, The Motorcycle Diaries is also the mental journey of a young man learning about poverty, politics and philosophy.
Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India by Pankaj Mishra
If you want a proper adventure from your armchair, zero in on this melancholic memoir about small-town India and it’s various charms. Some of the places Mishra visits for the book include Muzaffarnagar, Ambala, Ajmer, Pushkar, Kottayam and others. The joy of the book lies as much in his portrayal of characters he encounters en route as the immersive detail of the places he’s passing through.
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