Couldn't see a general thread on travel literature and just wanted to see what others think. I'm a big fan - love travelling and reading about travelling. Particular faves are Paul Theroux (very grumpy but manages to convey what a place actually feels like); Jonathan Raban, Nicolas Bouvier and I've just finished Dervla Murphy's Full Tilt - where the travelling seems so hard that you're glad you're reading it, not doing it...anyway I'd be glad to hear what others think and maybe get some tips.
Travel Literature
- Thread starter Hemmo
- Start date
Not read them, but the travel writing of the Dutch writer, Cees Nooteboom is supposedly very good.
I'm also a travel literature fan, and besides the shelf of Lonely Planet books, I've got a shelf of travel/philosophy/diary books. Long ago and far away I read (and loved) Mathiesson's books that are heavy on the contemplation. I tried to read the diaries of an ex-school headmaster from the UK that sat on a bike and circled the world, but the style just didn't suit me, so I quit trying to read it. Che Guevara's diaries are also a big hit lately, and are actually fun reading. When researching for a translation project, I read Benedict Allen's 'Into the Crocodile's Nest', which is ok if you like adventure travel stories. How much of it is true, I'll leave to the experts (and the topic of nonfiction that proves to be fiction).
Lately, though, most travel books that I read are originally written in Croatian, so I can't really help you with suggestions. It's interesting how such a small country could have such a rich travel and travel-writing culture. Hopefully a few of these authors that I highly esteem will make it in the English speaking world one day (but that's for the literary translation part of this forum...)
Lately, though, most travel books that I read are originally written in Croatian, so I can't really help you with suggestions. It's interesting how such a small country could have such a rich travel and travel-writing culture. Hopefully a few of these authors that I highly esteem will make it in the English speaking world one day (but that's for the literary translation part of this forum...)
In the English-speaking countries at least, Patrick Leigh Fermor is generally considered not just a wonderful travel writer but a truly excellent writer overall--but like Stewart I'm offering the name of someone whose books I've not read, as the excerpts I've read from his stuff seemed to me studied and too personal.
Don't know about his being amongst the best travel writers, but Tim Moore is to me the funniest by far.
Don't know about his being amongst the best travel writers, but Tim Moore is to me the funniest by far.
I've read A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water by Leigh Fermor. Both cover what must have been a really interesting journey from Holland to Istanbul on foot in the 1930s but I have to say I found the style over-written, bordering on the purple. The secret to me seem to be the ability to convey what a place is like, say something new about it and write in an interesting way. Thinking about it Jonathan Raban would be the author that hits all of those notes for me...Surprising so few of you have read much - the size of the 'Travel Literature' section in bookshops made me think this must be a growth industry
Hemmo and lenz, your posts interested me a good deal as till now I don't think I've come across a mention of Leigh Fermor that wasn't adulatory, and had assumed my failure to appreciate his prose was result of my general dislike of prose that seems studied or over-worked.
Hemmo, a travel book that's not well-known enough is George Gissing's By the Ionian Sea. Well-written, and I thought it charming and evocative.. And a couple of bonuses in it were finding the origin of the word 'paparazzo' and discovering that Gissing had a sense of humour . . . Will glance at my travel books tomorrow to see if I can come up with more that have the qualities you mention.
Hemmo, a travel book that's not well-known enough is George Gissing's By the Ionian Sea. Well-written, and I thought it charming and evocative.. And a couple of bonuses in it were finding the origin of the word 'paparazzo' and discovering that Gissing had a sense of humour . . . Will glance at my travel books tomorrow to see if I can come up with more that have the qualities you mention.
I think the adulation of Leigh Fermor was an early reaction to it, in the forties and fifties, when that kind of stuff was more appreciated and since then, no one has dared to say otherwise. Journalists are highly susceptible to overblown writing, perhaps because they feel restricted by plain journalese.
For humour, I like the early bill Bryson, when he had a youthful angry sense of humour. Now he seems to have become the dullest man on earth, only capable of making lists of "interesting" trivia.
For humour, I like the early bill Bryson, when he had a youthful angry sense of humour. Now he seems to have become the dullest man on earth, only capable of making lists of "interesting" trivia.
Thanks Accidie - I haven't read any Gissing at all so that's a good tip. You probably know this but there are some good travel books written about Connemara by Tim Robinson.
Stewart - I have read Nooteboom's Roads to Santiago. Liked it - very melancholy but you can tell he loves the place...
Stewart - I have read Nooteboom's Roads to Santiago. Liked it - very melancholy but you can tell he loves the place...
pesahson
Reader
Good to hear that Hemmo. The description sounds like something I'd probably enjoy. I'll probably end up buying it then.
I'm currently halfway through the first of Theroux's travel books, The Old Railway Bazaar, and know what you mean about grumpy. His tone is certainly of one tired with the world rather than fascinated, but perhaps those sentiments follow the act of being couped up for hours, if not days, on a single train. While a train journey may only fill up a few pages of a chapter, he is certainly cherrypicking the events of that trip, and what we don't see between the lines is how frustratingly dull some landscapes must be or how irritating other passengers can be. It can only make him appear more grumpy than he perhaps is.
Once I finish this, I'm in two minds about whether to leave some time between Ghost Train To The Eastern Star, his follow-up trip thirty years later, or to dive straight into it while opinions of people and places are still fresh in the mind.
I'm reading a 'sort of travelogue' on the Arabian desert in Malayalam. Aptly , I would say, titled 'An autobiography of a desert'. The vast Arabian desert has many interesting stories to tell, with numerous tribes and sects, the dried rivers, multiple oasis and the tribes lived along these paces, the various tribal settlements and the fights over territories for 'Water', remains of 3rd and 4th century civilizations, the ever changing characteristics of the sand.
As a genre, travelogues would have gone through the change over with the onslaught of television, in the last 50+ years.
As a genre, travelogues would have gone through the change over with the onslaught of television, in the last 50+ years.
To each his own travel. I've done trans-Siberian maybe more than 20 times during last 30 years, and I enjoyed it a lot each time. I usually get bored much less on a 4.5 day train ride between Ulaanbaatar and Moscow than on a 20 minute metro trip to downtown Helsinki. You've got the whole train of interesting people to socialize with (and lately it's been 99 per cent European backpackers on their way to Mongolia/China/Tibet- a lot of interesting life stories to hear) no problems to take care of, half of Russia passing behind your window, a lot of stops to jump out and get some local snacks, and just in general it's nice to lie on the upper berth, read a book in peace and know that during these four days you don't have to go anywhere and do anything... And Baikal is the most beautiful lake I've ever seen.
I 'did' the Trans-Siberian through Russia and Kazakhstan last year and also didn't find it boring - great for reading too! I've recently started Paul Theroux's 'Ghost Train to the Eastern Star' - loving it. He's as grumpy as ever but I'd missed his grouchiness and think that his apparently simple style is unique and perfectly suited to the genre. What works about it (so far) is that he's now older and re-tracing his steps so its as much about memory and looking back as it is about his onward journey. Hilariously, he recalls the book that recounts the first journey ('Great Railway Bazaar') as funny and upbeat when, as Stewart says, he's as tetchy as ever in it...
Patrick Murtha
Reader
Reviving this thread because I think “umbrella threads” on different types of non-fiction are a useful place to put certain observations.
I’ll post separately about my “English Counties” project, but some other travel books (loosely defined) that I’m currently reading or have recently finished are:
Ian Frazier, Travels in Siberia (midway through)
Piers Moore Ede, Kaleidoscope City: A Year in Varanasi (just started)
John McPhee, The Pine Barrens (a classic that I HAD to read, being from New Jersey)
Jan Morris, Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere (equally cultural history, just terrific)
J. Russell Jeffreason, The Färoe Islands (1898) (really fun and interesting, I love older texts)
More to follow on this topic.
I’ll post separately about my “English Counties” project, but some other travel books (loosely defined) that I’m currently reading or have recently finished are:
Ian Frazier, Travels in Siberia (midway through)
Piers Moore Ede, Kaleidoscope City: A Year in Varanasi (just started)
John McPhee, The Pine Barrens (a classic that I HAD to read, being from New Jersey)
Jan Morris, Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere (equally cultural history, just terrific)
J. Russell Jeffreason, The Färoe Islands (1898) (really fun and interesting, I love older texts)
More to follow on this topic.
Ben Jackson
Well-known member
Some travel literature text I would love to read:
Italian Journey Goethe
Voice of Marrakesh Elias Canetti
Shah of Shahs, Soccer War, The Emperor, Imperium, Shadow of the Sun Ryszard Kapusinscki
A Million Mutinies V S Naipaul
The Mexican Dream Jean Marie Le Clezio
Italian Journey Goethe
Voice of Marrakesh Elias Canetti
Shah of Shahs, Soccer War, The Emperor, Imperium, Shadow of the Sun Ryszard Kapusinscki
A Million Mutinies V S Naipaul
The Mexican Dream Jean Marie Le Clezio
Patrick Murtha
Reader
Robert S. Kane’s forthright and penetrating travel guides, of which Africa A to Z in 1961 was the first, were my entrée to the nations of the world, and like John Gunther’s Inside… series, still make excellent reading today.
Notice the year, 1961. About 25 African counties became independent between 1960 and 1962, so this volume could scarcely help being a fascinating snapshot of the continent at a key moment in its history. Kane is a very sympathetic, uncondescending observer.
Even the preliminary “get ready for travel” chapters are compelling. I was fascinated to learn that there were at least a dozen major organizations devoted to promoting friendship / cooperation / understanding between the US and Africa. I hope we’re doing as well today, but I wonder.
Notice the year, 1961. About 25 African counties became independent between 1960 and 1962, so this volume could scarcely help being a fascinating snapshot of the continent at a key moment in its history. Kane is a very sympathetic, uncondescending observer.
Even the preliminary “get ready for travel” chapters are compelling. I was fascinated to learn that there were at least a dozen major organizations devoted to promoting friendship / cooperation / understanding between the US and Africa. I hope we’re doing as well today, but I wonder.