IGX Great Travel Writing

[Fat Cat]

A genre which I enjoy reading is travel writing. I recently read Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879) by Robert Louis Stephenson and I am looking to read Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia (1941) by Rebecca West which records her 1937 trip across the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the build-up to the second world war.

Does anyone else know of any good travel writing that they can share? Can be anywhere, and any era, but it has to be something you read and it has to be good.

[seeahill]

Lawrence Millman, Last Places.



For a start. I have plenty of others. You might not know it, but this is sorta my field.

[Fat Cat]

Serious posts only please.

[seeahill]

I'm serious about the Millman book.

[syaigh]

ONe of my favorites:

“My particular dread--the vivid possibility that left me staring at tree shadows on the bedroom ceiling night after night--was having to lie in a small tent, alone in an inky wilderness, listening to a foraging bear outside and wondering what its intentions were. I was especially riveted by an amateur photograph in Herrero's book, taken late at night by a camper with a flash at a campground out West. The photograph caught four black bears as they puzzled over a suspended food bag. The bears were clearly startled but not remotely alarmed by the flash. It was not the size or demeanor of the bears that troubled me--they looked almost comically nonaggressive, like four guys who had gotten a Frisbee caught up a tree--but their numbers. Up to that moment it had not occurred to me that bears might prowl in parties. What on earth would I do if four bears came into my camp? Why, I would die, of course. Literally shit myself lifeless. I would blow my sphincter out my backside like one of those unrolling paper streamers you get at children's parties--I daresay it would even give a merry toot--and bleed to a messy death in my sleeping bag.”
― Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

[Fat Cat]

ONe of my favorites:

“My particular dread--the vivid possibility that left me staring at tree shadows on the bedroom ceiling night after night--was having to lie in a small tent, alone in an inky wilderness, listening to a foraging bear outside and wondering what its intentions were. I was especially riveted by an amateur photograph in Herrero's book, taken late at night by a camper with a flash at a campground out West. The photograph caught four black bears as they puzzled over a suspended food bag. The bears were clearly startled but not remotely alarmed by the flash. It was not the size or demeanor of the bears that troubled me--they looked almost comically nonaggressive, like four guys who had gotten a Frisbee caught up a tree--but their numbers. Up to that moment it had not occurred to me that bears might prowl in parties. What on earth would I do if four bears came into my camp? Why, I would die, of course. Literally shit myself lifeless. I would blow my sphincter out my backside like one of those unrolling paper streamers you get at children's parties--I daresay it would even give a merry toot--and bleed to a messy death in my sleeping bag.”
― Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

How is it in terms of actually characterizing the area and its history? I'm not too into the travel-writing-as-buffoonery admixture of humor...but if it is really a great book and also includes some humor, I'll add it to my list. Your thoughts?

[Tirofijo]

These aren't hidden gems by any means, but there's a reason why these are classics.

Paul Theroux's Old Patagonia Express directly contributed to me spending most of my 20's in Latin America. I read it when I was 12 or 13 and couldn't wait to travel, especially in LatAm. Ten years later I had a degree in Spanish and was backpacking from Mexico to the bottom of South America and then living in various places in South America.

I like all of his travelogues, as well.

Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia.

[Tirofijo]

How is it in terms of actually characterizing the area and its history? I'm not too into the travel-writing-as-buffoonery admixture of humor...but if it is really a great book and also includes some humor, I'll add it to my list. Your thoughts?

You want stuff like Kaplan's Balkan Ghosts? Nothing about wolverines gnawing legs or getting lost in the jungle with misanthropes and idiots?

You might consider the following:

Ian Frazier's Great Plains (Excellent.)

William Least Heat Moon's PrairyErth for a deep look into one county in Kansas.

[Tirofijo]

Lawrence Millman, Last Places.



For a start. I have plenty of others. You might not know it, but this is sorta my field.

I'm interested. I've always thought of you as a thinking man's Randy Wayne White, though not as funny.

[Fat Cat]

How is it in terms of actually characterizing the area and its history? I'm not too into the travel-writing-as-buffoonery admixture of humor...but if it is really a great book and also includes some humor, I'll add it to my list. Your thoughts?

You want stuff like Kaplan's Balkan Ghosts? Nothing about wolverines gnawing legs or getting lost in the jungle with misanthropes and idiots?

You might consider the following:

Ian Frazier's Great Plains (Excellent.)

William Least Heat Moon's PrairyErth for a deep look into one county in Kansas.

Thanks for replying. Frankly, I hated Balkan Ghosts. When I married a girl from the Balkans I was given...easily a dozen...different books about the area and its history, and my least favorite of all of them was by that dirty fucking Serb-hating Kaplan. His whole approach was "pick sides and then start generalizing". Everything he said was offensive, inaccurate, anti-Serb or some combination of the three. Truly, he is one of the dimmer lights in the night sky of travel writing.

But ya, I can't stand the whole slant of travel writing from the eighties on, stupid madcap misadventures...it's just so saccharine. I guess I just like my travel writing to be about the place, and not some slack-jawed self impressed writer.

Great Plains does look like a good read, I'm putting it on the list. Thank you for the recommendations.

[seeahill]

Bryson's A Walk in the Woods gives a fine history of the Appalachian trail. His research is impeccable and (somehow) very interesting. Sometimes you get a writer who has done his research and you see in paragraphs that sound like they came out of an encyclopedia. Bryson is brilliant in making info readable. Compulsively so.

Yes, the book alternates between his walk and a certain hilarity. But other chapters give a fine sense of place: the scenery, the geology, the history. Recommended.

[seeahill]

Lawrence Millman, Last Places.



For a start. I have plenty of others. You might not know it, but this is sorta my field.

I'm interested. I've always thought of you as a thinking man's Randy Wayne White, though not as funny.

Uh, thanks, I think.

[Fat Cat]

You've got like fifty percent of the posts on this thread seeahole. Why don't you let some informed posters contribute ?

[Turdacious]

Tony Horwitz, Baghdad Without a Map
Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic (uneven-- the good parts are very good, the bad parts are hard to slog through)
Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad
Hilaire Belloc, The Path to Rome
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand, and Stars
Arnold Toynbee, From Oxus to Jumna
V.S. Naipaul, Among the Believers
John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley
Keith Richburg, Out of America
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy In America

[Beer Jew]

Bill Brysons "Notes from a small island" is a great characterisation of England, and although descriptive, is mostly humour. But great nonetheless.

[seeahill]

Good list Turd.

[Fat Cat]

[seeahill]

FC: Actually, I thought you were serious.

[Fat Cat]

Dude, this is not about you. Deal with it.

[seeahill]

Since you asked,
All about me:
Review
"First-class travel writing. . . . leave the life-or-death adventures to Cahill, and sit back to enjoy the ride." --Rocky Mountain News

"If anything can inspire the most slothful of couch potatoes to get out for an adventure, it is this book." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Long before the unbeaten track got fouled with the TV spoor of earnest Australians soul-kissing vipers, there were people like Tim Cahill who did adventure for real.... His wisecracks bear wisdom, and his self-deprecation reflects a fellow who is likeably confident and thoughtful--a good companion on any journey." --The Wall Street Journal

"Cahill entertains.... the book flashes with luminescence. In trying to make light of enlightenment, he gives moments of hard-won wisdom, along with insights that last longer than any amusement ride." --Los Angeles Times

"Cahill does more than beguile with great storytelling. . . . What Cahill does best–while talking in your ear about the Northern Congo or great white sharks or a yoga retreat in Jamaica–is leave you wanting more. More of his empathy and humor, more of his cheekiness and intelligence." –The Denver Post

“Cahill [writes] with such self-deprecating humor and insight that you’re more than happy he enjoys putting himself in harm’s way.” –The New York Times Books Review

"One of the best things about Hold the Enlightenment is [the author’s] unexpected mixture of fact, legend, seriousness and whimsy, often in rapid succession. So [with] Cahill . . . you're always assured of a trip that is anything but ordinary and as far from boring as the great white sharks off South America are from a tuna melt on white toast." –St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Cahill has done the hard part for us. Now, all we have to do to experience exotic corners of the earth is read Hold the Enlightenment from the comfort of our fluffy sofas. Thanks, Big Guy.” –Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“Offers Cahill’s usual mix of humor, insight and carefully crafted prose. . . . Highly entertaining and informative.” –The Tampa Tribune

“Hold the Enlightenment is vintage Cahill–adventures to thrill the armchair traveler.”–The Decatur Daily

“Cahill returns with another collection of perceptive, hilarious and touching travelogues disguised as misadventures. . . . Beyond the grand hilarity and bluster, Cahill is chasing a richer world–and he usually succeeds, or at least limps home with one hell of a story.” –Book

“Along with his habitual irreverence, Cahill has a fine appreciation of irony and the absurd. . . . A fine, funny, thoughtful and varied collection.” –The Portsmouth Herald

[seeahill]

But hey, it's not all about me. Let's see the reviews of your work.

[seeahill]

This is going to be a long wait.

[nafod]

Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum. First guy to do it, and good storyteller. Book is free too!

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6317/6317-h/6317-h.htm

[Turdacious]

Since you asked,
All about me:
Review
“Cahill [writes in such a way] that you’re more than happy he enjoys putting himself in harm’s way.” –The New York Times Books Review

[Fat Cat]

Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum. First guy to do it, and good storyteller. Book is free too!

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6317/6317-h/6317-h.htm

Thank you that is cool, I just scanned a bit of it now and will try to come back to it.