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Catalog

The 86 Greatest Travel Books of All Time

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

Conde Nast Traveler September 2007. "Chosen by 45 People Who Know"

Arabian Sands

Arabian Sands

by Wilfred Thesiger

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 400 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

The last of the great British traveler-explorers, Thesiger (1910-2003) journeyed among the nomadic camel-breeding peoples of Southern Arabia in the late 1940s, falling in love with the desert and ways of life of the Bedouin. This eloquent book is his tribute to them. (ARB15, $16.00)

Travels with Myself and Another, A Memoir

Travels with Myself and Another, A Memoir

by Martha Gellhorn

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

The other, of course, being Ernest Hemingway, Gelhorn's husband at the time. A marvelous, incisive writer who covered every important conflict from from the Spanish Civil War to Vietnam and Nicaragua, Martha Gelhorn writes of her time in East Africa with Heminway, a visit with Chiang Kai-Shek, Soviet Moscow and other unforgettable journeys in this collection, first published in 1979. The two are played by X and Y in the HBO series. Permieres April Z. (TVL25, $15.95)

A Barbarian in Asia

A Barbarian in Asia

by Henri Michaux

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 1986
  • PAPER
  • 185 PAGES

A poet, painter and personality, Michaux (Ecuador) captures the sublime and ridiculous in this satisfying collection of vignettes inspired by his travels in India, China and Japan in the 1930s. (SEA06, $17.95)

Down the Nile, Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff

Down the Nile, Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff

by Rosemary Mahoney

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 273 PAGES

Mahoney weaves the tale of her quest to row the Nile with deft portraits of the people she meets in this marvelously engaging chronicle. (EGY207, $14.99)

Iron and Silk

by Mark Salzman

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1990
  • PAPER
  • 211 PAGES

Salzman gets himself to Changsha in the mid-1980s on the pretext of teaching English to Chinese doctors. His real mission, however, is to become a kung fu master. In this wonderfully readable travelogue he conveys a sense of contemporary life. (CHN52, $15.00)

The Nomad, The Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt

The Nomad, The Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt

by Isabelle Eberhardt

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 208 PAGES

The daring adventures of the late 19th-century Swiss journalist who adopted Islam and traveled the Sahara disguised as an Arab man. (NAF59, $15.00)

The Pine Barrens

The Pine Barrens

by John McPhee

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1978
  • PAPER
  • 157 PAGES

Classic essays on the nature, history and personalities of New Jersey's Pine Barrens by the Pulitzer Prize-winner. McPhee digs deep into tales of the wildfires and the Jersey Devil, the rise and fall of iron towns and efforts to protect this rich, unusual environment from development. (USE418, $14.00)

Sea and Sardinia

Sea and Sardinia

by D.H. Lawrence

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1999
  • PAPER
  • 211 PAGES

A marvelous account of a trip to Sardinia, evoking both the charms and travails of the then-remote island, and the personality of the author. It's a pleasingly exaggerated, accessible portrait of life on the island, circa 1921. (ITL349, $16.00)

Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue: Scenes from the Non-Christian World

Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue: Scenes from the Non-Christian World

by Paul Bowles | Edmund White

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 192 PAGES

Bowles' classic collection of essays about place, originally published in the 1950s, including his travels to Morocco, Istanbul, South America and Sri Lanka. (MRC60, $13.99)

To a Distant Island

To a Distant Island

by James McConkey

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2000
  • PAPER

A transporting tale combining exquisite language and insightful commentary on Chekhov and his remarkable journey in 1890 from Moscow to Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East. (RUS269, $14.95)

A View of the World, Selected Journalism

A View of the World, Selected Journalism

by Norman Lewis

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 320 PAGES

This enormously pleasurable omnibus from the 1940s to the 1980s includes 20 samples of travels, adventures and encounters to Belize, Liberia, Guatemala, the Amazon, Sardinia and Cuba by the ever insightful Norman Lewis. (TVL24, $32.95)

The Worst Journey in the World

The Worst Journey in the World

by Apsley Cherry-Garrard

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 573 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

Cherry-Garrard's epic midwinter jaunt to an emperor penguin rookery is just a warm-up for the main event: Scott's doomed last expedition. (ANT23, $18.00)

Endurance, Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Endurance, Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

by Alfred Lansing

  • EXPLORATION
  • 1998
  • PAPER
  • 280 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

Lansing's gripping day-by-day story of Shackleton's legendary perseverance is essential reading for any Antarctic traveler; it captures all the fortitude, drama and cheer of this most famous Antarctic expedition. (ANT03, $14.95)

Farthest North

Farthest North

by Fridtjof Nansen

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 678 PAGES

The great Norwegian polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen's classic account of the voyage of the Fram, originally published in 1897, interspersed with dozens of original photographs. (ARC60, $17.95)

In Patagonia

In Patagonia

by Bruce Chatwin

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1989
  • PAPER
  • 204 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

A masterpiece of travel, history and adventure, this award-winning book captures the spirit of the land, history, wildlife and people of Patagonia. There's no travel writer as engaging, insightful and just plain wonderful as Bruce Chatwin. (PAT01, $15.00)

In Trouble Again

In Trouble Again

by Redmond O'Hanlon

  • EXPLORATION
  • 1990
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

As funny as he is insightful, O'Hanlon starts his comic masterpiece of a journey between the Orinoco and the Amazon with a litany of the insects, protozoa, snakes and predators that can do you harm. (AMZ04, $13.95)

Democracy in America

Democracy in America

by Alexis de Tocqueville

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 777 PAGES

An abdridged edition ofToqueville's classic and prescient study of America's evolving democracy. (USA173, $15.99)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

by Hunter S. Thompson

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1998
  • PAPER
  • 204 PAGES

The classic of 1970s gonzo journalism and a dizzying chronicle of a duo's drug-induced misadventures and scrapes with the people of Las Vegas. (USW254, $14.95)

Portraits and Observations, The Essays of Truman Capote

Portraits and Observations, The Essays of Truman Capote

by Truman Capote

  • ANTHOLOGY
  • 2007
  • HARD COVER
  • 528 PAGES

The most complete single-volume collection of Truman Capote's essays, from celebrity profiles to his acclaimed literary nonfiction. This anthology includes a reprint of The Muses Are Heard, Capote's 1956 satirical portrait of an American theater troupe performing Porgy and Bess in Soviet Russia. (USA175, $28.95)

Great Plains

Great Plains

by Ian Frazier

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 292 PAGES

A marvelously digressive, wide-ranging account of 25,000 miles worth of travels criss-crossing throughout the Great Plains, combining first-rate reportage and history. (USW172, $16.00)

I See By My Outfit

I See By My Outfit

by Peter S. Beagle

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 238 PAGES

Although better-known for his fantasy writing (The Last Unicorn), Beagle penned a winning travelogue about his journey across a changing America on a motor scooter in 1963. A classic, newly reprinted. (USA174, $14.95)

In the Country of Country, A Journey to the Roots of American Music

by Nicholas Dawidoff

  • MUSIC
  • 1998
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES

A heartfelt account of a journey through the South in search of traditional country music. The author interviews luminaries from the genre's heyday, including George Jones, Earl Scruggs and Bill Monroe. (MUS33, $18.95)

The Definitive Journals of Lewis and Clark

by Gary Moulton | Meriwether Lewis | William Clark

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 3404 PAGES

The seven core volumes of Moulton's authoritative Lewis and Clark journals, in a paper edition. With maps, illustrations and invaluable footnotes. (USW463, $174.00)

North American Indians

North American Indians

by George Catlin

  • JOURNAL
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 560 PAGES

A painter and naturally acute observer, Catlin traveled in the Native American lands of the Great Plains from 1831 to 1837. These published journals provide a rare window into a civilization on the verge of annihilation. (USW532, $17.00)

Life on the Mississippi

Life on the Mississippi

by Mark Twain

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 388 PAGES

Twains return to the days of his youth spent on the Mississippi in this classic. Full of historical information, anecdotes, character sketches and fond memories, it's at once a romantic history of a mighty river and an autobiographical account of Twain's early steamboat days. (USS05, $9.95)

The Lewis and Clark Journals

The Lewis and Clark Journals

by Meriwether Lewis | William Clark | Gary Moulton

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 544 PAGES

The definitive one-volume selection of the most significant, noteworthy and historic entries from the journals of Lewis and Clark, with helpful scholarly notes and annotations. (USW428, $19.95)

Captain John Smith, Writings With Other Narratives of Roanoke, Jamestown, and the First English Settlement of Virginia

by James Horn

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2007
  • HARD COVER
  • 1344 PAGES

John Smith's collected writings on the New World, supplemented with contemporary accounts and illustrations, offers a fascinating look at the beginnings of the United States through the eyes of the legendary adventurer. (USA176, $45.00)

Blue Highways, A Journey into America

Blue Highways, A Journey into America

by William Least Heat Moon

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1999
  • PAPER
  • 429 PAGES

On the road with Ghost Dancing (his van), William Least Heat-Moon criss-crosses the country on its backroads, discovering some pretty wonderful personalities en route in this portrait of a multi-faceted eccentric America. (USA31, $15.99)

Cross Country

Cross Country

by Robert Sullivan

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 416 PAGES

Sullivan's marvelously digressive chronicle of a cross-country car trip, the history of the Interstate system, fast-food, variety of to-go coffee cup lids, the marvels of the roadside attraction and many, many other subjects. (USA135, $14.95)

The Innocents Abroad

The Innocents Abroad

by Mark Twain

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 523 PAGES

Mark Twain's witty and classic account of his 1867 grand tour of Europe. (MDE08, $14.95)

Journey to Portugal, In Pursuit of Portugal's History and Culture

Journey to Portugal, In Pursuit of Portugal's History and Culture

by Jose Saramago

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 464 PAGES

Jose Saramago's richly detailed account of his journey across Portugal in 1979. He combines his vivid impressions of the Portuguese landscape and people with a dose of history, fiction and meditations. (PGL23, $17.00)

As They Were

As They Were

by M. F. K. Fisher

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1983
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES

This marvelous collection of autobiographical essays by the celebrated, much-adored Fisher covers her life, family, food and adventures from Whittier, California to the south of France. (FRN705, $15.00)

Two Towns in Provence

Two Towns in Provence

by M. F. K. Fisher

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1983
  • PAPER
  • 208 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

Celebrated food writer M.F.K. Fisher contrasts village life in Aix-en-Provence with bustling Marseilles, evoking these two favorite places with anecdote and loving description. (FRN27, $18.95)

Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes

Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes

by Robert Louis Stevenson

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 269 PAGES

Stevenson's sprightly, humorous account of ten days with a stubborn donkey named Modestine in the French Cevennes. (FRN538, $16.95)

Travels Through France and Italy

by Tobias Smollett

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 144 PAGES

An irascible, appreciative account of travels -- and the foibles of continentals -- by the 18th-century British novelist. A pleasure. (EUR124, $24.95)

A Time of Gifts

A Time of Gifts

by Patrick Leigh Fermor

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES
  • BEST SELLER

Fermor effortlessly interweaves anecdote, history and culture in this exuberant account of a walk from Holland, up the Rhine and down the Danube, through Germany, Prague and Austria in 1933. Written not in the moment, but 40 years later, the accumulation of time and experience give the book particular poignancy. (CEU30, $16.95)

The Rings of Saturn

by Winfried Georg Sebald

  • LITERATURE
  • 1999
  • PAPER
  • 296 PAGES

When the late W.G. Sebald embarked on a solitary tour of Suffolk, England, his encounters with windswept coastlines and lonely eccentrics were woven into beautiful and fragmented ruminations on history, memory, loss and exile. (GBR738, $15.95)

Down and Out in Paris and London

Down and Out in Paris and London

by George Orwell

  • LITERATURE
  • 1972
  • PAPER
  • 213 PAGES

Orwell's first published work, this novel -- based, in part, on true experiences -- is a tale of the underclass in 1930's Paris and London. (GBR99, $14.00)

Pillars of Hercules

Pillars of Hercules

by Paul Theroux

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1996
  • PAPER
  • 509 PAGES

Theroux seems to have had an exceptionally good time on his tour of the Mediterranean, circling the celebrated sea on foot, horseback, train and boat from Gibraltar to North Africa. (MED20, $17.00)

The Histories

The Histories

by Herodotus

  • HISTORY
  • 1994
  • PAPER
  • 656 PAGES

In what may be the first travel book, Herodotus records the heroic struggle between Europe and Asia that culminated in the invasion of Greece by Xerxes. (MED15, $12.00)

Southern Baroque Art

by Sacheverell Sitwell

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 352 PAGES

A facsimile edition of Sitwell's 1924 survey of 17th and 18th-century painting, architecture and music in Italy and Spain. (EUR281, $29.99)

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia

by Rebecca West | Christopher Hitchens

  • HISTORY
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 1181 PAGES

First published in 1941, this monumental work explores the complex history of Yugoslavia, its heroes, politics and culture. It's a big, challenging book -- some call it the best ever written on the Balkans. (BLK04, $27.00)

Dark Star Safari

Dark Star Safari

by Paul Theroux

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 472 PAGES

Setting the tone for his odyssey from Cairo to the Cape, Theroux writes in the opening: "All news out of Africa is bad. It made me want to go there, though not for the horror, the hot spots, the massacre-and-earthquake stories you read in the newspaper; I wanted the pleasure of being in Africa again...I aimed to reinsert myself in the bundu, as we used to call the bush, and to wander the antique hinterland." (AFR131, $15.95)

Exterminate All the Brutes

by Sven Lindqvist

  • HISTORY
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 192 PAGES

Taking his title from Joseph Conrad's famously troubling line in Heart of Darkness, Lindqvist interweaves his account of a Saharan journey with a broad history of European colonial atrocities. (AFR206, $16.95)

West with the Night

West with the Night

by Beryl Markham | Sara Wheeler

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2013
  • PAPER
  • 294 PAGES
  • BEST SELLER
  • FAVORITE

Beryl Markham evokes the landscapes, people and wildlife of East Africa in engrossing detail in this classic memoir of amazing adventures as a bush pilot in 1930s Kenya. A Longitude favorite. This new edition includes an introduction by the daring Sara Wheeler. If you haven't read this book, whether or not you are ghoing on Safari, you are in for a treat. (EAF10, $16.00)

Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa

Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa

by Mungo Park

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES

Park chronicles the culture, society and nature of West Africa before the colonial period in this classic account of a 24-year-old Scotsman exploring, often alone, in uncharted Africa. First published in 1799. (WAF40, $12.95)

The River War, An Historical of The Reconquest of the Sudan

The River War, An Historical of The Reconquest of the Sudan

by Winston S. Churchill | Mary Soames | James W. Muller

  • HISTORY
  • 2013
  • PAPER
  • 381 PAGES

The classic account of the history of the Sudan and its reconquest by Lord Kitchener and an Anglo-Egyptian Army in the 1890s. Churchill served as a lieutenant during the war. (AFR147, $14.95)

No Mercy, A Journey to the Heart of the Congo

No Mercy, A Journey to the Heart of the Congo

by Redmond O'Hanlon

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1998
  • PAPER
  • 462 PAGES

A trek deep into the Congo with Redmond O'Hanlon, the eccentric, courageous, always-entertaining modern adventurer. (CAF01, $15.95)

The Emperor, Downfall of an Autocrat

The Emperor, Downfall of an Autocrat

by Ryszard Kapuscinski

  • HISTORY
  • 1989
  • PAPER
  • 180 PAGES

In 1975, Kapuscinski traveled throughout the country listening to stories of the Supreme Emperor Haile Selassie by the servants and associates that had surrounded him while Ethiopia collapsed around him. These interviews are transformed into a powerful narrative of high living and unimaginable abuse by the ancient regime. (ETP10, $14.95)

Sandstorms, Days and Nights in Arabia

Sandstorms, Days and Nights in Arabia

by Peter Theroux

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1991
  • PAPER
  • 281 PAGES

As a journalist in Saudi Arabia, Peter Theroux (Paul's brother) learned the language and immersed himself in the realities of day-to-day life. This book is a memoir of his experiences, both a revealing collection of anecdotes and a humorous portrait of a place. (ARB08, $21.00)

The Road to Oxiana

The Road to Oxiana

by Robert Byron

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 292 PAGES

This brilliant portrait of the region mixes the eccentric Byron's droll adventures in the 1930s with erudite asides on history and culture. (IRN01, $15.95)

Eothen

Eothen

by Alexander William Kinglake

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1992
  • PAPER
  • 242 PAGES

Originally published in 1844, this sly account of journeys throughout the Middle East and Asia Minor, including Constantinople, Smyrna, Cairo, Damascus and Petra takes the form and tone of a letter to a good friend: conversational, ironic, hugely funny and personal. (MDE24, $21.00)

Travels in Arabia Deserta, Selected Passages

Travels in Arabia Deserta, Selected Passages

by Charles Doughty

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 320 PAGES

Doughty's first-hand observations of Arab life and culture in the 1870s, including his account of two years wandering among the Bedouin nomads and of his attempt to reach Mecca. (ARB76, $17.95)

The Places in Between

The Places in Between

by Rory Stewart

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

Rory Stewart illuminates the absurdity, plight and peril of war-ravaged Afghanistan in his thrilling, poignant account of a walk across the country from Herat to Kabul in the dead of winter. (MDE100, $14.95)

Shah of Shahs

Shah of Shahs

by Ryszard Kapuscinski

  • HISTORY
  • 1992
  • PAPER
  • 152 PAGES

An impressionistic account of the last Shah of Iran by the peerless Polish travel writer, this brilliant book captures the irony, force and power of the revolution that toppled the Shah. (IRN11, $15.00)

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, The Fantastic 14th-Century Account of a Journey to the East

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, The Fantastic 14th-Century Account of a Journey to the East

by John Mandeville

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 233 PAGES

The (probably) invented account of medieval travels to Egypt and the Holy Land -- originally published in 1356 and hugely influential. (MDE123, $9.95)

The Long Walk, The True Story of a Trek to Freedom

The Long Walk, The True Story of a Trek to Freedom

by Slavomir Rawicz

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 245 PAGES

Thisremarkable tale follows the odyssey of cavalry officer Rawicz and six fellow prisoners from their capture in Moscow under Stalin to a prison camp in Yakutsk and escape across Siberia and the Gobi to Tibet and over the Himalayas to India. Originally published in 1956. (SIB13, $16.95)

News from Tartary

News from Tartary

by Peter Fleming

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1999
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES

Fleming's rousing account of a 3,500-mile jaunt from Peking to Sinkiang and on to India, a classic of imperial British wit and style. (CAS46, $18.95)

The Great Railway Bazaar

The Great Railway Bazaar

by Paul Theroux

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES

Theroux's account of his journeys across Asia by train display the writer's inimitable talent for portraiture, ego and the dismissive aside. He takes every two-bit train he can find from London across Europe, Turkey and the Middle East, India, Japan and China, returning home via the Trans-Siberian Express. (ASA40, $14.95)

A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush

A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush

by Eric Newby

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 255 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

Newby wrote a string of memorable books about his adventures, often on a bicycle, but sometimes by foot or train, usually with his wife. This classic is a superb example of the misguided lark: a comically ill-prepared jaunt in the Naristan mountains of northeastern Afghanistan. "People like it," he explained, "when things go wrong." (CAS32, $14.99)

Chasing the Sea

Chasing the Sea

by Tom Bissell

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 388 PAGES

Self-confessed adventure junkie, Bissell skillfully interweaves anecdote, history and grim reports on ecological disasters in this smart, funny and informative account of travels through Uzbekistan and Central Asia in 2001. (CAS103, $18.00)

Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches

Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches

by Nobuyuki Yuasa | Basho Matsuo

  • LITERATURE
  • 1967
  • PAPER
  • 178 PAGES

These marvelous prose-and-poetry sketches by the famous poet wanderer Basho (1644-94) invoke the mysteries of the cosmos manifest in the Japanese landscape. With some of the most perfect 17-syllable haiku ever composed. (JPN91, $14.00)

The Narrow Road to Oku

by Basho Matsuo | Donald Keene

  • LITERATURE
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 188 PAGES

Keene gives a precise and poetic translation, alongside the original Japanese characters, in this edition of the great poet Basho Matsuo's (1644-1694) famous journey to Oku. With illustrations by Masayuki Miyata (1926-1997). (JPN211, $25.00)

Wrong About Japan

by Peter Carey

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 158 PAGES

The Booker Prize-winning novelist's amusing encounters with manga artists and other icons of Japanese popular culture in the company of his anime-obsessed 12-year-old son. (JPN293, $15.95)

Riding the Iron Rooster

by Paul Theroux

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 528 PAGES

A wry account an utterly exhausting, exasperating travels, mostly by rail, throughout China for an entire year. Theroux gets himself to every corner of the huge country and includes memorable passages on his experiences in Mongolia, Xinjiang, Manchuria and Tibet (where his journey ended). (CHN133, $15.95)

Along the Ganges

Along the Ganges

by Ilija Trojanow

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 160 PAGES

In this colorful travelogue, Trojanow follows the Ganges from its source in the Himalayas to the cities that it feeds, using the holy river as a means to ponder Hinduism, culture, ecology and the tension between ancient and modern India. (IDA294, $11.95)

An Area of Darkness

An Area of Darkness

by V.S. Naipaul

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 267 PAGES

A reflective, personal account of Naipaul's travels in India in 1962 -- a portrait of a time and place and searing, honest chronicle of the country during transition. (IDA13, $14.95)

Slowly Down the Ganges

Slowly Down the Ganges

by Eric Newby

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES

In 1963, the author and his wife set out an a 1,200-mile voyage down the Ganges River. The title could apply as easily to the ruminative attitude Newby takes towards his journey as to the many mishaps which bedevil the quest. (IDA179, $18.95)

Maximum City, Bombay Lost and Found

Maximum City, Bombay Lost and Found

by Suketu Mehta

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 528 PAGES

The tale of the author who, after a 21-year sojourn in New York, returns to his native Bombay, "the biggest, fastest, richest city in India." (IDA252, $17.00)

Hindoo Holiday

Hindoo Holiday

by J.R. Ackerley

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2000
  • PAPER
  • 300 PAGES

Ackerley traipses across India as the English tutor to a handsome and extravagantly homosexual maharajah in this comic, beautifully written novel masquerading as a travelogue. (IDA115, $17.95)

In a Sunburned Country

In a Sunburned Country

by Bill Bryson

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 335 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

The intrepid, ever-resourceful Bryson revels in Australia's eccentric characters, dangerous flora and fauna, and other oddities in this wildly funny, effortlessly informative travelogue. (AUS83, $15.99)

The Songlines

The Songlines

by Bruce Chatwin

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 320 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

Rory Stewart provides the introduction to this 25th anniversary edition of Bruce Chatwin's celebrated travelogue, which is as much about its gifted author -- and the meaning of travel -- as about the Aboriginal people and their ways of life. Chatwin transforms a journey through the Outback into an exhilarating, semi-fictional meditation on our place in the world. (AUS01, $16.00)

The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer, Close Encounters with Strangers

The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer, Close Encounters with Strangers

by Eric Hansen

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 228 PAGES

A hilarious account of Hansen's offbeat experiences and encounters around the world over the past 25 years. Hansen is a favorite travel writer with a welcome interest in natural history, oddball characters and tales. (TVL38, $15.95)

 

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