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Enrich your travels with reading! Here's a hand-picked list prepared for your journey in conjunction with the book experts at Longitude.

Essential Reading

Item EXAUS163. Buy these 5 items as a set for $94 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
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Aboriginal Australians

Aboriginal Australians

by Stephen Muecke

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 127 PAGES

A lively shirt-pocket encyclopedia, illustrating the culture, history and art of the Aborigines. (AUS230, $15.95)

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)

Bradt Australian Wildlife

Bradt Australian Wildlife

by Stella Martin

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 196 PAGES

A guide not just to kangaroo and koala, this compact, illustrated survey, featuring 250 color photographs, takes in habitats, parks and conservation, marsupials, birds and bats. (AUS248, $26.99)

Eyewitness Guide Australia

Eyewitness Guide Australia

by Eyewitness Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 616 PAGES

Featuring hundreds of innovative maps, color photographs and choice recommendations for excursions and sightseeing. (AUS101, $30.00)

Australia Map

Australia Map

by ITMB

  • 2010
  • MAP

A handy, folded map at a scale of 1:3,500,000. (AUS23, $12.95)

 
New Guinea Map

New Guinea Map


by ITMB

  • 2010
  • MAP

A color map showing both Papua New Guinea and West Papua (Indonesia) at a good scale. (NGA05, $12.95)

Culture Smart! Australia

Culture Smart! Australia


by Barry Penney

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 168 PAGES

A concise, no-nonsense guide to local customs, etiquette and culture with a short overview of the land and people along with practical travel advice. (AUS189, $9.95)

Eclipse! The What, Where, When, Why, and How Guide to Watching Solar and Lunar Eclipses

Eclipse! The What, Where, When, Why, and How Guide to Watching Solar and Lunar Eclipses


by Philip Harington

  • REFERENCE
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 280 PAGES

A guide to eclipse phenomena, including how to best photograph and appreciate lunar and solar eclipses, as well as understand general celestial mechanics. With tables summarizing where lunar and solar eclipses will be visible from 1998-2017. (GEN30, $19.95)

Eyewitness Guide Sydney

Eyewitness Guide Sydney


by Eyewitness Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 264 PAGES

This superb guide to Sydney features color photography, dozens of excellent neighborhood maps and a district-by-district synopsis of the city's attractions. (AUS25, $23.00)

Footprint East Coast Australia

Footprint East Coast Australia


by Darroch Donald

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

A detailed, practical guide to Queensland and the Australia's east coast from Melbourne to the Great Barrier Reef and Cairns. (AUS174, $24.99)

Lonely Planet Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands

Lonely Planet Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands


by Lonely Planet

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 264 PAGES

Featuring a good overview of culture, history and nature, with excellent travel information and maps. (NGA06, $29.99)

Totality, Eclipses of the Sun

Totality, Eclipses of the Sun


by Mark Littman | Fred Espenek | Ken Wilcox

  • REFERENCE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 360 PAGES

How, where -- and why -- to see an eclipse, strikingly illustrated and updated to cover upcoming eclipses. Featuring Espenek's spectacular photography. (GEN27, $18.95)

A Commonwealth of Thieves, The Improbable Birth of Australia

A Commonwealth of Thieves, The Improbable Birth of Australia


by Thomas Keneally

  • HISTORY
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES

Keneally illuminates the birth of New South Wales with drama and flair, richly evoking the social conditions in London, long sea voyage and the conditions in Australia. (AUS177, $16.00)

Sydney Then and Now


by Caroline Mackaness

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2006
  • HARD COVER
  • 144 PAGES

This illustrated chronicle juxtoposes archival photographs with modern ones, demonstrating the city's change over time. With historical descriptions. (AUS198, $18.95)

The Fatal Shore

The Fatal Shore


by Robert Hughes

  • HISTORY
  • 1988
  • PAPER
  • 752 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

In this celebrated social history, both scholarly and entertaining, Hughes traces the fate of those who were transported to the penal colonies of Australia between 1787 and 1868. It's an engaging popular account, drawn from the experiences of the colonists themselves. (AUS04, $19.95)

The Songlines

The Songlines


by Bruce Chatwin

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 1988
  • PAPER
  • 294 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

Chatwin transforms a journey through the Outback into an exhilarating, semi-fictional meditation on our place in the world. (AUS01, $16.00)

Aboriginal Art

Aboriginal Art


by Wally Caruana

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 239 PAGES

This well illustrated survey focuses on the spiritual and geographic sources of art and ritual traditions in Australia. With 187 well produced black-and-white and color illustrations. (AUS14, $19.95)

Throwim Way Leg

Throwim Way Leg


by Tim F. Flannery

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2000
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

Subtitled "Tree-Kangaroos, Possums and Penis Gourds, On the Track of Unknown Mammals in Wildest New Guinea," this witty account of a scientific expedition to New Guinea combines natural history, adventure and insightful commentary. Flannery returned from the expedition with 20 new species of mammals -- including a tree kangaroo and bat thought extinct since the Pleistocene. (NGA18, $14.00)

Daisy Bates in the Desert: A Woman's Life Among the Aborigines

Daisy Bates in the Desert: A Woman's Life Among the Aborigines


by Julia Blackburn

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1995
  • PAPER
  • 232 PAGES

In this wonderfully original biography, Blackburn recreates the life of Daisy Bates (1861-1951), who abandoned her comfortable surroundings in 1913 to live for 30 years in the wilderness. It opens memorably "There was once a woman who lived in the desert." (AUS37, $15.00)

My Place

My Place


by Sally Morgan

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1987
  • PAPER
  • 440 PAGES
  • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE

A deeply moving autobiography of three generations in Australia, which artfully evokes aboriginal culture. Morgan, who spent her childhood in Perth, didn't discover her Aboriginal background until she was in her teens. (AUS19, $19.95)

One For the Road, An Outback Adventure

One For the Road, An Outback Adventure


by Tony Horwitz

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1999
  • PAPER
  • 211 PAGES

A classic travel adventure by favorite author Tony Horwitz. This time he's set loose among the Aborigines, exiled desert rats and other odd characters in the outback. (AUS79, $14.00)

The Road from Coorain

The Road from Coorain


by Jill Ker Conway

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1990
  • PAPER
  • 238 PAGES

An absorbing account of a young rural girl's coming of age in post-war Sydney. Conway paints a vivid picture of isolation and beauty -- and of the challenges of a bright, ambitious woman growing up Australian. (AUS03, $13.95)

Under the Mountain Wall, A Chronicle of Two Seasons in Stone Age New Guinea

Under the Mountain Wall, A Chronicle of Two Seasons in Stone Age New Guinea


by Peter Matthiessen

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1962
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES

Matthiessen describes the two years he spent observing and wandering among the Kurelu of central New Guinea, a "Stone Age tribe" untouched by civilization. Although focused on the central highlands, his sixth book provides a fascinating introduction to New Guinea and a poignant look at a vanishing culture. (NGA04, $19.00)

Australia, A Traveler's Literary Companion

Australia, A Traveler's Literary Companion


by Robert Ross

  • ANTHOLOGY
  • 1998
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

Arranged geographically, this collection of works by mostly local writers, including Patrick White, Peter Carey and other luminaries introduces the cultures, geography and mindset of Australia. (AUS38, $13.95)

Down Time, Great Writers on Diving

Down Time, Great Writers on Diving


by Ed Kittrell | Casey Kittrell | Jim Kittrell

  • ANTHOLOGY
  • 1998
  • PAPER
  • 262 PAGES

A diverse anthology on the experience, pleasures and peril of diving by great writers, including Diane Ackerman and William Beebe. A thoughtful collection that communicates the rewards of being underwater. (DIV40, $15.95)

Gunshot Road

Gunshot Road


by Adrian Hyland

  • MYSTERY
  • 2010
  • HARD COVER
  • 372 PAGES

In the second Emily Tempest investigation, Emily is working as a police officer in the harsh landscape of northern Australia. (AUS250, $25.00)

Moonlight Downs

Moonlight Downs


by Adrian Hyland

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 322 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

The Ned Kelly Award-winning first Emily Tempest investigation set in the Australia. Emily, a half-white, half-Aboriginal woman returns to her hometown in the Outback only to find that the tribe's elderly leader has been murdered. (AUS251, $14.00)

The Bone is Pointed

The Bone is Pointed


by Arthur Upfield

  • MYSTERY
  • 1998
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

This Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte mystery finds the half-Aborigine detective in the place he knows best, the Australian outback, where he is investigating the disappearance of a local scoundrel. (AUS171, $20.95)

The Nutmeg of Consolation

The Nutmeg of Consolation


by Patrick O'Brian

  • LITERATURE
  • 1993
  • PAPER
  • 315 PAGES

This 14th installment in the Aubrey/Maturin series finds Captain Aubrey and his crew shipwrecked and making their way to the penal colony at Botany Bay, the notorious first European settlement in Australia. (AUS17, $15.95)

The Secret River

The Secret River


by Kate Grenville

  • LITERATURE
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 334 PAGES

Inspired by the history of her own family, Kate Grenville evokes all the bravado, trickery and conflict over the settlement of New South Wales in her tale of a Thames boatsman banished to the new colony in 1806 (AUS179, $14.00)

The Turning, New Stories

The Turning, New Stories


by Tim Winton

  • LITERATURE
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 321 PAGES

These 17 overlapping stories, steeped in everyday life on western Australia, follow the fates of a handful of characters in a small coastal town outside Perth. Winton, short-listed twice so far for the Booker Prize, has published a string of memorable novels, children's books and stories, all richly set in the working class milieu of the sparsely populated coastal desert. (AUS169, $20.99)

True History of the Kelly Gang

True History of the Kelly Gang


by Peter Carey

  • LITERATURE
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 386 PAGES

Carey's powerful, daring novel, steeped in the colonial history of late 19th-century Australia, won him a second Booker (the first was for Oscar & Lucinda). Outlaw, folk hero, thief and patriot, the Irish immigrant Ned Kelly and his clan figure large in the Australian mindset. (AUS119, $15.95)

Chasing Kangaroo

Chasing Kangaroo


by Tim Flannery

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES

In this ode to the kangaroo, Flannery weaves his own coming of age as a scientist with tales of the strange marsupial, past and present. (AUS186, $14.00)

The Future Eaters, An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People

The Future Eaters, An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People


by Tim F. Flannery

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 432 PAGES

An engaging ecological history of Australasia, focusing on human impact on local environments and animal populations in the recent geologic past. (AUS48, $16.00)

The Snorkeller's Guide to the Coral Reef, From the Red Sea to the Pacific Ocean

The Snorkeller's Guide to the Coral Reef, From the Red Sea to the Pacific Ocean


by Paddy Ryan

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 1994
  • PAPER
  • 184 PAGES

The best-selling, take-along guide to coral reefs, coral-reef fishes, invertebrates and plants of the Indo-Pacific. With 200 color photographs. (DIV18, $21.99)

Total Eclipses, Science, Observations, Myths, and Legends


by Pierre Guillermier

  • SCIENCE
  • 1999
  • PAPER
  • 270 PAGES

This book combines a detailed scientific analysis of solar eclipses with a survey of many myths and legends inspired by the rare event. (SCI197, $44.95)

Treasures of the Great Barrier Reef

Treasures of the Great Barrier Reef


by WGBH

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2006
  • DVD

This 60-minute Nova documentary captures the diversity and abundance of the fish and invertebrates of the coral reef in dazzling color. (AUS196, $19.95)

Wild Australia

Wild Australia


by IMAX

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2002
  • DVD

A dazzling overview of Australia, its geology, evolution, culture and wildlife on DVD, originally presented in IMAX theatres. (AUS168, $19.99)

A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets

A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets


by Jay M. Pasachoff

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 1999
  • PAPER
  • 578 PAGES

A guided tour of the heavens in the Peterson series equally useful in Des Moines or Montevideo. With an atlas of the sky, detailed moon maps and an overview of the science of astronomy. (SCI01, $19.00)

Australia: The East, Travellers' Wildlife Guides

Australia: The East, Travellers' Wildlife Guides


by Les Beletsky

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 544 PAGES

Featuring 650 full-color illustrations of common fish, reptiles, amphibians, mammals and birds of Australia and an overview of parks and preserves including the Great Barrier Reef. (AUS167, $29.95)

Australian Birds

Australian Birds


by Pocket Naturalist

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2000
  • PLASTIC CARD

A laminated card featuring commonly encountered Australian birds. (AUS99, $5.95)

Australian Wildlife

Australian Wildlife


by Raymond Leung | James Kavanaugh

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 1999
  • PLASTIC CARD

This handy fold-out guide features illustrations of almost 150 species of Australian animals. Laminated and pocket-sized, it easily slips into your daypack. (AUS111, $5.95)

Birds of Australia, Photographic Field Guide

Birds of Australia, Photographic Field Guide


by Jim Flegg

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 176 PAGES
  • CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE
  • >

This pocket guide features large color photographs and brief description of commonly encountered and spectacular birds. (AUS12, $25.00)

Field Guide to the Birds of Australia

Field Guide to the Birds of Australia


by Ken Simpson | Nicholas Day

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 440 PAGES

A handbook and field guide to Australia's birds with 2,000 vivid color illustrations, each accompanied by a brief description and revised range map. (AUS06, $39.50)

Field Guide to the Mammals of Australia

Field Guide to the Mammals of Australia


by Peter Menkhorst | Frank Knight

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

A comprehensive guide to 376 species (kangaroos, bandicoots, koalas, wombats, and more), featuring 376 full color illustrations. (AUS117, $50.00)

Fishwatcher's Field Guide, Great Barrier Reef

Fishwatcher's Field Guide, Great Barrier Reef


by Idaz Greenberg

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • PLASTIC CARD

A double-sided, laminated card. (DIV41, $7.50)

The Night Sky

The Night Sky


by Raymond Leung | James Cavanaugh

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2001
  • PLASTIC CARD

A guide to the major constellations in the Northern Hemisphere featuring color photographs and glow-in-the-dark star charts. (SCI49, $5.95)

More Recommendations

Here are some other groups of books that might be of interest

Longitude provides recommended reading for travelers in partnership with the leading tour operators and travel programs for hundreds of destinations worldwide. We've got the classic, new and hard-to-find books and maps to help you get the most out of your adventures.