WILDERNESS TRAVEL

Ireland

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

E-MAIL
PRINT

Kids

Books for

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 EXIRE38. Buy these 3 items as a set for $43 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
With free shipping on anything else you order.

ADD SET
TO BOOKBAG

For the Love of Ireland, A Literary Companion for Readers and Travelers

by Susan Cahill

ANTHOLOGY
2001
PAPER
458 PAGES

Organized geographically, this rich anthology introduces Ireland through the words and lives of such luminaries as James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, Frank McCourt and Samuel Beckett. (IRE77, $15.95)

Irish Fairy and Folk Tales

by W.B. Yeats

LITERATURE
2004
PAPER
380 PAGES

Edited by the Nobel Prize-winning poet who spearheaded the Celtic Renaissance in the early 20th century, these enchanting stories introduce a cast of changelings, ghosts, mermaids, demons, saints, priests and fairies. (IRE04, $16.00)

Ireland Map

by Michelin

2011
MAP

A colorful map at a scale of 1:400,000. (IRE23, $11.95)

Also Recommended

A Book of Migrations, Some Passages in Ireland

by Rebecca Solnit

CULTURAL PORTRAIT
2010
PAPER
208 PAGES

In this intriguing book, the American-born author (now an Irish citizen) introduces the country, its history and literature in a series of essays. Solnit, a wonderful writer, is a thoughtful questioner of the modern Irish identity. (IRE44, $16.95)

How the Irish Saved Civilization

by Thomas Cahill

CULTURAL PORTRAIT
1995
PAPER
236 PAGES

This best-selling history tells the generally unknown story of Ireland's preservation of classical learning in the Dark Ages. (IRE07, $15.95)

Magnum Ireland

by John Banville

CULTURAL PORTRAIT
2005
HARD COVER
256 PAGES

This evocative collection of 250 photographs captures the people, landscapes and changing face of Ireland from the 1950s to the 21st century. (IRE170, $60.00)

The Aran Islands

by J.M. Synge | Tim Robinson

CULTURAL PORTRAIT
1992
PAPER
208 PAGES

A much-loved turn-of-the-century account of the islands (as contrasted with mainland Ireland), drenched in the Celtic soul of the Irish. (IRE26, $15.00)

The Truth about the Irish

by Terry Eagleton

CULTURAL PORTRAIT
2001
PAPER
181 PAGES

An irreverent A-to-Z guide to all things Irish by a native son and shrewd comic commentator, who casts aside many myths, starting with the first entry - A for alcohol (the Irish have the lowest per capita consumption of alcohol in the E.U., after Greece and Italy). (IRE167, $14.95)

The Book of Kells

by Bernard Meehan

ART & ARCHITECTURE
1995
PAPER
95 PAGES

Written by the keeper of manuscripts at Trinity College, this book features 110 color illustrations, including enlargements, of some of the more spectacular decorations in this most famous of medieval manuscripts. (IRE09, $19.95)

The Celts, First Masters of Europe

by Chriatiane Eluere

ARCHAEOLOGY
1993
PAPER
175 PAGES
OUT OF PRINT

A colorful pocket-size encyclopedia documenting the art and archaeology of the Celts. With 100 maps and illustrations. (CLT01, $15.95)

Connemara, Listening to the Wind

by Tim Robinson

TRAVEL NARRATIVE
2008
PAPER
448 PAGES
OUT OF PRINT

Robinson's bewitching essays capture the wild beauty, local legends and long-forgotten history of this captivating corner of Western Ireland. (IRE37, $16.00)

Green Shadows, White Whale

by Ray Bradbury

BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
2002
PAPER
237 PAGES

Set in Dublin, this 1953 hymn to Ireland recounts Bradbury's hilarious experiences writing the Moby Dick screenplay with John Huston (who Bradbury affectionately refers to as the "Devil Himself"). (IRE53, $13.99)

Ireland, a Bicycle, and a Tin Whistle

by David Wilson

TRAVEL NARRATIVE
1995
PAPER
176 PAGES

Whether it's the author's adventures in crowded pubs or out in the wild, this travel account is a modest, humorous report on Ireland, its people, festivals and cultures. (IRE17, $19.95)

McCarthy's Bar, A Journey of Discovery in Ireland

by Pete McCarthy

TRAVEL NARRATIVE
2003
PAPER
352 PAGES

A droll account of McCarthy's encounters on a bar-hopping jaunt from Cork along the west coast to Donegal. His motto, assiduously followed, was never to pass up a bar with his name on it! (IRE168, $16.99)

O Come Ye Back to Ireland, Our First Year in County Clare

by Niall Williams | Christine Breen

BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
1989
PAPER
233 PAGES

The first of four engaging chronicles of life on a farm in Kilmihi in rural County Clare, by an Irish-American couple who realized their lifelong dream of returning to Ireland. (IRE16, $12.00)

Dubliners

by James Joyce

LITERATURE
1992
PAPER
317 PAGES

James Joyce's unsurpassed collection of short stories depicting ordinary life in Dublin among the lower middle class -- a milestone in the history of prose fiction. (IRE15, $11.00)

Heaven Lies About Us, Stories

by Eugene McCabe

LITERATURE
2004
HARD COVER
309 PAGES

An anthology of McCabe's best short fiction over the last 30 years, mostly set close to the Irish border where the author, playwright and farmer makes his home (IRE173, $24.95)

Ireland, A Novel

by Frank Delaney

LITERATURE
2006
PAPER
576 PAGES

In this hugely pleasurable tale Delaney wraps the history, myth and legend of Ireland around a quest. It's an ambitious, subtly comic and enthralling story of the importance of tales and tradition. (IRE156, $14.99)

Sun Dancing, A Vision of Medieval Ireland

by Geoffrey Moorhouse

LITERATURE
2009
PAPER
280 PAGES

This wonderfully inspired combination of scholarship and historical fiction, set at the monastery on Skellig Michael, carries the reader back to Ireland's early monastic tradition. (IRE13, $22.95)

The Hill Bachelors

by William Trevor

LITERATURE
2001
PAPER
256 PAGES

No one writes better short fiction than William Trevor. This collection of 12 stories captures the life and people of rural Ireland. (IRE42, $15.00)

The Princes of Ireland, The Dublin Saga

by Edward Rutherfurd

LITERATURE
2005
PAPER
800 PAGES

An epic novel drawing on the events, personalities and drama of Dublin from settlement through the Easter Rebellion. (IRE145, $16.95)

The Teapots Are Out and Other Eccentric Tales from Ireland

by John B. Keane

LITERATURE
2004
PAPER
192 PAGES

A collection of 17 sentimental, sad, outrageous and just plain fun stories by the prolific North Kerry saloon-keeper, balladeer, playwright and novelist. Keane, who died in 2002, had an eye (and ear) for Irish rural life. (IRE144, $13.95)

The Vintage Book of Contemporary Irish Fiction

by Dermot Bolger

LITERATURE
1995
PAPER

A marvelous sampling of great writers and writing in contemporary Ireland, including Samuel Beckett, Edna O'Brien and William Trevor. (IRE61, $16.95)

Troubles

by J.G. Farrell

LITERATURE
2002
PAPER
459 PAGES

Set on the eve of the Irish Rebellion, this first novel in Farrell's remarkable Empire Trilogy illuminates the British Empire's decline in Ireland and the Anglo-Irish to hilarious, haunting effect. (IRE171, $16.95)

More Recommendations

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