Another Five Best Travel Book Classics
Comparing Favorites of Conde Nast Traveler, Outside (and Others)
Aug 12, 2008
Magazines and Web zines are in the know about the best-of-the-best travel books, but they aren’t necessarily in the agreed-upon know, it seems.
Not that they need to be. Choosing books to read – and favorite books at that – is, of course, a subjective affair.
But when writing grabs such a popular vote, it’s not luck or whimsy either. Hence, lists still do find themselves talking about the same neighborhood of literature, if not always the exact same titles or authors.
Identifying the Best Travel Books
Using five well-known travel publications on newsstands and on the Internet -- Conde Nast Traveler, WorldHum.com, National Geographic Traveler, BraveNewTraveler.com and Outside Magazine – Suite101.com has compared those five lists that range from 25 to nearly 100 titles each in length.
As a result, Suite101 has previously published the 10 Greatest Travel Books of All Time.
Using the same cross-referencing method as used in those articles to compare the same lists again, here are five more of the best travel books of all time.
Tracks, by Robyn Davidson (1980). Outside Magazine says, “At 27, the young Australian arrived in Alice Springs with six dollars, trained two wild camels, and set off for the Indian Ocean. Davidson is the world's most reluctant darling—but walking wild, ragged, and alone, she blew the dust off the tired, musty feet of white-male adventure.”
Iron & Silk, by Mark Salzman (1986). Conde Nast Traveler’s view: “A common expat experience—teaching English abroad—becomes fodder for a book of unusual scope and point of view, capturing the confusion of a China transitioning from Maoist directives to capitalist imperatives.”
Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, by Edward Abbey (1968). National Geographic Traveler says, “Abbey delivers a lovably prickly meditation on the Southwest. Living in Utah as a ranger at Arches National Monument left him with an abiding affection for the places conjured here.”
The Worst Journey in the World, by Apsley Cherry-Garrard (1922). Outside Magazine says, “So many superlatives have been heaped on this sick pup that it's hard not to feel a little jaded before you read it for yourself. Don't let the hype—or, for that matter, the dozens of other books on Robert Falcon Scott's doomed 1911 South Pole expedition—scare you off.”
A Moveable Feast, by Earnest Hemingway (1964). BraveNewTraveler.com says, “Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast is his memories, observations and experiences living in Paris during the 1920’s as part of the ‘Lost Generation’ of America writers and artists. It is an essential piece for those who dream of living abroad or are in the midst of piecing together their expatriate lives.”
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Five More of the Best Travel Books Ever
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