Top 7 travel books to read while you can’t travel

 From the shop-books.ca blog

Those who know me know I come from a travel background and I truly miss working in the industry and the exposure to different cultures, people, and experiences that travel can give. Travel is a force for good in this world as my old company executives’ used to say and I firmly believe it.

However, since many of us can’t travel now due to the pandemic and many of us can’t travel at all, I thought I’d put together a personal list of the top 7 travel books to read while you can’t travel.

In no particular order, with a slight literary bent, and as usual I actually have read these:

1: The Odyssey by Homer

Yes, I realize that forcing high school reading on you might backfire but this classic tale of Odysseus trying to get back to his love after the Trojan War gives us wine dark seas, magical Mediterranean islands, many strange cultures and customs, and a lot of eating of wine and cheese. Grab yourself some and set in.

2: The Happy Isles of Oceania by Paul Theroux

I could have picked almost any of Theroux’s travel books but this one speaks to me for the word “happy” in the title alone. Theroux is a fascinating narrator, both for his keen observations and his penetrating, dark insights when he disapproves of the events he is watching. Grabbing a collapsible kayak and paddling to seldom- visited shores around the Pacific islands, he steps into a Gaugin painting, paddles in the wake of the great explorers, and recalls the tales of Robert Louis Stevenson.

3: An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan by Jason Elliot

A deeply personal book about the experience of travel and how it can change someone, especially if one goes with preconceived notions but finds a way to let go. Written about Elliot’s two journeys to Afghanistan 10 years apart (during the Russians adventure and then again as the Russians departed), two quotes suffice to hopefully inspire you on your next travels whenever and wherever they may be: “…journeys are sparked from small and unlikely things…” and “…trust in the spirit of the journey…”

 

4: Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

From the highly personal quest of Elliot to another type of quest, mainly the exploration and understanding of familiar yet strange things; Bill Bryson, an American living in England, takes us around the country to visit every nook and cranny to uncover the strangely familiar and hilarious things, customs, and “language that separates us”. Reading Bryson is like having a beer with a good friend.

 

5: The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin

Bruce Chatwin adapted a literary form common until the eighteenth century and modernized it: a story of ideas in which two companions, traveling and talking together, explore the hopes and dreams that animate both them and the people they encounter. Ostensibly about the aboriginal peoples of Australia, Chatwin veers off into all kinds of mythic history but also unreliable events. Did this specific event happen in the way Chatwin tells us and does it really matter since we get to the heart anyway. 

 

6: Road Fever by Tim Cahill

With titles like Pass the Butterworms or Hold the Enlightenment, Cahill is simply one of the funniest adventure travel writers around. In Road Fever, Cahill reports on the road trip to end all road trips: a journey that took him from Tierra del Fuego to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in a record-breaking twenty three and a half days. Engine trouble in Patagonia, sadistic troopers in Peru, document hell in Colombia, and all you ever wanted to know about the effects of a diet of beef jerky and milk shakes.

 

7: The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton

Alain de Botton tells one story of a trip to Amsterdam and writes,” I stopped by a red front door and felt an intense longing to spend the rest of my life there.” Why do we travel? Instead of being a guide to what to do when we get somewhere, this book tries to explain why we really went in the first place. De Botton explores thoughts on anticipation, curiosity, beauty, and habit and suggests how we might be happier in our journeys.

Further reading and also highly recommended (some via my Amazon Associates link):

Video Nights in Kathmandu by Pico Iyer – Iyer examines Mohawk hair-cuts in Bali, yuppies in Hong Kong and Rambo rip-offs in the movie houses of Bombay.

Down and Delirious in Mexico City by Daniel Hernandez - Hernandez travels to Mexico City, searching for his cultural roots and encountering a city both chaotic and intoxicating, both underdeveloped and hypermodern.

Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain – RIP

Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road by Kate Harris – A year spent cycling the Silk Road.

A Woman Alone: Travel Tales From Around the Globe edited by Faith Conlon, Ingrid Emerick and Christina Henry de Tessan – Relatable stories from solo female travelers.

On the Road by Jack Kerouac – The book that launched a lot of thumbs.

Vagabonding by Rolf Potts – The process behind taking time off and exploring the world.

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle – This book launched a sub-genre of travel memoirs.

Crime as Art

In my perusal of the interwebs I came across this from an interview with J.G. Ballard, summer 1997.

KEVIN JACKSON: Certain parts of the book (Cocaine Nights) advance rather unorthodox ideas about crime: that crime cements a community and that, in more concrete terms, it can be seen as a kind of performance art.

JG BALLARD: Well, the main character has stumbled on a way of waking people up. Life for them becomes keener, sharper, and so these people become more prepared to explore their own imaginations. They’re no longer passive. I’m not suggesting we should all leave our doors unlocked; or that we should burgle our neighbours, who, enriched by the experience, will then bring the violin down from the attic and entertain us with a string quartet… Rather, I think we need to look at the world we inhabit and see how these social aggressions are manufactured. It may be that a civilised life comes at a price.

This monoculture that is emerging, a world of noisy, intruding horror: you just want to get on with what you’re doing, which is nothing. These security-suburbs are a way of shutting out the world, like static on a TV set. The British, especially, have retreated into their own homes. We’re obsessed with a material space where we can define all the elements that make up our lives.

23 years later and I think Ballard was on to something. 

I highly recommend looking into Ballard's life and works.

Top 4 books on disease

Top 4 books dealing with disease to read while on social isolation from shop-books.ca/blog

I've been taking a 3 pronged approach to the current Covid situation or as I like to call it, the time of weirdness.

Firstly, I've been trying to see positive outcomes that may arise from social isolation or global awakening, if not now then later, in my social posts on Facebook for example.

Secondly, I've been trying to put a humorous or lighter spin on the situation; mostly in person with friends and family.

Thirdly, I've been freaking out.

This list hopefully utilizes the second approach (with a dash of the third).

In no particular order (and note that these are books I've actually read so that's why there are 4):

1: The Plag`ue by Albert Camus

Is this book about disease or a country suffering under occupation or the human race rebelling against an absurd universe? How about all three at the same time. Camus' spare style might have understated the situation but actually makes the novel thicken with tension as the plague spreads and poor Dr. Rieux gets little help.

2: The Stand by Stephen King

Humanity has been nearly wiped out by a pandemic and the few survivors now have to also face real demons...what's next murder hornets...oh wait...

3: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The title might be a pun as the word cholera in Spanish can be used to mean rage so against a backdrop of strife and disease, do the main characters come to believe that it is love or death that conquers all. My money is on the latter.

4: Blindness by Jose Saramago

A plague of blindness is unleashed in a city and social disorder follows as several characters try to survive the public's panic and the government's repressive and inept measures. Minus the widespread panic, does this sound familiar?

Further contenders that I have not read:

The Children of Men by P.D. James

A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Station Eleven by Emily St. John

Zone One by Colson Whitehead

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

The top 8 Libraries in the world

It is troubling that during this lockdown, many of us are denied access to libraries, but it is understandable of course. Because even though libraries may seem like they cater to solitary endeavours they play a far greater role with communities than given credit for. 

They are a place to gather for children for story-time or creative programs; folk can gather in a book reading club; anyone can go to a library to ask questions and find answers that lead to more questions and hopefully other answers. You don’t have to have financial wealth to visit, study, and learn.

Nothing beats your local library (so please support them) but here are the totally subjective top 8 interesting libraries in the world; not just for their books, but their beauty, architecture, size, and ability to gather people:

In no particular order: 

George Peabody Library, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Part of Johns Hopkins University, this library is open to the public in Baltimore.



The New York Public Library, New York, NY, USA

The main branch on Fifth Avenue boasts a lovely marble façade and lion statues that guard the base of the steps.



The Central Library of Vancouver, BC, Canada

Modeled after the Colosseum in Rome, it has nine floors with over 9 million items and a rooftop garden.



Bodleian Library, Oxford, England

In use since the 14th century with 12 million volumes to peruse thought handling the first Gutenberg Bible or Shakespeare’s First folio may be frowned upon.



Trinity College Old Library, Dublin, Ireland

Beautiful dark wood arches contain over 7 million volumes and home to such ancient texts as The Book of Kells.



Admont Abbey Library, Admont, Austria

Attached to a monastery, this library opened in 1776, and contains the largest number of monastic items in the world. It is a stunning interior to study in.



Library of Alexandria, Egypt

Wait, it still exists you say?!? Well, no, the original was burnt down by Caesar’s armies but this attractive building is covered in carvings from local artists and is surrounded by a reflecting pool.



Royal Portuguese Reading Room, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Its interior has a decorative design that certainly impresses book lovers but don’t be too awed, you can still study here.



One more:



Beitou Public Library, Taiwan

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Just because it looks so incredibly beautiful and has balconies along the buildings side where you can curl up with a favourite novel in a rocking chair.

Surrealism, various interviews

Type in Surrealism in a major search engine and, as of this writing, you get over 55 million hits.

Which is in itself surreal as Andre Breton is his Surrealist Manifesto writes that Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of previously neglected associations.

So a search engine by its very nature concretizes or makes real, associations.

Breton and the surrealists would be proud!

I have compiled a small list of interviews or articles about surrealism or with surrealists below:

MOMA Learning site

Surrealism: The Big Ideas presented by the Dali Museum

Tate shots: Dorothea Tanning Pushing the Boundaries of Surrealism

Salvador Dali interview with Mike Wallace 1958

Dali on the Dick Cavett show

Interviews with Paul Eluard (mostly French)

Interviews with Andre Breton (mostly French)

Interview with Louis Aragon (French)

Europe of Cultures interview with Tristan Tzara

Tzara on film (French)

Essays by what some consider the person who coined the term Surrealism: Apollinaire

Audio documentary on Robert Desnos (French)

Luis Bunuel interview (French)

Random House Book of 20th Century French Poetry has many examples of French surrealism

Horror story...

...a story in which the focus is on creating a feeling of fear...


One defining trait of the horror genre is that it provokes an emotional, psychological, or physical response within readers that causes them to react with fear. One of H.P. Lovecraft's most famous quotes about the genre is that: "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." the first sentence from his seminal essay, "Supernatural Horror in Literature". Science fiction historian Darrell Schweitzer has stated "In the simplest sense, a horror story is one that scares us" and "the true horror story requires a sense of evil, not in necessarily in a theological sense; but the menaces must be truly menacing, life-destroying, and antithetical to happiness."


The horror genre has ancient origins with roots in folklore and religious traditions, and has gone through various re-awakenings from Gothic horror in the 18th century to the "religious" horror of the 1960's through to modern day masters such as Stephen King.


Now, post-millennial horror has expanded to include elements outside the genre. Everything from zombies and werewolves and Cthulhu to intense psychological and grotesque features. A fascinating genre to explore.

Updating posts once again

After a long hiatus, I will be updating this blog again, probably once a week.

I have started an online bookstore to see if I can make a go of it during this time of weirdness!

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