There’s a travel book sitting in my head just waiting to be written.
Actually, there’s a travel book, a murder mystery, and a romantic comedy in there as well.
But it might be some time before any of them move from my head to paper.
In the meantime, I read. And read. And read.
And discover time and again that someone else has written yet another travel book I wish I had written.
At the moment, my five favorite travel books that I wish I’d written include:
Treasure Island by Pamela Stephenson – subtitled ‘Sailing the South Seas in the wake of Fanny and Robert Louise Stevenson’, this book features travel, history, and adventure around the islands of the South Pacific.
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert – subtitled ‘One woman’s search for everything’, this book is about what one woman did when her world fell apart – she picked herself up and went on a quest for spiritual enlightenment – in Rome, India, and Bali.
Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach – subtitled ‘The travels of an independent woman’, this book is about one woman’s search for a new definition of herself. And what better way of doing this than by taking a year off work and heading first to Paris, then London and Milan and tackling whatever new experiences greeted her.
A Year in the World by Frances Mayes – this book describes what it would be like to live in a different place every month for a year, immersing in the local culture, foods, and sense of place.
Kiss the Sunset Pig by Laurie Gough – subtitled ‘An American Road Trip with Exotic Detours’, this book flicks between the author’s past and present experiences as she travels across the States in a beaten up car named Marcia.
So what’s your favorite travel book that you wish you had written?
(photo @Liz Lewis 2007)
Interesting choices, Liz. As for a travel book I wish I’d written, I’d go with Niall Williams and Christine Breen’s The Pipes Are Calling, and really any of their books on making their lives in the rural west of Ireland in the 1980s. Seriously well written as well as fine stories, and two distinctive voices in the telling.