Travelogue Books

If you have ever hit the open road or dreamed of it, this inspiring book is for you. Best chapter was by Jerry Ellis from his book, Walking the Trail, One Man's Journey Along the Cherokee Trail of Tears.

This book made me stop dreaming of foreign travel, it's so full of things that ring true about the uniqueness, magic, and sheer size of the USA and its culture. I want to get in the car and hit the road.

The Travelers' Tales series is a set of anthologies of short pieces, typically 5-20 pages each, assembled around a particular theme. Many of the volumes are dedicated to a particular travel destination (e.g., the Southwest, Thailand, Italy), while some are thematically organized (Food, Spiritual Gifts of Travel, Women on the Road, etc).

The collections run from the passable to the magnificent: reading them reminds of how terrific writing becomes when inspired by an exotic, memorable place. The best of these volumes bring back the flavors, the smells, and the breezes of distant places with an immediacy that your vacation photo album can't by itself match.

This southwest volume is probably one of the better ones in the series, owing largely to the fantastic quality of the region. I consider myself a fairly experienced world traveler, and for my money the unspoiled beauty of the landscape in this part of America is unsurpassed anywhere in the world. (I haven't yet seen New Zealand, the Alaskan wild, or the Himalayas, so I'm still reserving an absolute final judgment.)

I am a lover of desert landscapes, but I've come to understand that I don't love all deserts equally: I've seen deserts ranging from the Gobi to the Sahara, but have found nothing quite like the American southwest, with its canyons, its hoodoos, its towering red rock formations like so many giant goblins, its endless views, its rock labyrinths, its lizards, the peaceful shade of its cliffs, its scents of juniper, sage and pinion. The introduction to this book compares a journey into the desert southwest to a breath of fresh air in the soul, and that certainly fits.

With such inspiring material, a collection of pieces by skilled writers could hardly miss, and this one delivers. The best piece in here is probably the excerpt "Water" from "Desert Solitaire," by the incomparable and curmudgeonly Edward Abbey. This piece is, however, closely rivaled by the also-magnificent "Bridge Over the Wind," a tribute to Landscape Arch in Arches National Park, vividly capturing not only the gorgeous improbability of that particular arch, but also the feel of a hike through Devil's Garden to reach it.

Other fine pieces in the collection explore the hidden treasures of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, the fascinations of Navajo country, and activities ranging from flying solo over Monument Valley, to hunting for obscure pictographs.

It's not a flawless collection: there are a few too many New Age-y pieces for my taste. The southwest seems to draw a fair number of spiritualist pilgrims, so for every Edward Abbey withdrawing to the wilderness to see himself and the society around him more starkly, there are plenty of folks who luxuriate in reducing Native American culture to a collection of comforting but absurd talismans and superstitions. A reader with a perfectly healthy respect and appreciation for Native American cultures might well come away, as I did, annoyed at some of the insipid romanticization of their folkways.

But, in a sense, it is what it is; this phenomenon is definitely part of the southwestern cultural landscape, and it's therefore appropriate that it be reflected in this book.

The collection is a pleasant read throughout, and will inspire both real and armchair travelers to direct their attention to this most beautiful of American places.

This is just a fabulous book. It will bring the Southwest to life for all discerning readers.

I picked up this book a couple of months before moving to Japan for a year of study and was completely captivated. The various writers are effective in giving the reader a brief glimpse into some of the most unique and enchanting qualities of Japanese society. Four years later, I still pull out this book occasionally to rekindle the feelings of wonder I experienced when I first opened it. The book also provides the titles of many of books from which the passages are taken, which is a great resource for sprouting Japanophiles. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, along with the entire series of Traveler's Tales books.

This is a great book. It's lots of short "stories" - some are excerpts from other books (that I've actually read), but some also seem to be short "stories." I really like it because I can pick the book up, look in the table of contents for a title that sounds interesting, and find one with a length that fits the amount of time I have available right then. I particularly enjoy reading it out loud to my travel companions - share the fun! I admit that some of the excerpts are a little dry - but still informative - but some are simply hysterical. It really gives a nice and varied insight into the Japanese culture. Take it with you on your trip for varied reading pleasure, or read it in parts when you return to extend the enjoyment of your trip!

I've also given others from this series as gifts to friends who are traveling - India, Paris, Tuscony...

I have read many books about San Francisco and this will give anybody incredible insight into the City. If you had one book to read about SF, this should be it.

Traveller's Tales San Francisco is a very unusual travel guide. It is more like a collection of short stories set in, and all about, the most beautiful city on the planet. Each story takes the reader on a journey through either a specific neighborhood, cultural enclave, outdoor activity or unique "only in San Francisco" setting in a way that no other travel guide does. I am a local and tremendously enjoyed reading this guide because it was like taking a tour of The City without leaving my reading room. The story of the "in-line midnight skaters" swooping up down our wonderful hills was quite a ride indeed. Also, the story of a Golden Gate Bridge Jumper, who survivded was quite moving. This book is a must for locals who think they know all that goes on in their City.

Yikes! What were the Boys in Brussels thinking?!

Bravo, Mr. Middleton!

NIck Middleton as usual delivers the goods. He carries on where he left off delivering a humorous account of the current EEC. His political and economic insight to the region is witty and informative, but as usual he writes with a subtle sarcasm, never shying away from providing the reader with an informative view of the European continent. I would also thoroughly recommend trying to get hold of his earlier work "Last Disco in Outer Mongolia".

Is there anyone who has traveled in Thibet in our days and
reached that famous place in Amdo and has seen the tree
with the letters on the leaves?

I got this book because I was researching central Asia, and then didn't read it for a couple of years. When I finally did, I couldn't put it down. This is a true account by two French priests who travelled by camel and horse, first to Mongolia and then to Tibet in the 1840s. What they saw and did is fabulously interesting, but the joy of this book is that it's wonderfully written. Huc, who actually wrote it, is a kind of 19th Century Paul Theroux, but without the sour attitude. This book is a great read

Stuart Anderson's Travels With Anne kept me smiling knowingly all the way through.He describes "interesting" people and unpleasant situations most of us have encountered in terms that make both the people and the situation funny, and therefore, bearable. Though most of the text has to do with the people and the unpredictable foibles of travel, the attention given to the actual locations leave you knowing that Anderson was deeply touched by those places--the Serengeti, Arctic, Denali, and more.

It's a lot more fun to endure the trials of someone elses trips than to experience them yourself. Laughing from start to finish makes the stories easy reading. Probably most of us have had our own unfortunate experiences while traveling, but it takes someone with the writing skill of Stuart Anderson to make them so vivid and hilarious. I wonder why anyone would go out of their way to make themselves so uncomfortable. At least I know where not to go on future trips.

I bought my copy of this book from George himself while on a fishing trip to George's son John's place in Canada. I bought one of the first copies after it was published and George was gracious enough to autograph it for me. Reading this book is a lot like listening to him in person reminisce about his extensive experience in the Canadian bush.

After reading George's book My son and I took a trip to Georges sons place on Ivanhoe Lake and had the most enjoyable experance ever. We had the experance of seeing some of the enviromental issues George discusses in his book as well as the enjoyment of experencing some of the best fishing ever.

I loved this book! Absolutely the *best* I've yet read for a more mature cruiser. Written by the author of Gentleman's Guide to Passages South, "Tricks of the Trade" is an amalgamation of the wisdom Van Sant has accumulated over the decades afloat. You see, so many of these boating books seem to be written for physically fit 30-something's with far more stamina than I have -- oft times I've felt overwhelmed by what seems the norm for these kids.

[Oh, I enjoyed Bill Bradley's book "On Board With Bradley" for liveaboard boaters that marina hop... that is a good book too.] However, "Tricks of the Trades" has earned a place aboard and has become a much used reference. Gosh, it's like having the captain sitting a spell and explain things to me, his willing to learn audience.

Bruce Van Sant is an older gent, and I find his insights invaluable as far as coping with my own declining physical strength and more -- heck if it's not falling apart, it's not mine! (laughs) His advice is practical, versus pie-in-the-sky high-$$ solutions that may work, or might break down and cause serious problems. His suggestion for anchor raising makes such clear-as-a-bell sense one wonders why it isn't standard advice... and for the record, I intend to be a two cuppa. (smile)

I suspect his theories on boat repair will become my own as well. His experiences rang true, and I think his methods will work for me. Practical advice -- I like it and agree with most of his conclusions regarding repairs.

The section on weather I still have not yet fully internalized. It's complicated -- not something I could read once and understand immediately. That's okay though, as I'm keeping my copy of this book.

I don't know that I agree 100% with his views mind you, but there is a lot of wisdom found within the pages of this book. I'd recommend purchasing -- and would go so far as to suggest you pay retail!

Tricks of the Trades: A definite keeper.

The author has a wonderfully informative and easy to read style. The book is packed with real golden nuggets of cruising / liveaboard information. Insights into human nature and societies and their application to a cruising lifestyle are unique and valuable.

Turkestan Reunion is a compendium of letters written by Eleanor Holgate Lattimore to her family while traveling on her over one year honeymoon trip in Siberia, Turkestan and the Karakorum. These letters are arranged according to their date having been written at approximately fifteen day intervals. Each letter is forewarded by a brief resume of the happenings and is heralded by a nice drawing, which I believe is by the Author. It could be called an epistolary travel book and this is not common among travel literature. This very characteristic lends the book its grace and appeal, that emerge strikingly after all these years (it was assembled in 1934 from the journey which took place in 1927-28).
Why a companion book? Eleanor Lattimore was Owen Lattimore's wife and her husband is famous among students of politics and of the Eastern civilizations for his many contributions to the knowledge of those little known countries in those times. Owen wrote his own books on their original wedding trip, the Desert Road to Turkestan and High Tartary, that are famous in their own right, and probably Eleanor's book is often picked up because its mentioned in these other works.
However even if it describes events that are already known, Eleanor's outlook on these same occasions is completely different and orginal. A woman's sensibility? Probably, a woman that possesed courage, curiosity, wasn't afraid of disconforts and was able to relate herself with empathy towards her travel companions and the people she met.
The endurance of the great disconfort of the couple's trip assumes in the Author's prose almost a sense of liberation from the material preoccupations of the civilized world to go back to the essentials of living: protection from cold and heat, food, rest, traveling necessities such as carts and horses, good company.
The first part of the book contains the description of the seventeen day travel through Siberia, that Eleanor accomplished alone, while the rest narrates the common path through Chinese Turkestan and the five Karakorum Passes. Much attentions is dedicated to the nomads encountered during the journey, the Qazaks the Qirghiz and others.
The book can truely be defined ethnographic because it is first hand description of a traveling experience accomplished with curiosity and the desire to learn. "One can understand a little of how difficult a province is to rule when one relizes that it still contains flotsam and jetsam remnants of every variety of people who have passed through or conquered the land as well as the scamps and villains who have run away from Chinese law", is an example of the deeply empathic outlook on her experiences.
Another aspect I particularly love in travel books is the "spirit of place", the ability to make the reader feel inside a different reality. Eleanor Lattimore's Turkestan Reunion truely evokes this feeling, more than Owen Lattimore's High Tartary which is more scholarly and detailed.
As David Lattimore, the couple's son, affirms in the Biographical Note at the end of the book Eleanor and Owen's journey and love story deserve to be remembered because of their uniqueness and the sense of adventure and youth they are still capable of conveying.

Turkestan Reunion is a collection of the letters written by Eleanor Lattimore to her family in the United States documenting her honeymoon travels from Beijing, through Siberia, into East Turkestan, and over the Karakorum mountains into British Kashmir.

The route Lattimore takes is epic and ranging, crossing everything from arid deserts, Siberian tundra, and towering mountains. Such a journey would make fascinating reading regardless, yet an even greater part of the intrigue and charm of this book comes from its authorship by a woman in time when even hardy, professional male adventurers sometimes couldn't endure similar conditions. Ms. Lattimore is truly a trailblazer, in the literal sense of trekking across routes tread by the feet of very few, but also in the sense that her adventures in the early part of the 20th century very clearly run contrary to what where then very strong and revered concepts of female domesticity. In 1927, the idea of a traveling, white woman was so foreign and novel that many officials and friends who hosted the Lattimores, European or otherwise, were sometimes at a loss in deciding what kind of arrangements should be made for Eleanor. Not only does Lattimore shatter "womanly domesticity" just by traveling, she also consciously chooses to travel in the most down-to-earth way, reaching for the most authentic experiences. Often she chooses horseback over carriage (when physically possible; the weather in Turkestan often did no permit), she voices preference for the rundown accommodations and authentic food of the locals rather than the plusher European lodging and food that sometimes was available.

Beyond the gender angle, Turkestan Reunion additionally presents a sort of ethnographic experience much less condescending to locals than many travel writings and exploration writings of the time. Lattimore's writing inevitably retains an element of colonial privilege, for example, in the repeated tendency to bestow comical Western names on their guides rather than learning their real names. However, relative to other writers of the time, and to other Westerners in general of the 1920s, the Lattimores display a unique willingness and even desire to commune with locals and acknowledge the hardships of their existence. Eleanor Lattimore with a keen eye documents everyday proceedings of everyday villagers; games among herdsmen, a witch-curing ceremony, marriage and divorce, the arbitration of disputes, these and others are documented in Lattimores casual yet elegant prose. As white travelers in a China still mired in a pseudo-colonized position relative to the rest, there still are many instances where the Lattimores are regaled by obsequious officials and conniving businessmen with banquets and galas, but while these celebrations often compose the bulk of 19th and early 20th century travel writing, Lattimore's book is balanced by the ground-up perspective she is willing to describe. As such, there is a pre-ethnographic element to Lattimore's writing that anticipates the academic enlightenment which led to the understanding that the lives of locals are worth documenting and should be observed from more than just a colonial-overlord perspective.

What drew me to this book was the simple premise of it all; even in our intrepid modern times, young and energetic newly weds are more likely to choose Cabo San Lucas or Paris to celebrate their honeymoon, yet Owen and Eleanor Lattimore chose the foreboding deserts and towering, ice-capped peaks of East Turkestan to celebrate their marriage, and at a time when traveling through such extreme environments was not as easy as buying a bus ticket or boarding an airplane. However, Eleanor Lattimore's simple and descriptive writing style exceeds the novelty of this underlying premise, anticipating a sort of feminist traveling philosophy and capturing an ethnographic ethic to observe, and therefore understand the peoples of the places they visited.