Reading about a destination beforehand works out fine for me. However, carrying a novel about the place on the trip doesn't go well! I went with my family to China, and my sister-in-law brought an Amy Tan novel. She could not finish it and nobody else wanted to read it either. I brought IN THIN AIR (about a disastrous trek up Mount Everest) and it was very popular and borrowed by one and all. It was brutally hot in China since we were there in July, so there was something very attractive about reading the story of folks freezing to death.

Brenda

Are you referring to non fiction or fiction? My pretravel reading is usually travel guides, travel narratives or internet info. I find that if I try to read a novel about the place first, there isn't enough background for me. For example I am trying to read Where the River Narrows, a novel about early Quebec, which is where we are going now. Something tells me this will be much more interesting either during or after the trip.

However - coming home, or while I'm there, I read everything I can about the place. When I was in England I discovered Thomas Costain, Antonia Fraser, Laurie Lee, Patrick Fehmoor, and others. After our trip to Italy I devoured Sixteen Pleasures (what a joy to rediscover Florence) and Mary McCarthy's Stones of Florence and Venice Observed. France brought me to Paris to the Moon and another wonder of Paris 'Piano Shop on the Left Bank'. Reading them afterwards gives me much to bring to the books.

However, one of my favorite nonfiction genre is travel writing, and anything about Turkey, Greece, China, India, Spain and others I swallow whole, knowing that some day I'll get there and enjoy the re-reads.

I like history and biography best myself but also enjoy good novels or other fiction set in the area I'm going to--or have been. For Hawaii, I had fun with a mystery called The House Without a Key. Written in 1925, it is the first of the Charlie Chan books. Sort of like Agatha Christie visits Hawaii--great period setting. There's now a bar right on the beach named after the book.

I always read guide books about the countries I intend to visit. Other background reading is usually some history and articles in magazines like National Geographic, rather than travel memoirs.

Travel memoirs have been the cause of my wanting to visit places, and I love reading them afterwards because they always bring back memories of my own travels. I love reading about the country I'm visiting - for example, it was fascinating to travel through India while reading about the colonial past and seeing how much things had changed.

I read travel guides and frequent an internet travel forum, but I enjoy reading novels set in the place both before and after trips but not during them. For filling in spare time and plane rides, I take popcorn reading; e.g., mysteries of no intellectual merit.

Before I travel, I'll read travel guides to help plan the trip.

Which travel guides do you all use? I tend to go a little nuts before a trip and will frantically dip into Rick Steves, Fodors, and Lonely Planet. We also usually use off the beaten track type B & B books.
The green Michelins have loads of material, but I wish they weren't so bloody boring! I like a human voice to my guidebooks.
What I really love are books that tell me when and where the local farmers' markets are.
I love to read travel memoirs AFTER I've come back from someplace.
1. Reading them before might shape my experince too much.
2. Reading them afterwards seems to add to the experience I had.

I read guidebooks of all types, and also good fiction set in the country or place. The guidebooks definitely before, the fiction before and after. I always look at the guides and on the internet which contain a surprisingly large amount of information for free. I also make sure I look for the best English language bookstores and try to visit and browse in hopes of finding something I can't get at home. Right now I am preparing for Madrid in May, which is business that I plan to combine with pleasure, and southern Ireland around Cork City in October, which is where my DH and I lived for three years and have not visited since 1990.

"Lets Go" used to be my book of choice when I was a poor college student/teacher. We now like to use the eyewitness series to give us a good idea of what we really want to see. Then I'll go to Frommer's. However, this will probably all change. The last few trips we've take have been totally planned via internet, and this last one to Quebec and Ontario will be the same. I am thinking that the way I'll use a print guide will be something that fits into my shoulder bag to refer to on my trip, not nec for planning purposes.

I love the Eyewitness guides for their beauty, breakdown by neighborhoods, and self-guided walks; but they don't have a lot on hotels and restaurants. I like Fodors on the internet and Frommers printed guides.

Sometimes there are guidebooks specific to a place, such as the "Revealed" series I used for the different islands of Hawaii. I like both guidebooks and the internet. First, I read a general guidebook and circle everything that interests me. Then I search the appropriate websites to winnow down my list--which is always too long.

Toad_ca, I usually check and see what's available in the library. As I rarely explore the whole country I'm visiting, I don't see much point in buying a guide book, but I do make a travel dossier with important information like opening and closing times, holidays, food to try, and so on, and a list of places I want to visit. Then, when I get there, there are usually plenty of free maps and brochures available, sometimes about interesting places not mentioned in any guide book.

As to guides in general, I have found that when you use them to get ideas and suggestions and don't let them dominate you, they are fine. When I was in India I met some people who so slavishly followed the Lonely Planet guide that they never ate or slept in any place unless it was mentioned in the guide, and they never went anywhere unless the guide mentioned the place. It gave me the creeps and I swore I would never allow myself to get like that.

carolyn I agree with you about Eyewitness. We usually get it from the library and use it to decide where we want to go. But yeah, anything else you need to know you need to get elsewhere.

>When I was in India I met some people who so slavishly followed the Lonely Planet guide that they never ate or slept in any place unless it was mentioned in the guide, and they never went anywhere unless the guide mentioned the place.

What part of the word 'guide' did these people not get. Guide you, not force you for heavens sakes. But then that something my mom would have done. Some people need that security and structure - and if they don't want to do a tour, thats probably the next best thing. But yeah, that would drive me up a tree.