karalk - Are your stories fiction or non-fiction? The stories of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings are my favorite journey stories, but they are fantasy, and maybe that is not what you are aiming for?

Any fictional or fictionalised journey. (I believe there was some controversy about the long Walk and whether it was totally true or not.)

I think that my favorite would Bilbo's in The Hobbit. Sometimes, the journey seemed too long in the LOTR. Don't get me wrong I loved LOTR. Also, I liked Catherine's journey in The Eight. It was adventurous and exciting.

Add another Lord of the Rings fan to the favorite journey list. I'll also second Deborah's vote for The Eight. I've just started Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, but that is certainly shaping up to be an excellent journey story, as well.

Hawaii by James Michener
Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose (the Lewis & Clark expedition)

Frodo's journey is my all-time favorite - particularly the trip through Moria.

Jon Krakauker's Into Thin Air, about an epic journey up and down Mt. Everest, is my favorite non-fiction trip.

Well, I always did enjoy Jules Verne's journey based books : 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Around The World in 80 Days, and Journey To The Center of the Earth. I also quite enjoyed John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps.

I hate to sound like a Ditto Head :), but Bilbo's excellent adventure is really hard to beat.

I don't know how epic it was, but I found Pi's journey in Life of Pi truly intriquing.

English villages depicted in Laurie Lee's novels, as well as those in "Lark Rise to Candleford."

The rural French countryside of the 1890's, as portrayed in Alain Fournier's "the Wanderer" (aka Le Grand Meaulnes).

The woods of the far north of Scandinavia in Knut Hamsun's "Pan."

Medieval England in "Master Skylark" and "Adam of the Road."

Dynomutt, I've never read any Jules Verne so I think now's the time to start, probably with Around The World In 80 days.

siobhan....I've read Into Thin Air and loved it. But I didn't like Into The Wild. Can you recommend any others by him?

karalk --

Yes, that's a good one to start with! It kind of gives you some perspective as to how difficult travel was 150 or so years ago.... And it's not as fantastic (as in sci-fi) as his other books.

Oh what a fun idea! I can think of several. I love travel narratives, and I think the best one was Patrick Fehmors memoir of his trip from Amsterdam to Istanbul, in the mid 30s. Not only is his adventure intriguing, filled with historical, geographical, and trivia bits, but it describes a world that was changed irrevocably in just a few years time.

Thinking fiction - Oh, its not Lord of the Rings, but its another fantasy novel. Give me a moment or three. I can see some of the scenes in my head, all I need to do is find the book on the shelf.

Got it - Time Ships, by Stephen Baxter. He starts where HG Well's Time Machine ends and oh what a journey, through time and back, between universes, and around the galaxy.

karalk, Krakauer also wrote a book about the Mormon religion, Banners of Faith I think its called. Whether its good or not probably depends more on your point of view than does his writing, but you might want to check it out.

Thanks, Cindy, Time Ships sounds fascinating, I'll order it today.

The Canterbury Tales

I'll be interested what you think karalk. Just be forewarned he does get a bit convuluted sometimes, but in the end its worth it.

Cindy, you must be thinking of Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts about his journey through pre-war Europe, beautifully written.

Has anyone tried the work of Wilfred Thesiger? An eccentric Englishman, he travelled widely in Arabia/Abyssinia and wrote The Marsh Arabs, Across the Empty Quarter and others, about areas of the world now wrecked by wars, starvation and 'modernity'.

How about the books by Thor Heyerdahl and his journeys with the purpose to 'prove' his theories about the early movements of people . . . Kon-Tiki the Ra Expedition etc?

I don't think I've read about any fictitious journeys, the real ones are quite exciting enough for me. :-)

Cindy, and other travellers, especially the book-bound variety (as I am) although written a few years ago, you might enjoy the article below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Patrick Leigh Fermor