I think this is a terrific idea and my only problem will be narrowing down my choices. Right now my choice would be one of David Yeadon's books - he is a travel writer who chooses a somewhat remote place and lives there for a year. Or maybe one of my many mountaineering books or maybe Arctic/Anarctic exploration. But I can't forget my adopted state of Maine, which has inspired many, many, many books and which I would like to share.

How funny you posted this, as I've just finished Colin Thubron's To A Mountain in Tibet. He writes with studied elegance about his journey to Mount Kailash, the holy mountain that has never been climbed but that thousands of Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains circumambulate every year.

Thubron is on his own pilgrammage to try and assuasge his grief, having lost his mother, the last of his family. Most of the book is about getting to Kailash, the villages he stops at along the way, the mountainous terrain, the plight of the people who are finding it more and more difficult to eke out a living in the region. The last few chapters are about his trek around the mountain and the beliefs and practices of the monastics who live in the area and his fellow pilgrims.

I love books on this region of India, China and Tibet, and Thubron did not disappoint, but it has more of a sorrowful, introspective tone than the usual travel book. I've never read any of Thubron's other books so I can't say if it's his typical style. He gives lots of interesting information and tidbits about history, culture and religion, but he's also a bit lost and in the end you feel that although the trip was a distraction for him, it hasn't really helped him come to terms with his grief or sense of aloneness. He's described a journey to a strange, alien land, but come home disappointed and with no more answers than when he started.

A YEAR IN BASILICATA by Yeardon was one of my very favorites.

I just picked up for a few pence a copy of Colin Thubron's In Siberia. I can't claim any special interest in that cold and remote part of the world although I have read a couple of travel writer Dervla Murphy's books on that region. It seems that because of its geography, political considerations and climate everyone visiting has had to use the railway system.
I'll report back later if this is true of Thubron and his adventures.

Coolio. So it looks like a few of us are interested in this.

As I mentioned, nothing official or formal. Would it be better to have a deadline sort of thing or just have this be an ongoing thread?

In my mind, I was thinking that this would be a deadline, but happy to go with the GroupThink.

I have about 15 travelogues in my TBR stack to choose from and would gladly participate.

How about having an informal deadline at first where each of us chooses a book to review, say before the end of September (or whenever), and then we could turn it into an ongoing thread with reviews of travel books?

I think that is a good idea, I can be ready anytime.

liz, I think Netla's idea is a good one and saves everyone having to read the same book.
As you mention it is not always easy to define 'travel', but I would think most of us would rather do more than read "It was Tuesday so I visited the Parthenon/Vatican City/Great Wall of China" and try and find a book/s that went into greater depths about a country, region, peoples, customs . . .whatever.
Do you remember that Betty MacDonald said she grew weak with excitement when she first returned to city-living from her remote egg-ranch? I'm rather like that. As someone who has preserved her carbon-footprint for far too many years and almost needs a valium to visit our local one-horse-town (DH enjoys a very quiet life) I enjoy reading about the where what and when in other parts if the world. ;-)

Me too, Vee, me too.

OK. How about this: we each read a travel book (any type, any title, any country/region), and then on or around Sept 15, we reconvene with said title and book review, and then see what evolves?

Any other ideas or suggestions?

Just a little reminder that Thurs Sept 15 is when we said we would have our reviews of travel books....

I have been reading some really interesting ones... Hope you have as well!

Oh, I didn't read this until today... I have quite a few travel books on my shelves, but will not have time to read any by the deadline, but still would like to report eventually when I read one.

Vee,
I used to go to Vashon Island for work quite regularly until last year (I still go now and then), where Betty McDonald lived when she wrote The Egg and I. She is not that famous here, I don't think a lot of locals read her book anymore. I haven't read them, though at some point I'd like to.

Okay, I have to bring up that old thread we had about Betty McDonald - anyone else remember it? It turned into a kind of real-life psychotic thriller.

I seem to remember that her portrayal of the locals was not very complimentary, although I read them very, very long ago.

reader/siobhan, Betty MacDonald's books have been one of my guilty pleasures since I read a Readers Digest version of Onions in the Stew about 40 years ago while on a cold wet holiday in the Shetland Isles.
I well remember that B MacD RP thread and being mesmerised by the vitriol that it caused, led by a bunch of trolls who were running a so-called website dedicated to her work . . . but were in fact out to make money. It became unwise to mention her name for several years and the only way round it was to say a well-known humorous writer from the Pacific North West
There is now an honest group 'Friends of B MacD' who run a site about her work/family etc.

RIT -

Not to worry. I am hoping this will be an on-going thread, so it's not a big deal if you can't read your book(s) by Wed...

Just add your review when you're ready!

:-)

So, it's the fifteenth so it's time to share our travel reads. ("Sharing is caring," after all, say the Care Bears.)

* America's Best Travel Writing - 2000 edition - edited by Bill Bryson

The early debut edition of the best-selling "America's Best" Series, this volume of writing travels the world from being kidnapped in Uganda to searching for the next in line to the Dalai Llama to hitch-hiking in Cuba to delivering water in Northern Australia. The selection, chosen by Bill Bryson (who I usually adore) covered the gamut from serious to funny (but nothing completely hilarious like Peter Hessler's writing in a later edition). Most of the writing was from 1999 (since this was published in 2000), and was from mostly magazines (although a blog would pop up every now and then).
One thing that struck me was that 90% of the authors were male which I found a bit irritating. What? You could only find three articles penned by women that were considered worthy? Really??
But apart from that, the writing was strong and the articles were enjoyable. It's highly unlikely that I would ever get to travel to Tibet as one of the writers did, or risk my life to stay the night in Central Park (as another person did). But I did get to experience quite closely through the first-person writing of these essays (or articles?).
As the introduction by series editor Jason Wilson writes, "Having a travel writer report on particular things, small things, the specific ways in which people act and interact, is perhaps our best way of getting beyond the clichis that we tell each other about different places and cultures, and about ourselves."
A very fun way to get exposed to different experiences in different cultures and ideal for the armchair traveler.

* Monique and the Mango Rains - Kris Holloway
This was a good fast read for me. It is a memoir detailing the friendship that develops between a young idealist Peace Corps volunteer and a village midwife in Mail (a country in West Africa), a place where childbirth had a high mortality rate.
What I thought really made this strong was that the author (the Peace Corp volunteer) has written it in a sensitive way so that Monique comes across as the expert (which she is) instead of the Great White Colonial Person here to save the day. Obviously, both people have a lot to learn from each other, but I really appreciated the tenderness that the author feels for her friends in the African village.
The story takes place over the two years that Kris Holloway and boyfriend John spent as volunteers with the Peace Corps in a smallish village that is miles out in the African bush, and as I read the descriptions of where they lived and what they ate and their day-to-day encounters, it was clear that you would have to be a special kind of person to live in that environment. (I am not one of them. I like all the modern conveniences, I am afraid. Plus I I am bit picky about food. )
Monique is a specially trained health...

I Loved This Work - I Have Been Delightfully Busy

An autobiography of John T. Crowell, recorded by Captain Jim Sharp, compiled and edited by Spencer Apollonio

One of the more unusual things about where I live in mid-coast Maine is the number of truly accomplished and unique people that live here. One of these was Jack Crowell, a remarkable man who devoted his life to exploration of the Arctic and Antarctic, a man who spent fifty years of his life at sea. I cannot even begin to recount his adventures. But more than this, his life (1898-1987) spanned a period of great transition at sea and in the Arctic. He dropped out of school at 16 to train on commercial sailing ships and ended his career on powerful icebreakers. I don't even know where to start talking about his experiences and adventures. Some are amusing, some hilarious, some of the most extreme seriousness. The book preserves his own voice, but in the form of his own written accounts and in recorded conversations.

In reading this book, I wonder how many man and women have made significant contributions to their professions but never receive recognition and whose stories are lost in history. Luckily Crowell's story has been preserved.

Spencer Apollonio, who edited this book, is a local legend - an Arctic explorer in his own right. I attended a lecture of his last winter and viewed his pictures from 25 years of exploration - amazing. I am glad this thread has given me a chance to bring some small attention to these fascinating people with more energy in their little fingers than I have in my whole body.

I *adore* books about unsung heroes (or even really normal people) who have a good story but it's unheard most of the time. Thanks for the title - I will see if I find it somewhere. I love Arctic exploring.

Here is a website I frequent about the nice ordinary lives of nice ordinary humans in Spitalfields, a district in London. I always believe that "everyone has a story", and it seems this blogger does as well. Fascinating.

Here is a link that might be useful: Spitalfields Life

The HORROR, THE HORROR...that woman with the fan club, or cult or whatever it was.
The Betty McDonald thread. The Egg or something or other...
Have never ever picked up one of her books because of that. Sort of sad. Nothing you can say will ever change my mind. :P

I spent a month in Africa and two weeks in Egypt last year. My mom had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer but insisted that I still go on this trip I had been planning for years. So I took a small laptop with me and every day wrote to her about what I was doing, the people I had met. Whenever I was able to access the internet I sent off the latest parts of the journal, and my husband uploaded pictures as well. It ended up being about 25,000 words in total -- was really funny. My daughter said the first thing my mom would do every day would be to check for email from me, and would laugh and laugh. She would then write back, with her own insights and what was happening around home.
Mom died in April, and I miss her terribly. For a Christmas present I am going to make a book of that journal, dedicate it to her, with pictures and all of her email comments, to be given to each member of my family.

If any of you have other travel books on Africa, plz post them. My daughter is now in med school and spent the summer in western Kenya, volunteering at a community health clinic. Not on the tourist route, she had an amazing time and wants to go back after she graduates.

Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain is the classic travel narrative of American literature. This look at the Old World by a traveler from the New is recommended reading for everyone with an interest in travel and the globe at large. Politically incorrect, of course, as it was written more than 100 years ago, but laugh outloud funny. If you've ever been on a group tour, this book is for you.

From an Amazon review: "Mark Twain acclaims his voyage from New York City to Europe and the Holy Land in June 1867. His adventures produced The Innocents Abroad, a book so funny and provocative it made him an international star for the rest of his life. He was making his first responses to the Old World - to Paris, Milan, Florence, Venice, Pompeii, Constantinople, Sebastopol, Balaklava, Damascus, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem. For the first time he was seeing the great paintings and sculptures of the Old Masters . He responded with wonder and amazement, but also with exasperation, irritation, disbelief. Above all he displayed the great energy of his humour, more explosive for us now than for his beguiled contemporaries."

Janalyn, my niece has also fallen in love with Africa and particularly Kenya. She works with missionary agencies and has been there several times. She even has a small girl at one of the orphanages she supports who is named for her.

Janalyn, I'm so sorry to hear about your mother. How wonderful that you were able to share your experiences with her. I'm sure she loved it. I'm sure your family will treasure the journal with the comments back and forth.

Rosefolly

Janalyn -

I am sorry to hear about your mum. I also had pancreatic cancer (stage 1) and was fortunate enough to have pancreatic cancer surgery (the Whipple). However, I know a lot of people don't have that chance so I am very grateful for that.

PC is tough, and so your mum must have been a tough cookie to make it through some of the treatments. Hope you have good memories of your mum. I love the idea of the Africa journal book...

Janalyn, I'm sorry to hear about the difficult time you have been going through recently.
A couple of books with an African theme and which I hope to read are both by Alexandra Fuller, brought up in Rhodesia by parents who were part of the dying days of 'Empire'.
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and just out, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness which describes her Mother's African childhood first in Kenya then Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and finally Zambia.

On the travel front I have recently finished In Siberia by Colin Thubron and in no way does it make me want to pack my thermals and iron-rations and trek in what seems the most inhospitable of lands.
Thubron uses train, bus and truck to travel mainly in the vast areas of the East of the region and I was grateful for the map provided which illustrates the huge distances involved.
He gives some history of the old Siberia; the place to which enemies of the Tzar and later the State were sent. He sees the remains of the gulags, the death camps, the terrible amounts of industrial pollution and meets many people still 'down-trodden' either by corruption or booze. Surprisingly, to me, many regret the passing of the Communist era as now jobs and money are in short supply, collective farming has collapsed and a sense of purpose has been lost. To some extent 'new' religions are filling the gap left by Communism, he meets shamen and Orthodox monks and their followers of mainly old women.
The fact that he is a Russian speaker helps as he can hold conversations with a wide range of 'natives' and try and make sense of their views, hopes and beliefs.