10 Favorite Travel Books
I’m reading Sahara Unveiled: A Journey Across the Desert by William Langewiesche. My reading is inching forward across a land the size of the United States a chapter a day – and taking notes like I do when I travel by vehicle and foot.
It’s the way this 81-year-old non-wandering wanderer living on Covid time is mollifying her wanderlust – and constantly thanking the universe for travel writers and their books.
Michelle Morano says that when we travel, our powers of observation are unmoored from everyday and we pay keener attention to things around us.
I’m following Langwiesche’s journey using the map at the book’s beginning. So far, I’ve only traveled from Algiers to Ouargla, savoring every mile. As Ursula K. Le Guin said, “It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters.”
My love of travel books was quite evident when I recently read a list of the best 100. I had read 82 of them — and am trying to find the remaining 18, most of which are out of date.
And I added a new one to that wanted list, Sand, Wind and War: Memories of a Desert Explorer, while reading Sahara Unveiled. Lanhwiesche mentioned the author, Ralph A. Bagnold, who studied sand “grain by grain.” I looked up Bagnold online to learn more about him, and found his story fascinating.
Meanwhile, here are 10 of my favorite travel books
Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon. An early model for my own travels.
Road Fever by Tim Cahill. He makes me laugh, and I thrill at his adventures.
I Married Adventure by Osa Johnson. The first travel book I read. I was 10 years old.
The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen. Serious nature writing.
Travels with Charley, by John Steinbeck. Another model for my own travels.
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. One of my very favorite, irreverent, authors. I also consider his The Monkey Wrench Gang a travel book.
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. Lots of hiking while laughing.
The Man Who Walked Through Time by Collin Fletcher. A serious backpacker’s journey down the Grand Canyon.
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. Great, inspiring story.
Travels with Maggie by Pat Bean. Well, it is one of my favorite travel books. And I dedicated it to all of the great travel writers who inspired me.
Perhaps you would like to share some of your favorite travel books? The wanderlust in me is itching to know.
Pat Bean is a retired journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is a wondering-wanderer, avid reader, enthusiastic birder, Lonely Planet Community Pathfinder, Story Circle Network board member, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining.
Pat Bean's blog 
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