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Five Travel Books That Changed Me
These volumes sparked my muse — and my wanderlust
Travel writing is an odd duck. For a genre allegedly grounded in geography, it is difficult to pin down, neither here nor there. The term encompasses both the fluff piece about a beach resort and the spellbinding account of an Arctic expedition. Some critics insist it doesn’t exist at all. Travel writing is simply what happens when a writer travels. Perhaps. But there is no doubting the ability of a good writer to evoke a palpable sense of place. At its best, travel writing takes us there— and beyond. A good travel writer captures a place with the same depth and nuance with which a good biographer captures a person. Over the years, I’ve read hundreds of travel books, and learned from the best. Here are five of my favorites.
- A Fortune Teller Told Me by Tiziano Terzani
Warned by a Hong Kong fortune teller not to fly for a year, Terzani travels through Asia by boat, bus, car, train, foot and rickshaw. An unabashed romantic, he captures an Asia not-yet trampled by “crasser forms of Western modernity.” He also visits various fortune tellers, imbibing their prognostications with just the right balance of open-mindedness and skepticism. Terzani taught me that good travel writing involves the heart, as well as the head. This book, like its author, is all heart.
