I am a constant reader, and I’d bet you are too. Forgetting about magazines, journals and newspapers for the moment, I always have two or three books "going." And one of my favorite reading subjects is travel, especially the classics of travel literature, some of which were written a century or more ago.
So with the hope that you’ll tell me about some of your favorites, I’m going to list ten of mine in the Travel Literature genre. In future blogs, I’ll get into travel guides, travel cookbooks and other travel miscellany. But for now, here are some books to enjoy on a summer beach, or at the lodge apres ski, or while zipping through the Hungarian countryside on the Orient Express.
- The Plumed Serpent by D.H. Lawrence - A classic of Mexico, its culture and its myths.
- The Light Garden of the Angel King by Peter Levi - Journeys in Afghanistan, the crossroads of ancient commerce.
- Italian Hours by Henry James - Essays by an English prose master and enchanted Italophile.
- Montaigne's Travel Journal - A 16th century account of traveling by coach from northern France to Rome.
- Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk - A contemporary account of one of the world's great cities by one of its greates writers.
- Prospero's Cell and Reflections On A Marine Venus by Lawrence Durrell - Portraits of the Greek Islands of Corfu and Rhodes.
- Maximum City by Suketu Mehta - A Bombay writer's love-hate relationship with his incredible city.
- Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West - Impressions of Yugoslavia and the sources of the politics of today's Balkans.
- Fabled Shore by Rose Macaulay - A single woman's exploration from the Pyrenees to Portugal within sight of the sea.
- A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor - A walking journey up the Rhine and down the Danube in the year Hitler came to power.
Please tell me some of your favorites; I might have missed them.
Paula "Constant Reader" Gifford