Travel writing, as a topic of discourse, is usually not very soul searching. It's like writing about water, not very profound (unless your a scientist), yet it forms the backdrop for some of the greatest literature ever written. The story of Noah is after all about water, but it would be boring to discuss it as a "topic of water". Thus it is in this volume about travel, there is not much holding the pieces together other than the common theme of travel. So it comes down to if the individual pieces are entertaining or not in their own right, and there are some good ones.

My favorite pieces include the following: Aldous Huxley provides recommendations for the best type of book to bring along when traveling, suggesting an encyclopedia, since articles can be read from start to end in a single short sitting without need for an extended attention span. Thomas Jefferson provides sage advice on why it is best to stay at home and be happy within oneself and not seek external rewards. John Ruskin quotes "All traveling becomes dull in exact proportion to its rapidity." Alain de Botton observes that the mind thinks more freely and openly while traveling, at its optimum on a train. Clydia Williams gives a vivid account of train hopping in 1932 Texas as a seven year old.

Livy's account of Hannibal's crossing of the Alps with elephants is one of the most gripping, and famous, ever written. Jack Kerouac's excerpt from "On the Road" reads as an opening shot in the cultural revolution of post-WWII America. James Baldwin, a black man visiting a remote Swiss village, is a vision of contrast, switching the tables between the observer and the observed. David Foster Wallace's excerpt from "Shipping Out" is probably the best American travel writing of the 20th century. Likewise Suketu Mehta's excerpt from Maximum City is among the best global travel writing yet in the still new 21st century.

Of the four original essays I found two to be stand out. The first by Simon Winchester because of his graceful writing style, about the worlds most remote island Tristan da Cunha in the south Atlantic. The other by Pico Iyer which surveys some recent travel writing history and what the future could look like, namely travel writing unconcerned with nationalism. ( )