Travel Memoirs

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Travel Memoirs

1NineTiger
Dic 8, 2011, 10:17 am

I think of all the different types of travel books, I prefer travel memoir. Anyone else a fan?

MGP

2Seajack
Feb 15, 2012, 6:11 pm

How do you define that genre?

3torontoc
Feb 15, 2012, 6:20 pm

Hmm- description of a place along with personal anecdotes from the writer's life? The personal information is linked to the place- i.e. Paul Theroux's work.

4NineTiger
Feb 16, 2012, 8:32 am

3 Bingo :)

MGP

5DanMat
Modificato: Feb 16, 2012, 11:29 am

Yes, I don't mind a little editorial insight. Especially if it's a little older, a 18th and 19th century perspective written in 18th or 19th century prose.

6pmarshall
Feb 16, 2012, 2:18 pm

I am currently reading Back in 6 Years: A Journey Around the Planet Without Leaving the Surface by Tony Robinson-Smith. So far he has left his home hitched a drive to Dover aiming for Africa. He spent 5 months traveling in Africa and got to Brazil crewing on a small boat with a young family. All he knew about sailing was gained by reading books at the public library in Capetown. It was more luck than good management that got the boat to a safe port as the sailing skills of the two sailors on board were not good! Now I will follow him through South America and onwards.

7janglen
Mar 16, 2012, 2:12 am

I got hooked on travel memoirs by Dervla Murphy's books many years ago. More recently I really enjoyed Andrew Eame's Blue River, Black Sea about his journey along the Danube but haven't yet been able to lay my hands on anything else by him. Paul Theroux is always readable and informative though I sometimes wish he wasn't so grumpy...

8murraygunn
Mar 18, 2012, 2:57 am

Personally, I'm only interested in travel books that are written by people who've stayed long enough to understand the culture somewhat. I've yet to read Paul Theroux, but he's on my list...

9Seajack
Mar 21, 2012, 11:05 pm

I liked Eames' The 8.55 to Baghdad

10pmarshall
Modificato: Lug 4, 2012, 3:30 pm

> 8
If you want travel books by an author who stays for a while try The White Masai and its follow-up Back From Africa by Corinne Hofmann. Homann, Swiss, travels to Kenya with her boyfriend, catches a glimpse of a Mazi warrior and it is instant love, on her side at least. They marry and have a daughter. Back from Africa focuses on her return to life in Switzerland after four years in Kenya..

11mstrust
Mag 22, 2012, 3:21 pm

I'm reading A Land of Two Halves by Joe Bennett, an Englishman hitchhiking through his adopted home of New Zealand.

12Sandydog1
Lug 4, 2012, 2:29 pm

I'm a sucker for fluffy, smart-aleck, 3-star travel memoirs, but I just finished The Birdman and the Lap Dancer, and it was excellent. These stories (as the subtitle "Close Encounters with Strangers" suggests), are all about a diverse crowd of incredibly fascinating characters.

The title story was a wonderful study of the natural history of exotic dancers, "...you can't expect to mix money, men, naked women and alcohol and expect to have an easy time." It fell short on ornithology however. Through some shoddy note-taking or editing, the author mentions the main character's trip to Maine, in search of specialties like Colima Warbler and Harris' Hawk. Stick to the strippers, Mr. Hanson.

Many stories were predictable, but all were gems, from the nostagic "Life at the Grand Hotel", to the sad ghost story, "Three Nights on the Mountain".

Speaking of Ghosts, it was "The Ghost Wind" an underdog racing story, that brought a tear to my eye. 150 karoke-screaming cadets on the decrepit Indonesian tall ship beating Japan's "King of the Sea" in a wind-less race to LA. Great stuff. Great people.

13Sandydog1
Modificato: Ago 11, 2012, 10:35 am

I'm currently, very thoroughly enjoying, The Hard Way:, that is, the one by Mark Jenkins.

While pouring through the touchstones, I've noticed that he's written a few, now hasn't he?

14mreuther
Nov 17, 2012, 11:49 am

Hell. Any Bill Bryson book is worth reading. He's hilarious, but he also does his research to spill out interesting things about a subject.

15Sandydog1
Nov 17, 2012, 10:15 pm

>14 mreuther:

You speaketh the truth.

16mreuther
Nov 19, 2012, 9:06 am

"Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer can hardly be classified as a travel book, even if it takes the reader on an interesting adventure into Alaska with a young man who some felt had a death wish. But a great book, whatever genre you put it in. Come to think of it, I think Bill Bryson is more humor writer than travel author.

17JPerrier
Lug 15, 2015, 11:52 pm

Questo messaggio è stato segnalato da più utenti e non è quindi più visualizzato (mostra)
You might like Campervan Kama Sutra, a travel log about a trip around outback Australia.

18BillyDeCarlo
Modificato: Mag 13, 2022, 9:58 pm

Questo messaggio è stato cancellato dall'autore.

19BillyDeCarlo
Mag 13, 2022, 2:03 pm

Ugh, I just saw the Early Reviewers program on LT, and it looks like that's the way to do this. But I've missed the May batch and will be published already by the June one. So I hope my offer above is OK, otherwise moderator please remove.

20MarthaJeanne
Modificato: Mag 13, 2022, 3:18 pm

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