I’ve traveled the world as a correspondent for the New York Times and the Washington Post but I didn’t understand the importance of travel writing until I spent five years researching the global travel industry. I read countless travel guides and travel books to understand how they shape the way we see the world. That is when I understood that the critical importance of writers who rose above the fray and captured a country, its people, culture, and landscape in travelogues. Those books are transformative, giving depth and insights while popular guides do little more than provide lists of what to do, where to go, and how to follow the crowd. If you truly believe travel gives your life new meaning, then go with these classics.
I wrote...
Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism
By
Elizabeth Becker
What is my book about?
Overbooked is my investigation of the $8 trillion global tourism industry hiding behind the glamour pages of travel magazines. We all love to travel but we hate what comes with travel today: unmanageable crowds, litter, pollution, cookie-cutter destinations, and the damage to the planet.
I will show you how the industry is behind mass tourism’s assault on historic city neighborhoods, idyllic beaches, and wilderness. I take you to countries like China, France, Zambia, and Costa Rica. Some countries tame tourism to keep their cities and countryside beautiful and visitors feel welcome. By the end of the book, you’ll have a new vision of what it means to travel thoughtfully and how to avoid destroying the places we love. I’ll shift your viewpoint and reveal how this tourism juggernaut needs to be held accountable.
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The Books I Picked & Why
Coming Into the Country
By
John McPhee
Why this book?
John McPhee’s book about Alaska is a classic example of the finest travel writing. He plunges the reader into all of Alaska from the landscape of wilderness to the far-flung cities and villages, writing with a reporter’s precision and a novelist’s soul. This is the antithesis of a travel guide; there are no hotel or restaurant reservations, no recommendations for the best ocean kayaking. Instead, it is a masterpiece as revelatory about Alaska today as it was when written 45 years ago.
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Unfamiliar Fishes
By
Sarah Vowell
Why this book?
Unfamiliar Fishes, is one of my favorite contemporary examples of travel writing because it is funny. Vowell turns her travelogue about Hawaii into a full history told with a quirky sense of humor. Nothing escapes her wit – from the greed of the early Americans who took over the island to the tourists like her trying to discover it under the layers of manufactured culture. She ends up loving the place, of course, like all the best travel writers.
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Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia
By
Rebecca West
Why this book?
This is the second masterpiece on my list. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon is a timeless depiction of the Balkans that does not require an update even though it was originally published in 1941. West said her intention was “to show the past side by side with the present it created,” which she does by crafting vignettes like women gossiping while selling their vegetables at market that weave into a historical sweep – travel writing of the highest order. She captured the rich but clashing cultures of the Balkans so well that when war broke out in 1993 hers was the one book journalists read to understand the depth of the conflict.
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In Patagonia
By
Bruce Chatwin
Why this book?
In Patagonia is a full-on adventure tale about the southernmost tip of Argentina. Chatwin’s singular writing talents transform this travelogue into a literary masterpiece. He treks through former hide-outs of famous bandits, including Butch Cassidy, retrieves forgotten legends, and mixes in stories of Welsh immigrants. Published in 1977, In Patagonia is beloved by writers as well as travelers.
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Down Under: Travels in a Sunburned Country
By
Bill Bryson
Why this book?
Bill Bryson is one of today’s best travel writers with the sharpest sense of humor. He applies that wit and his curiosity to Australia in
Down Under: Travels in a Sunburned Country, helping us understand that continent-sized country, its wildlife, history, and desolate landscape without boring us one minute. Published eleven years ago, Bryson cast a naturalist eye at Australia’s dry outback, with a clear-eyed description of the dry, almost alien country that seems prescient in the age of the Climate Crisis.
