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‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho
This story, dazzling in its simplicity and wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an Alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way but what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a meditation on the treasures found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is art eternal testament to the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.
‘The Rings of Saturn’ by W.G. Sebald
"The book is like a dream you want to last forever" - Roberta Silman, The New York Times Book Review
The Rings of Saturn―with its curious archive of photographs―records a walking tour of the eastern coast of England. A few of the things which cross the path and mind of its narrator (who both is and is not Sebald) are lonely eccentrics, Sir Thomas Browne’s skull, a matchstick model of the Temple of Jerusalem, recession-hit seaside towns, wooded hills, Joseph Conrad, Rembrandt’s "Anatomy Lesson," the natural history of the herring, the massive bombings of WWII, the dowager Empress Tzu Hsi, and the silk industry in Norwich.
‘Travels With a Donkey in the Cévennes and other Travel Writings’ by Robert Louis Stevenson
Temperament and poor health motivated Robert Louis Stevenson (Scottish novelist and travel writer, most noted for ‘Treasure Island,’ ‘Kidnapped,’ and ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’) to travel widely throughout his short life. This collection presents some of his finest travel writing, starting with ‘An Inland Voyage.’ This 1878 chronicle of a canoe journey through Belgium and France charmingly captures the European villages and townspeople of a bygone era. Other selections include ‘Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes,’ a humorous account of a mountain trek, and ‘Forest Notes,’ a meditation on nature based on visits to the Forest of Fontainebleau near Paris and adjacent artists' colonies. These early writings offer captivating insights into Stevenson's bohemian nature and the wanderlust that sent him from his native Scotland to journeys around the world.
‘A Moveable Feast’ (Lonely Planet), edited by Don George
From bat on the island of Fais, chicken on a Russian train, and barbecue in the American heartland to mutton in Mongolia, couscous in Morocco, and tacos in Tijuana - on the road, food nourishes us not only physically, but intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually too. It can be a gift that enables a traveller to survive, a doorway into the heart of a tribe, or a thread that weaves an indelible tie; it can be awful or ambrosial - and sometimes both at the same time. Celebrate the riches and revelations of food with this 38-course feast of true tales set around the world. ‘A Moveable Feast’ features stories by Anthony Bourdain, Andrew Zimmern, Mark Kurlansky, Matt Preston, Simon Winchester, Stefan Gates, David Lebovitz, Matthew Fort, Tim Cahill, Jan Morris and Pico Iyer, edited by Don George.
‘Shantaram’ by Gregory David Roberts
"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured."
So begins this epic, mesmerizing first novel set in the underworld of contemporary Bombay. ‘Shantaram’ is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can disappear. Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter Bombay's hidden society to seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere. Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas, this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart.
‘The Art of Travel’ by Alain de Botton
Aside from love, few activities seem to promise us as much happiness as going traveling: taking off for somewhere else, somewhere far from home, a place with more interesting weather, customs, and landscapes. But although we are inundated with advice on where to travel, few people seem to talk about why we should go and how we can become more fulfilled by doing so. In ‘The Art of Travel,’ essayist Alain de Botton reflects on the philosophical dimensions of travel: he sees travel as a reflection of the human search for happiness and wonders how and why people should travel, not merely where.
The Caliph’s House: A Year in Casablanca’ by Tahir Shah
Inspired by the Moroccan vacations of his childhood, Tahir Shah dreamed of making a home in that astonishing country. At age thirty-six he got his chance. Investing what money he and his wife, Rachana, had, Tahir packed up his growing family and bought Dar Khalifa, a crumbling ruin of a mansion by the sea in Casablanca that once belonged to the city’s caliph, or spiritual leader. With its lush grounds, cool, secluded courtyards, and relaxed pace, life at Dar Khalifa seems sure to fulfill Tahir’s fantasy–until he discovers that in many ways he is farther from home than he imagined. For in Morocco an empty house is thought to attract jinns, invisible spirits unique to the Islamic world. Endlessly enthralling, ‘The Caliph’s House’ charts a year in the life of one family who takes a tremendous gamble.
‘On the Road’ by Jack Kerouac
Sal Paradise, a young innocent, joins his hero Dean Moriarty, a traveller and mystic, the living epitome of beat, on a breathless, exuberant ride back and forth across the United States. Their hedonistic search for release or fulfilment through drink, sex, drugs, and jazz becomes an exploration of personal freedom, a test of the limits of the American dream. A brilliant blend of fiction and autobiography, Jack Kerouac's exhilarating novel swings to the rhythms of 1950s underground America, racing towards the sunset with unforgettable exuberance, poignancy, and autobiographical passion. One of the most influential and important novels of the 20th century, ‘On the Road’ is the book that launched the beat generation and remains the bible of that literary movement.
‘In A Sunburned Country’ by Bill Bryson (or anything by Bill Bryson!)
Bill Bryson’s previous excursion along the Appalachian Trail resulted in the sublime national bestseller ‘A Walk in the Woods.’ ‘A Sunburned Country’ is his report on what he found in an entirely different place: Australia, the country that doubles as a continent, and a place with the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife to be found on the planet. The result is a deliciously funny, fact-filled, and adventurous performance by a writer who combines humour, wonder, and unflagging curiosity. Australia is an immense and fortunate land, and it has found in Bill Bryson its perfect guide.
‘Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to The World of Food and the People Who Cook’ by Anthony Bourdain
Tracking his own strange and unexpected voyage from journeyman cook to globe-travelling professional eater and drinker, Anthony Bourdain compares and contrasts what he's seen and what he's seeing, pausing along the way for a series of confessions, rants, investigations, and interrogations of some of the most controversial figures in food. And always he returns to the question: 'Why cook?' Or the harder one to answer: 'Why cook well?' Beginning with a secret and highly illegal after-hours gathering of powerful chefs, which he compares to a mafia summit, Bourdain, in his distinctive, no holds barred style, cuts to the bone on every subject he tackles.
‘Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road’ by Kate Harris
As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she craved—to be an explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and metaphysician—had gone extinct. From what she could tell of the world from small-town Ontario, the likes of Marco Polo and Magellan had mapped the whole earth; there was nothing left to be discovered. Looking beyond this planet, she decided to become a scientist and go to Mars. In between studying at Oxford and MIT, Harris set off by bicycle down the fabled Silk Road with her childhood friend Mel. Pedalling mile upon mile in some of the remotest places on earth, she realized that an explorer, in any day and age, is the kind of person who refuses to live between the lines.
‘The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon’ by David Grann
In 1925, the legendary British explorer Percy Fawcett ventured into the Amazon jungle in search of a fabled civilization. He never returned. Over the years countless perished trying to find evidence of his party and the place he called “The Lost City of Z.” In this masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, journalist David Grann interweaves the spellbinding stories of Fawcett’s quest for “Z” and his own journey into the deadly jungle, as he unravels the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century.
