The best books about traveling around the world

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

From time immemorial, man has sought to explore new lands, to go where no man has gone before, to discover unexplored lands. Since then, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge, and in the modern world, probably, there are no more places left unexplored by man.

However, the craving for travel did not decrease because of this. After all, this is not only a way to know the world, to see the diversity of nature, to get acquainted with other cultures. During the journey, we delve into ourselves, begin to realize our personality and understand our soul, learn to listen to our heart. While traveling, we simultaneously join the vast outer world, get a sense of belonging to it and immerse ourselves in our inner world, gaining harmony.

Journey through the pages of books

Many of the travelers, having visited interesting places, then write the most exciting, most interesting books abouttravels, about their adventures, about what they saw in distant lands, about how the new environment and the people they met on the road influenced them. Reading such books, together with their authors and their heroes, you can be transported to a desert island or find yourself in a crowded noisy metropolis; plunging into the plot of the work with your head, you can feel the breath of the s alty sea breeze or hear the sound of the wheels of an approaching train, which is ready to take you to where you have not had time to go yet.

What kind of books about traveling around the world will definitely not leave you indifferent? Which of them will be the most exciting, believable and useful? Here are ten interesting travel books. According to readers, they are the best of all works ever written on this topic.

On the Road

One of the first in the ranking of interesting books about travel often becomes the novel by the American writer of the twentieth century Jack Kerouac "On the Road". This book was written by him back in 1951, but in Russia a separate edition of it appeared only by 1995 (before that, in 1960, it was published in three different parts).

This novel tells about the journey of two friends Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty through the United States of America and Mexico, which they made in the period from 1947 to 1950. It is worth noting that the author himself and his friend are hiding under fictitious names, and all the events described in the work are based on real events. Heroes visit New York, Chicago, SanFrancisco, Los Angeles, Hidalgo, Mexico City and other cities, and each of which is some important event. On the road, good and bad things happen to them, they meet friends and ill-wishers, find love and lose, quarrel, reconcile … Each of them finds his own way, his own way. And we are talking about the road of life.

Eat, pray, love

One of the most interesting books about world travel is a novel by American writer Elizabeth Gilbert, the full title of which is: "Eat, Pray, Love: One Year in the Life of a Woman Traveling Italy, India and Indonesia in Search of EVERYTHING ".

To be precise, this is not a novel at all, but a collection of Gilbert's memoirs, because she herself visited three such dissimilar countries and described her journey. The purpose of her trip is to find harmony, to find herself, because ordinary life has not pleased the heroine for a long time: a divorce from her husband, another unhappy love, a routine at work. The feeling of devastation and moral exhaustion made the young journalist set off.

The first country Elizabeth reached was Italy. Here she eats, and not just eats, but enjoys the local cuisine, trying new dishes. The next point of the journey to her is India, where the heroine prays - she achieves spiritual purity and strength. The last step on the path to harmony is Bali, on the island the girl finds love.

Closer to the classics. A cycle of novels by Jules Verne

Let's digress from modernbooks about traveling around the world and move on to classical literature, because they have created good works on this topic before. We are talking about the adventure cycle of Jules Verne's novels "Extraordinary Journeys", which includes more than ten works. All of them, of course, are worthy of the attention of readers. If you like books about traveling around the world, we recommend that you get to know Vern's work closer.

Around the World in Eighty Days

In the meantime, about one of the most successful novels from this cycle, according to most readers. Phileas Fogg, an extraordinary and charismatic Englishman, is the protagonist of the work. He argues that he will be able to circumnavigate the world in eighty days (recall, the action takes place in the nineteenth century, so the hero’s idea is simply reckless). However, together with his servant Jean Passepartout, overcoming dangers, participating in various alterations, Fogg still wins the bet. He managed to circumnavigate the globe from west to east in 79 days. The happy navigator, returning to his homeland, marries his beloved.

It is also interesting in this book that it describes in great detail the way of driving various modes of transport of the nineteenth century, from a sleigh with a sail to a schooner. So, after reading a book about traveling around the world, you can take a theoretical course as a navigator. It is a pity that these skills will not be useful in the modern world.

Travelers from Russia and their "One-storied America"

There are books about traveling the world andin Russian literature. One of the authors of such a work are Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov. The co-authors, together with their guides - the Adams spouses - traveled across the United States of America in the direction from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific and back. Travelers moved by car, their trip lasted about two months (end of 1935 - beginning of 1936).

Each of the essays is dedicated to a certain place, person or event. American natural beauties are vividly and colorfully described in them, the work tells in detail about the life of ordinary Americans, and the color of the life of the natives is also conveyed (the writers visited the village of the Indians). Also, readers from the pages of the book are introduced to the cult personalities of the States, including writer Ernest Hemingway, actress Bette Davis, and industrialist Henry Ford. Through the eyes of Ilf and Petrov, we see cities - both megacities like New York, and very small towns. From the book, we can even learn about how the meeting of the President of the United States of America with reporters in the White House is going on. By the way, thanks to the fact that Theodore Roosevelt, who was determined to rapprochement with the Soviet Union, held this position at that time, the authors of the essays moved so freely around the country.

The work made a splash, because Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov opened a new, unfamiliar world to the Soviet reader - America from the inside, they became in fact the Columbuses of American life. And despite the fact that the book describes only one country, it is still one of the most interesting books abouttrips according to reader reviews. Moreover, not only Russian ones, because the essays were translated into English, French, Spanish and other languages.

Journey with Charlie in search of America

Another wonderful work about a trip to America. This time it is already an American who is doing it with his dog Charlie. John Steinbeck writes about how he rediscovers his own country, gets to know it from new sides, tries to understand that there are real Americans.

It is interesting that Steinbeck undertook this trip on his truck, which the author jokingly named Rocinante after Don Quixote's horse, when death was already on his doorstep (the writer was seriously ill). Nevertheless, the book turned out to be very optimistic and has been inspiring many readers for decades.

"Shantaram" - a man of the world

"Shantaram" is largely an autobiographical novel by Gregory David Roberts, which tells about the life of a fugitive who hides in the Indian city of Bombay, where he gets acquainted with the life of completely different segments of the population from the poor from the slums to the elite of society. This book will be of interest not only to fans of travel stories, but also to fans of philosophy, because the worldview of the Indian nation is very clearly represented in the novel.

Simples Abroad

The next world travel book we recommend you read is Mark Twain'sborder . In this work, the author describes in detail in a joking manner with his characteristic humor his journey through Europe. This book has been popular among readers of the widest circle for more than one hundred and fifty years.

Three cups of tea

Another autobiographical book about how travel has changed lives. Greg Mortenson, the author of the novel, was the most ordinary resident of the United States - he worked as a medical officer, did not have his own housing, was poor … And his sister also died. But he did not despair, but decided to act - on the pages of the book, the author tells in detail about his ascent to one of the most dangerous peaks in the world.

Beach

Now let's move from the tops of the mountains to the sandy beach. After all, it is there, on the beach of a desert island, that the heroes of Alex Garland's book "The Beach" go in search of the promised land. At first it seems to them that a piece of paradise has been found - here they indulge in all the possible pleasures of life. What broke the idyll of the three travelers, you will find out if you read the book to the end.

On two wheels

Do you like to ride a bike? Just like David Byrne, who wrote the book "The whole world. Notes of a cyclist." On his iron horse, the author traveled almost the whole world: he visited Asia and Europe, the north and the south … And he described all his adventures in his work. In addition, you will meet the author's reflections on a variety of abstract topics on the pages of the book.

These were the ten best travel books around the world, but the list is not limited to them, so read andtravel more.