Armchair Travel

Another summer almost over & I've missed out on all the fun. I've traveled no farther afield than Santa Fe & never made it to Salsa Under the Stars or any of the other events I had planned.  The only way for me to recoup is to let others do the traveling for me! Here are some of my favorite literary adventurers, & some I've been considering:

• Stephen Fry: You don't want to miss Last Chance to See: Animals on the Verge of Extinction, the DVD of his travels with zoologist Mark Carwardine (a repeat of Mark's earlier travels with the late Douglas Adams, whose book is also available for checkout). If you are a diehard Fry fan, Stephen Fry in America is also worth a look.
• Mario Batali: Spain -A Culinary Road Trip is something I check out just to drool over.  The recipes!  The pictures!  If you can get hold of the DVD series (not in the library catalog), it's also pretty fun.
• Bill Bryson: How could you mention literary adventure with mentioning Bryson? In a Sunburned Country is about traveling Australia; A Walk in the Woods is the story of his Appalachian Trail adventures, & Notes from a Small Island discusses his England adventures.
• Chris Townsend: Crossing Arizona: A Solo Hike through the Sky Islands and Deserts of the Arizona Trail comes highly recommended by a co-worker.
• Jamie Zeppa: I had never heard of Bhutan before I read Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan, the story of Zeppa's life-altering time spent a a teacher there.
• Thor Heyerdahl: I lived in Norway as a child, so I have a special affection for this Norse explorer.  Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft is just one of his adventures.
• Tristan Jones: Another co-worker recommendation-I had never heard of this legendary sailor! Try Saga of a Wayward Sailor.
• Anthony Bourdain: I think Anthony Bourdain is the kind of guy people either love or hate.  If you love him, you've probably seen his No Reservations show (join him "on his journey that takes him to people and places far beyond the realm of food"), but I'm going to recommend it anyway.
• Nathaniel Stone: Author of On the Water: Discovering America in a Rowboat-Booklist Reviews called it "a real treat".
• Edward Abbey: not the author of this book, but the subject.  Jack Loeffler wrote Adventures with Ed: On the Road with Abbey, which is both a biography & a memoir of their times spent hiking & camping.
• Gary Paulsen: Beloved children's author takes "the motorcycle journey of a lifetime" in Zero to Sixty.
• John Steinbeck: His Travels with Charley: In Search of America is a classic of this genre.
• Rebecca Otowa: At Home in Japan: A Foreign Woman's Journey of Discovery came out last year & went immediately on my "to-be-read" list.
• Sarah Macdonald: I loved Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure! Australian Sarah spent 2 years in India with her then-boyfriend & learned to love it as she takes in lavish weddings, encounters with Bollywood stars, & a pilgrimage to the Kumbha Mela.
• Sarah Turnbull: The romantically inclined will surely fall for Almost French: Love & A New Life in Paris as hard as I did.
• Alexandra Fuller: Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is a gritty retelling of the author's childhood in Africa.
• Jen Lin-Liu: The story of how learning to cook in China enabled the author to embrace her cultural heritage is winningly told in Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey through China.
• Susan Orlean: From the author of The Orchid Thief (Meryl Streep portrayed her in Adaptation!) comes My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman who's Been Everywhere.
• Rachel DeWoskin: Executive with an American firm by day, DeWoskin  finds herself the unlikely star of a Chinese television soap opera in Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China.
• Lynette Chiang: Australians certainly are adventurous, by & large.  In The Handsomest Man in Cuba: An Escapade, this Australian bicycles across Cuba. The title is deceptive-sounds like it might be an episode of Sex & the City-but reviews describe it as "literate" [Library Journal] with "serious messages about politics & poverty" [Booklist Reviews].
• John Gimlette: I know you can't tell a book by its cover, & probably not by its title either, but every time I see At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig: Travels through Paraguay, I know I will have to read it someday.
• Tim Moore: Maybe John Gimlette & Tim Moore should travel together-sounds like they might have some things in common? Travels with My Donkey: One Man and His Ass on a Pilgrimage to Santiago is the story of Moore's "picaresque and picturesque walk across northern Spain" [Kirkus Reviews].

If you're recovering from all your beach reading this summer, never fear.  You can still travel the stars at Bubonicon or around the globe at a Destination Dinner at the Biopark. & the Local IQ has suggested "50 Things to Do Before the Sun Sets on Summer"!