Books that have inspired you to travel?
 

I'm curious to know if there are any books that you've read that has inspired you to travel. I have some time off this summer and need to keep the wanderlust alive. Looking for suggestions. Some of my favorites are:

The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
Jupiter's Travels by Ted Simon
Long Way Around by Charlie and Ewan
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
Into the Woods by Bill Bryson
Into the Wild by John Krakauer
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (started but lost interest. Maybe try again this year)
The Places In Between by Rory Stewart
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne


Anyway, any suggestions?


Suggested Reading...[edited]

One Man Caravan by Robert Edison Fulton, Jr.
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee
Robert Byron - The Road to Oxiana (personal favourite)
Eric Newby - A Short Walk In The Hindukush
Wilfred Thesiger - Arabian Sands
Colin Thubron - Among The Russians / Lost Heart Of Asia
Travels of Ibn Batutah
Michael Palin - Around The World In 80 Days / Pole To Pole
Peter Hopkirk - The Great Game
Mungo Park - Travels To The Interior Of Africa
Mondo Enduro by Austin Vince
Terra Circa by Austin Vince
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
The Alexandria Quartet by Laurence Durrell
Among the Mountains, Travels through Asia by Wilfred Thesiger
Sailing Alone Around the World / Spray by Joshua Slocum
Good Vibrations - Coast to Coast by Harley by Tom Cunliffe
Backblocks America by Jo and Gareth Morgan
Under Asian Skies by Sam Manicom
Around the World in Wanderer III by Eric C Hiscock
Author Colin Thubron
Author Dan Walsh
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome
Seven Ages of Paris - by Alistair Horne
Elseph Beard - Lone Rider

"One Man Caravan" by Robert Edison Fulton, Jr.

https://www.amazon.com/One-Caravan-I.../dp/1884313051

"This adventurous work records Robert Edison Fulton's solo round-the-world tour on a two-cylinder Douglas motorcycle between July, 1932 and December, 1933. First published in 1937."

An absolutely amazing story. Well worth reading. After being out of print for decades, it was recently re-published with some additional photos. I can't recommend it enough.

In fact, I haven't read it in about 20 years, and I notice they have a Kindle downloadable edition, so I think I might buy it and read it again. You may have to do a search of the title for the link to this: https://www.amazon.com/One-Caravan-R...ne+man+caravan

$14 US

Thank you! I've been on the fence about this one. I looked for the Kindle version just now and it doesn't appear to be available. Hmmmm...

I've also gotten recommendations for Elseph Beard's Lone Rider. Having seen the recent interviews with her on MCN's YouTube channel, she seems like a very good storyteller.

As I Walked Out One Misummer Morning
 

This is a memoir by Lauri Lee. It tells how the young author leaves the security of his Cotswold village in Gloucestershire to start a new life, at the same time embarking on an epic journey by foot.
In 1934 Lee walks to London and survives by playing the violin and labouring on a building site. As work dries up he scrapes enough money to raise a passage to Vigo in Spain, from where he tramps for a year to the south, eventually he is trapped by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.
I first read it nearly 50 years ago and it inspired me.

Robert Byron - The Road to Oxiana (personal favourite)
Eric Newby - A Short Walk In The Hindukush
Wilfred Thesiger - Arabian Sands
Colin Thubron - Among The Russians / Lost Heart Of Asia
Travels of Ibn Batutah
Michael Palin - Around The World In 80 Days / Pole To Pole
Peter Hopkirk - The Great Game
Mungo Park - Travels To The Interior Of Africa

To name but a few...

Woah, I'm very glad that I asked. Thank you both

By the way, I took a look at your blog and I am already beginning to dive in. Fantastic site. :thumbup1:

Different sorts of books can inspire ... we have a few that are Motorcycle based, others are just great yarns. Films come into play as well.

Bruce Brown'sOn Any Sunday (1971) was a major inspiration for millions of young motorcyclists, mostly USA based. I saw the film and took up Flat Track racing ... at age 14! doh (I did not go far)

Easy Rider also got the worlds's attention. Hundreds of tacky biker movies from the 60's ... but none came close to Easy Rider. A classic.

I read a lot when on the road in the 70's (mostly none bike travel).
I stumbled upon Simon's Jupiter's Travels I read it in around 1986 ... it still holds up strong today.
Turns out Ted and I were in S. America at the same time (sometime in 1975)
Nope, never ran into him!

Also liked Austin Vince's books from his two films: Mondo Enduro and Terra Circa. Of course the films are better as they came first, books came as addendum's. But the books aren't bad ... Austin is a funny guy!

One favorite author that brought inspiration to travel was Henry Miller. He wrote Tropic of Cancer in 1934. Controversial at the time and banned in USA and elsewhere.

Other Favorites:
The Alexandria Quartet - Laurence Durrell

Easy Rider certainly rang the bell for me. At the time it was just the bikes, music, travel, hippy peace and love lifestyle that appealed but I must have watched it 20 times since - last time a few months ago - and I see more and more 'philosophy' in it. That's what comes of watching it sober these days :rofl:

Ted and I were biking on opposite side of the Mediterranean back in '73 when he set off but he didn't wave. :rofl: When Jupiter's Travels came out it was a real game changer for me. No longer the 'Darkest Africa' of Stanley and Livingstone that school had left me with or the sheet of sandpaper as a map of the Sahara, but somewhere you could actually go to yourself. All you had to do was get on the road and keep going. And that's still the case, give or take a bit of politics, today.

You need to read Zen and the Art at least twice and, even then, it needs a great deal of thought, not to say effort; without that effort, you won't progress with his theme.

Motorcycle riding is but the stage on which he sets his theme.
Perzig's later book, about morals, is still one that I haven't managed to finish.



In contrast, I lost interest in Stewart's book when he became a politician.


Anything written by Eric Newby is worth a look - he was a travel writer.
"A short walk" has very little to do with walking, but it is about the Hindu Kush.

Whereas, Thesiger happened to put his life into words.


Thesiger and Newby met in one or other of the Stans.

I recently read a book by Newby from his 1977 journey on the Trans-Siberian. Good, but nothing like as witty as 'A Short walk...'

Thesiger was an amazing man, tough and extremely strong. When he came upon Newby and his climbing partner in Afghanistan, exhausted and sick with dysentery after their attempt on the summit of Mir Samir and presently trying to inflate an air mattress he remarked 'Gosh, you must be a couple of pansies'.

Thesiger managed to document a very intimate look into two societies now disappeared; The Bedu of Arabia and the Marsh Arabs. Sadly the rest of his travels in Africa and Central Asia are not very extensively documented.

I recently read a book in a similar vein to 'Arabian Sands'; 'Nunaga' by Duncan Pryde. It's a great look at the author's life with the Eskimos of northern Canada in the 1950s and 60s. A great account, though the author does not have Thesiger's social and academic credentials and the book may have been ghost-written.

Joshua Slocum's "Sailing Alone Around the World", on the "Spray", published 1899. I read my father's copies of Slocum's two voyages about age 10. Slocum's second book ended early when he disappeared at sea. It sparked my dream of traveling to far and distant lands, seeing all sorts of exotic places. Made me a National Geographic fan all my life.

"Among the Mountains, Travels through Asia" by Thesiger covers at least some of his time travelling in the Stans.
To me, he was one of the old school "class" people of the UK who simply lived out their lives irrespective of any one else's concepts of how to do the same.
He not only travelled but he LIVED - not everyone does that.

His time spent with the Marsh Arabs, for instance (later, Saddam tried to end that way of life by draining the marshes).


Thesiger was living life in the mode of Nietzsches' philosophy.

These authors are now dead - Pirzig died only about a year ago - I know of no one who can replace them, with a possible exception of Jordan Peterson who is sweeping all before him at present, coming at life from a very different, professional, perspective but covering similar ground nevertheless.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obi...-Thesiger.html


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/b...intenance.html




I recall that book from my teen years also, when I was very much into sailing and all things associated with being at sea. A man who was way ahead of his time I guess.

'Good Vibrations - Coast to Coast by Harley' by Tom Cunliffe. (2000)
and
'Backblocks America' by Jo and Gareth Morgan. (2007)

These books both inspired me to ride 42,000 km (26,000 miles) around North America during 2007/08.

Then I read: 'Under Asian Skies' by Sam Manicom. (2007)

I broadly followed Sam's tracks for a few years from 2009/10 onwards.

Originally though, back in the 1970s, I read and re-read 'Around the World in Wanderer III' by Eric C Hiscock. (1957) .. or was it by J. R. Hartley?

I never did sail around the world! although I managed to sail a trans-Atlantic (Gibraltar ~~> New York City) back in April 1989.

Books can and definitely do give us inspiration & motivation. :yes:

Gertrude Bell and the Arabs
 

In contrast to the modern day political animal, here was a real politician who got things done and held real beliefs while not being afraid to express them; not a Thesiger certainly, but living her life fully.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Bell

Not dead yet 2nd edition by Oisin Hughes dropped on my doorstep Friday.
Only brought this after seeing his RTW trip on Youtube. Will let you know how it pans out but if his videos are anything to go by then it should be a 9 or 10 out of 10.