5 Best Travel Reads for World Book Day

“Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination and the journey. They are home.” – Anna Quindlen

In my case, books about the train, the plane and the road were my inspiration to start traveling and, more latterly, to start writing. I’ve always been either in the middle of immersing myself in omething travel-related or adding something to my literary backlog. The recent discovery of a superb second-hand bookshop on Cambridge's Mill Road hasn't helped said backlog decrease!

Pretty sure any list compiled for World Book Day is likely to unite people solely in their disagreement but for my 2p worth, here are my five favourite travel books.

Full Circle – Michael Palin (1997)

“What the hell, after 50,000 miles of travel we are only one mile out. As the Buddhists would say, only God is perfect.”

Buy Full Circle here

Sunday nights in the late 90s were reserved for Michael Palin on BBC One and, later, the books that accompanied his journeys.  You can’t go wrong with anything he’s written but for me, his third travel narrative, a 50,000-mile journey around the Pacific Rim, played a big part in getting me addicted to travel.  His writing is as charming and self-deprecating as ever, whether he’s avoiding penis-eating piranha in the Amazon or drumming with monks in Japan. The book blends history, politics, and Palin’s signature dry wit—always inquisitive but never sneering. 

Wild – Cheryl Strayed (2012)

“Alone had always felt like an actual place to me, as if it weren’t a state of being, but rather a room where I could retreat to be who I really was.”

Buy Wild here

I always preferred humorous travelogues to ‘finding yourself’ narratives but Wild is the stand out exception.  This is the book that made solo hiking feel like therapy.  Strayed’s memoir about tackling the Pacific Crest Trail after her mother’s death isn’t just about blisters and bears (although they both feature prominently), it’s about grief, resilience, and the transformative power of putting one foot in front of the other...a message which resonated all the more when I read this during Covid, pining for a mountain!   

Strayed doesn’t shy away from her mistakes, whether it’s packing way too much or underestimating the loneliness of the trail, which makes her journey all the more relatable.   I still haven’t made it to the Pacific North West – and I doubt I have the stamina or the patience for the PCT – but you can’t help but cheer her on.

Blue Highways – William Least Heat-Moon (1982)

“When you're traveling, you are what you are, right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.”

Buy Blue Highways here

The oldest of the books on this least but the one I’ve only recently discovered, (or rather, borrowed from Paul's library).

A classic of American road literature, Blue Highways is about taking the back roads...literally and metaphorically.  After losing his job and his marriage, Heat-Moon sets off in a van named Ghost Dancing, avoiding interstates in favour of small-town diners, forgotten landscapes, and the people who live on the fringes of mainstream America in the early 1980s.

 The snapshots of the landscape and characters are insightful to the extent that you’re meeting them in real-time.  His prose is remarkable - poetic but never pretentious, and his encounters with everyone from a monk to a moonshiner feel timeless.   I’d rank this in the top 5 books I’ve ever read regardless of genre and plan to move straight on to Prairyerth, his next volume that appeared at the turn of the century.

The Wrong Way Home – Peter Moore (1999)

“Nothing happened when I was in Luang Prabang. And for all I know nothing happened anywhere in the world either.  I was in a corner of the planet that the world had simply passed by.  I guess that’s what I liked so much about the place.”

Buy The Wrong Way Home here

Peter Moore’s accompanied me when I started to travel – with champagne ambitions and tap water budgets.   The Wrong Way Home is an overland adventure from London to Sydney, taken the long way, through the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia. What sets this book apart is Moore’s scrappy, backpacker ethos: he’s not staying in five-star hotels, but in dodgy hostels and on questionable bus rides that will resonate with anyone who's dipped tow into budget travel and all of its associated thrill and exhaustion of budget travel.   

His description of Luang Prabang in Laos propelled it to be top of my bucket list and when I finally made it there, a decade after reading, I was absolutely delighted that it was exactly as he described - sleepy, misty and utterly beguiling.

Moore’s stories remind us of the occasional absurdity of travel overland journeys but also the child-like joy when you experience the unexpected.   Bonus points scored for the mid-late 90s song choices that accompany each chapter. If this inspires you to start roughing it, his other works Swahili for the Broken Hearted and No Shitting In The Toilet will give an equally comprehensive guide to travel life without luxury.

Notes from a Small Island – Bill Bryson (1995)

“What a wondrous place this was - crazy as fuck, of course, but adorable to the tiniest degree. What other country, after all, could possibly have come up with place names like Tooting Bec and Farleigh Wallop, or a game like cricket that goes on for three days and never seems to start?” 

Buy Notes From A Small Island here

Like Palin, anything by Bill Bryson is worth reading but Notes stands out for how close it comes to explaining the soul of Britain as told by an outsider.  Representing his final – hilarious and grumpy - tour of Britain before returning to his native US, Notes from a Small Island is part travelogue, part love letter (with a side of affectionate mockery) to Britain’s quirks...think terrible signage, confusing train tickets and a fondness for jokes involving the word 'bottom'

His ability to mix history, humour, and wry cultural observations makes it as much of a must-read for native Britons who take our idiosyncrasies as given, as for potential visitors.   To top it off his description of Durham – a northern city I’d only vaguely heard of when I read the book in the early 00s - ‘If you have never been to Durham before, go there at once. Take my car, it’s wonderful.’ – played a big part in my decision to head there for university. Travel changing lives!

If this were a school debating club, I’d finish this list with ‘Discuss…!’   What’s your favourite travel book?   Has an author’s writing ever inspired you to visit a place you’d never thought of?   Whose travel writing makes you grin, cry or just simply turn the page at pace?  

NB: I earn a - very! - small commisison from any books purchases using the links above. The amount you pay is the same regardless.