Writer, Explorer and Travel Philosopher
It’s that time again.
I typically read about 100 books a year. Everything from travel literature to poetry, history, psychology, fiction and memoir.
I love reading lists and recommendations, and I bet a few of you do, too. So at year’s end, I like to take a moment to share my top reads of the past twelve months.
Who is that handsome devil sipping a Woodford Reserve and pretending to work…?
I don’t write airline or hotel reviews on my site. My focus is travel literature.
But I had such a great flight on Turkish Airlines last week that I wanted to share it with you.
It’s that time again.
I typically read about 100 books a year. Everything from travel literature to poetry, history, psychology, fiction and memoir. I love reading lists and recommendations, and I bet a few of you do, too.
So at year’s end, I like to take a moment to share my top reads of the past twelve months.
I apologize for writing about a movie on a site normally devoted to travel and books. But I’ll bring it full circle if you read to the end. It really does matter, because…
…the magic is back.
Our greatest living travel writer does it again.
I think this may be Paul Theroux’s best travel book in years. It’s more considered and introspective than some of his previous (all thoroughly excellent) books. Perhaps because it’s based on repeated journeys through the same places over the course of four seasons, rather than a journey through a place wth an end goal in mind.
The desert is on my brain these days…
I’m gearing up for a big expedition to the Tibesti mountains in northern Chad. And I’ve been going through my library of Sahara books as the anticipation builds.
I’ve never been the sort of traveler to obsess over frequent flier points, or to spend hours trying to game the system. Where my time is concerned, quite frankly, I’d rather have more of it than save a few bucks or get the occasional free upgrade.
I believe every trip has a soundtrack.
That special album which entrances you on long journeys by bus or rail, occupying your conscious mind and allowing insight to float up from the depths. Those songs soak up the landscape, the smells and the very feeling of the place you’re travelling through. And they colour the way you see it, just like different shades of glass colour a sunny day.
The Philosopher and the Wolf is a profound and original book. But I never would have found it if it hadn’t been recommended to me.
Even after I ordered it, it sat on my shelf for over a year before I finally picked it up.
I read a very good book this week called The Longest Way Home. It reminded me of myself in so many ways. And I wanted to share it with you.
