UPDATED NOV 2020. Of all my New Year’s resolutions, I thought reading one book a month would be an easy one. It’s been challenging though. The first book I picked was really boring and now I get commitment-shy when picking my monthly book. I didn’t want to waste time reading lame books. Clearly, I needed some help to take the pressure of these big life decisions so I called for backup. Travel bloggers spend a lot of time waiting – in airports, on trains, planes, and buses. And we always love to get some wanderlust vibes. These bloggers have offered a list of travel books to fuel your wanderlust (and mine too). If you want a new travel book or just need to pass time during layovers, check out these recommendations.
Travel Books To Fuel Your Wanderlust (That Aren’t Eat, Pray, Love)
Disclaimer
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Your Vacation, My Office: A Day In The Life Of Tourism Workers Around The World And What We Can Learn From Them
By Katie McIntosh
If you want to spark wanderlust, why not listen to the very people who work in travel every day.
This book profiles these very people. It’s a day in the life series of the people who play a huge role in our travel experiences.
Take a peek inside their offices to find out what it’s like to build a luxury hotel from the ground up. Learn what it’s like to have The Colosseum as your office. And what’s an average day like when you work where people safari.
Their insight, their lessons, and their stories will certainly spark wanderlust in you and add meaning to your travels.
Mediterranean Summer: A Season on France’s Cote d’Azur and Italy’s Costa Bella
David Shalleck’s memoir about being a chef aboard a private yacht in the Mediterranean hits both the heart and the stomach.
David is floundering as a chef, wondering what to do next. Until he gets hired by an Italian couple who wants traditional, summery Italian fare served on board their yacht, Serenity.
David’s book spans two summers exploring the coasts of Italy and France, and the local food. Not only does he succeed in cooking for over 100 people in the yacht’s tiny galley, but he learns how to sail, how to grow as a chef, and how to please his bosses’ palates. The book is jam-packed with descriptions of the small towns and ports that Serenity encounters.
I’d be thrilled to walk beside David as he shops for fresh mozzarella or prosciutto.
Instead, I’ll have to settle for doing my own shopping and testing out one of the many recipes in the back of the book until I can experience my own summer sailing the Mediterranean.
Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know About Cooking
By Michael Booth
A middle-aged man traveling Japan with his family wouldn’t normally be my travel inspiration but in Sushi and Beyond
, ex-chef Booth is eating his way around Japan – and is laugh-out-loud funny doing it.
From his experiences filling up on chanko nabe, the stew that gives Sumo wrestlers their energy to his ill-fated visit to a nagashi-somen restaurant that serve their noodles via a freezing mountain stream – which now means I don’t have to drag myself into the middle of nowhere in Kyoto to try that particular one (but has led to hours of googling to find a replacement), it’s given me so many amazing things to try on my upcoming trip.
It’s also great grounding for the types of food you’ll find in Japan – and how to eat them properly.
I never knew, for example, that you are only supposed to eat miso soup at the end of a sushi meal as it helps you digest the fish (oops!) Lastly, even if you’re not a foodie, it paints a perfect picture as to what to expect on the first trip to Japan – from the madness of Tsukiji fish market to what to do in an onsen.
I loved it so much I bought the sequel before I was even halfway through!
Recommended by Helen from Destination>Differentville.
The World: A Traveller’s Guide To The Planet
By Lonely Planet
At first sight, it might seem that Lonely Planet’s “World” guide is nothing inspirational, since it’s just the guide, right? Wrong! I have received this book as a gift for my housewarming party and it has been the most referred to the book for me since then.
It describes, in short, all countries in the world, tempting you with colorful pictures and providing basic information of top 10 things to see in that country as well as when to visit and what to eat.
If you saw my copy of the World, you would notice that I have taken it to the whole new level. Being an aspiring traveler and an endless bucket list maker, I added useful information on every page of the book, like whether I would need a visa to go to that country and if yes, what did I need to provide in order to get it.
My copy of the World book is full of sticky notes and colorful markings of which countries I’d like to visit in descending order. Crazy, ha? It looks like it could be a traveler’s bible, to be honest.
To me, this is the most inspiring travel book since it showcases the amazing variety of countries on our planet suitable for every soul and desire.
Recommended by Lena from Travel Monkey Blog.
An Art Lover’s Guide to Florence
By Judith Testa
I love finding books that really tell the story of the history and culture of a place I might want to visit. Not a standard travel guide with ranked restaurants and sights (though I own an obnoxious number of those, too!), but the drama and intrigue.
When I found An Art Lover’s Guide to Florence, I was pulled in right away. After a short chapter on the general history of Italy and Florence, the book focuses, chapter by chapter, on the most significant art and architecture of the city and the story of how it all came to be.
Through the book I delved into the ongoing rivalry between the creator of the Baptistry doors and designer of the dome of Florence’s cathedral that led to weaseling in on each other’s projects, quitting in artistic huffs, and faking bed-ridden sickness to sabotage the other.
Then moved on to the personal, eyebrow-raising history of the creator of Perseus and Medusa in the Piazza della Signoria. These works of art and so many others were made real as I pictured all that went into their creation and the personal stories – petty, disturbing, and otherwise – of the artists who created them.
When my husband and I did finally go to Florence for a week during our 20th-anniversary trip, passages of this book went with me.
Sharing these stories we chuckled under the Duomo and grimaced at Perseus and Medusa, and were enthralled with the city.
Recommended by Megan from Wandertoes.
How Not To Travel The World: Adventures of a Disaster-Prone Backpacker
As someone who has always loved travel, but who spent too many years not traveling because of an ongoing battle with anxiety, I was intrigued by Lauren’s book when I found it whilst browsing through the Kindle store.
A fellow anxiety sufferer, Lauren pushed herself out of her comfort zone in order to go backpacking across the world, and what follows is a laugh-out-loud account of her misadventures. Tsunamis, eye-wateringly awkward massages in Thailand, being scammed in China, and dental treatment which results in the loss of a few teeth: all feature here!
But every time, she comes through and picks herself up again, and there are wonderful adventures which she recounts -her descriptions of south-east Asia are a particular highlight.
But what makes this book so special is that it’s inspirational – it was absolutely the book that made me determined to beat my own anxiety, and not let it stop me from traveling. And I’ve done it!
Lauren’s story resonates so well if you suffer from any kind of travel nerves, and if you don’t, it’s just a brilliant, entertaining read. It’s the epitome of the thought that whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger, and I honestly couldn’t put it down!
203 Travel Challenges
By Maria Angelova
In today’s world, we read more but learn less. We travel more but change less. We’ve seen all the tourist destinations thousands of times on the internet and that’s why we fail to be amazed when we actually visit a place. You can ask yourself, so why do we bother to travel at all?
The book “203 Travel Challenges” has at least 203 answers to this question. It challenges you to make small changes to your usual travel lifestyle to rediscover the joy of exploration.
Cycling in small villages, swapping your bed for the starry sky in summer, following the steps of your favorite singers or authors, organizing a hitchhiking contest, dipping in warm open-air mineral pool while it’s snowing outside, visiting every town whose name starts with your name’s letter – these are just a few ideas from the book.
The best way to read it is to just open it at a random page and complete whatever challenge you find there.
This book doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it simply makes you open your mind to the exciting opportunities that you have but rarely use and inspires you to transform every trip into your very own personal adventure.
Recommended by Maria from www.203challenges.com
Chocolat
By Joanne Harris
While many may not necessarily associate “Chocolat” with travel, I always say it’s the novel that fueled my passion to visit new places. The protagonist, Vianne, has spent her life moving from place to place, a habit she inherited from her mother, and says she was destined from birth to move as the wind blows.
But of all the places Chocolat has inspired me to travel to, the most obvious is France. At the top of my bucket list is to purchase a rail pass and travel across France, stopping at towns like Dinan and Bayeux, and it was definitely Joanne Harris’s vivid descriptions of the fictional French village Lansquenet-sous-Tannes that has inspired that dream.
So far Giverny is the furthest I have gotten from Paris, and while it has easily become one of my favorite visits, I can’t wait to explore more towns reminiscent of the one I’ve read about, and have fallen in love with.
Recommended by Jasmine from A Great Big Hunk Of World.
The Alchemist
By Paulo Coelho
I picked up The Alchemist by chance in a second-hand book store in Chiang Mai 5 years ago, and it’s the one book I’ve carried with me on my travels and moves abroad ever since.
The Alchemist is a fairly simple story about a young shepherd who follows his dream, literally. There are so many lessons to be learned and amazing words of wisdom in a relatively small book that when I tried to underline my favorite passages there was at least one per page.
I recommend this book to absolutely everyone, but particularly those who want to travelers and those who want to follow their dreams.
The Alchemist will teach you about love, how to face your fears, embrace gratitude and the present, make decisions and always take action. “Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams.”
Recommended by Sonja from Migrating Miss.
Into Thin Air
By Jon Krakauer
Into Thin Air is a book that not only inspires my wanderlust but makes me cherish life. A personal story about his experience summiting Mount Everest and the tragedies that occurred along the way, Jon Krakauer will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time.
He shows raw feelings and honesty, how much he sacrifices, and how hard it was accomplishing this feat. Climbing the highest mountain in the world is no slight thing, and many have lost their lives in the fight to make it to the top.
Jon, the author, never gave up and continued to push forward even under the toughest of conditions, near death, and gasping for oxygen at almost 29,000 feet.
As a lover of hiking and mountains, my hikes in no way compare to hiking Mt. Everest. I developed a true respect for these hikers’ drive and determination.
Their story will surely be of interest if you love the outdoors, and it may even motivate you to summit that mountain you’ve been eyeing. While I’ve trekked the Dolomites, the Swiss Alps, and the Austrian Alps, I’m now even more inspired to conquer Mt. Fuji in Japan and Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Whether it’s traveling, hiking, or climbing that “mountain” in your life, you will find Into Thin Air both inspiring and a great read!
Recommended by Summer from Outside This Small Town.
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