Tag: The 100 Most Celebrated Travel Books Of All Time

Interviews With Travel’s Most Celebrated Authors

Over the years, we’ve interviewed several of the authors that appeared on our list of the 100 Most Celebrated Travel Books of All Time. Here they are, talking about travel, writing and everything from the Dalai Lama to Chinese driver’s exams:

Interview with Greg Mortenson: One Traveler Changing Lives
David Frey asks the bestselling author about the “Three Cups of Tea” approach to travel and life

Interview With Peter Hessler: Behind the Wheel in China
Frank Bures asks the New Yorker writer about his new book, “Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory”

Interview With Alain de Botton: ‘A Week at the Airport’
Frank Bures asks Heathrow’s first writer-in-residence about non-places, taking time to arrive and what airports tell us about ourselves

Interview With Paul Theroux: Invisible Man on a Ghost Train
Jim Benning asks the author of “Ghost Train to the Eastern Star” about his new book, aging and the challenge of disappearing in the age of the BlackBerry

J. Maarten Troost: Enduring Pollution and Reptile-Laden Lunches in China For Our Benefit
David Farley chats with the author of “Lost on Planet China” about the Olympic Games, Tibet and eating not-so-well in the Middle Kingdom

Tony Horwitz: Rediscovering the New World
Ben Keene talks to the author of the new book “A Voyage Long and Strange” about travel, American myths and the importance of visiting places where “history happened”

Pico Iyer: On ‘The Open Road’ and 30 Years With the Dalai Lama
The iconic travel writer’s new book taps into his personal experiences with the Dalai Lama. Kevin Capp asks him about the exiled spiritual leader’s “global journey.”

Michael Palin: The New ‘New Europe’
David Farley asks the Monty Python member-turned-travel host about the call of the road and his new television series

Jeffrey Tayler: Facing Africa’s ‘Angry Wind’
Jim Benning asks The Atlantic’s Moscow correspondent about travel writing, his latest book and the allure of the world’s most remote regions

Jeff Greenwald: Travel During War
As war rages in Iraq, Jim Benning speaks with the travel writer about his anti-war stand, his call for Americans to journey abroad, and his new organization, Ethical Traveler


Read More From Travel’s Most Celebrated Authors

As we noted in our by-the-numbers breakdown of the 100 Most Celebrated Travel Books of All Time, five World Hum contributors are represented on the list: Tom Bissell, Jeff Greenwald, Peter Hessler, Pico Iyer and Jeffrey Tayler. Here, to whet your appetite for their books—or to give you another taste of their fine writing, if you’ve already read them—are a few of their contributions to the site:

War Zones for Idiots
The “World Series of Journalism” had begun in Afghanistan, and Tom Bissell didn’t have to qualify to play. He just had to show up.

Burma’s Ongoing Cycle of Despair
Burma was once known as the “Golden Land” by Western adventurers. Not any longer. Under a tyrannical regime, the country’s spiritual and de facto political leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, languishes in prison. For her 60th birthday, Jeff Greenwald has a gift idea.

How I Got My Chinese Driver’s License
In an excerpt from his new book, “Country Driving,” Peter Hessler—aka Ho Wei—recalls his Beijing driving exam

Lover’s Moon
Pico Iyer on the power of travel to make a forgettable Glenn Frey song last forever

Michael Jackson and Me: Strangers in Moscow
Jeffrey Tayler recalls a cold night in 1993 when he took a break from writing his first book to see a performance by the “King of Pop”


Why My Travel Book Will be Called ‘Walk the Lost World of the Great Black Sea’

I’m confident it will be a best seller. Here’s why: I fed the titles of the 100 most celebrated travel books of all time into a word cloud creator, and, as you can see, all the words in my title are quite popular.

Readers and critics will love my book. Sean Penn will buy the movie rights. I will be rich.


The 100 Most Celebrated Travel Books of All Time

The definitive list of travel books that travel writers, editors, bloggers and readers love best

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Five Great Travel Book Covers

These books all made our list of the 100 Most Celebrated Travel Books of All Time

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The 100 Most Celebrated Travel Books of All Time: By the Numbers

We break down the data from our list of the most loved travel books

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The 100 Most Celebrated Travel Books of All Time: Mapped

Browse our map mash-up to see where the journeys for the most celebrated travel books take place

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The 100 Most Celebrated Travel Books of All Time: The Fine Print

The semi-scientific making of our list, explained

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