Notable Travel Books of 2005
Travel Books: World Hum reviewed a number of new travel books this year, but not all of them. Frank Bures highlights new titles worthy of a place on any traveler's bookshelf.
12.20.05 | 1:45 AM ET
We reviewed a number of fine travel books this year, from Guy Delisle’s Pyongyang and Emma Larkin’s Finding George Orwell in Burma to Karen Muller’s Japanland (which, with its striking Geisha art, gets our vote for best travel cover). But we missed some titles, too. Here at year’s end, we thought we’d mention, in no particular order, several other books we didn’t want to let slip through the editorial cracks.
* One People: Many Journeys
. Lonely Planet has been turning out a number of big, beautiful photo-filled travel books lately, and this is one of the latest. It features stunning shots of people around the globe simply living their lives. As LP puts it in its description of the book: “Regardless of nationality or beliefs, we share the joy of birth, the celebration of life’s special moments, the need to find meaning in our lives, the strength to endure, the resilience to keep trying and the sorrow of death. And above all, we share a curiosity about other people that inspires us to travel and to seek them out.”
* Signspotting. Doug Lansky’s favorite photos of confusing signs around the world, which appear in newspaper travel sections across the country, have been collected into a terrific little book. World Hum interviewed Lansky in 2003.
* Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat and Camel by Jeffrey Tayler. Tayler is the Atlantic Monthly’s Moscow correspondent. He’s also a fearless traveler. In his latest book, he ventures into the Sahel region of Central and Western Africa—an American among Islamic fundamentalists. Fortunately, Tayler speaks Arabic and French, and his facility with the languages opens doors and hearts that might otherwise have remained closed. His account is stirring. Related: World Hum’s interview with Tayler.
* Theatre of Fish by John Gimlette. “Fish” has received rave reviews. Longitude Books called it “A rollicking account of Gimlette’s adventures in Newfoundland and Labrador on the trail of a great-great grandfather. It’s a witty tale, soaked in fishy history, myth, lore, and incident.”
* Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. Vowell is best known for her work on NPR’s “This American Life.” In this book, she narrows her gaze to three presidential assassinations—and she goes on holiday. In Publisher’s Weekly words, Vowell “takes readers on a pilgrimage of sorts to the sites and monuments that pay homage to Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley, visiting everything from grave sites and simple plaques (like the one in Buffalo that marks the place where McKinley was shot) to places like the National Museum of Health and Medicine, where fragments of Lincoln’s skull are on display.” Creepy, but novel and interesting.
* The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer (paperback edition) by Eric Hansen. When the hardcover version came out last year, the San Francisco Chronicle named it one of the year’s best books: “Three decades spent crisscrossing the map, mainly on boats, with long layovers in Southeast Asia, New York and San Francisco, have honed in him a meticulous knack for observation and the confidence to describe what he sees in both bold strokes and fine ones.”
* The Thong Also Rises, edited by Jennifer Leo. The third in a series of women’s travel humour collections from Travelers’ Tales, “Thong” features contributions from Susan Orlean and Ayun Halliday, among others. Leo spoke to World Hum recently about the book and life as a travel writer and editor.
* By the Seat of My Pants, edited by Don George. A Lonely Planet anthology featuring stories by a wide range of writers, including World Hum contributors Rolf Potts and Jeff Greenwald.
* The Best American Travel Writing 2005. Jamaica Kincaid edited this year’s edition, which features a selection of strong stories from William Least-Heat Moon, Simon Winchester, World Hum contributor Tom Bissell and others.
* Continental Drifter. Author Elliott Hester chronicles his travels around the world after quitting his flight attendant job in the post-9/11 airline slump (he was abused by one too many vegetarians). A reviewer in the Houston Chronicle wrote: “Hester’s stories are hilarious and occasionally bawdy; I dare you not to laugh.” In 2002, Hester spoke to World Hum about his first book, “Plane Insanity.”
* Lonely Planet’s Guide to Travel Writing. Filled with a mix of instruction and inspiration, it’s a must-have for aspiring travel writers. Editor Don George spoke to World Hum earlier this year about the book and the craft of travel writing. “We need to realize that travel is a fundamental part of what we as human beings do and that we can really broaden and stretch ourselves by doing it,” George said in discussing the future of travel writing and reading in the United States. “When travel in that broadening and stretching sense becomes more mainstream, people will naturally turn more to great writers who are writing about their own experiences of that.”
Others have offered their own lists of top travel books of 2005. Among them:
* Longitude Books
* The New York Times
* The Sunday Times of London
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