The Lust for Travel: Literature as Inspiration

The New York Times devoted the bulk of its travel section this weekend to literary travels, including stories on Mark Twain’s Hawaii, Jorge Luis Borges’s Buenos Aires and Wales’s Hay Festival, once dubbed “the Woodstock of the mind” by former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Susan Lehman also spoke with a bunch of writers to find out what pieces of literature inspired them to travel. Michael Chabon picked the “Twenty-One Balloons” by William Pène Du Bois, Jonathan Franzen goes with “Crime and Punishment” and one-of-these-things-doesn’t-belong-here contributor Stephen Colbert talks up “Lord of the Rings.”

He says:

I always wanted to travel to Middle Earth. And now wherever I go, I am always on the lookout for Hobbits.

Try New Zealand, Stephen.

The Times also surveyed Chabon, Walter Kirn, Lorrie Moore, A.M. Homes and dozens of other writers (no Colbert this time) to choose the best works of American fiction of the last 25 years. Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” topped the list, followed by Don DeLillo’s “Underworld,” Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian,” Philip Roth’s “American Pastoral” and John Updike’s four Rabbit Angstrom novels. My favorite book, DeLillo’s “White Noise,” also made the list.

A what-it-all-means essay by A.O. Scott accompanies the rundown.

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