Travel Blog: Literary Travel
R.I.P. Michael Crichton
by Michael Yessis | 11.05.08 | 1:37 PM ET
The author of many blockbuster airplane novels, as well as the simply titled Travels, died yesterday in Los Angeles. He was 66. His travels informed his life. “Often I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded of who I really am,” he wrote.
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Yahoo! BuzzBuruma on Naipaul: ‘Alert, Never Sentimental’
by Jim Benning | 11.03.08 | 11:02 AM ET
Ian Buruma reviews The World Is What it Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul in the New York Review of Books. “Naipaul’s literary discovery of the world is marked by the way he uses his eyes and ears,” Buruma writes. “Impatient with abstractions, he listens to people, not just their views, but the tone of their voices, the telling evasions, the precise choice of words. His eyes, meanwhile, register everything, the clothes, the gestures. ... These observations are filtered through a mind that is alert, never sentimental, and deeply suspicious of romantic cant.”
William Least Heat-Moon’s ‘Roads to Quoz’
by Jim Benning | 10.30.08 | 12:17 PM ET
The writer who gave us the classic “Blue Highways” has written a new travel book about some recent journeys in the United States. The Los Angeles Times calls Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey “a lucid if looping account of three years of wanderings that covered some 16,000 miles, mostly in the company of the author’s wife.” The Aspen Times finds that Heat-Moon is “still quick-witted and keenly observant, if a little grandfatherly, and his notes from the American road still contain equal parts humor and wisdom.”
New Addition to the Travel Lexicon: ‘Baiku’
by Eva Holland | 10.28.08 | 8:14 AM ET
That would be a haiku-esque poem written by a “biker poet,” and that’s usually an ode to the open road. The Boston Globe takes a look at the biker poet phenomenon and shares a few baikus as well. Here’s my favorite:
‘State by State’: The Film
by Michael Yessis | 10.24.08 | 11:17 AM ET
The book “State by State”—we posted Frank Bures’ interview with coeditor Matt Weiland yesterday—has a companion piece: A 38-minute film staring 19 of the book’s contributors, including Anthony Bourdain. The No Reservations host gets some good screen time in the trailer:
‘The 69 Greatest (Fictional) Travel Books of All Time’
by Michael Yessis | 10.23.08 | 4:13 PM ET
Conde Nast Traveler surveyed 30 writers, who came up with the list that, unfortunately, seems to live only in the print edition. Many of the usual suspects represent: “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” “Don Quixote,” “On the Road,” “The Quiet American.” I’m happy, though, to see Don DeLillo’s “The Names” on the list—it’s the book from which we poached the name World Hum. Geoff Dyer describes “The Names” as “a fantastic travel essay, dense with amazed delight at the incidents and textures of this ancient and rapidly modernizing world.”
Related on World Hum:
* World Hum’s Top 30 Travel Books
Christopher P. Baker Wins Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year
by Michael Yessis | 10.20.08 | 2:21 PM ET
Baker leads the winners of the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism awards for 2008, which were handed out this weekend. Among other winners: National Geographic Adventure took the prize for best travel magazine, and the Boston Globe captured the prize for best online travel journalism site. Congratulations to the winners.
Update, 10:19 p.m. ET: The Daily Travel and Deal Blog has links to all the winners.
Related on World Hum:
* World Hum Wins Lowell Thomas Gold
Hollywood Does ‘The Odyssey’ ... In Space
by Eva Holland | 10.20.08 | 11:43 AM ET
Brad Pitt will play the traveling Greek general in an upcoming Hollywood adaptation of Homer’s classic, the Telegraph reports. The twist? The movie will be a “science fiction version based in space.” We’re big fans of both Odysseus and outer space—but I’m not convinced the two were ever meant to mix.
The Kerouac Project: A Documentary
by Michael Yessis | 10.17.08 | 9:47 AM ET
The AP moved a story this week about the writers program at Jack Kerouac’s former Orlando home. In following some links, I came across a new video about the project with some great old footage:
Peter Matthiessen Nominated for National Book Award
by Jim Benning | 10.16.08 | 11:46 AM ET
The 81-year-old author was nominated in the fiction category for his 890-page book “Shadow Country.” But many of us know him best for his travel and outdoors writing. His classic book about Nepal, The Snow Leopard, ranked No. 11 on our list of the top 30 travel books of all time. Here’s Matthiessen talking about “Shadow Country” and his non-fiction on “Charlie Rose” earlier this year:
2008 Nobel Prize in Literature Goes to ‘Avid Traveller’
by Jim Benning | 10.09.08 | 10:56 AM ET
French author Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio will soon be swimming in Swedish Krona. He won the 2008 Nobel Prize in literature today, lauded for being an “author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilisation.” The Telegraph describes him as an “avid traveller” who loves the work of two other great travelers, Robert Louis Stevenson and Joseph Conrad. His overseas experiences altered the way he saw the world. Notes the paper:
New Travel Book: ‘Indian Takeaway: One Man’s Attempt to Cook His Way Home’
by Eva Holland | 10.03.08 | 11:00 AM ET
In Indian Takeaway, author Hardeep Singh Kohli takes a foodie tour of the subcontinent, reflecting on the experience of being a British Indian while eating his way through countless local households and, bizarrely, rewarding his Indian hosts with some home-cooked British classics of his own—think toad in the hole and bangers and mash.
The Best (Almost) Fictional British Pubs
by Michael Yessis | 09.30.08 | 2:41 PM ET
Among David Barnett’s picks for great fictional pubs: George Orwell’s The Moon Under Water and Anthony Burgess’ Korova Milk Bar, from A Clockwork Orange. Though they’re products of the authors’ imaginations, it looks like they’re so good they’ve both spawned real-world pubs. In his Guardian piece, Barnett mentions a series of British pubs named The Moon Under Water. I found another in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Theroux, Horwitz and the Frommers Featured at National Book Festival
by Michael Yessis | 09.26.08 | 10:03 AM ET
They’ll be on the Mall in Washington, D.C., tomorrow, talking travel and signing books. So will U.S. poet laureate Kay Ryan. I wonder if the organizers flew her out from California, or if this is how she decided to spend part of her $5,000 travel allowance?
Exploring the Library at Amsterdam’s Ambassade Hotel
by Jim Benning | 09.25.08 | 12:51 PM ET
Novelist and blogger Mark Sarvas offers an “achingly amateur” video tour of the historic library at the Ambassade Hotel, which he calls “the literary hotel of Amsterdam.” The library is packed with thousands of books written by authors who’ve stayed there over the years.
