I go to Provence mostly...the Luberon Valley and the St Remy area. My brother goes to the Scottish Highlands every fall for 3 weeks just to hike, read and relax. He likes it very much. I'll check out your book. For a time I had a photographic business and made photo cards of architectural detail of Provence.

John, I just joined and read your comment about Bryson. This is so interesting to read because I think he is an hilarious writer. I laugh aloud with all his books. Maybe it's just different taste in humor. He has a book out for writers about usage,grammar, etc. He seems highly intelligent. Nancy B

Hi Nancy - are you looking for fiction set in Provence, or travel writing - or both?
Suzi

Hi Suzi, Both. I think I've read enough about couples buying an old farm house, etc. But whatever you know of I'd appreciate hearing about. Thanks, Nancy

Hi, Nancy,
You mentioned you have read lots of travel narrative. Do you have some favorites to recommend?

GG Husak
Author: Passeggiata: Strolling Through Italy
www.passeggiataitalia.com

Hi,
Anything by Frances Mayes. She's a beautiful writer. If you like travel short stories any of the Traveler's Tales series are great. They have them for many countries. I just got one yesterday "Floating Through France: Life Between Locks on the Canal de Midi".Of course there is always Peter Mayle. I think he earlier books were better. He's sort of run out of steam or topics for Provence. I also loved "Beyond the Earth and Sky: Journey to Bhutan". Do you have any suggestions for me?

GG,
Here are some specific books for Italy that I liked: "Dances with Luigi" by Paul Paolicelli; Tim Parks, "Italian Neighbors", "Italian Education"; Phil Doran,"The Reluctant Tuscan"; Beppe Severginini,"La Bella Figura"; "Cento Citta" by Paul Hofmann; and "Italian Days" Barbara Grizzuti-Harrison.

These are great suggestions, Nancy. You do read a lot! Did you read "Too Much Tuscan Sun?" It's by an Italian tour guide and has some good stories in it from a different perspective.
I agree about Francis Mayes being a good writer.

GG Husak
www.passeggiataitalia.com

Yes, I read "Too Much Tuscan Sun". It was a fun book. "Mediterranean Summer" by David Shalleck is another light, fun read.

Hi Jeremy,

I started to read travelliterature after I made some travels myself (backpacking in Asia). Now I have five kids and therefore not so able to travel anymore: so I love the genre as a subdtitue for 'life' travelling!

Hi,

I love the travelbooks by Theroux. He is critical about his fellow-travelers, but I found many of his comments recognizable: I had no problem at all visualizing the peple he discribes and found them therefore very realistic. Haven't you met such characters during travelling or daily life?
And there's a lot more to write about annoying people then there is about kind, nice people...
Anja

I agree, Anja, that though Theroux can be a grouch at times, he honestly presents the mixed bag that travel can be. Just because one is in Timbuktu, doesn't mean that someone isn't actually an irritating bore. In terms of traveling with kids, I have four, and know it can get prohibitively expensive. I've found, however, that I can give my kids a taste for travel and adventure by taking shorter trips, but trying to look at things from an "outsiders" angle, not following the beaten track even if we are camping a couple of hours from home. A large family tent and campstove can open a new world of budget friendly travel. It did for me.

I haven't read him in a while, but I find Bryson over-rated.

jennifer wrote: "I finished "Musn't Grumble: In Search of England and the English" by Joe Bennett. He is an Englishman who has lived in NZ for 20 years, then returns to spend a couple of months trying to revisit th..."

I haven't read that one yet, but I liked his NZ book: A Land of Two Halves.

Andrea wrote: "I'm currently reading Paul Theroux's "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star." Some people refer to Theroux as "misanthropic" and I guess I don't get it. He doesn't like jerks, and he says so, but he ha..."

I've read all of his travel books to date, and am almost finished with this one. I found him as bad as most of his detractors claim in Dark Star Safari, but he redeems himself here.

I just published my first work of travel lit: NOTES FOR THE AURORA SOCIETY. Take a look here:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61904...

I'm dying to start my next project...and will have to figure out how to work my two lovely kids into that. So, I'm currently seeking funding.

John wrote: "Andrea wrote: "I'm currently reading Paul Theroux's "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star." Some people refer to Theroux as "misanthropic" and I guess I don't get it. He doesn't like jerks, and he say..."

I don't like to get off on a tangent, but wondered if you could say a little more about what you didn't like about Dark Star Safari? I do think he went over the top a bit with the tourists on the Nile cruise.

Jim wrote: "I just published my first work of travel lit: NOTES FOR THE AURORA SOCIETY. Take a look here:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61904...

I'm dying to start my n..."
Where do you think you might go next? Or, that is, where would you like to go?

James wrote: "In Riding the Iron Rooster, Theroux seems to spend an inordinate amount of time at one point denigrating his companions on the train. So, I'd say a little misanthropic--but usually I'..."

Yes, that was the first book I read by Paul Theroux and his denigration of his travel companions put me right off. I've never picked up another.

I liked Theroux's books -DARK STAR SAFARI and GHOST TRAIN TO THE EASTERN STAR even with his attitude

in both books he revisits places he's been 30 years earlier and gives him a unique perspective on changes/nonchanges in those places

plus I think he is a very brave man given some of his travel experiences in various places where nature is difficult or the political situation is not exactly friendly

Andrea wrote: "I don't like to get off on a tangent, but wondered if you could say a little more about what you didn't like about Dark Star Safari? I do think he went over the top a bit with the tourists on the Nile cruise."

It's been a while since I read it, but I do recall his telling his "dinner guests" (at a campsite), something to the effect of: "Bet you've never been served by a member of the American Academy of Letters before!", which struck me as incredibly pompous. Another person made a comment somewhere (paraphrased): "I never felt he was more than a flash of his Super Titanium American Express card away from any serious problems".
I don't mind that he's cranky and somewhat anti-social, it's the (elitist) bragging that gets to me - I got the impression dishing other writers with Pico Iyer in Japan was one of the highlights of his most recent trip. That sort of thing ...

I've been thinking about how many different kinds of books fall under the term "travel literature." I like all kinds, but it almost seems like we should have subcategories. Or maybe there are some, but I don't know what they are? For example, there are the books that are all about physical endurance and adventure, while others focus only on the social and cultural encounters and avoid any mention of physical comforts or discomforts. Then, there are the pleasant-personality type narrators and the crochety type narrators etc, etc, etc. Kind of a fun pastime to come up with descriptors.

One genre that seems to get lumped in with travel writing would be "expat memoir", such as Peter Kerr's books on his time on Mallorca, for example.

Yes, most of the time this is really a different sort of book. But I have some of those on my list under travel too, I think.

James wrote: "I read Bryson's In a Sunburned Country and Tony Horwitz's Blue Latitudes Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before at the same time and it was illuminat..."

I love Sunburned Country and Blue Latitudes as well! I also loved Bryson's A Walk in the Woods and a gem by David Elliot Cohen entitled One Year Off: Leaving It All Behind for a Round-the-World Journey with Our Children.

Andrea wrote: "I've been thinking about how many different kinds of books fall under the term "travel literature." I like all kinds, but it almost seems like we should have subcategories. Or maybe there are some..."

There's the "footsteps" one as well - here are a few examples I've enjoyed:
To Travel Hopefully by Christopher Rush (travels in the Cevennes with a donkey like R L Stevenson)
One Dry Season - Caroline Alexander's re-tracing Mary Kingsley in Africa;
Finding George Orwell in Burma by Emma Larkin
Travels without My Aunt (a/k/a Traveling on the Edge) by Julia Llewellyn-Smith, visiting Graham Greene locales

Andrea wrote: "I'm currently reading Paul Theroux's "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star." Some people refer to Theroux as "misanthropic" and I guess I don't get it. He doesn't like jerks, and he says so, but he ha..."

I just finished this book on your suggestion. Yes, he is a bit of a curmudgeon, but I think he really has a soft heart underneath the bluster. He mentions very briefly about having a "scolded and nagged" childhood. As a therapist, I'm wondering if some of that isn't beneath his negativity and cynicism. I'm going to start "The Kingdom by the Sea" next.