Good Minds Suggest—Eric Weiner's Favorite Gifts for Travelers
Posted by Goodreads on December 5, 2011
As a foreign correspondent for NPR and The New York Times, Eric Weiner has always lived the life of a questioning wanderer. His troubling experiences reporting about faith-driven conflicts and living in war-torn places led to the The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World. Now the self-proclaimed "Confusionist"—someone less certain than an agnostic—gives his psyche an even deeper overhaul in Man Seeks God: My Flirtations with the Divine. After a health scare, Weiner narrowed down a list of the world's 9,900 religions and chose eight target faiths to try on for size in hopes of finding personal answers to some of life's fundamental questions. His adventure would span multiple continents. The globetrotter shares with Goodreads his favorite books to give fellow travelers, whether their journeys takes place abroad or in the mind.
A Fortune-Teller Told Me by Tiziano Terzani
"Warned by a Hong Kong fortune-teller not to fly for a year, Terzani travels through Asia by boat, bus, car, train, foot, and rickshaw. An unabashed romantic, he captures an Asia not yet trampled by 'crasser forms of Western modernity.' This book is all heart."
"Warned by a Hong Kong fortune-teller not to fly for a year, Terzani travels through Asia by boat, bus, car, train, foot, and rickshaw. An unabashed romantic, he captures an Asia not yet trampled by 'crasser forms of Western modernity.' This book is all heart."
Destinations: Essays from Rolling Stone by Jan Morris
"Morris is the greatest travel writer of our age, perhaps any age. This collection of essays, ranging from Delhi to New York, is quintessential Morris: tightly written, highly opinionated portraits that ring true. She gets places like no one else."
"Morris is the greatest travel writer of our age, perhaps any age. This collection of essays, ranging from Delhi to New York, is quintessential Morris: tightly written, highly opinionated portraits that ring true. She gets places like no one else."
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
"Don't read this book if you're looking for a definitive account of the Australian aboriginals or human evolution. Do read it if you're looking for a poetic, meandering journey that celebrates our nomadic nature."
"Don't read this book if you're looking for a definitive account of the Australian aboriginals or human evolution. Do read it if you're looking for a poetic, meandering journey that celebrates our nomadic nature."
The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
"Still the classic by which others are measured. Theroux, funny and caustic, pulls no punches in his descriptions of the characters he encounters, or the hardships he endures. Living proof that the worst journeys make for the best stories."
"Still the classic by which others are measured. Theroux, funny and caustic, pulls no punches in his descriptions of the characters he encounters, or the hardships he endures. Living proof that the worst journeys make for the best stories."
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
"While not technically a travel book—Calvino's cities are imaginary—this is nonetheless a gem. Sitting in a garden, a young Marco Polo relays to an aging Kublai Khan tales of the cities he has seen: cities of the dead and the unborn, cities of the air, cities where everyone is a stranger. A work of immense imagination, it's one of those books best savored slowly, and often."
"While not technically a travel book—Calvino's cities are imaginary—this is nonetheless a gem. Sitting in a garden, a young Marco Polo relays to an aging Kublai Khan tales of the cities he has seen: cities of the dead and the unborn, cities of the air, cities where everyone is a stranger. A work of immense imagination, it's one of those books best savored slowly, and often."
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retired.linda
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Dec 25, 2011 06:39AM
Yes, I loved The Songlines too !! It's one of the few I still have on my shelf. You convinced me to pick it up again and go back into that mystical and interesting world.
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