Books that sparked your interest in travel

[Chirag]

Hi everyone,
My name is Chirag. new to the group and sayting hello. Also thought i'd ask a question...

I have a book I read which was the spark for making me want to travel. After which I travelled for 2 years from south america, asia, europe, africa, and australia. The book that began that journey - it wasn't fiction, but non-fiction...

Guns, germs and steel - Jared Diamond.

has anyone read this?

and does anyone have other books that inspired their travels...

[Lilisa]

Hi Chirag - welcome. I haven't read the book you mentioned. I generally read books set in different countries, but especially when I'm traveling to a particular country or place I will make it a point to read a related book. E.g. While in Greece I picked up Murder in Mykonos, on my way to Turkey read Portrait of a Turkish Family and stopped at the town Suriya which was described in the book and finished Beneath a Marble Sky before heading to India.

[Lilisa]

No, these are fun trips Judy, although I did get to travel a bit internationally in one of my previous jobs quite a few years ago.

[Chirag]

Err the book I read is all about why the world is the way it is - biology, culture, history. It got me interested in seeing it now I knew how it had come about I guess.

I always end up being annoyed. I leave a country and then i get told the book i should have read in that country. But then i reminise and want to go back. Shantaram was a good read when i got back from Mumbai. I sometimes read cookbooks for a country I'm travelling to next.

I lived in asutralia for a year and never thought about reading bryson sunburned country. It's now going on the list!

[Stelleri]

I like to read cookbooks as well.

My book for Malta interested me enough that I chose an itinerary that gave me a day there, to see the ruins I had read about. I'm more interested in a lot of the South Pacific after reading books from many of the islands.

[Kate]

Great question. I wouldn't say a particular book inspired me to go somewhere but I love to read a book set somewhere I am visiting. I recently read Perfume while I was in Paris and then Rivers of London while I was in London.

It was a hoot reading a chase scene running down Gower St when we were staying on the same street!

[Claire]

I like to find books while I am actually travelling, recommended by those who live there, rather than those that are recommended from wherever home is.

In this way I discovered:
Paradise of the Blind and The Sorrow of War while in Vietnam, Portrait of a Turkish Family and Patasana while in Turkey, The Betrothed, in Italy, In Search of Walid Masoud and Classic Palestinian Cookery in Bethlehem, Palestine.

Those are some that come to mind, I'm still asking the question, everywhere I go and love that groups like this exist to ask even when one isn't travelling.

[Luke]

I think Papillon, if it didn't spark my interest in travel, definitely cemented it. I'd barely heard of places such as French Guiana and Suriname before reading it, let alone imagined they could be so fascinating. It also helped teach me that, with the right attitude and an open outlook, it is possible to move between places and cultures and blend in without creating too many ripples.

The Sorrow of War is a good shout - it paints a picture of a very different Vietnam war to that of Platoon and Apocalypse Now. The others I haven't come across - I'll check them out.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

A chapter in The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World was the beginning of my hope to go to Iceland.

And Claire, I love that, asking locals. I have done that with music purchases too.

[Lilisa]

We have asked the locals about music more frequently than books - no particular reason. I try and read a book about a place I'm going to visit and read Portrait of a Turkish Family on my way to Turkey. I was quite thrilled when the ferry I was on made a stop in Sariya where the author spent summers and I ended up having lunch there. Loved the book.

[Rita]

For me it was the other way around - my holiday in Egypt led to me writing Missing in Egypt, a romantic travel mystery.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

I recently read Karen Hulene Bartell's Belize Navidad
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... and that has piqued my interest in Belize, which I hadn't even heard of beforehand.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I also love to read cookbooks (the coffee-table style, usually, with the lush photographs and family anecdotes amongst the recipes) before I visit a country, but more generally I will devour anything I can find leading up to a trip to a new destination. Before I visited Myanmar in 2012, I read almost exclusively about Burma for 6 months beforehand (didn't help that much!!) to the point where it was a habit that continued until well after the holiday was over.

I've actually just added Gweilo: Memories Of A Hong Kong Childhood to the group's bookshelf, as this was one of my most memorable 'in-country' reads. I had been to Hong Kong a few times already, but on this particular visit I was reading the book and staying at a hotel in the same part of the city that Martin Booth was describing from his childhood - a lot of it still there, or still able to be imagined.

As to the original question, I can't remember a particular book, but I do remember a film - Thelma & Louise, if you can believe that! I still remember how I felt in the cinema watching them drive their convertible down that winding Arizona highway towards the Grand Canyon, with the big sky and wide open spaces, but with the atmosphere becoming ever more oppressive the further they drove... Hey I might watch that again soon. (And by the way I haven't been to Arizona, or even really spent much time in the States at all.)

[Betty]

My inspirational travel book might be The Museum of Innocence because the author created a real-life museum in Istanbul, Turkey, to document all of the objects he placed in the story. There's photos on the internet of it. http://www.masumiyetmuzesi.org/?Langu...

[Claire]

Andrea wrote: "I also love to read cookbooks (the coffee-table style, usually, with the lush photographs and family anecdotes amongst the recipes) before I visit a country, but more generally I will devour anythi..."

Martin Booth wrote one of my all time favourite books The Industry of Souls, one of the few books that I reread to see if I still valued it as much as when I first read it. And I did.

Sadly he only wrote one other novel before he died Islands of Silence. I would love to learn more about his life and time in Hong Kong, he had such diverse interests and wrote across many genres.

[Claire]

Lilisa wrote: "We have asked the locals about music more frequently than books - no particular reason. I try and read a book about a place I'm going to visit and read Portrait of a Turkish Family on..."

I was recommended Portrait of a Turkish Family too, when I was in Istanbul and also picked up and read Patasana by Ahmet Umit, a well known Turkish mystery writer, loved the book, set in an archeological dig, learnt all about the Hitites and horses and so much more :)

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

Claire wrote: "Andrea wrote: "I also love to read cookbooks (the coffee-table style, usually, with the lush photographs and family anecdotes amongst the recipes) before I visit a country, but more generally I wil..."

High praise Claire - I will definitely add The Industry of Souls to my TBR!

[Lilisa]

Claire wrote: "Andrea wrote: "I also love to read cookbooks (the coffee-table style, usually, with the lush photographs and family anecdotes amongst the recipes) before I visit a country, but more generally I wil..."

Darn it - I've just added both to my list!

[Lilisa]

Claire wrote: "Lilisa wrote: "We have asked the locals about music more frequently than books - no particular reason. I try and read a book about a place I'm going to visit and read Portrait of a Turkish Fa..."</i>

[book:Portrait of a Turkish Family is one of my all-time favorites! Here's a thread that lists books from around the world that folks have enjoyed and learned from - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Val]

I also like cook books, but usually read them after I get back from visiting a country, to see if I can recreate the tastes at home. My store cupboard includes tamarind paste, pomegranate syrup, peanut butter (never for sandwiches), saffron, vanilla pods, nam pla, garam masala and an overflowing five-shelf spice rack.

[Shantelle]

Hello! I absolutely love to travel, especially international! I have been fortunate to have traveled to 14 countries so far!

Eat, Pray, Love inspired me to travel because of the vivid descriptions Elizabeth Gilbert highlights in her book.

Fly Solo: The 50 Best Places on Earth for a Girl to Travel Alone by Teresa Rodriguez Williamson inspired me to travel solo after meeting the author while she was in town and after reading her book; I have traveled solo many times and enjoyed every moment!

[Ananya]

Hi Everyone...

One book is really pushing me to travel and take a look at the national parks of Madhya Pradesh ... that is - "Wild Escapades around Central India" authored by Malay Mandal.

I am going to Kanha and Bandhavgarh National Park..very soon... I love the pin drop silence and fresh air of jungle..with wonderful bird whistles....

This is the link ...https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Thanks