Task #8: Read a travel memoir

[Teresa]

Maryam, I've been waiting a year for her book! It's still not in Utah libraries.

[quietprofanity]

I took a very liberal interpretation of this task and read Jhumpa Lahiri's In Other Words, about how she went to Rome to learn Italian. (I reviewed it here.)

[Kristin]

Reading Isabel Allende's My Invented County & feel strongly that it works here as a travel memoir.

[Brent]

I read Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, by William Finnegan.

[Stina]

I am thinking I might switch to Kon-Tiki: Across The Pacific In A Raft, as I just came across a copy the other day.

[Tara]

I read Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton. She does a great job of giving background on the countries she visited as Secretary of State.

[Cindy]

I am currently reading Three Singles to Adventure by Gerald Durrell. It's hilarious.

[Rayne]

I just finished The Voluntourist: A Six-Country Tale of Love, Loss, Fatherhood, Fate, and Singing Bon Jovi in Bethlehem. Great read! Thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Helen | readwithneleh]

Would The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative work for this task? I'm guessing so, but just want to make sure!

[Monica]

I just picked up Gironimo! Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy by Tim Moore yesterday on Amazon kindle sale $2.99 with the expressed purpose of using it for this task. Looking forward to it.

[Sarah]

I just finished The Motorcycle Diaries, which I'm using for this task, but it would also work well for task #4.

[Karen]

I'm cheating a little for this category. I'm using All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Matsai. It's fiction, but the narrator reminds us repeatedly that it is not a novel, it is a memoir, to excuse his poor writing. Or Elan Matsai does. Whatever. He isn't wrong - it is poor writing. And most of the traveling being done is time traveling. But personally I probably couldn't force myself all the way through an actual travel memoir, so this is as good as it's going to get.

[Storm Indigo]

Mona wrote: "Another resource...

10 Travel Memoirs by Novelists of Color
http://www.ishqinabackpack.com/10-tra..."

thank you!

[Cristy]

It is now evident that travel memoirs are not my thing. A Walk in the Woods and A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside seemed rather loved by the community at large, but I found both dull.

[Bonnie G.]

Cristy wrote: "It is now evident that travel memoirs are not my thing. A Walk in the Woods and A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside seemed rather loved by the c..."

I fail to understand the love for Bill Bryson. I find his writing dull and his commentary occasionally grating. Don't give up on travel memoirs though. There are so many good ones. Tony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour is fun. Steinbeck's Travels with Charley is really insightful and funny. Mark Salzman's Iron & Silk is a favorite of mine but I confess I was a travel bum in China at around the same time so it might be me. Che Guevara's Motorcycle Diaries has real political and historical import if you are a history or political buff. Into Thin Air changed my entire philosophy on adventure travel. There really are so many good options.

[Amanda]

Do you think Carsick by John Waters counts, as it's half memoir, half fiction? Not sure.

[Cristy]

Bonnie wrote: "Cristy wrote: "It is now evident that travel memoirs are not my thing. A Walk in the Woods and A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside seemed rather..."

Thanks for the suggestions. Have read Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential so probably should add A Cook's Tour to my list.

[Christie]

If you like very dry humor and history, Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation is a fun travel memoir.

[Bonnie G.]

Loved Assassination Vacation! Great suggestion.

[Amber]

In honor of camping this weekend, I re-read A Walk in the Woods. Love Bill Bryson, love Katz, love this book! It makes me want to go on an epic adventure.

[Emily]

Just finished this book by Jamaica Kincaid. Highly recommended!
A Small Place

[Fred]

I just finished Thank You for Coming to Hattiesburg: One Comedian's Tour of Not-Quite-the-Biggest Cities in the World by Todd Barry. Barry is the comedy-world equivalent of a character actor: you may not know the name (or even recognize him), but his deadpan sardonic delivery is unmistakable. I didn't have a lot of ideas to fulfill this task, so it was a nice surprise to know that one of my favorite comedian's first book also just happens to solve that problem for me. As the title says, it's a tour diary of smaller cities (and big towns) somewhat off the beaten path that highlights the places and people that make each stop unique. It's also a good "in-between" book, if you're reading something else and occasionally need a break: the chapters are all just a few pages, and it's pretty funny.

[Lucy]

I read Hokkaido Highway Blues. Hitchhiking Japan by Will Ferguson about a man travelling the length of Japan during cherry blossom season. I initially found it entertaining and insightful but it started to get a bit repetitive and grating towards the end. Worth a read for anyone interested in Japan

[Lucy]

I was actually planning to use Are We There Yet?: Travels with My Frontline Family by Rosie Whitehouse for this category but swapped it for the above when I realised it could count for the micropress category instead. I did find this book more interesting than Hokkaido Highway Blues however. It is about a woman who travels around Eastern Europe with her family (her husband is a war reporter) during the 1980s and 90s.

[Lucy]

Amanda wrote: "Do you think Carsick by John Waters counts, as it's half memoir, half fiction? Not sure."

From reading the description on goodreads I think Carsick would count although I've not read it myself. I hadn't heard of it before but love John Waters (although only seen his tamer films so far!) so I've added it to my 'to-read' list.

[Paula]

I am considering reading Traveling with Ghosts: A Memoir. Will this count for this challenge? I've been dreading/curious about reading this one. I ran across an article about the incident shortly after it happened. Since I figure much of the book takes place while the couple is backpacking around the world, I figured it might work.

[Melissa]

Traveling With Ghosts looks great. Thank you for suggesting!

[Elizabeth]

I just finished Ramshackle, which is a graphic memoir by a woman from Quebec who drove a minivan to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories with her boyfriend where they spent the summer (and ended up living there permanently after another year of travelling). It was really interesting since it's within my own country but a vastly different place.

It's funny, because in doing stuff like the Read Harder challenge for a few years in a row now, and becoming more interested in reading about other places in general, I've definitely found that I have read more books set in faraway countries or set locally than books simply set further away in my own country.

[Melissa]

I read The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevara. (Audiobook)

First, travel memoirs are not really my jam.
Second, I wish the narrator had added some kind of flair or something - to make Che's sense of humor more apparent. I spent a lot of time thinking, "wait, what? oh yeah, that was kinda funny." Maybe that's just one of the things lost in translation.

And I think that is really the crux of why this book was only okay for me ... I just didn't get the culture/the time period. All the times that they dupe someone into buying them dinner/paying for lodging/transportation just kind of bugged me. (Sorry!) I totally get that this was supposed to be a wild-where-the-wind-takes-us adventure. Made me think of On the Road - which I hated (sorry, not sorry).

[Chinook]

I also hated On the Road. At 16 I might have loved it because I was so wanting to travel myself but I read it in my thirties and the characters seemed like such jerks.

[Melissa]

Totally agree. I can appreciate the beauty of the actual manuscript - that long scroll in a stream of consciousness style. I just hate it - all I can see when I read it is some narcissistic man-child hell-bent on destrusction. It angers me to no end - the glorification of this kind of life - it's supposed to be some kind of validation for being a deadbeat, cheating on your wife, abandoning your kid - consequences be damned - all in the name of adventure. I call B.S.

[Scarlett]

Question for those who have read it: Would Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil count? It has been shelved as both "travel" and "memoir" and is on a list of best memoirs/autobiography/travel, but I thought of it as more of a true crime book?
TIA.

[Sam]

Just finished What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding: A Memoir for this challenge and loved it! This was my first travel memoir and Kristin Newman did not disappoint!

[Ann Marie]

Scarlett wrote: "Question for those who have read it: Would Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil count? It has been shelved as both "travel" and "memoir" and is on a list of best memoirs/autobiogra..."

I personally think it would be a bit of a stretch to call it a travel memoir--I agree with you that it's more true crime. Although it's a true story told in the first person, it's not really about the author, and while he does travel to Savannah, the focus is on the city itself, rather than the fact of him being a traveler.

[Bonnie G.]

Ann Marie wrote: "Scarlett wrote: "Question for those who have read it: Would Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil count? It has been shelved as both "travel" and "memoir" and is on a list of best m..."

I would agree with this. I would call it a biography of a city and definitely a true crime story.

[[deleted user]]

I read The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux for this task, although I don't enjoy it very much.

[Wellington]

I read Unbound by Steph Jagger for this challenge. It was about the author discovering who she is through a ski trip following winter around the world. The author felt that her life was good, but needed to bump things up another notch to challenge herself. She chose to do this through following winter around the world and skiing 4,000,000 vertical miles. The trip started out simple enough with some relatively easy hiccups. Once the trip really got going she discovered that this trip was about so much more than trying to ski 4,000,000 vertical miles. This trip was actually about discovering who she is as a complete person (warrior and goddess). The writing is authentic and the pacing is great. There is equal parts humor and honesty about what transpired during this momentous journey.

[Mel]

I ended up reading Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over by Geraldine Brooks, which was fairly interesting: follows the author's attempts to track down and meet up with the many pen pals she'd gained over the years.

[Paula]

I am reading Traveling with Ghosts: A Memoir to take care of this challenge. It's depressing but interesting. The writing is very approachable. If you pick it up, be ready to read about grief and the loss of a love one. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a real person who lost someone as she travels around the world.

[Penny]

I'm wondering if Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery counts?

I have other options but I'm going to be reading that one this month anyways.

[Jjean]

I think that would be interesting & it about Traveling.

[Megan]

I read The Tomb in Seville for this category; it would also work for the "book about war" prompt.

[Nancy]

I may be stretching it a bit. I read West with the Night by Beryl Markham, a memoir or autobiography originally published in 1942. I'm sure I've seen it on lists of travel books, and Markham is known, among other things, as being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west. However, only the last chapter of the book deals with that flight, and one with another risky trip from Africa to England. The remainder explores her childhood on a farm in what is now Kenya, a period when she was a young woman in which she trained race horses, and once she obtained her pilot's license, her experiences ferrying passengers (including big game hunters pursuing elephants), medical supplies, and mail on a regional level. It was all fascinating, but it's not as much of a "travel" book as I expected. But since it's now January 2018, I'm not going to look for another book to fit this prompt.