Travel Literature Makes My Heart Beat Faster.. discussion
better to read before or after?
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Boy, that's a good question. I usually get ideas about where I want to go by reading about it first, then again, I've come back and researched the place. Both ways have worked out. Maybe it's situation specific.
I've often done both. Read it, plan it, do it and then come home and re-read everything. OFtentimes its like reading a whole new book because of all the new things you know and people and places youve experienced!
I try to do both. But I've sometimes read things after and thought, "I wish I had read this before I went. I would have been sure to see this or do that."
I would always read before going to a new place but not as likely if I've been to the place before
I definitely do both. I read ahead of time to get a feel for the place, and then upon return to learn more about things I saw/experienced.
I totally agree, Suzanne. Maybe there are some places that when you get home you're finished with and some you want to enrich your trip with by reading more.
I also read about places before I go, to get an idea of what's there and what I'd like to see and do. If it is an exotic place, like Borneo, I read an adventurous trip there to get a feeling for the place, though I don't expect to do the same things! I have traveled by books, however, when first in England, I traveled by H.V. Morton's books, mainly his "In Search of..." books. They are very out of date, some written before WWII, but for information, gossip, and history, they can't be beat!!!
I'm a fan of reading fiction before I go and nonfiction after I go. That way I'm free to have my own experience but I'll have some insight into the city.
Great thoughts! I don't actually have that much experience traveling, so I don't have personal experience with either approach. I'd like to visit the Amazon sometime this year and was wondering how to prep, literature-wise. I guess I should be in the read-before camp, since I don't speak Spanish or Portuguese and I know pretty much nothing about the region.
When I read a travel book I form mental imges in my mind of the place from the discriptions of the authors. and many times visualize visiting the place before or if ever I see it. Right now I amm seeing Ladakh in Andrew Harveys pocket. I am with him every step of the way and once away from the book I revisit the place in my mind as though I had been there. MY QUESTION IS; If you read before you travel, and build up your own set of expectations are you ever disapointed when you arrive?
What about during? I was recently lucky enough to get a chance to read Garcia Marquez's "Love in the Time of Cholera" in Cartagena, Colombia, where it was written, and it was wonderful to wander the streets and realize how little (and how much) it's changed in the 100+ years since its setting. I love picking books from countries I'm about to visit and bringing them with me.Ken-Ichi: for the Amazon, I highly recommend "The Lost City of Z," published last year and on loads of "Best of '09" lists, about the search for El Dorado (said to be buried somewhere in the Amazon). It has a ton of information about the Amazon in general and the societies that still live there, and it's terrifically fun to read.
Forgot about that option, Alex. I remember reading Irving Stone's "Lust for Life" while traveling in Provence and it was wonderful to be exactly where Van Gogh had painted and suffered so much mental anguish. It made it real apart from all the tourist trappings.
This question rather dove tails with a thread I posted months ago about being inspired first about a place and then traveling there.The one place that was exactly as I had fantasized after reading Pierre Deux "French Country", was Provence and it has never let me down whenever I go back. I think that's rare however.
Read before, during and after I say. I especially like to read fiction about a place - it is such a thrill when you find places that are mentioned in the novels, streets, landmarks, cafes etc. Makes you feel like you are one of the characters.
Thoughts?