Nothing like beautiful sunsets, exotic food, long train rides... but wait, it has rained every day since you arrived? The samosa you ate from a food truck has left you ill? And so far the only thing long about your train ride is the wait to leave the station? Longing for a vacation but not all the hassle? Here is a list of Armchair Travel books that will make you feel like you had an exciting vacation without having to deal with a pat down from the TSA.
All these titles are available at SFPL, click on title for location:
Blue latitudes : boldly going where Captain Cook has gone before by Tony Horwitz.The author provides an account of his adventures tracing the voyages of eighteenth-century explorer Captain James Cook in an attempt to discover whether Cook had a lasting influence on the places he "discovered," and hoping to learn what drove Cook to make such dangerous journeys.
Other titles by Horwitz include books about the Middle East and Australia.
Dark star safari : overland from Cairo to Cape Town by Paul Theroux.Theroux returns to many of the places where he lived and worked as a Peace Corps volunteer and teacher in the 1960s. Always one to rankle readers and people he encounters.
Other titles by Theroux include books about England, Mediterranean, China and Oceania.
The best travel writing 2007 : true stories from around the world.A compilation that spans from Paris to Japan to Bolivia.
The Library also owns the series: The best American travel writing.
In a sunburned country / Bill Bryson.Taking readers on a ride far beyond packaged-tour routes, Bryson introduces to Australia. Leaving no Vegemite unsavored, readers will accompany Bryson as he dodges jellyfish while learning to surf at Bondi Beach, discovers a fish that can climb trees and dehydrates in deserts where the temperatures leap to 140 degrees.
Smile when you're lying : confessions of a rogue travel writer by Chuck Thompson.
Thompson has spent more than a decade traipsing through thirty-five (and counting) countries across the globe, and he's had enough. Enough of the half-truths demanded by magazine editors, enough of the endlessly recycled cliches regarded as good travel writing, and enough of the ugly secrets fiercely guarded by the travel industry. But mostly he's had enough of returning home from assignments and leaving the most interesting stories and provocative insights on the editing-room floor.
For more titles, check out the Armchair Travel display on view at the library during the month of June.
