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Fosco Maraini , 'Secret Tibet'
It will be clear to the reader from the start that in the tradition of Italian travelers from the days of Marco Polo, Fosco Maraini went to Tibet to learn, to understand, to give, and to receive. His encounter with the people, from princesses to peasants, aided as he was by a good knowledge of the language, is a true meeting of minds. The text, which attests to the disciplines of the scholar allied to the sensitivity of the poet, is enriched by the indisputable narrative value of the author's photographs, including ones of many Buddhist temple artifacts now forever lost. Maraini brings back to life a world that will never be seen again. |
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Harold William Tilman - The Seven Mountain Exploration Books / The Eight Sailing and Mountaineering Books
The Sea’s most powerful spell is romance, that romance which, in the course of time, has gathered round the ships and the men who sailed upon it –the strange coasts and their discoveries, the storms and the hardships, the fighting and the trading, and all the strange things that happened and still do happen to those who venture upon it’. Harold William Tilman, 1958
A sailor... ‘ventures under sail upon strange coasts, seeking those first experiences, and trying to feel as felt the earlier men in happier times, to see the world as they saw it’ |
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Evelyn Waugh - When the Going Was Good
Many travel writers do their best to report and describe the world as it is. Evelyn Waugh would have none of it. 'When the going was good' implies that the world was probably better off once, before the era of the 'politically correct' and the 'bi-partisan', before the end of the British Empire, before the age of passports and visas. From a true English gentleman's point of view, he was probably right. Eurocentric and proud to be so, Waugh never even considered a second place for Western culture. And the style of his prose is a strong point in his favour. If you follow his path nowadays, cruising the Mediterranean, cycling through Africa and wandering around South America, you'd probably end up agreeing with him... |
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Mark Twain - The Innocents Abroad
Dear reader, be prepared to a travel writing masterpiece. Mr. Clemence casts off in search of his roots, of America's roots, in what is essentially a pilgrimage to the place where culture and Jesus were born, the Mediterranean and the Holy Land. And the European glory comes down to earth. Like a Victorian around Africa, Twain cynically underlines the overwhelming misery, the pungent odours, the raggy beggars and the cronic incapability to pursue and achieve progress. With the exception of Paris, most cities come out badly, to say the least. Marseille, Genoa, Rome, Naples, Athens... surely not at their zenith in those days. Twain's pen is unique, and his gloat in using it a pleasure for the reader. Even for a European. |
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Nicolas Bouvier - The Way of the World
'We really do not know what to call this inner compulsion. Something grows, and loses its moorings, so that the day comes when, none too sure of ourselves, we nevertheless leave for good. Travelling outgrows its motives, it soon proves sufficient in itself. You think you are making a trip, but soon it is the trip that is making you – or unmaking you'.
1950s, Balkans, Persia, Central Asia. People, artists, thugs, peasants, feelings and above all the choice and the motives for leaving. Travelling becomes the subject. Poor translation of the French title, 'L'Usage du Monde', 'The Use for the World'. The world has no meaning if we do not travel. All the rest is just a scene for the play of reality. Surprise surprise, the traveller's world hasn't really changed much in 50 years. Certainly not for the better. |
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Robert Pirsig - The Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
One of the most important and influential books written in the past half-century, Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live . . . and a breathtaking meditation on how to live better. Here is the book that transformed a generation: an unforgettable narration of a summer motorcycle trip across America's Northwest, undertaken by a father and his young son. A story of love and fear — of growth, discovery, and acceptance — that becomes a profound personal and philosophical odyssey into life's fundamental questions, this uniquely exhilarating modern classic is both touching and transcendent, resonant with the myriad confusions of existence . . . and the small, essential triumphs that propel us forward |
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Apsley Cherry-Garrard - The Worst Journey in the World
One of the great tales of exploration, originally published in 1922. Cherry-Garrard's epic midwinter journey to the emperor penguin rookery is just a warm-up for the main event: his vivid account of Scott's doomed last expedition. This huge book, called the best adventure tale ever written, is well worth the effort. It was neighbor George Bernard Shaw, an early supporter of Cherry-Garrard, who bestowed the title. |
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Peter Matthiessen - The Snow Leopard
A vivid memoir of a five-week journey through Nepal with George Schaller in search of the magnificent leopard. As perceptive, wonderful and acutely descriptive as any of Matthiessen's writing. |
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Bruce Chatwin - Songlines
This much-celebrated travelogue is as much about its gifted author and the meaning of travel as it is about the Aboriginal people and their ways of life. Chatwin combines straightforward reporting, history and a heady mix of quotations from his notebooks.
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