2010 books, gear, and gifts (from my own collection)

A couple of weeks ago I offered signed copies of my two books as a holiday gift option; today I want to share a few other gift ideas. Each year publishers and gear companies send me far more books and equipment than I can review here — but a lot of what I get turns out to be quite useful and/or interesting. Here are some examples of recently released travel-themed items that I’ve enjoyed over the course of 2010:

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory, by Peter Hessler.
2010 was a big year for books about international road and surface travel — and Hessler’s book about China’s emerging car culture was the best of them (Carl Hoffman’s The Lunatic Express runs a strong second). A longtime China correspondent for the New Yorker, Hessler has great reporting skills, an engaging and good-humored voice, and a keen eye for Chinese culture.

Tonoharu, by Lars Martinson.
As a fan of both expatriate memoirs and graphic novels (I recommended Guy Delisle’s graphic memoir Burma Chronicles in a Guardian roundup a couple of years ago), I enjoyed Martinson’s meticulously illustrated Tonoharu series, the second volume of which came out this year (part one was published in 2008). Tonoharu is a fictionalized look at the life of an American teacher-expat in Japan, and so many details of this story reminded me of my own experiences teaching in Korea in the late 1990s. Graphic novels are good at capturing the nuances of straightforward events — and in particular Martinson employs silences and lack of English dialogue to communicate the sense of isolation that comes with one’s first few weeks of working in an unfamiliar land.

Vida, by Patricia Engel.
Patty is a former student at my Paris writing workshop, and she certainly did us proud with this collection of interconnected short stories about a girl who is the daughter of Colombian immigrants. As critics have noted, Engel’s prose is spare, razor-sharp, and disarmingly funny — and Vida continues to land glowing reviews and year-end top-10 mentions from the likes of the New York Times.

Lonely Planet’s A Moveable Feast: Life-Changing Food Adventures Around the World, edited by Don George.
I’m not usually a fan of food-travel books, but this essay collection offers up a great menu of culinary adventures from places like Mongolia, Mexico, and Morocco. Contributors include Anthony Bourdain, Tim Cahill, Pico Iyer, Andrew Zimmern, Simon Winchester, Jan Morris, Elisabeth Eaves, David Downie, Jim Benning, Lawrence Millman, Amanda Jones, Laura Frasier, Larry Habegger, and Jeff Greenwald.

Chronicles of Old New York: Exploring Manhattan’s Landmark Neighborhoods, by James Roman.
I took my parents to New York this spring, and this book, which contains 25 intriguing tales from the history of the city, really captured my father’s imagination and brought the city to life for him (which in turn allowed me to see sides of the city I’d missed in all my previous visits). The book also features self-guided walking tours of nine historical NYC neighborhoods.

Travel shoes: Kuru Travel Shoes.
I’m such a fan of Blundstone boots that I can’t imagine vagabonding long-term in much else — but if boots aren’t your style, Kuru makes a sturdy and versatile travel shoe that performs well and looks good. I’ve mainly been wearing mine at home or on short trips to places like New York, and they’ve proven comfortable regardless of whether I’m doing chores on the prairie or pounding the pavement in the big city.

Travel shorts: Molecule Cargo Shorts.
I don’t own many pairs of shorts anymore, since I tend not to wear them much on the road (I find a well-designed pair of pants to be more versatile — even in hot weather — and a pair of surfing-style board-shorts can do double-duty in your pack). That said, I love the look and design of these cargo shorts. If you’re more of a shorts/sandals traveler than a pants/boots traveler, these are a great option (the biggest drawback being that they can be bulky if you’re packing them instead of wearing them).

Travel pants: ScotteVest Flex Cargo Pants.
ScotteVest outfitted my baggage-free round-the-world journey earlier this year. I didn’t bring the Flex Cargo pants on that journey, but I have a pair I wear at home and on shorter journeys. SeV products are known for pockets, but I like the Flex Cargo pants less for carrying capacity than comfort: It’s like you’re wearing sweats, only the advantage is that you’re not wearing sweats.

Travel bag: GoLite TraveLite convertible bag.
Scott Gilbertson reviewed this bag for us earlier this year, and hit on all its pluses and minuses for vagabonding travel. I don’t know if I’d use it overseas for the long-term, but it’s great for one-bag journeys in the U.S. — and in fact I’d reckon you’re carrying too much if you can’t fit everything into its space-maximizing, overhead-bin-sized dimensions.

Posted by | Comments (1)  | December 13, 2010
Category: Travel Gear, Travel Writing


One Response to “2010 books, gear, and gifts (from my own collection)”

  1. Chuck Says:

    It’s always good to read more travel books. It helps me not only write better by seeing more samples of good writing, but also allows me to see the world a bit differently. I’ll be sure to check some of these out. Thanks!