Tony Horwitz’s additions to the World Hum Top 30

Back in May, World Hum’s Top 30 Travel Books of all time included Tony Horwitz’s Baghdad Without a Map, which occupied the #26 slot. Curious about Horwitz’s take on the World Hum Top 30, I emailed him asking which travel books he might have included.

This is what Tony told me:

Off the top of my head, which is pretty empty at the moment, I’d say Jonathan Raban’s Old Glory : A Voyage Down the Mississippi, the best of his many fine books, and P.J. O’Rourke’s Holidays in Hell, for the sheer mad laughter of it, even though it’s not really a travel book. I’d also add La Relacion, or The Relation, by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, the Spanish conquistador-turned-castaway who wandered America in the early 16th century and became a faith healer to native Americans, among other things. It’s the first great American cross-Continental road trip, albeit before there were roads.