Travel classics in Bookmarks Magazine

The May/June issue of Bookmarks Magazine has a feature on adventure travel books, and I serve as a panelist along with Jeff Greenwald, Laura Fraser, and Larry Habegger. My “Top Three” literary travel books are as follows:

Walt WhitmanLeaves of Grass
This book deserves status as a travel classic — if for no reason other than “Song of the Open Road”, an infectiously joyous ode to the wandering spirit. But beyond such explicit travel anthems, Whitman’s masterpiece continually captures the attitude of curiosity and open-mindedness that comes with any engaged journey — be it a ferry ride from Brooklyn to Manhattan, or a sea-voyage to India.

Annie DillardPilgrim at Tinker Creek
Dillard’s evocation of a stretch of Virginia wilderness proves that travel need not be far-flung to be meaningful. Not only can the mindful experience of a single location yield a multitude of perspectives — such perspectives hint at a much richer spiritual realm latent anywhere one takes the time to seek it. “Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we sense them,” Dillard writes. “The least we can do is try to be there.”

Pico IyerVideo Night in Kathmandu
Iyer’s 1988 literary debut is an answer to all those critics who claim that great travel writing died once the terra incognita was mapped. As this Asia-themed collection of essays shows, the final frontier of adventure isn’t located on some distant mountain or impenetrable jungle — but in the intimate (and often comical) cross-cultural fascinations and discoveries that arise from an ever-shrinking world.

Bookmarks doesn’t have much online content, so you’ll have to hit the newsstand for the full article. Barnes and Noble (as well as many independent bookstores) generally carry the magazine.

Posted by | Comments Off on Travel classics in Bookmarks Magazine  | May 9, 2005
Category: Travel Writing

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