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| The Reading Room |
| Susan Griffith – Work Your Way Around The World
ISBN 1-85458-251-8 Revised every other year, this is an indispensable resource for anyone considering doing just what the title suggests. Insider tips on the best places to find work, it covers most regions of the world, all the possible types of work available, legal requirements of each country, contributions from recent travellers, links to further resources and one hell of a lot more! |
| Lonely Planet – Healthy Travel, Asia & India
ISBN 1-86450-051-4 A user-friendly guide to minimising health risks and dealing with problems while on the road. Small enough to take along with you, if you’re that worried! |
| Lonely Planet – Read This First, Asia & India.
ISBN 1-86450-049-2 An essential read for anyone planning his or her first trip to this region. It contains everything you need to know about planning and once you get there. Asia is a captivating part of the world, but a little preparation will always help you through the culture shock of your first visit. |
| Bill Bryson, Down Under
ISBN 0-385-40817-X Without doubt one of Bryson’s greatest works. Yet again he manages to combine his unique style of wit with giving a thorough insight into the country and the Australian people. Funny and informative all at the same time, you’ll read it again and again! |
| Bill Bryson, Notes From A Small Island
ISBN 0-552-99600-9 After two decades in Britain, Bryson decided to move back to his home country of America. But first he would take one last trip around Britain to delve into what makes it so interesting and varied. Written with great humour, and always interesting to read about journeys in your own country. |
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| Michael Palin – Full Circle
ISBN 0-563-37121-8 No collection of travel books could be complete without one of Palin’s offerings! As with many of my favourite authors, he combines humour with factual content superbly. This is the account of what must have been one of his most ambitious journeys of all – the circumnavigation of the Pacific Rim. In just under a year, he passes through the eighteen countries that border the world’s largest ocean. An all time favourite! |
| Will Randall – Solomon Time
ISBN 0-349-11502-8 Accosted by a drunken girl at a wedding, Will is informed that if you’re not married by the time you’re thirty-two you should grab the first person that walks past or give up and go abroad. So when the opportunity arises to swap teaching for the South Pacific, it is an offer that Will – single and eighteen months past his sell-by date – is unable to refuse. This is an account of his time spent on the remote Solomon Islands. He was charged with the task of aiding the people of Mendali to run a viable business, providing self-sufficiency for the community. Funny, and heart warming! |
| Jonny Bealby – Silk Dreams, Troubled Road
ISBN 0-09-941469-4 * My best read of 2004* Whilst in Islamabad, Bealby met the woman of his dreams. Not only that, she seemed to be the person with whom he could live out his dream of travelling the old Silk road on horseback. During the intervening period however, the wheels fell off the relationship. With his heart set on the journey, he set about finding a complete stranger as his companion. He found Sarah – attractive, warm and funny – and the perfect candidate for possible romance. Not only is this the remarkable story of their adventure across central Asia, but also an intriguing illustration of human relationships as they are tested to the limits. A book I found hard to put down…I’d recommend it to anyone! |
| Birute M F Galdikas – Reflections of Eden
ISBN 0-575-40002-1 In the style of Dian Fossey and her gorillas, this is the enthralling story of Birute Galdikas, a pioneering primatologist who has devoted her adult life to studying and protecting the orangutans of Borneo. |
| William Dalrymple, City of Djinns
ISBN 0-00-637595-2 Dalrymple spent a year in Delhi, uncovering its long and varied past. Partly dairy but mostly a historical account, I found it quite hard going! Despite that, his writing enables you to feel you are there with him and is useful for anyone intent on visiting Delhi. The city has a fascinating history, with which modern day Delhi is still so closely connected. |
| Joan & Clay Blair, JR – Return from the River Kwai
ISBN 0-345-29007-0 I am always cautious of books or films in which the title begins with “Return”! But this true story deserves a mention I reckon. Everyone has heard of the Bridge over the River Kwai, perhaps even seen the movie. Well, ever wondered what happened to many of those guys when the bridge was done for? I didn’t either – until stuck in rural Quebec without a decent book to read, I picked this up out of desperation as the only English book I could find. The Japanese picked out two thousand of the fittest men in order to ship them for labouring in Japan. Of course, even the fittest were in a pretty rotten state by then, but there you go. Things were looking up for a while, until they saw the conditions they were to be kept in aboard the ships. The journey from Singapore was fraught with danger, as the ships were constantly hunted by US submarine blockades who had no way of knowing these ships contained POW’s. All of the ships were torpedoed, most men died at sea. This is a moving, and often disgusting account from the survivors themselves of that journey at the hands of the Japanese. |
| The Darwin Awards - Survival of the fittest ISBN 0-84353-101-1 The Darwin Award is given to people who manage to kill themselves in a spectacularly stupid way. Their catch line is "people who improve the human gene pool, by removing themselves from it"! A collection of all the best stories, currently on third edition. |
| Tony Hawks – Round Ireland with a Fridge
ISBN 0-09-186777-0 The result of a drunken bet, Tony is charged with the important task of hitchhiking around Ireland, with a fridge. Follow him on his adventure, where unsurprisingly, alcohol plays a significant part in the story. The Sunday Independent review says it all “Not just brilliantly written, but far too hilarious to read alone in a public place”. |
| Stuart Lloyd – Hardship Posting
ISBN 0-646-37883-X True tales of expat misadventure in Asia. Need I say more?! Essential present for any old wing commanders who “did their time” in Asia, likewise for their modern day counterpart who may need something to aspire to…. |
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| Che Guevara – The Motorcycle Diaries
ISBN 0-007-182228 In January 1952, two young men from Buenos Aires set out to explore South America on an ancient Norton motorbike. The journey lasted six months and took them thousands of miles, all the way from Argentina to Venezuela. En route, there was disasters and discoveries, high drama, low comedy, fights, parties and a lot of serious drinking. They met an extraordinary range of people: native indians and copper miners, lepers, police, wanderers and tourists. They became stowaways, firemen and football coaches, and joined in a strike. They sometimes fell in love, and frequently fell off the motorbike. Both of them kept diaries. One of them was a tall and good-looking medical student called Ernest Guevara de la Serna. Using the standard Argentinean nickname, others would sometimes refer to the two companions as Big Che and Little Che. In Ernesto's case, the nickname stuck. Within a decade the whole world would know Che Guevara. This is the story of that remarkable journey, eight years before the Cuban Revolution, in Che's own words, and illustrated with contemporary photographs. For Che, it was a formative experience, and amidst the humour and pathos of the tale, there are examples of his idealism and his solidarity with the poor and the oppressed. But it is far from being the diary of a militant, and sometimes very far from being "political correct", which may be the reason that the manuscript has only been made available now, a quarter century after Che's death in the Bolivian jungle. Instead, it is a record kept by an exuberant, intelligent and observant 23-year-old, describing what might have been the adventure of a lifetime - had his lifetime not turned into a much greater adventure. |
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| Steve Savage - Everywhere but Missouri Mate! ISBN - not yet available If you have been anywhere else on this site you'll have surely come across the name Steve Savage along the way, and links to his site The Savage Files. Well, this is Steve's first offering to the literary world. It is an account of his extended travels across the United States, of his adventures and misadventures. Over three seperate trips, several years apart, Steve offers his observations of contemporary America as he hitched to all points on the compass. The latest leg of this ongoing trip was chronicled on the above website. As his readership increased, so started the offers of hosting, ensuring he would come to meet an interesting assortment of people along the way. The book includes a historical rundown of his homeland, Australia and a comprehensive amusing glossary of "Aussia English". Why not take a look around The Savage Files first, get a feel for things then place your order. Remember, this is a limited run book - it could be worth millions in the future! And you can thank me for bringing it to you!!! |
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| A few favourite travel books. ISBN no's, for your convenience should you wish to track any of these down for yourself. |
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| Bryn Thomas - Trans-Siberian Handbook ISBN 1-873756-70-4 The definitive guide to the Trans-Siberian Railway. A trip across Siberia on the longest continuous railway track in the world is a journey of a lifetime. It can also be a lot of hassle to organise - this guide offers comprehensive coverage along the way, including the Trans-Manchurian & Trans Mongolian branches of the line. 38 maps in English, Russian & Chinese. Detailed history of the line right up to it's use today. Accomodations, eats & must see's covered for Moscow, St Petersburg, Ulan Bator, Beijing and 23 towns in Siberia; also Minsk, Berlin, Baltic Republics, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Tokyo. Russian & Chinese phrase guide, rail fares and timetables. This book has been a real pleasure to read. It's full of first-hand accounts from travellers, all the tips that that give a better insight into preparing for your journey. They have distilled Russia's complex history into very readable sections. If I was doing just this journey then flying home, it would definitely be my choice of guide. Unfortunately this otherwise perfect book is printed on heavy paper, rendering it twice as thick as the one below - thus it lose's out on bulk. |
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| Lonely Planet - Trans-Siberian Railway ISBN 1-86450-335-1 All the above, in Lonely Planets tried & trusted user friendly format. Plus extensive features on history, literature and nature. Generally all you could need to know, but not as readable as above. It wins hands down on size and weight as the guide to take, if travelling light. |
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| Fi Glover - Travels with my Radio ISBN 009188274-5 The feisty Fi Glover turns her talented hand from BBC R4/Five Live to "Travels with my Radio". Fi, a self confessed radio nut hits the road, with her wind up radio, in search of all those quirky little stations out there on the waves - and meets the people behind them. Perhaps more radio than travel, as such, but none-the-less interesting, Fi tries to get a feel for a place purely from what's on the wirless. I'll quote my favourite paragraph - "Las Vegas, I have always thought, is a 'she' town. She sits in the middle of the Nevada desert like a fun-loving lady of the night advertising her services - skirts a little short, tops a little low and jewellery so gaudy it would make Pat Butcher look dowdy. I don't know what defines a city's sex really other than a certain feel and glow. I reckon that London is a 'he' town; I should imagine that most of the big Spanish towns are masculine too, rather testosterone driven and on a hot day positively randy. Bangkok is a pretty hermaphrodite and Paris is the ultimate lady town - tastefully dressed but wearing raunchy underwear underneath". And finally - "Like an acne-ridden teenager, Vienna appears a lot sexier at night". |
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| The Rough Guide to the Internet Not strictly a travel book I know. The internet has become my most important research tool for planning this journey, and of course setting up this web site was integral to this trip. This guide has helped me find my way and I would recommend it to novice and expert alike. It is updated often - next time you see it on the shelves, read the excellent reviews. Everyone should have a copy sat next to their machine. |
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| Nick Middleton - Extremes Along The Silk Road (adventure off the world' oldest superhighway) ISBN 0-7195-6724-6 Groundbreaking geographer and broadcaster Middleton' extraordinary account of surviving the life-sapping Gobi desert, the icy passes of Tibet, and the great steppes of Kazakhstan. Weaving together personal experience of almost ridiculous endurance - sleeping on steaming rocks in the middle of a sub-zero desert and courting altitude sickness in otherwise meditative Tibet. This is brillian adventure writing from a man who has dared to go places that often history has feared to tread. |
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| Chris Ayres - War Reporting For Cowards (between Iraq and a hard place) ISBN 0-7195-6001-2 Chris Ayres is a small-town boy, a hypochondriac, and a neat freak with an anxiety disorder. Not exactly the picture of a war correspondent. But when his boss asks him if he would like to go to Iraq, he doesn't have the guts to say no. After signing a $1 million life-insurance policy, studying a tutorial on repairing severed limbs, and spending $20,000 in camping gear (only to find out that his bright yellow tent makes him a sitting duck), Ayres is embedded with a battalion of gung ho Marines who either shun him or threaten him when he files an unfavorable story. As time goes on, though, he begins to understand them (and his inexplicably enthusiastic fellow war reporters) more and more: Each night of terrifying combat brings, in the morning, something more visceral than he has ever experienced-the thrill of having won a fight for survival. In the tradition of M*A*S*H, Catch-22, and other classics in which irreverence springs from life in extremis, War Reporting for Cowards tells the story of Iraq in a way that is extraordinarily honest, heartfelt, and bitterly hilarious. |
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| Tony Horwitz - Into The Blue: Boldy Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before ISBN 0-7475-6455-8 Captain Cook explored more of the earth's surface than anyone in history, and introduced the west to an unknown world of taboo and tattoo, of cannibalism and ritual sex. Pulitzer Prize winner Horwitz vividly recounts Cook's adventures, and experiences some of them firsthand. He works as a sailor aboard a replica of Cook's ship, meets Miss Tahiti and the King of Tonga, and explores the captain's legacy across today's globe: from Bora-Bora to the Bering Sea, from the Great Barrier Reef to Savage Island, from Cook's birthplace in Yorkshire to the beach where he died in Hawaii. Poignant, probing and exhilarating, Into the Blue brings to life a man and a mission that indelibly marked the world we know today. |
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| Peter Moore - The Wrong Way Home (London to Sydney the Hard Way) ISBN 0-553-81238-6 When Peter Moore announced he was going to travel home from London to Sydney without stepping on to an aeroplane he was met with a resounding why? The answer was a severe case of hippie envy: hippies had the best music, the best drugs, the best sex. But most of all, they had the best trips. A fantastic journey, written with humour and accuracy. Hard to put down, you'll have some late nights with this one! |
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