Travel Books
“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”
– Mark Twain
Books that transport the reader to destinations, teach about cultures, history, or food, or overall inspire travel.
Happy Reading!
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Summer Travel Reads
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Prisoners of Geography
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Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages
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The Historian
Travel Reads
Reading is a gift, to be able to step out of your own life for a little while, to be transported to far-away lands and times, to feel emotions and experiences, all from your armchair. Our favorite reads, both fiction and non-fiction, can send you on a journey that inspires or awes. These are stories that have opened up whole new worlds to us. They have inspired us to travel, and even to try living abroad. We love to read a story that is based on a location we’re about to visit. Whether fiction or non-fiction, it helps enrich your journey if you know something about a place before you go there.
We love browsing through a bookstore, but since living in Germany we have been reading mostly eBooks. When we’re in a big international airport, or in Ireland or the UK, we always hit a bookstore, looking for books in English. The independent shops are our favorites, for their quirky atmospheres and unique selections. We also appreciate the option of buying “real books” through Amazon. Our Want to Read Pile continues to grow faster than we can read, but it’s always satisfying to finish one, and start another.
Travel books that inspire us to visit a new location are wonderful. But truly the best are the books that make you feel that you’ve actually visited a place. To see in your mind’s eye the scenery, to hear the crowds, or the silence. To look up from a page and be surprised to find yourself wherever you are. These things are the amazing treasure that reading gives to all of us.