Today I get to talk about two of my favorite subjects – and, as it happens, two of my favorite pastimes as well – Trips and books.
Before I discovered the wonders of traveling, I still traveled in my mind, through my imagination. Now, I still love to read, but I enjoy trotting the world in an equal measure. Still faithful to both of my passions, when I travel, I like to read: on the bus, in the train, from the backseat of a car. I don’t know if that is worth mentioning, but I would like to suggest a list of what I believe to be some of the best travel books ever (and I don’t mean boring travel guides, but actual literature):
1. On the Road by Jack Kerouac recounts the travels of the author and his friends throughout America. It was a “cult book” of the Beat generation and is regarded as one of the best English-language books in history. Time Magazine placed it in its top 100 Best novels from 1923 to 2005. This is pretty much the ultimate book to read while traveling.
2. Though it’s not about traveling per se, J. D. Salinger’s 1951 novel Catcher in the Rye will bring back all the flood of teenage emotions as we follow the (inner) journey of hero Holden Caulfield.
3. You might know him as the writer of bestseller melodramatic novel “The Fault in Our Stars”, but John Green has authored other books as well. One of them is the fun road trip novel An Abundance of Katherines, which tells the story of Colin Singleton, a child genius, who parts on a trip with his best friend to reveal a true enigma.
As I stop for more inspiration, let me just remind you a key aspect of traveling: planning. Be sure to have your international car rental ready when you get to your destination; that’s the moment to put the book down and get behind the wheel for the true road trip!
