Over the river and through the woods... then over the next river, through a few more woods, across a plain, over a mountain, through a desert and along a distant shore. Sure, you may be heading for grandma's house this week, but that doesn't mean you have to stop there. And if your '84 Colt Vista isn't up to the trip, why not travel by way of the printed page? The seats on Literary Airlines always have more legroom, and the snacks are the best.
Let's take a look at some titles that aren't exactly travel books, but which do bring you to some exotic locations.
With Lawrence in Arabia by Lowell Thomas
As a kid, all I knew of "el Aurens" was what I'd seen on the giant screen while watching David Lean's epic film. In college I was disappointed by a number of Lawrence debunkers, who downplayed the man's triumphs, waved away his misery, and scoffed at his internal conflicts. Then a friend was nice enough to pick me up a copy of this book. If you've seen the film, you may remember the character of "Jackson Bentley," a journalist who travels with Lawrence on several of his adventures, and who helps to package up the "legend" of the man for world consumption. In real life, that role fell to Lowell Thomas. Thomas would go on to a long career in journalism, but when he and T. E. Lawrence met in 1918, they were both young men. Thomas' account sometimes has both the soft-focus and huckstering tone of a 1930 newsreel. But at other times the lens seems shockingly close and the prose positively unflinching. Thomas may have created Lawrence the legend, but he did it on the bones of Lawrence the man. And never has the sprawling backdrop of desert wastes and mountain fastness seemed more terrible and more beautiful. If it's getting cool where you live, pick up this volume and prepare to feel some heat.
Neither Here nor There by Bill Bryson
Bryon is better know for his frequently interrupted hike along the Appalachian Trail in A Walk in the Woods and for his recent compilations of historical incidents like A Short History of Nearly Everything, but the most enjoyable volumes of his work are the number of casual travelogues he's written describing his journeys around England and his reaction on returning to (and fleeing from) America. In this book, Bryson ventures across the Channel to take a knockabout tour of the European continent, roughly following the path that he and high school friend "Steve Katz" traced out over two decades before. Bryson weaves together the stories of the travels of a pair of backpacking teenagers and the follow up solo visit from a well-off, middle-aged man. The insights he gives into the countries he visits are worth a stack of Fodor's guides (though someone please remind me that I never want to go on a trip with Bill Bryson).
Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon
Taking a life-changing journey doesn't necessarily mean digging out your passport and buying a copy of Rosetta Stone: Swahili edition. After losing his job in an earlier Republican recession, William Least Heat-Moon climbed into an aging van and went out to see America away from the cities and the interstates. The author's voice is a cord that pulls the work together, but along that cord are spread the voices of Americans -- Americans whose thoughts provide more insight into the current state of the nation than you might think. Least Heat-Moon's work is far from the only "let's go see the 'real' America!" travelogue on the stands. But unlike many it's written with genuine humility and with an ear toward what people are actually saying, rather than a eye for things that confirm a foregone conclusion. It's not the only book if its kind, but it is the best.
Endurance by Alfred Lansing
If you can't stand the heat... heck, why not go to Antarctica? Well, one good reason is that you might end up trapped on the ice for over a year, as Ernest Shackleton and his crew did in 1914. Six years earlier, Shackelton had come within a few hundred miles of the South Pole. Since then, Amundson had claimed the prize of tagging Earth's backside, but the 1908 failure gnawed at Shackelton. On the ship Endurance, designed to press through the thick ice of the Antarctic Seas, he forced his way to within a few dozen miles of the barren shore only to end up hoplessly wedged in ice with the end of summer coming on. With no hope of rescue the ship had to be abandoned, and Shackleton's crew set out, dragging boats across the ice as sledges, knowing that even if they reached open water it would be a sea filled with massive icebergs, towering waves, and stinging winds. The unlikeliness of survival and the scale of the journey would make it easy to turn what happens to Shackleton into syrupy hero-worship, but Lansing's account is as spare as the icy landscape. One of the most astounding true stories ever told, both because it's told well and because it's simply one of the most astounding things that ever happened.
The sands of Arabia, the icy wastes of Antarctica, the varied cities of Europe, and the endless back country miles of America; just four destinations for you if you get tired of lingering near the remains of the turkey and dressing.
Where are you going to go this week?