Here's a page from Longitude, the specialty bookseller for travelers. To order online, and to see the latest, most comprehensive selection of books and maps, go to http://reading.longitudebooks.com/LO11357. You may also call 800-342-2164 to order or request a catalog.

Travels with Myself and Another, A Memoir  •  Martha Gellhorn TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2001 •  PAPER  • 304 PAGES The "Another" of this title (also known as the unwilling companion), was Gellhorn's husband at the time Ernest Hemingway. Her witty account of worldwide travels is a classic of unexpected encounters and sharp description. She's a marvelous, incisive writer who covered every important conflict from from the Spanish Civil War to Vietnam and Nicaragua. The book includes an uncomfortable journey to visit with Chiang Kai-Shek, a remarkbale look at dysfunctional Moscow, and escapades with Hemingway in East Africa. Originally published in 1979. Gellhorn died in 1998 at the age of eighty-nine. (TVL25, $15.95)
Arabian Sands  •  Wilfred Thesiger  •  Rory Stewart EXPLORATION •  2007 •  PAPER  • 400 PAGES • FAVORITE The last of the great British traveler-explorers, Wilfred Thesiger (1910-2003) journeyed among the nomadic camel-breeding peoples of Southern Arabia in the late 1940s, falling in love with the desert and ways of life of the Bedouin. This eloquent book, a Longitude favorite, is his tribute to vanished traditions. (ARB15, $15.00)
A Barbarian in Asia  •  Henri Michaux CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1986 •  PAPER  • 185 PAGES A poet, painter and personality, Michaux (Ecuador) captures the sublime and ridiculous in this satisfying collection of vignettes inspired by his travels in India, China and Japan in the 1930s. First published in 1945, these brief impressions of the people and land are worth reading aloud: witty, brief and razor sharp. (SEA06, $17.95)
Down the Nile, Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff  •  Rosemary Mahoney TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 273 PAGES Mahoney weaves the tale of her quest to row the Nile with deft portraits of the people she meets, particularly Amr, the sailor who takes her underwing, and astute comments on contemporary Egypt. She conjures too Herodotus, Gustave Flaubert, Florence Nightingale, Amelia Edwards and other famous travelers who have preceded her on the Nile. (EGY207, $14.99)
Iron and Silk  •  Mark Salzman TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1990 •  PAPER  • 211 PAGES Salzman gets himself to Changsha in the mid-1980s on the pretext of teaching English to Chinese doctors. His real mission, however, is to become a kung fu master. In this wonderfully readable travelogue he conveys a sense of contemporary life, its realities and frustrations -- and of his growing understanding of an alien culture. A major subplot is his ongoing relationship with Pan, the mentor to this awkward and overly enthusiastic American martial arts student. (CHN52, $13.95)
The Nomad, The Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt  •  Isabelle Eberhardt BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2003 •  PAPER  • 208 PAGES The daring adventures of the late 19th-century Swiss journalist who adopted Islam and traveled the Sahara disguised as an Arab man. Originally published by Virago Press in 1987. (NAF59, $12.95)
The Pine Barrens  •  John McPhee TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1978 •  PAPER  • 157 PAGES McPhee's masterful essays on the nature, history and personalities of New Jersey's Pine Barrens offer a compelling look at untouched wilderness while exploding our stereotypes of a turnpike-dominated Garden State. (USE418, $13.00)
Sea and Sardinia  •  D.H. Lawrence TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1999 •  PAPER  • 211 PAGES A marvelous, wry account of a trip to Sardinia, evoking both the charms and travails of the then-remote island, and the personality of the author. It's a pleasingly exaggerated, accessible portrait of life on the island, circa 1921. (ITL349, $15.00)
Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue: Scenes from the Non-Christian World  •  Paul Bowles  •  Edmund White TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2006 •  PAPER  • 192 PAGES Bowles' classic collection of eight travel essays, originally published in the 1950s, mostly about people and life in North Africa. The globe-skipping essays also include a chapter on tea plantations in Sri Lanka ("Fish Traps and Private Business"), a riff on South American parrots ("All Parrots Speak"), his travels in India ("Notes Mailed at Nagercoil") and thoughts on traveling to Istanbul with a Moroccan ("A Man Must Not Be Very Moslem"). Most of the articles were originally published in Holiday -- and the essays are much brighter and more affectionate than Bowles' fiction. The title is from a poem by Edward Lear: "Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live; Their heads are green and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve." (MRC60, $13.95)
To a Distant Island  •  James McConkey BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2000 •  PAPER In this really rather extraordinary book, masquerading in part as a book of travel, McConkey weaves tales of Chekhov's 1890 jaunt from Moscow to Sakhalin, with insightful commentary on the great Russian writer, and an account of his own sabbatical year in Florence. McConkey's supple, quiet prose is captivating and his ability to re-imagine Chekhov's travels remarkable. Originally published in 1984. (RUS269, $14.95)
A View of the World, Selected Journalism  •  Norman Lewis TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES This enormously pleasurable omnibus from the 1940s to the 1980s includes a sampling of travels, adventures and encounters by the ever insightful Norman Lewis. The 20 chapters include Belize, Liberia, Guatemala, the Amazon, Sardinia and Cuba. (TVL24, $32.95)
The Worst Journey in the World  •  Apsley Cherry-Garrard EXPLORATION •  2006 •  PAPER  • 573 PAGES • FAVORITE One of the great tales of exploration, originally published in 1922. Cherry-Garrard's epic midwinter journey to the emperor penguin rookery is just a warm-up for the main event: his vivid account of Scott's doomed last expedition. This huge book, called the best adventure tale ever written, is well worth the effort. It was neighbor George Bernard Shaw, an early supporter of Cherry-Garrard, who bestowed the title. (ANT23, $18.00)
Endurance, Shackleton's Incredible Voyage  •  Alfred Lansing EXPLORATION •  1998 •  PAPER  • 280 PAGES • BEST SELLER • FAVORITE An extraordinary tale of survival that reads like a good novel. It's the gripping day-by-day story of Shackleton's legendary perseverance: losing his ship in the ice, drifting helplessly across the Weddell Sea, and finally reaching Elephant Island, from where he sailed 800 miles to South Georgia to get help for his stranded men. With maps and a 8-page selection of Frank Hurley photographs. (ANT03, $14.95)
Farthest North  •  Fridtjof Nansen EXPLORATION •  2008 •  PAPER  • 687 PAGES The great Norwegian explorer Fridjof Nansen recounts his adventures in the Arctic in this classic memoir, originally published in 1897. He describes the design and building of his ingenious ship, the "Fram" (which is still on display in Oslo), his drift across the icy wasteland, his six-month-long sledge journey with Johansen (where they reached farthest north before turning back), and his final dash across the ice floes to Franz Joseph Land, where they overwintered before being picked up by a passing British expedition. It's quite a tale, illustrated with maps and photographs. (ARC60, $17.95)
In Patagonia  •  Bruce Chatwin TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1989 •  PAPER  • 204 PAGES • FAVORITE A masterpiece of travel, history and adventure. This award-winning book captures the spirit of the land, history, wildlife and people of Patagonia. There's no travel writer as engaging, insightful and just plain wonderful as Bruce Chatwin. (PAT01, $15.00)
In Trouble Again  •  Redmond O'Hanlon EXPLORATION •  1990 •  PAPER  • 272 PAGES • FAVORITE O'Hanlon starts this impossibly witty account of a four-month journey into the Venezuelan Amazon with a litany of the insects, protozoa, snakes and predators that can do you harm. A comic masterpiece, the book is also noteworthy for its excellent descriptions of the wildlife, environment and peoples of the Amazon. Imagine a PBS documentary hosted by the Monty Python troupe. (AMZ04, $13.95)
Captain John Smith, Writings With Other Narratives of Roanoke, Jamestown, and the First English Settlement of Virginia  •  James Horn JOURNAL •  2007 •  HARD COVER  • 1344 PAGES John Smith's collected writings on the New World, supplemented with contemporary accounts and illustrations, offers a fascinating look at the beginnings of the United States. (USA176, $45.00)
North American Indians  •  George Catlin JOURNAL •  2004 •  PAPER  • 560 PAGES A painter and naturally acute observer, Catlin's paintings and firsthand account of travels from 1831 to 1837 document the manners, customs and traditions of the Great Plain Indians before the full and devastating impact of westward expansion. Originally published in 1860, in two volumes, as Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians. (USW532, $17.00)
Portraits and Observations, The Essays of Truman Capote  •  Truman Capote ANTHOLOGY •  2007 •  HARD COVER  • 528 PAGES The most complete single-volume collection of Truman Capote's essays, from celebrity profiles to his acclaimed literary nonfiction. This anthology includes a reprint of The Muses Are Heard, Capote's 1956 satirical portrait of an American theater troupe performing Porgy and Bess in Soviet Russia. (USA175, $28.95)
I See By My Outfit  •  Peter S. Beagle TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2007 •  PAPER  • 238 PAGES Although better-known for his fantasy writing (The Last Unicorn), Beagle penned a winning travelogue about his journey across a changing America on a motor scooter in 1963. A classic, newly reprinted. (USA174, $14.95)
Democracy in America  •  Alexis de Tocqueville CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2007 •  PAPER  • 777 PAGES An abdridged edition ofToqueville's classic and prescient study of America's evolving democracy. (USA173, $15.95)
Cross Country  •  Robert Sullivan TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2007 •  PAPER  • 416 PAGES • NEW Sullivan's marvelously digressive chronicle of a cross-country road trip, the history of the Interstate system, fast-food, variety of to-go coffee cup lids, the marvels of the roadside attraction and many, many other subjects. (USA135, $14.95)
The Definitive Journals of Lewis and Clark  •  Gary Moulton  •  Meriwether Lewis  •  William Clark BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2002 •  PAPER  • 3404 PAGES The seven core volumes of Moulton's authoritative Lewis and Clark journals, in a paper edition. With maps, illustrations and invaluable footnotes. (USW463, $174.00)
In the Country of Country, A Journey to the Roots of American Music  •  Nicholas Dawidoff MUSIC •  1998 •  PAPER  • 384 PAGES A heartfelt account of a journey through the South in search of traditional country music. The author interviews luminaries from the genre's heyday, including George Jones, Earl Scruggs and Bill Monroe. (MUS33, $15.95)
The Lewis and Clark Journals  •  Meriwether Lewis  •  William Clark  •  Gary Moulton BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2004 •  HARD COVER  • 544 PAGES A one-volume selection from the journals of Lewis and Clark, with helpful scholarly notes and annotations. This abbreviated edition, timed for the celebration of the bicentennial of the launch of the expedition, was edited by Gary Moulton, the man responsible for the definitive 13-volume edition of The Lewis and Clark Journals. (USW428, $29.95)
Blue Highways, A Journey into America  •  William Least Heat Moon TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1999 •  PAPER  • 429 PAGES On the road with Ghost Dancing (his van), William Least Heat-Moon criss-crosses the country on its backroads, discovering some pretty wonderful personalities en route. What emerges is a many-varied, rich portrait of the American character. (USA31, $15.99)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream  •  Hunter S. Thompson TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1998 •  PAPER  • 204 PAGES Armed with a convertible full of hallucinatory drugs, the author and his friend Dr. Gonzo end up in Las Vegas--the perfect setting for a helluva time. Certainly a unique tour of an already eccentric city, this is a dizzying chronicle of the duo's drug-induced misadventures and scrapes with the people of Las Vegas. It's also a hilarious commentary on the search for the American dream, first published in 1971. (USW254, $13.95)
Great Plains  •  Ian Frazier TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2001 •  PAPER  • 292 PAGES A marvelously digressive, wide-ranging account of a journey throughout the plains. Frazier captures the wide-open landscapes, history, environmental contradictions and, especially, the legends and people of the Great Plains. An intrepid traveler -- and voracious reader -- Frazier clocked 25,000 miles in an old van criss-crossing the land where the buffalo once roamed. (USW172, $14.00)
Old Glory, A Voyage Down the Mississippi  •  Jonathan Raban TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1998 •  PAPER  • 409 PAGES Raban tackles the "Mighty Mississippi" aboard a 16-foot motorboat in this entertaining travelogue, featuring places and people he encounters along the way. It's a portrait of contemporary life from Minnesota to Mississippi. (USS42, $15.00)
Life on the Mississippi  •  Mark Twain TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2007 •  PAPER  • 388 PAGES A classic marking Twain's return to the days of his youth spent on the Mississippi. Full of historical information, anecdotes, character sketches and fond memories, it's an enjoyable look back at the Old Mississippi. (USS05, $9.95)
The Rings of Saturn  •  Winfried Georg Sebald LITERATURE •  1999 •  PAPER  • 296 PAGES Sebald blurs a meditative account of solitary walks along the windswept coast of his home in Suffolk with ruminations on history, memory, loss and exile. His evocative black-and-white photographs of the landscapes and coast, houses and objects contribute to the dream-like quality of the novel, further confounding reality and fiction. (GBR738, $15.95)
As They Were  •  M. F. K. Fisher TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1983 •  PAPER  • 272 PAGES This marvelous collection of autobiographical essays by the celebrated, much-adored Fisher covers her life, family, food and adventures from Whittier, California to the south of France. (FRN705, $15.00)
Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes  •  Robert Louis Stevenson TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1996 •  PAPER  • 149 PAGES Stevenson's sprightly account of ten days with Modestine in the French Cevennes on the trail (today GR 70) from Monastier sur Gazeille to St Jean-du-Gard. His romantic musings and descriptions the people and places he encounters are delightful. (FRN538, $16.95)
A Time of Gifts  •  Patrick Leigh Fermor TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2005 •  PAPER  • 384 PAGES Fermor effortlessly interweaves anecdote, history and culture in this exuberant account of a walk as a young man in 1933 across Europe. This first volume chronicles his trip from the Hook of Holland, up the Rhine and down the Danube. The adventure continues in Between the Woods and Water, thankfully also reissued by NYRB. The books were written not by the young adventurer but the accomplished author 40 years later, adding perspective and a sweet nostalgia. (CEU30, $16.95)
The Lawrence Durrell Travel Reader  •  Lawrence Durrell  •  Clint Willis TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 405 PAGES Durrell's intoxicating reflections on Greece and the Mediterranean, collected here in one volume, edited by Clint Willis. With chapters on Corfu, Rhodes, Cyprus, Sicily, Delphi and Provence (where he lived for 33 years until his death in 1990) it's drawn from Durrell's four island books: Prospero's Cell, Reflections on a Marine Venus, Bitter Lemons and Sicilian Carousel. The book leads off with a 1960 essay, Landscape and Character. With a nicely detailed table of contents but oddly lacking illustrations, maps or an index. (GRE186, $15.00)
Travels Through France and Italy  •  Tobias Smollett TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1997 •  PAPER  • 144 PAGES First published in 1766, the British novelist Smolett (like many who came after him) writes of the travails and wonder of travel on the continent. The irascible writer, recovering from the death of his daughter, argues and fulminates his way through France and Italy. Called the first modern travelogue, it's a portrait of social life, politics, customs, religion -- and of the writer's state of mind -- that takes the form of a series of letters back home to Merry Olde England. (EUR124, $24.95)
Journey to Portugal, In Pursuit of Portugal's History and Culture  •  Jose Saramago TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 464 PAGES Jose Saramago's richly detailed account of his journey across Portugal in 1979. Saramago's impressions of the Portuguese landscape and people are combined with a dose of history, fiction and meditations. With black-and-white photos and maps. (PGL23, $17.00)
Down and Out in Paris and London  •  George Orwell LITERATURE •  1972 •  PAPER  • 213 PAGES Orwell's first published work, this novel -- based, in part, on true experiences -- is a tale of the underclass in 1930's Paris and London. (GBR99, $14.00)
Two Towns in Provence  •  M. F. K. Fisher BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1983 •  PAPER  • 208 PAGES • FAVORITE Few can paint the earthy details of a place and time like celebrated food writer M.F.K. Fisher. In this light volume, she contrasts village life in Aix-en-Provence with bustling Marseilles. Keenly observant, she evokes these two favorite places with anecdote and loving description. (FRN27, $16.95)
The Innocents Abroad  •  Mark Twain TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2003 •  PAPER  • 523 PAGES On June 8, 1867, young journalist Samuel Longhorne Clemens, not yet famous as Mark Twain, set sail on a grand tour of Europe. With his disarming wit, Clemens makes the very best traveling companion in this classic account. The section on his visit to "the land which was the mother of civilization" is a celebrated highlight of the book. Twain has few rivals in art of reporting the horrors of travel with humor. "Paris, England, Scotland, Switzerland, Italy--Garibaldi! The Grecian Archipelago! Vesuvius! Constantinople! Smyrna! The Holy Land! Egypt and 'our friends the Bermudians'!" are among the main ports of call. (MDE08, $14.95)
Southern Baroque Art  •  Sacheverell Sitwell ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2006 •  PAPER  • 352 PAGES A facsimile edition of Sitwell's 1924 survey of 17th and 18th-century painting, architecture and music in Italy and Spain, noteworthy for its insight and prose. (EUR281, $29.99)
London Perceived  •  Evelyn Hofer  •  V. S. Pritchett CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2002 •  PAPER  • 214 PAGES A love letter to the city -- which Pritchett endearingly calls a splodge -- and especially of the life of the place. In his mind, London means experience, and in these pages he wanders (often in the company of great authors from times past) through the neighborhoods, parks, palaces, pubs, markets, cemeteries and backwaters of the city. Prichett's eloquent riffs are accompanied by handsome black-and-white photographs by Evelyn Hofer. First published in 1962. (GBR310, $19.95)
Pillars of Hercules  •  Paul Theroux TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1996 •  PAPER  • 509 PAGES Known for his wry wit, Theroux seems to have had an exceptionally good time on his tour of the Mediterranean. He sets off from Gibraltar by foot, horseback, train and boat along the coast of Spain to the French Riviera, Sardinia, Sicily and beyond. This masterful book combines anecdote, history and observation into a revealing portrait of place. He ends his journey at the other pillar, Jebel Musa, just across the Straits outside Ceuta in North Africa. (MED20, $17.00)
The Impossible Country, A Journey Through the Last Days of Yugoslavia  •  Brian Hall TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1994 •  HARD COVER  • 448 PAGES As Yugoslavia deteriorates, the American journalist author journeys throughout the country by bicycle, documenting the people, politics and mood of the place. Beautifully written, it's an engaging snapshot of the region at a critical moment. (BLK22, $23.95)
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia  •  Rebecca West  •  Christopher Hitchens HISTORY •  2007 •  PAPER  • 1181 PAGES First published in 1941, this monumental work explores the complex history of Yugoslavia, its heroes, politics and culture. The book probes the roots of the heart-rending ethnic divisions in the region. You may find some fault with West's scholarship and disagree with her opinions, but this is nonetheless an absorbing and influential portrait, indicative of the time. It's a big, challenging book -- some call it the best ever written on the Balkans. (BLK04, $25.00)
The Histories  •  Herodotus HISTORY •  1994 •  PAPER  • 656 PAGES In what may be the first travel book, Herodotus records the heroic struggle between Europe and Asia that culminated in the invasion of Greece by Xerxes. (MED15, $10.00)
Exterminate All the Brutes  •  Sven Lindqvist HISTORY •  1997 •  PAPER  • 192 PAGES Taking his title from Joseph Conrad's famously troubling line in Heart of Darkness, Lindqvist interweaves his account of a Saharan journey with a broad history of European colonial atrocities. (AFR206, $15.95)
The River War, An Historical of The Reconquest of the Sudan  •  Winston S. Churchill  •  Mary Soames  •  James W. Muller HISTORY •  2006 •  PAPER  • 416 PAGES A riveting account of the history of the Sudan and its reconquest by Lord Kitchener and an Anglo-Egyptian Army in the 1890s by Winston Churchill, who served as a lieutenant during the war. Abridged from the original two-volume original. (AFR147, $16.95)
Dark Star Safari, Overland from Cairo to Cape Town  •  Paul Theroux TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 472 PAGES Theroux sets his sights on Africa in his latest travelogue. By means of local buses, cattle trucks, hitched rides, trains and canoes, Theroux makes his way across the length of the continent. Revisiting this land of his youth -- he worked there in the 1960s -- on the eve of his 60th birthday, Theroux finds a land more decrepit and downtrodden than when he left. Although it is a sobering look at modern Africa (and he has very little good to say about tourists), Theroux maintains his trademark wit as he recounts meetings with missionaries, aid workers, tourists and natives. (AFR131, $15.95)
No Mercy, A Journey to the Heart of the Congo  •  Redmond O'Hanlon TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1998 •  PAPER  • 462 PAGES A trek deep into the Congo with Redmond O'Hanlon, the eccentric, courageous, always-entertaining modern adventurer. An astute scientific observer and a fantastic writer, O'Hanlon encounters dangerous creatures, infectious diseases and unforgettable people on his journey along the roads (or rather swamps) less traveled in central Africa. (CAF01, $15.95)
Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa  •  Mungo Park EXPLORATION •  2000 •  PAPER  • 416 PAGES The classic first-person account of explorations in search of the Niger River, edited and with an introduction by Kate Ferguson Marsters. This edition includes the complete text, and all the original maps and illustrations. Park provides a chronicle of the culture, society and nature of West Africa before the colonial period. First published in 1799, it's also a terrific adventure, the story of a 24-year-old Scotsman exploring, often alone, in uncharted Africa. (WAF40, $24.95)
The Emperor, Downfall of an Autocrat  •  Ryszard Kapuscinski HISTORY •  1989 •  PAPER  • 180 PAGES In 1975, Kapuscinski traveled throughout the country listening to stories of the Supreme Emperor Haile Selassie by the servants and associates that had surrounded him while Ethiopia collapsed around him. The Polish journalist transforms these interviews into a powerful narrative of high living and unimaginable abuse by the ancient regime. Originally published in 1978. (ETP10, $13.95)
West with the Night  •  Beryl Markham BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1983 •  PAPER  • 294 PAGES • FAVORITE A direct, stylish, and engrossing story of a marvelous life well lived. Markham describes her childhood in Kenya and her experiences as a bush pilot in the 1930s, evoking the landscapes, people, and wildlife of East Africa in rich detail. (EAF10, $16.00)
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, The Fantastic 14th-Century Account of a Journey to the East  •  John Mandeville TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2006 •  PAPER  • 233 PAGES Written to encourage and instruct pilgrims traveling to biblical lands, The Travels recounts Mandeville's experiences in the Holy Land, Egypt, India, China, and "the lands beyond." Five centuries passed before the remarkably exacting accounts of events and geography were found to be probable fabrications. Features 119 rare woodcut illustrations. (MDE123, $9.95)
Travels in Arabia Deserta, Selected Passages  •  Charles Doughty TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2003 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES Doughty's first-hand observations of Arab life and culture in the 1870s, including his account of two years wandering among the Bedouin nomads and the explorer's attempt to reach Mecca. (ARB76, $17.95)
The Places in Between  •  Rory Stewart TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2006 •  PAPER  • 336 PAGES • NEW Born in Hong Kong, educated at Eton and Oxford and formerly tutor to Prince William and Prince Harry, Rory Stewart ditched it all in 2000 to walk 6,000 miles from Turkey to Bangladesh. The Places in Between, which won the Ondaatje Prize, illuminates the absurdity, plight and peril of the Afghans after the fall of the Taliban. Stewart walked from Herat to Kabul in the dead of winter, depending on luck, a big dog and the kindness of strangers (along with his ability to speak Persian and his knowledge of local customs). His thrilling, poignant book is a worthy successor to Bruce Chatwin and Peter Levi's 1960s trek recounted in The Light Garden of the Angel King. (MDE100, $14.00)
Shah of Shahs  •  Ryszard Kapuscinski HISTORY •  1992 •  PAPER  • 152 PAGES An impressionistic account of the last Shah of Iran by a Polish journalist, this brilliant book captures the irony, force and power of the revolution that toppled the Shah. Kapuscinski has written an equally compelling book on another autocrat, Haile Selassie. (IRN11, $13.95)
Sandstorms, Days and Nights in Arabia  •  Peter Theroux BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1991 •  PAPER  • 281 PAGES As a journalist in Saudi Arabia, Peter Theroux (Paul's brother) learned the language and immersed himself in the realities of day-to-day life. This book is a memoir of his experiences, both a revealing collection of anecdotes and a humorous portrait of a place. Among other things, the book is a quest to uncover what happened to Imam Sadr, a complex man who led Lebanon's Shia Muslims. (ARB08, $13.95)
The Road to Oxiana  •  Robert Byron TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2007 •  PAPER  • 292 PAGES An Englishman abroad in Persia in the 1930s. Robert Byron's brilliant classic account of his journey to Persia and Afghanistan displays splendid language, offhand scholarship, humor and wit. Paul Fussell called it the Ulysses of travel writing. (IRN01, $15.95)
Eothen  •  Alexander William Kinglake TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1992 •  PAPER  • 242 PAGES Originally published in 1844, this classic travelogue of journeys throughout the Middle East and Asia Minor takes the form and tone of a letter to a good friend: conversational, ironic and personal. Included are ramblings in Constantinople, Palestine, Syria and the Dead Sea. (MDE24, $21.00)
Chasing the Sea, Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia  •  Tom Bissell TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 388 PAGES Bissell's gritty, on the street account of adventures in Uzbekistan, where he returned in 2001 after an earlier stint in the Peace Corps. A lively writer (and a self-confessed adventure junkie), Bissell portrays the grim reality and disasters in the region through his unique, offhand prose. This was no lark. He devotes much of his book to his time cruising through Uzbekistan, concluding with an account of the fast-disappearing Aral Sea and the poor fisherman who depend upon it. (CAS103, $14.95)
News from Tartary  •  Peter Fleming TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1999 •  PAPER  • 384 PAGES A rousing, ironic account of Fleming's 3500-mile trek in the 1930s from Peking to the province of Sinkiang and onwards to India. (CAS46, $18.95)
The Long Walk, The True Story of a Trek to Freedom  •  Slavomir Rawicz BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2006 •  PAPER  • 245 PAGES The remarkable tale of cavalry officer Rawicz and six fellow prisoners, who escaped from a Siberian gulag and trekked across the taiga to freedom. It's an astonishing tale of strength and determination. These men, already in poor condition in Yakutsk, manage to sustain themselves on foot over 4,000 miles of barren land and mountains. (SIB13, $16.95)
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush  •  Eric Newby TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 255 PAGES • FAVORITE Newby wrote a string of memorable books of his adventures, often on a bicycle, but sometimes by foot or train, usually with his wife Wanda. This, one of his earliest, is a superb example of the misguided lark, an account of a comically ill-prepared jaunt in the Naristan mountains of northeastern Afghanistan. "People like it," he explained, "when things go wrong." (CAS32, $14.99)
The Great Railway Bazaar, By Train through Asia  •  Paul Theroux TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2006 •  PAPER  • 384 PAGES Theroux's vintage 1970s journeys across Asia by Train, displaying all his talent for portraiture, ego and the dismissive aside. It's great fun. He takes every two-bit train he can find from London across Europe, Turkey and the Middle East, India, Japan and China, returning home via the Trans-Siberian Express. (ASA40, $14.95)
Wrong About Japan  •  Peter Carey TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2006 •  PAPER  • 158 PAGES The Booker Prize-winning novelist's amusing encounters with manga artists and other icons of Japanese popular culture in the company of his anime-obsessed 12-year-old son. (JPN293, $11.95)
The Narrow Road to Oku  •  Basho Matsuo  •  Masayuki Miyata  •  Donald Keene LITERATURE •  1997 •  PAPER  • 188 PAGES • FAMILY Keene gives a precise and poetic translation, alongside the original Japanese characters, in this edition of Basho's (1644-1694) famous journey to Oku. The edition is further enhanced by the beautiful and whimsical artwork of Masayuki Miyata. (JPN211, $25.00)
Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches  •  Nobuyuki Yuasa  •  Basho Matsuo LITERATURE •  1967 •  PAPER  • 178 PAGES These marvelous prose-and-poetry sketches by the famous poet wanderer Basho (1644-94) invoke the mysteries of the cosmos manifest in the Japanese landscape. The haiku included are acknowledged some of the best ever composed. He concludes his masterpiece with: "In this little book of travel is included everything under the sky -- not only that which is hoary and dry but also that which is young and colorful, not only that which is strong and imposing but also that which is feeble and ephemeral." (JPN91, $13.00)
Riding the Iron Rooster, By Train Through China  •  Paul Theroux TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2006 •  PAPER  • 528 PAGES An account of utterly exhausting, exasperating travels mostly by rail throughout China for an entire year. Not surprisingly, this is one of Mr. Theroux's testier books. He does, however, travel to every corner of the huge country, including memorable passages on Mongolia, Xinjiang, Manchuria and Tibet (where he ended his journey). Theroux combines offhand observation, telling detail, interviews and snatches of history. Once you get past the lack of heat and hygiene, seedy hotels and Theroux's grumbling, this book is a finely detailed portrait of the diversity of Chinese landscapes and people. (CHN133, $15.95)
Along the Ganges  •  Ilija Trojanow NATURAL HISTORY •  2006 •  HARD COVER  • 160 PAGES In this colorful travelogue, Trojanow follows the Ganges from its source in the Himalayas to the cities that it feeds, using the holy river as a means to ponder Hinduism, culture, ecology and the tension between ancient and modern India. (IDA294, $19.95)
Maximum City, Bombay Lost and Found  •  Suketu Mehta TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2005 •  PAPER  • 528 PAGES The tale of the author who, after a 21-year sojourn in New York, returns to his native Bombay -- the biggest, fastest, richest city in India. (IDA252, $16.95)
Slowly Down the Ganges  •  Eric Newby TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1998 •  PAPER  • 384 PAGES In 1963, the Newbys (Eric and his wife Wanda) set out an a 1,200-mile voyage down the Ganges River. The title could apply as easily to the ruminative attitude the author takes towards his journey as to the many mishaps which bedevil the quest -- invariably occasions for the author to display his wit. (IDA179, $14.95)
Hindoo Holiday, An Indian Journal  •  J.R. Ackerly TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2000 •  PAPER  • 300 PAGES Ackerly traipses across India in 1923 as the English tutor to the very handsome and wonderfully homosexual Maharajah of Chhatarpur in this famous account. A comic, beautifully turned-out novel masquerading as a travelogue. Ackerly is a terrific writer and guide. (IDA115, $14.00)
An Area of Darkness  •  V.S. Naipaul BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2002 •  PAPER  • 267 PAGES A classic of modern travel writing, An Area of Darkness is Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul's profound reckoning with his ancestral homeland and an extraordinarily perceptive chronicle of his first encounter with India. Traveling from the bureaucratic morass of Bombay to the ethereal beauty of Kashmir, from a sacred ice cave in the Himalayas to an abandoned temple near Madras, Naipaul encounters a dizzying cross-section of humanity: browbeaten government workers and imperious servants, a suavely self-serving holy man and a deluded American religious seeker. An Area of Darkness also abounds with Naipaul's strikingly original responses to India's paralyzing caste system, its apparently serene acceptance of poverty and squalor, and the conflict between its desire for self-determination and its nostalgia for the British raj. The result may be the most elegant and passionate book ever written about the subcontinent. (IDA13, $14.95)
In a Sunburned Country  •  Bill Bryson TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2001 •  PAPER  • 307 PAGES • FAVORITE Nothing seems to deter the intrepid, ever-resourceful Bill Bryson -- and all the better for his many readers. Here he revels in Australia's eccentric characters, dangerous flora and fauna, and other oddities. As has become his custom, he also effortlessly imparts much history in this wildly funny book. Included at the end is a short bibliography. (AUS83, $14.95)
The Songlines  •  Bruce Chatwin CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1988 •  PAPER  • 294 PAGES • FAVORITE This celebrated travelogue is as much about its gifted author -- and the meaning of travel -- as about the Aboriginal people and their ways of life. In this unusual book, Chatwin combines straightforward reporting, history, dream-time stories, and a heady mix of quotations from his notebooks. Along the way, he transforms a journey through the outback into an exhilarating, semi-fictional meditation on our place in the world. (AUS01, $16.00)
The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer, Close Encounters with Strangers  •  Eric Hansen TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2005 •  PAPER  • 228 PAGES A hilarious account of Hansen's offbeat experiences and encounters around the world over the past 25 years. Hansen (Motoring with Mohammed, Stranger in the Forest) is a favorite travel writer with a welcome interest in natural history, oddball characters and tales. (TVL38, $14.95)