Two For the Road

Lunatic Express                 The Routes of Man

by Carl Hoffman                by Ted Conover

I have been considering my favorite books of 2010 and in the travel literature category I have come up with two titles that stand far and away above them all.  The Routes of Man by Ted Conover and Lunatic Express by Carl Hoffman.  Interesting both have the same focus, down to earth travel--literally in the case of Conover and also spiritually by Hoffman. 

The Routes of Man discusses travel routes from roads and rivers in South America, deadly truck routes in Africa, and a frozen river in the Himalayas.  Each of these routes is shaped by the environment and it defines the connection to the rest of the world.  In the case of the frozen river it is the only route out of the village, an ancient route used for generations and a rite of passage.  Will that still be the case when the new road is completed?  Along these roads culture is spread, along with people, disease, goods and materials.  Power is gained or lost with control of the roads.  Conover keeps his view neutral even when there is much to condemn on these routes, allowing the reader to make his or her own decision.  It isn't a travel book, exactly, but it is a fascinating look at how the world is changing for better and worse through travel.

Lunatic Express takes a more personal journey as the author searches for a connection with the earth by traveling via some of the most dangerous types of transportation--over loaded ferries and trains, roads without rules, even an airline with a hideous safety record.  On the road he makes a connection with his fellow travelers that might not have been possible otherwise.  I found myself most taken with his ride on an Indonesian ferry where he was taken in by a family, guided through the chaos of the journey.  It was the best and worst of Indonesia all at once.  Less enchanting was his rude return to the US on a Greyhound bus where he met the worst this "great" society has to offer.  It might be clean and relatively safe, but it was the true lunatic express of the story.

The journeys in these books were long, arduous, and often genuinely unpleasant.  Nonetheless, they took me places I wanted to go.  I got to experience cultures, conflicts, environments all foreign to my own life experience.  In reading them, I gained a deeper understanding of the world I live in.  That is what travel literature should be all about and why they were my best of 2010.

What to Read Next

Book Lust to Go
by Nancy Pearl

I was number one on the waiting list for this book at the library.  Surely that comes as no surprise as I am a librarian who loves travel writing.  What did come as a surprise to me was the fact that I had read many of the recommended titles in here.  I would flip from section to section wondering if a certain book was in there and sure enough it was.  But that having been said, there is lots more for me to read.  Where to start, where to start?  Nancy Pearl is so thorough in her recommendations I am nearly completely overwhelmed.

The first places that come to mind, are ones that I haven't visited yet--Burma is one.  Finding George Orwell in Burma is one that has crossed my radar before, so it looks like a good place to start.  Siberia is another.  Though it isn't in this book yet, Travels in Siberia has turned up on many best of lists this year meaning it is now on my TBR.  Canada on the page remains mostly unexplored for me aside from several fiction series (Louise Penny, Giles Blunt, Inger Ash Wolfe),  but several of the books mentioned are travels through small towns in the Canadian mid-west.  That to me sounds completely enchanting and a trip I intend to take soon with Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw to start followed by Welcome Home: Travels in Small Town Canada.

Another area I need to flesh out in order to be truly well read/traveled would be classic travel literature.  A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush is on my list as is In Patagonia and the various works of Paul Theroux.  I had intended to read Theroux but so many criticized him as being grumpy and disenchanted with travel and the world.  For me travel literature is full of the joy of experience, discovery, exploration.  The idea of reading someone who just complains the entire time...well that sounds like travel companions I have had in the past and not an experience I wanted to repeat voluntarily so I have avoided him.  Several early works, however, are must reads and come highly recommended so onto the list they go.

The list is already a long one and I keep finding more and more to add to it as I continue to flip through this book.  Not all of them will capture my imagination.  I won't want to travel with all of the authors, but to find out I must set out on the journey and I absolutely cannot wait.