Photo by guldfisken.
The Traveler’s Notebook published an article of mine called Ten Travels (and their Tales) that Made History.
It is about my favorite old travel books. I read a lot of books about world exploration, and it was nice to put that to use in this piece. Every book I mention is over 100 years old – Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, Lewis & Clark, Sir Richard F Burton, and so on.
Julie (a regular on the Matador network) already left a comment:
Fantastic article. What I really liked about this piece is that you include books that are obscure to many readers, even those of us who consider ourselves pretty well-read! The only problem is that I already have an impossible stack of books to read!
John
Ted–younever cease to amaze me. I had no idea you had read this stuff (I actually I’m not familiar with all of them either). I have the arabic version of Ibn Battuta on our bookshelf. We had to read parts of it when I was taking Arabic. also, Sir richard Burton was one of the great ones. Another one of the great British Middle Eastern travelers was of course TE Lawrence. If you have’t read Seven Pillars of Wisdom, I recommend it.
Aug 04, 2008 @ 9:17 pm
EMK
Excellent. I’ve been reading William T. Vollamann’s “Seven Dreams” series. Not exactly what you’re writing about, but those volumes are inspiring. Re: JOHN, I have three editions of Seven Pillars of Wisdom and I have read all three of them.
Mar 25, 2009 @ 12:54 pm
Theodore Scott
@EMK
Actually, when John (who is my father-in-law) mentioned that book, it reminded me of your interest in Lawrence. I am glad to see you have hung on to some of your obsessions.
Mar 25, 2009 @ 1:40 pm