Book Lust To Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers

37. (from 2010) Book Lust To Go : Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers by Nancy Pearl (2010, 277 pages, read Nov 10 - Dec 24) – an Early Reviewer and an ARC

As I was about to write this, I decided to check out Nancy Pearl’s website (www.nancypearl.com ). She is apparently a famous librarian, something I wasn’t aware was possible. Her own website says she “has become a rock star among readers and the tastemaker people turn to when deciding what to read next.” That kind of statement, the arrogance really bothers me (really, “a rock star”?), but it also makes me really curious. I had a similar conflicted response to her book.

Book Lust To Go is a book on books that takes us around the world. Each section show more is themed on a location, or a type of travel or adventure. I found a lot of good stuff here, and wrote down over 30 books or authors to add to my wishlist. I now really want to read Bruce Chatwin and Paul Theroux; and I discovered titles like How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe and Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists.

But, there was so much that bothered me. For starters, the books lists were really incomplete and there were few classics. There were several great books that I knew of that were missing, and I’m not all that well read (despite my presence here). And there were too many titles I recognized from the NYTimes book review, which I only read from 2006 to early 2010. That is to say, there was a heavy bias on new books.

I’m not sure what to make of this all. I think that if Pearl was on LibraryThing, she would be spectacular reader to follow. And, certainly there is a place for books like hers. But, for me personally, if it’s a conversation, I’m OK with just a list of books someone has read. If it’s a book, I feel like it should go farther, should have some more completeness to it. Obviously, YMMV.

2010
http://www.librarything.com/topic/104839#2496516 show less

When I heard the Nancy Pearl was releasing a new Book Lust volume devoted to travel I was beyond thrilled. One of my favorite genres is travel memoirs; good ones, the kind that describe the locale and the author’s experience, not the kind that just whine about life. I love reading both fiction and nonfiction set in areas I’m about to travel to or reading about an exotic city and vicariously visiting it through the book.

I’m also attempting to read one fiction and nonfiction book set in each of our country’s 50 states and this book is a huge help towards that endeavor. I don’t want to read things that are loosely set in a state, I want books that make frequent reference to the area and are good representations of that show more particular state. Pearl’s suggestions are tailor-made for just that.

By this point I trust Pearl’s taste and so her specific comments about the books are great indicators of whether I should pick it up. For example, she’ll say about a title, “Fans of Gilead will probably enjoy it very much.” You can tell she’s a librarian at heart because she’s always trying to match readers with new authors or books she thinks they’ll enjoy. Reading her books feels like getting recommendations from a friend who knows your taste. If you haven’t already read her first two, Book Lust and More Book Lust, they’re absolutely wonderful.

Pearl also covers a lot of ground, literally, within the book. She has suggestions for everywhere, from Newfoundland to Cuba, Morocco to Australia. The variety of types of books is a huge plus too. There’s a bit of everything, nonfiction, biographies, memoirs, modern literary fiction, classics, etc. That’s exactly how I love to read, jumping between genres, time periods and countries to keep things fresh.

The books layout is a bit frustrating at times. Some sections are alphabetized, which means Martha’s Vineyard is next to Malaysia, while other cities and countries have whimsical categories, like Paris is under W for “We’ll Always Have Paris.” It makes it difficult to pick it up to reference a specific city or area.

Regardless of the organizational flow, this book is one that I will be referring to for decades to come. I’ve already highlighted all the books I’ve read and made a list of a dozen or so to add to my TBR immediately. Each time I plan a new trip, or whenever I need a literary journey, I’ll be pulling this off the shelf for another great recommendation from my favorite librarian.

*I received this review copy from the publisher. show less

I'm an old travel book reader from way back, so I was particularly delighted when Book Lust to Go came my way from Early Reviewers. (Thank you!) I was not disappointed except that it was too short. Nancy Pearl mentions all my favorite 20th century travel writers (Eric Newby, Dervla Murphey, Bruce Chatwin) and new favorites from earlier times too, like Isabella Bird. What pleased me as much is her opinion, with which I concur completely, that good mystery writers convey the feeling of a particular time and place as well or better than others whose main purpose is to define a setting. But she doesn't even stop there, and her lists include a lot of general fiction.

So I read this with pen in hand, resisting the impulse to make my own show more lists. I believe that the book is better read by dipping into locations that appeal, but it was also fun to read straight through. She moves from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and I can only wish that her time had not run out before she included the American South or the Low Countries of Western Europe or individual cities of Spain, for instance. I also wish that she had mentioned my favorite series of travel books, Virago/Beacon Travelers, which give the modern reader access to women travelers in the nineteenth century. On the other hand, she does mention individual authors included in the series. And, she had my heart immediately, when she recommended my favorite Poldark Series as a great look at eighteenth century Cornwall! I'm delighted to have this resource that brings a lot of the world into my radar. show less

In her introduction, Nancy Pearl describes herself: "I am not an enthusiastic traveler. Let me lay my cards on the table, clear the air, call a spade a spade, and make something perfectly clear. I am barely a traveler at all."

And yet, she writes a unique travel book here, based on the fact that she is an inveterate armchair traveler. What makes this book different is that it is not a book about the places you can visit—it is a book about the books about the places you can visit. As a person who has become famous for carving out a job that might be described as "Book Recommender," she shares her suggestions on everything from light fiction to serious history about 120 places around the world.

You can certainly read this book by show more starting with the Introduction on page xiii and working your way through to page 271...and I, eventually, did just that. However, I think it was more fun to just open the book and let serendipity guide you through, much like opening an old encyclopedia (back when they were printed in those pre-Wikipedia days) and just wandering from topic to topic.

The first time I opened it, I happened upon "Siberian Chills" and noted that she enjoyed Stuart Kaminsky, Martin Cruz Smith and Alexander Solzhenitsyn (all favorites of mine) while I added Huffaker's The Cowboy and the Cossack to my TBR list. A comment there about reindeer led me to "Frolicking in Finland" where I added Thompson's Snow Angels. And so it went...

This is a marvelous book that, in many ways, is exactly what so many of the reading groups here on LibraryThing are about: readers sharing what they've encountered with others. Whether you want to find some books about a destination in your travel plans, or simply do a little armchair traveling of your own, this is a recommended book. show less

Nancy Pearl has outdone herself this time. By the time I got my hands on Book Lust to Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers, I was already familiar with the first two books in the series. I found both Book Lust and More Book Lust to be useful additions to my personal library and I turned to them often to get some ideas about what direction to next take my reading. I discovered many books that way, books I would have otherwise missed. But neither of those little volumes are the kind of book I felt compelled to read from cover-to-cover. I recognized early on that would not the case with this one, and I read the whole thing in just a couple of days.

I was particularly happy to find that Book Lust to Go was not just show more a listing of the most helpful travel guides, as I at first feared from its title that it would be. It is much more than that. Pearl focuses on travel writing, of course, and some of the books she recommends are the old fashioned travel guides most travelers have come to depend on over the years. Also prominently featured under the general heading of travel books are those written by adventurers, explorers, solo travelers, long-long distance walkers, women who travel alone, and “star trekkers” (those who seem to spend most of their lives traveling around the world). I have a small collection of books by distance walkers, those people who walk from one country to the next for months, or years, at a time, and I was a bit surprised that not a single one of my books is mentioned in Book Lust to Go. At first, that perturbed me; than I wised up and saw it as a wonderful opportunity to increase my collection by adding some of the titles that Pearl recommends.

Book Lust to Go is arranged by country, alphabetically, and presents the best fiction and nonfiction works from, or about, those countries. Pearl, as much as possible, includes books written by the natives of each country as well as the best books written by outsiders who have fallen in love with their adopted countries. I was particularly intrigued by all the modern crime fiction Pearl included in the lists because I have found that there is much to be learned about a country and its culture from crime fiction writers who grew up there.

I am convinced that Book Lust to Go will be a long-term desk top companion of mine, a book I will reach for each time I need someone to guide me on another stage of the armchair travel I so much enjoy. My copy of the book is so marked up now that someone not knowing how new a book it is would believe I have been dipping into it for several years already.

Regardless of whether you do your traveling by actually leaving your home, or prefer to do it while seated in your most comfortable reading chair, this is a book you will be happy you found. Don’t miss it.

Rated at: 5.0 show less

To write a review of a Nancy Peal "Book Lust" book is like preaching to the choir. Anyone reading the review is likely to be familiar with at least the first in what has turned out to be a series, so I can be brief. What Pearl gives is a series of book recommendation for a particular topic or theme. In this case the theme is travel – actual and armchair. While mostly non-fiction, she does offer a fair amount of fiction as well. She never goes into any detail about the book – usually a sentence or two at the most. What I've done is search her lists for the books I love. If I find them, and I usually do, I feel I can trust her judgment on the other books she mentions. She includes both current books, and ones often out of print, so it show more helps if you have access to an old-fashioned library if you want to follow up on her suggestions. You have to remember when reading/skimming this book that it is not her first, and when she wrote the first of what now has become a series, she didn't hold back on books that would fit these later titles. For example, in this book, under the heading "Hiking The (You Fill In The Blank) Trail you won't find Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. So don't judge her too harshly for not including the very obvious in this book when she has mentioned it before.
Finally, I gave her 5 stars for mentioning, under the chapter "The Maine Chance" my favorite classic Louise Dickinson Rich's We Took To The Woods, and my favorite Maine current fiction writer Cathie Pelletier.
So many books, so little time. But use this great book to add to the To Be Read list. show less

Although I love books and reading, I sometimes get stuck in a book rut. Despite having a towering “To Be Read” pile, I will have a problem finding anything that suits my fancy. Thankfully, that is when Nancy Pearl’s invaluable "Book Lust" series comes into play. Her latest addition is "Book Lust to Go," a book full of recommended reads dealing with a variety of locales ranging from Baltimore to Berlin and Verona to Vietnam.

Like the other "Book Lust" books, "Book Lust to Go" is arranged according to theme, with most of these themes pertaining to the location in question. These themes (mostly) make sense, even when Pearl decides to use quips or puns (think “Just So Much Greek to Me”). Besides countries, the book includes show more sections dedicated to hiking (hilariously titled, “Hiking the (You Fill in the Blank) Trail”), mountains, and bodies of water (separated into “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” “See the Sea,” and “Water, Water Everywhere”).

Far from just relying on the ubiquitous travel guides, this collection includes novels, memoirs by travelers and native authors, and other pieces of non-fiction. Regardless of what you are in the mood for reading, chances are that you will find something to satisfy your literary craving. The breadth of literature represented in this book is all the more impressive when considering the fact that Pearl judiciously tried to avoid repeating books from her three previous "Book Lust" forays.

Overall, "Book Lust to Go" is the perfect resource not just for the armchair adventurer or the reader struck with wanderlust, but for people who are going on a trip but is at a loss for what to read. Not only will it give them a wealth of suggestions to help them pass the time while traveling, it will (more often than not) offer them book ideas that will give them better insight into the place they are going. show less