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2008's best travel writing
While browsing my local Barnes & Noble earlier this week, I stumbled upon a display of The Best American Series - a collection of books recapping the year's best writing. Among the collection is a travel-themed edition, curated this year by travel "badboy" Anthony Bourdain.Gadling has given great reviews to these anthologies in years past, so I decided to pick up a copy. As a fledgling travel writer myself, I've found the pieces in this year's edition to be highly compelling. The featured content covers a surprisingly broad array of topics. Foodies will savor writer Bill Buford's account of Extreme Chocolate, which finds the author deep in the rainforests of Brazil in search of the perfect cacao beans. Adventurers will want to dive into James Campbell's look at the Kapa Kapa Trail, a grueling overland route of American soldiers fighting in Papua New Guinea during World War II, in Chasing Ghosts.
For anyone who's interested in the travel genre, this is a great recap of this year's best-written and most interesting stories. Travel writing is a well-worn style - pithy descriptions of swank hotels and delicious meals can only take you so far. It's the stories that are able to rise above the cliches and well worn metaphors to truly give a sense of place and its people that truly does these locations justice.
Let's continue to encourage this sort of high-quality travel writing. Stop by Barnes & Noble or hit up Amazon and pick yourself up a copy.
Filed under: Arts and Culture, Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Books
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
needcaffeine Dec 23rd 2008 9:59AM
I picked up this book about a month or two ago. I tend to pickup each years edition, & probably picked up this because Tony Bourdain is the celeb editor.
I'm not sure if it's because of Tonys' rye sense of humor, but this grouping of articles has a lot different approach then previous editions.
The stories are less about appealing to the masses, and are about places where the general populous aren't likely to go. Which maybe the reason I like it so much, I'm currently reading the article about going up the river in the Congo.
Definitely read Tony's introduction(too many people skip this section), he talks of some books I couldn't read (primarily b/c they were about whiny writers). And I'm not sure who wrote it Tony or the other editor - but I at least feel it's true, that when you travel awhile and come "home" you feel out of place.