If you like good travel writing, the
Best American Travel
Writing series is a book to get your hands on. I have read this book every year since, like, 2001. I just got this
year’s edition, 2004, which is edited by Pico Iyer, and it has so far completely met my expectations. I’ve read a
handful of the stories already, but I was very pleased to discover that I’d never even heard of many of the
stories (as an an avid reader of travel literature I feel dialed in to what’s out there). I was also very happy to see
that they included not one, but two! stories from WorldHum, an online
publication. If you have not visited Worldhum yet, I vigorously argue that you do so. It is an excellent source of
great travel writing and information (even if the site needs a dramatic design overhaul). Rather than detail the
stories myself, here’s what the site says about what’s inside:
Roger Angell remembers a sense of adventure during childhood car trips in New York (one taken with E. B. White,
his future stepfather). Tim Cahill describes the joy of trekking in Patagonia, his “new favorite place on earth.”
Heather Eliot writes of a fevered love affair in the South Pacific, and Tad Friend hilariously tells of introducing
Segways to Paris. George Packer recalls his time as a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa and the swirl of political
unrest there.
Pretty cool, eh?