Books can have a huge impact on our outlook. I wish I were more well-read. But I’ve enjoyed some powerfully influential reading since I “finished school,” and I’ve collected what I think are the most important books in my life below. I’m not saying these were enjoyable reads — these are the books that most shaped my thinking, prepping me to get the most out of my travels. If you’ve enjoyed (or been perturbed by) this blog in the past, you can thank (or blame) these authors.
When I visit someone’s home, I feel I can learn lots about them by seeing what books fill their shelves. For your interest, here are my top ten MVBs (listed in chronological order):
Bread for the World (Arthur Simon)
Food First (Frances Moore Lappe)
The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt)
Future in our Hands (Erik Dammann)
Manufacturing Consent (Noam Chomsky)
War Against the Poor: Low-Intensity Conflict and Christian Faith (Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer)
Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes (Robert McAfee Brown)
The United States of Europe (T.R. Reid)
The European Dream (Jeremy Rifkin)
The End of Poverty (Jeffrey Sachs)
While many of these were best consumed ages ago, they still have their place and most of the authors have gone on to do great things. You can Google any of these and see what I mean.
For travelers, I believe it’s important to read books that explain the economic and political basis of issues you stumble onto in your travels. A basic understanding of the economics of poverty, the politics of empire, and the power of corporations are life skills that give you a foundation to better understand what you experience in your travels. Information that mainstream media considers “subversive” won’t come to you. You need to reach out for it.
What are your most influential books…and why?
My favorite recent reads that have challenged my perspective – Michelle Alexander “The New Jim Crow” and Mitri Raheb “Faith in the Face of Empire”.
Hi Rick, I’ve been a big fan since studying abroad in France as an undergrad. I’m now a political science professor, and here is a book from my profession that I think definitely belongs on your list:
Coercion, Capital and European States, A.D. 990 – 1992
By Charles Tilly
Anyone traveling to U.K. should read Bill Bryson’s books. While traveling in Greece, read all of Mary Renault’s books: The Persian Boy (Alexander The Great), etc. Now with Poldark on tv, read Winston Graham’s stories of the Cornwall tin mines and the Poldarks. There are 12 books in the series, available thanks to Kindle. Reading about the countries we travel in helps to understand more than just the culture. Thanks for all you do to promote world understanding.
I highly recommend _American Nations_ by Colin Woodard!
Spain, and Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere by Jan Morris
All of Lawrence Durrell’s non-fiction
Out of Africa
The Colossus of Maroussi
and . . .
All of James /Jan Morris’ books
I love Rick Steves books of course!
Anyone have recommendations for books before travel to Cuba and South Africa?
“A Suitable Boy”, V.Seth, for insight into Mid 20th century India, the British and the Partition.
“The Cairo Trilogy”, N.Mahfouz, for insight into the beginnings of the Muslim brotherhood and modern Egypt.
“Birds without Wings”, L. De Bernieres, for some background on modern day inter-relations in the Middle East.
“Regeneration Trilogy” P.Barker, for a look at WWI from a psychological point and dealing with what we now know is PTSD.
Anyone planning to visit Berlin should read Berlin at War by Roger Moorhouse to gain a perspective on what it was like to be a citizen of Berlin in World War II.
My favorite book: “Bid Time Return” by Richard Matheson & Kibran’s “The Prophet”.
Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan explains how unintended consequences can make the best intentions result in disasters on a global scale.
“Screwtape Letters” C S Lewis: Opened my eyes to how I deceive myself about my intentions.
“The Jungle” Upton Sinclair: Revelation what immigrants endure while they sought freedom here.
“The Hiding Place” Corey ten Bloom: This as well as Frankl’s book taught me that it is now what happens to us but what we do with it that is important.
“Man’s Search for Meaning” Victor Frankl
“A Thousand Splendid Suns”Khaled Hosseini: Beautifully written book about what women and children endure in many cultures.
Exodus and The Haj
This is a great reading list, Rick. And books can also be the ‘magic carpet’ by which our children develop their own interest in traveling and learning about the world. There are some incredibly beautiful and informative “global” books being published these days. I’m working to bring them to peoples’ attention through my little company “Where In The World Global Books,” and would invite you to learn more.
Right now, some of my favorite books for kids include:
Drum Dream Girl (Margarita Engle and Rafael Lopez) – about Cuba
Mirror (Jeannie Baker) – about Australia and Morocco
I Am Different, Can You Find Me? (Manjula Padmanabhan – puzzle book about world languages
Walk This World (Jenny Broom and Lotta Nieminen) – pop up windows in global cityscapes
If you want to understand something about the way the ordinary English use the language in order to not take themselves too seriously, read Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat, and Three Men on the Bummel. You will also learn something about the geography of the Thames in the first case, and the teaching of French in English schools as contrasted with the teaching of English in German schools, in the second.
We wear our language lightly and treat it as a game. It sometimes gets us in trouble when we come to the US and skirmish with people who do take themselves too seriously.
p.s. Great picture of Derwentwater and Skiddaw. The better mountain is Blencathra, out of sight behind it. To understand something about the Lake District mountains you must read Wainwright.
The most influential book I have read is Many Lives Many Masters by Dr Briian Weiss.
Read Bill Bryson’s Australian book and it was fabulous preparation for our trip there. Highly recommend it.
One of the joys of traveling is reading (obsessing) about your destination in anticipation and during the trip. I’m so happy to see this thread,. Tthough i recognize it includes all types of books and subjects, I’m especially interested in books on history, culture and languages of my travel destinations, Thank you to those who have left recommendations. Here are some of mine:
INDIA Midnight’s Children
PERU Turn Right at Macchu Pichu
TUSCANY War in Val D’Orcia
SICILY Anything by Leonardo Sciascia
ITALY and ITALIAN La Bella Lingua
And so many more…
Thank you for starting this list
For the lady who asked about reading a book about Cuba, I would recommend Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire, one the children who immigrated to the U.S. on a Pedro Pan flight.
I enjoyed reading Catherine the Great by Robert Massie before visiting St. Petersburg.
The books that most influenced my life were The Trial, The Castle, Metamorphosis, and the Diaries and Letters of Franz Kafka. Based on my interest in Kafka I went to Europe for the first time, visited Prague and then moved there, where I stayed for 6 years, became a journalist, learned Czech (sort of) and made many life-long friends.
Great list!
Looking from the perspective of inspiring travel books, here iare the books that set the tone for my adult travels: Driving Over Lemons, Chris Stewart; Kilvert’s Diary, ed.Wm.Plomer; Blue Highways, Wm.Least Heat-Moon; The Wee Mad Road, J & B Maloney; and a hard find, but a most perspective challenging read Around the World in 11 Years, Patience Abbe et al (1936), a thank you note in the form of a book elaborating on their childhood travels across Europe, Russia and the US with their transient photographer parents just before WWII.
Thank you everyone for a wonderful, new reading list. Reading history and learning customs, plus polite language of our travel destinations is an integral part of our journey’s preparation. The world is not Disneyland. Too many people approach travel expecting the world to entertain them. The resources of your reading experiences will help us to continue traveling to see the bredth and depth of the people and cultures we encounter.
We are also big fans of Rick! I would have to say “Race and Reunion” by David Blight. I never looked at life the same in the U.S.”The Fifth Discipline” by Peter Senge was also a transformative book for me.
“Small is Beautiful” and “Good Work” both by E.F. Schumacher. I realize that marks me as a 1970’s hippie! The latest book that is changing my life is “How Not to Die” by Dr. Michael Greger, and I continue to be moved and challenged by Thich Nhat Hahn’s book “Being Peace.”
For those traveling to Turkey Orhan Pamuk’s books are wonderful. If you read his “Museum of Innocence” tear out the page with the ticket and you can get into the museum for free.
I think Alain De Botton’s book, The Art of Travel, gave me a perspective on travel in general that completely changed my thinking about it. In each chapter, De Botton offers up a different author and artist and explores the idea of “why” their art/writing reflects why we travel. Different “why” elements are curiosity, a desire for the exotic, for the beautiful, for the sublime, for the comforting, etc. Quick example: to find the “exotic” you have to be attentive enough to see an airport sign with a word on it which has a double “a” in it – we don’t have that in English! So “exoticism” is not just about geography – it is wide-ranging. Anticipation vs. reality is looked at, and so is the idea that no matter where we go, we take ourselves (fortunately or unfortunately)with us. De Botton looks at artists like Edward Hopper (the idea of looking in at something vs. looking out toward something)and Baudelaire, Victor Hugo, Henry James – too many to mention. A wonderful book, really intriguing.
The Last Nomad, by Wilfred Thesiger.
An enchanting and spell-binding account of the nomadic populations of the empty quarter of Saudi Arabia and the marsh Arabs of the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The photographs alone are worth buying the book. This book makes us know what was lost to the world in the ongoing Iraq conflict and what is still so much at risk in the region!
Dear Rick, I think you would love this book because you are so wonderfully politically aware. It is probably hard to find. It needs to come back into print because it contains such pressing important advice for our times.
The question it tried to answer: how was Stalin able to pacify all of the Czech Republic within two years of the Prague invasion of 1968 without having to kill a whole bunch of people? Could these same techniques be used again by a government in the wrong hands?
http://empty-nest-expat.blogspot.com.tr/2009/03/restoration-of-order-normalization-of.html
Margaret MacMillan’s “The War that Ended Peace: The Road to 1914,” published in 20113.
About Europe’s past, which gives even more meaning to the yesterday’s traumatic event. Packed with facts, personalities, her theory about how the unthinkable could happen, and plenty of maps. Amazing read.
Oops, “2013,” obviously.