Long hours spent cramped up on a plane or a bus aren’t any fun. But when you’re traveling, ‘dead’ time is inevitable! Don’t let your next trip give you any stress, mental fatigue, or dull hours; just take a gripping book along with you and you’ll be all set.
Here’s a list of 9 books that will fuel your spirit of adventure and help you filter out the noise and commotion around you!
1. Eat, Pray, Love
This memoir by American author Elizabeth Gilbert was published in 2006 and it chronicles her trip around the world following her divorce. The Eat part of the year-long journey was spent in Italy, eating and enjoying; the Pray part was spent in India, discovering her spirituality, finally ending in Indonesia, where she falls in love with a businessman.
With notes of enlightenment and smiles, this book is great as a travel companion as it serves as a reminder that traveling can help you grow as a person.
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns
From the author of the bestseller, The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a truly inspirational novel that gives insight into the lives of women in Afghanistan. Khaled Hosseini centers this book on two women born a generation apart, who eventually develop a mother-daughter relationship over the course of their shared struggles.
As a travel companion, this beautiful, riveting tale that chronicles 30 years of Afghan history won’t disappoint you!
3. The God of Small Things
This debut novel by writer Arundhati Roy won the Booker Prize in 1997. Set in Kerala, the novel beautifully captures multiple facets of life in the southern state of India, including Communism, the caste system, and the Syrian Christian way of life.
The novel has been written in a non-sequential narrative style, and is a patchwork of flashbacks and sidetracks. For the greater part, the story is told from the perspective of a child, Rahel, and key moments in her life and that of her twin brother.
4. The Dark Tourist
Authored by Dom Joly, The Dark Tourist can best be described as a bizarre and compelling travelogue. With a childhood spent in war-torn Lebanon, Joly’s early experiences include using shrapnels as schoolboy currency, spending terrifying days and nights sheltered from Syrian rocket attacks, and coming across severed heads from an execution!
These experiences gave the author a taste for traveling to dark places like assassination sites in America, Chernobyl, and North Korea. Read this interesting book as you take on an adventure of your own liking. For more dark reading, you might want to check out these holocaust books!
5. Mud, Sweat and Tears
This adrenaline-fueled autobiography has been authored by adventurer Bear Grylls. The popular star of the hit survival series Man Vs. Wild, writes about how he recovered from a broken back and went on to become one of the youngest people to scale Mount Everest.
Read this book on your trip and you’re sure to be inspired to challenge yourself each day to take on a new adventure!
6. The Art of Happiness
This international bestseller by HH the Dalai Lama and psychiatrist Howard Cutler explores training human outlook that alters perception. In the book, Cutler quotes the Dalai Lama along with context, details of settings in which the interviews took place, and his own reflections on certain issues.
Reading this book can help you become a happier person and can enhance your travel experiences. If you’re planning to go on a relaxing vacation with a bit of meditation time built in, this is the book for you.
7. The Alchemist
Originally written in Portuguese, Paulo Coelho’s 1988 novel has become an international bestseller recently, having been translated into around 70 languages. The main theme revolves around finding one’s destiny and how the universe conspires in helping one achieve what they truly want.
The Alchemist makes for a simple and enchanting read as it follows Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy, on his journey from Spain to Egypt in search for treasure.
8. Stranger in the Forest
Eric Hansen’s Stranger in the Forest is possibly one of the best accounts of an adventure expedition. Hansen’s 7 month and 4,000 km long journey through the heartland of Borneo is as humorous as it is engaging.
Read this book to find out how Hansen survived in an inhospitable environment, making more than half of the journey on foot, feeding on bee larvae, boa constrictors, lizards, rice soup, and roasted rattan shoots!
9. The Motorcycle Diaries
This interesting memoir traces the early travels of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the Marxist revolutionary. As a 23 year old medical student, Guevara, along with his friend Alberto Granado, a 29 year old biochemist, left Buenos Aires on a motorcycle to explore South America.
The odyssey led Guevara to witness social injustices and persecuted Communists, thereby transforming him by the end of his journey of 9 months. While being both political and personal, this coming-of-age story is a classic describing a voyage of adventure and self-discovery.
Conclusion
Whether you want to find an escape from the stress of traveling or what to spend some time relaxing by the beach, a book can be your best travel companion! Now that you’ve got this list of interesting reads by your side, go and grab one so you’re ready to take on a trip to remember.