a blog about travel literature
This author has been called the “grandfather of travel writing” – but is he really that good?
In the early 1920s, young American graduate Richard Halliburton feels bored. He decides to go traveling on a shoestring budget, so he hops on a ship to Europe and takes it from there…
Why does too much often mean too little?
In the early 1990s, Nadine Hudson from Switzerland is struggling with mental health issues, most notably an eating disorder. She decides to embark on a backpacking trip through Asia…
Do photos, a lot of countries and a slick design make for a good book?
In the early 2010s, German designer Fabian Sixtus Körner decides he wants to see the world. He draws inspiration from the German tradition of the “journeyman years”…
Is this in any way comparable to the works of Ella Maillart?
remember Serge Roetheli, the guy who fabulously ran around the world and wrote a book about it? Well, Nicole Roetheli is his wife, and she kept him company on her motorcycle during the trip. This is the book she wrote, which is supposed to tell the story from her perspective. Obviously, we are reminded of Ella Maillart and Peter Fleming, both of whom were very good writers…
How can a book about a man running around the whole world be so… bad?
we’re in 1997, and Swiss Athlete Serge Roetheli has just returned from running all the way from South America to Alaska. He was accompanied by his wife on a motorcycle, and now that this “American Challenge” is now behind them, they decide to embark on a world tour…
If this guy writes so well and goes to so many cool places, then just why is this book he wrote so bad?
in the early 2000s, Xiaopeng is a young Chinese white-collar worker who decides to see the world. He travels around China, then ends up as an exchange student in the Netherlands. From there, he sets out to do the Grand Tour of Europe…
Is it a good thing or a bad thing when travel writers start to write about writing?
in 2005, Helge Timmerberg is a German travel writer in his fifties who ventures into India to follow the flow of the Ganges river. He takes trains and cabs into the mountain area around the source, smokes some weed, stops over in a few cities along the river, talks to some people, smokes some more weed and eventually makes it down to the delta, where he watches the Ganges empty itself into the sea…
A fan of dung.
In the early 2000s, Nathan Huturoa Gray from New Zealand, along with four other men, decides to walk the entire length of the The Great Wall…
An Indian novelist in China.
In the early 1980s, Vikram Seth, a student from India in his late twenties, is enrolled at a university in Nanjing…
The modern traveler.
In 1946, Heinz Helfgen, a former journalist from Germany turned Wehrmacht soldier comes from a POW camp, only to find out that things are pretty bad at home, especially money-wise…
Was this a 14th-century fact finding mission or just another medieval mystery tale?
Why is it so much fun to read Medieval travel stories that are at least partly untrue?
