I’m a bit surprised we’ve got this far without anyone mentioning In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin, which is generally held to be the book which redefined what travel writing could be (not sure I hold with that opinion, mind you).
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Thinking of authors who love writing about how very dangerous the things they do are (I find it's a subgenre I have a soft spot for despite knowing I should probably be more cynical), I really enjoyed Martha Gellhorn's Travels With Myself And Another
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- Aug 2008
- 25231
- The zero meridian
- Swansea, Gaziantepspor and the Zeugma Franchise
- Bahlsen Choco Leibniz Dark
Originally posted by Third rate Leszno View PostI’m a bit surprised we’ve got this far without anyone mentioning In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin, which is generally held to be the book which redefined what travel writing could be (not sure I hold with that opinion, mind you).
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- Mar 2008
- 29883
- An oasis in the middle of Somerset
- Bath City FC; Porthcawl RFC;Wales in most things.
- Fig roll - deal with it.
Originally posted by Third rate Leszno View PostI’m a bit surprised we’ve got this far without anyone mentioning In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin, which is generally held to be the book which redefined what travel writing could be (not sure I hold with that opinion, mind you).
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I'm half way through Danube by Claudio Magris. Magris is an Italian columnist and essayist and professor of German Literature at the University of Trieste. Danube is an amazing book, following the river. I'd hesitate to call it a travel book in the way that I've typically understood them, since he basically says nothing about the journey itself (he's in Vienna at the moment in my reading, and I have no idea how he travelled. He has some friends with him that occasionally he refers to, but that's it). Instead it's a series of pieces inspired by the places along the river at which he stops. He is one of those people with an absolutely encyclopedic knowledge of history, literature, art, philosophy, mathematics, you name it, he knows about it and weaves it all together beautifully. Some pieces are basically historical stories and anecdotes, some are his musings on various historical or literary moments, and some are just funny. I don;t agree with everything he says, and nor do I totally follow all of his musings, but it's so rich and so fascinating that these are not criticisms at all.
It was written in the mid 80s, so it will be interesting when he leaves Vienna and goes behind the Iron Curtain. He's a Germanist (if there is such a word), so having been so far in Germany and Austria means he's very much on home turf, but I have little doubt that his knowledge and erudition of Czechoslovakian, Hungarian, Yugoslavian and Romanian literature culture and history will also be vast.
Anyway, I recommend it massively.
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Not sure if this is a travel book exactly, but I've just finished Ottoman Odyssey by Alev Scott. A journey around the various parts of the former empire mixing interviews with history with travel. She delves into Erdoğan and his attempts to revive the empire and the way he spends money to do so (especially in the Balkans). She's very up front and honest about Israel and Palestine and is not afraid to call apartheid apartheid. And she also doesn't shy away from using the word genocide to describe what happened to the Armenians. (The author, who is a young journalist, is from London from a Turkish Cypriot family)
Recommended. Think Antepli Ejderha would enjoy it in particular, but anyone who enjoys a good travel /modern history book will get a lot from it. My only criticism is that it could be much longer.
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Kapka Kassabova's Border, is utterly utterly superb. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
Kassabova is a Bulgarian who lives in Scotland (as far as I can gather this book was originally written in English, and it won the Scottish book of the year award, or similar in 2017). But the book is about Bulgaria, or more specifically Bulgaria's southern border with Turkey and Greece. It's part travel writing, part social history, part just gloriously descriptive writing about an area of Europe that very few people ever see (Kassabova is a poet, which perhaps explains the beauty of the language). She tells stories of the villages and towns she stays in as she visits the border, and of some of the recent history there - the fact that it was a border closed from people heading south before 1989, and is now, thanks to the refugee crisis a border closed for people heading north. Stories of the number of people who tried to flee from the Soviet controlled world (many of them it turns out East Germans, who had heard that it was perhaps the easiest border to cross -spoiler alert - it wasn't). Stories of the ethnic makeup of Thrace in general. The "Big Excursion" in 1989 (I'll start a thread on this in World). Really, get hold of it. It's full of beautifully told stories of awful things and beautifully stories of amazing things (the fire walkers of the Strandja, for example)
I am now looking to get hold of a copy of her more recent book, where she goes to Macedonia.
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I think I've banged the drum about Kassabova on here before (ed: in this very thread! Back in 2018, mind). Definitely highly recommend Border. The second book you talk about there (To The Lake) is also good, though not nearly at the level of Border. Her previous book (Street Without a Name) is most definitely worth a read though, and between that and To The Lake, I'd recommend SWAN).
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- Aug 2008
- 25231
- The zero meridian
- Swansea, Gaziantepspor and the Zeugma Franchise
- Bahlsen Choco Leibniz Dark
In the last couple of days I've actually been able to read, for the first time in years, so thought I'd start with something easy. Richard Parks 'Beyond the Horizon' is about the ex Wales rugby player turned extreme athlete, it's an easy read because it's well ghost written. I'm so happy to be reading again.
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Originally posted by Antepli Ejderha View PostIn the last couple of days I've actually been able to read, for the first time in years, so thought I'd start with something easy. Richard Parks 'Beyond the Horizon' is about the ex Wales rugby player turned extreme athlete, it's an easy read because it's well ghost written. I'm so happy to be reading again.
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