Best Travel Books: Because You WILL Travel a Lot
Table of Contents
I’ve never thought that one of the things I’ll do a lot once I start my own business is travel. I thought I would be stuck in an office, growing my online empire, but that was so far from the truth. At some point, while I was building my company, I travel 5 months in a year: I went to trade show, expos, conferences, all to promote our work and get more contacts in the industry.
Truth is, though, that with the best travel books, you can explore some of the world’s most incredible places without ever having to leave your home. Whether you don’t have the funds to take a fantastic trip or you’re planning a future getaway, you’ll easily be able to pick the perfect destination for your time away. Filled with plenty of pictures and informative blurbs about unique destinations and popular tourist attractions, your travels will be far more interesting.
For me it wasn’t about not traveling, but about adding a little bit of fun to a business trip. I looked in advance for things to do or see and I usually got one more day at the destination (if possible) and I got to enjoy some places I would never have gone to otherwise.
What we have come to love about travel books the most is that they help to educate you about specific areas in the world. You’ll be able to delve into unique cultures, learn about native species, as well as the different environments that we are surrounded by. You would be surprised at how much you can learn about your local area if you were to invest in some of the best travel books.
There is so much to experience in the world, and with the insanely vibrant imagery in these books, it will feel like you’re traveling without having to spend thousands. From destinations, such as Fiji, to the Amazon, there is an extensive number of places that you can experience simply by flipping through the pages. Travelers will especially love these books, as they can help you to pinpoint unique destinations that you may have never thought of before.
During your time away from home, consider picking up some of the best travel books in the area you’re visiting! You might find yourself reinventing your itinerary so that you can have more amazing experiences that are indeed one of a kind.
By the end of your trip, you can guarantee you will have an assortment of unique picturesque moments, so you can show off your amazing travels and soak in everyone’s envy.
It’s easy to see how so many people have wanderlust to see things outside of what they’re faced with every day. Surely consider some of the best travel books for an exceptional experience you aren’t soon to forget.
Best Travel Books
Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel
Travels with Charley in Search of America
I wanted to include an older book that has been on my bookshelves for decades, and is a less obvious example of reading to lead. John Steinbeck took a road trip with his dog Charley for company across the length and breadth of the US, and recorded what he saw, who he met and what he learned.
With his inimitable charm, it opens your eyes to the small pleasures of life, and the great wonders of humanity in the little moments that matter. Less a direction on how to lead, you could see it as a subtle guide on how to live.
Gulliver’s Travels
The Geography of Genius: A Search for the World’s Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley
The book just a great job describing how communities through the world and history were able to be more innovative than others. It contains some big surprises too.
The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?
How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence
Michael Pollan masterfully guides us through the highs, lows, and highs again of psychedelic drugs. How to Change Your mind chronicles how it’s been a longer and stranger trip than most any of us knew.
In Patagonia
The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man’s Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America
One of the best 3 books I've read in 2019
Contact
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
While re-reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s wonderful book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, I came across this passage on working crossword puzzles. I think he could just as well be talking about making blackout poems:
"There is much to be said in favor of this popular pastime, which in its best form resembles the ancient riddle contests. It is inexpensive and portable, its challenges can be finely graduated so that both novices and experts can enjoy it, and its solution produces a sense of pleasing order that gives one a satisfying feeling of accomplishment. It provides opportunities to experience a mild state of flow to many people who are stranded in airport lounges, who travel on commuter trains, or who are simply whiling away Sunday mornings."
Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow
Damn Right: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger
Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne
The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World
Arbitrary Stupid Goal
Hacking Growth: How Today’s Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success
Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100
Peter Pan
1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover’s Life List
If one is to name the single most knowledgeable person about food on planet Earth, it would be Mimi Sheraton. She is also --by far-- the most experienced food critic in an area where experience matters the most, a field in which the expert is the expert.
She has an insatiable curiosity, does her homework, visits countries, argues with locals, tries all manner of restaurants, and is never fooled by hot air or pseudosophistication. I have seen it with my own eyes. Over the past 34 years i watched her in action, particularly when after my graduation, I would go order for her in restaurants so the food would get to the table before the waiters recognized her. She did not use her priviledge as a food critic to get the better quality food and service than the rest of the people --a testament of both ethics and curiosity.
As I said she is the real thing; this book is the real book.
