Armchair Travel

What to Read to When You Are Filled with Wanderlust

As the world battles the coronavirus, travel for pleasure won’t be on many people’s radar for the next few weeks, and possibly longer. While it is ultimately a small price to pay for the common good, we mourn this loss because travel brings texture to the sameness of days. Lately, I have been hungering for it: the exploration of a new city or a scenic drive through the mountains.

For someone with a lot of pent-up wanderlust, it can be difficult to know where to turn in the world of social distancing and isolation.

But we do have one avenue of travel left to us: books.

So, here is an overview of some of my favorite books to help you alleviate your wanderlust. From travel literature, to cuisine, to pure fantasy awe, these books will help spark a little adventure in every wanderer’s soul.

Travel classic

In undergrad, I took a travel literature class and reading some of the classic travel tomes was really eye opening. Returning to these favorites throughout the years always unleashes further inspiration.

· In Patagonia – Bruce Chatwin

· The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas – Paul Theroux

· The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey – Che Guevera

Travel that challenges

We can’t talk about travel literature without discussing the privilege of travel as well as privilege of taking up space in different countries and cultures. These books deal with complex discussions surrounding race, sexism, social norms and returning to one’s roots.

· Sister Outsider – Audre Lorde

· An Area of Darkness: A Discovery of India – V.S. Naipaul

· A Field Guide to Getting Lost – Rebecca Solnit

Travel to find yourself

I admit that I am a sucker for these types of memoirs, despite their obvious economic privilege (not everyone can book a plane ticket to India or buy an Italian villa in Tuscany!). But beneath the staging, these three books demonstrate how travel can trigger the need for self-development and self-actualization.

· Under the Tuscan Sun – Frances Mayes

· Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert

· Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother and Daughter Journey to the Sacred Places of Greece, Turkey and France – Sue Monk Kidd & Ann Kidd Taylor

Travel through cuisine

Food, cuisine and taste are often synonymous with travel and discovery. I cherish my memories savoring ceviche in the Yucatán, churros in Madrid and fragrant tagine in Morocco. To taste is to experience, and the breaking of bread is a language that can permeate barriers. Books with recipes included have the added bonus of the ability to recreate travel memories by cooking up a storm in your own kitchen – a perfect escape in quarantine!

· Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquival

· Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes – Julie Powell

· Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking – Samin Nosrat

Make sure to also check out the Netflix series by the same name.

Travel through adventure

As someone who is terrified of real-life peril, but was obsessed with the Titanic, Pompeii, and Mt. Everest as a child, real-life adventure books are one of my weaknesses. You don’t need to risk it all to feel some of that thrill.

· Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster – John Krakauer

· Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail – Cheryl Strayed

· Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage – Alfred Lansing

Travel to other worlds

Fantasy offers us passage to worlds we will never be able to visit in person. Infused with cultures and reflections of our own world, these fantasy stories and fairy tales allow our imagination to tread down new inlets and roads.

· Invisible Cities – Italo Calvino

· Akata Witch – Nnedi Okorafor

· Stardust – Neil Gaiman

Travel back through time

As with fantasy, direct access to history is barred to us – but the written word sets it free. Books as time machines let us melt into the fabric of past ages, whether they be ancient or last century.

· The Fountains of Silence – Ruta Sepetys

· City of Girls – Elizabeth Gilbert

· Snow Flower and the Secret Fan – Lisa See

Travel YA

Boarding schools, trips abroad and European romances! Young adult contemporary books scratch an itch for a particular type of travel at a specific time in our lives. These books recall my semester abroad in college; try these for some nostalgia and romance.

· Anna and The French Kiss – Stephanie Perkins

· The Name of the Star – Maureen Johnson

· Again, But Better – Christine Riccio

On my TBR pile …

I have so many books left to read including some of the classics! Here’s what’s up next:

· My Invented Country – Isabel Allende

· A Year in Provence – Peter Mayle

· The Hazel Wood – Melissa Albert

· Four Seasons in Rome – Anthony Doerr

· Sweetbitter – Stephanie Danler

· One More Croissant for the Road – Felicity Cloake

· The Open Road – Pico Iyer