If for this Sant Jordi you are wondering what book to give to that adventurous person you love so much, the best option is a travel book that makes you daydream.
There are thousands of books on travel, but this selection contains 7 of the titles that every great traveler would include to build the best travel library.
1. The roads of the world, by Nicolas Bouvier: This cult book of travel literature collects the impressions and experiences of Nicolas Bouvier, who in 1953 undertook a trip through Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan at the age of just 24, aboard a tiny Fiat. This is the chronicle of an improvised trip that discovers the new horizons where the road takes him. A book full of reflections on what it means to travel and that transports us to a time when people travelled just to get on the road and make an inner journey. The book is the first of a trilogy that is completed with the Japanese Chronicle and The Scorpion Fish.
-Peninsula Editions, 2019-
2. The Worst Trip in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard:Memoirs of Robert F. Scott's Antarctic Expedition, written and published by one of the survivors. It is a frank account that did not skimp on narrating the difficulties of the expedition, the causes of its tragic end and the meaning of experiencing extreme conditions. It is considered one of the best adventure books of all time and is an irreplaceable classic.
-Editions B, 2017-
3. The Innocent Anthropologist by Nigel Barley:The funniest and most irreverent anthropology book ever written. Barley settled for a few years in a little-known tribe in Cameroon to carry out an ethnographic study. This is the chronicle of that stay, a fieldwork transformed into a successful book that over time has become a classic.
-Anagram Publishing House, 2019-
4. The Danube, by Claudio Magris:The masterpiece of the prestigious Italian Germanist Claudio Magris recounts a trip with some friends along the Danube in the mid-1980s. A dense network of references and quotes intermingle with personal reflections on literature, politics or geography in this book. An external and internal journey through a cultural landscape that crosses 3000 km of Europe and is very worthwhile.
-Anagram Publisher, 1997-
5. Heading for Tartary, by Robert D. Kaplan:A classic of contemporary travel literature, perfect for getting started in reading the work of Robert D. Kaplan, a contemporary author who brings together travel, political analysis and journalism in his books. In this book, he describes an unforgettable route from Hungary and Romania to the distant shores of the Caspian Sea, passing through Turkey, Syria, Israel and the turbulent Caucasus.
-Malpaso Editions, 2017-
6. To the Ends of the World, by Harry Thompson:This novel is one of the most interesting stories about the famous voyage of Darwin and Fitzroy to Tierra del Fuego aboard The Beagle, a British navy ship, to map the Patagonian lands. It is in the best tradition of the travel-adventure novel, similar to those of Herman Melville or Joseph Conrad, and takes us to meet a still young Darwin and a much less famous Fitzroy, humanist, sailor and aristocrat. A tandem that allows a fictional story of a collision of ideas and a fantastic exploration.
-Salamandra Editions, 2012-
7. Fields of Nijar, by Juan Goytisolo:An essential travel book that still deeply impresses today. Goytisolo wrote a story in 1959 in which he describes his journey through the physical and human landscape of Níjar, Almería. For him it was an unprecedented Spain and different from what he had seen in Europe, but owner of an enormous beauty. With the perspective of a reporter, he documents his journey through a territory of misery and abandonment that today we could not recognize among the prosperous plastic greenhouses in the area.
-Gutenberg Galaxy, 2015-
Source: lonelyplanet.es
