Tuesday 4 June 2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books Featuring Travel

This is a meme hosted every Tuesday by the Broke and the Bookish. Check out their answer here

So to be honest I haven't read many books that exclusively feature travel. I don't tend to gravitate towards books that involve road trips or backpacking through various countries.  So I was very liberal in my interpretation of travel. I was actually surprised that I was able to find 10 books for this list! Here are my top 10 picks for books featuring travel in some way: 


1. Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson - A recent read for me and definitely a new favourite, this is the classic road trip we all wish we could take at some point in our lives. I loved following Amy and Roger on their trip across the United States and reading about all the awesome places they visit.

2. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien - I loved this book as a child mainly because I was so transfixed with Middle Earth and all the places our Fellowship get to travel to. Frodo's quest takes him from the Shire all the way to Mordor, and he does most of it on foot. Pretty impressive. 

3. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami - Another book that involves a lot of walking which is why I've included it. This book about a Japanese university student in the 1960's probably doesn't seem like a travel book to most people but I was struck by how much walking and wandering Toru does.  Plus at one point he does take a train into the Japanese countryside, so there's that. 

4. American Gods by Neil Gaiman - This features a road trip across the United States but it's much more unconventional in that it takes place in the middle of winter (not the best time to be travelling) and there are gods. Also the methods of travelling at times are questionable. 

5. Going Bovine by Libba Bray - Another unconventional road trip across the United States as our main character is plagued by mad cow disease and his travel companions are a dwarf and a yard gnome.  

6. Paper Towns by John Green - The final road trip book on this list, we follow Quentin as he chases his childhood friend Margo across several states.  Not my favourite John Green book but I was surprised at the creepiness of several of Quentin's destinations.  


7. The Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey - Speaking of creepy, this is the second book in a phenomenal young adult horror series. The reader is reunited with Will Henry and Dr. Warthrop as they go on the hunt for the supposedly non-existent Wendigo in the northern Canadian wilderness. 

8. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith - While not the most realistic love story, it's still a cute story that follows the lives of two teenagers over the course of 24 hours after they meet at an airport and take a red eye flight together from the U.S. to London. 

9. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum - Travelling by means of a tornado is not an ideal form of transportation for anyone, but Dorothy makes the best of it when she finds herself uprooted from her farm home in Kansas to the magical and strange land of Oz.  

10. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants by Anne Brashares - This was one of my favourite books as a teenager and a perfect summer read. It follows four best friends who find themselves separated for the summer for the first time. The girls and their questionably magical pants take us from the United States to Mexico and Greece.    

6 comments:

  1. I'm looking forward to reading Paper Towns by John Green! Great list.

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  2. I'm kind of mad at myself for leaving the Traveling Pants books off my list. I really need to read Going Bovine and Paper Towns already.

    My Teaser & Top Ten Tuesday
    LisaILJ @ I’ll Tumble for YA

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    1. Going Bovine is definitely Libba Bray's strangest book but it's worth a read, I really enjoyed it!

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  3. Great list - I'm the same with not really reading a lot of books featuring long treks. I ended up going with non-traditional travel, too :-) ::smacks self in the forehead:: The Wizard of Oz! Of course! Brilliant pick! Why didn't I think of that?

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    1. Thanks! The Wizard of Oz was a really recent read for me otherwise I probably wouldn't have thought of it either!

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  4. Love Statistical!!! Great list!!!
    Here's my TTT

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