Well, here we are again. Stay at home orders. Lockdown. Whatever it is we’re calling it these days. If you’re in Toronto, like we are, you never really left. Either way, the pandemic fatigue is real and we miss the days of travelling, so in the meantime we’ll have to do our travelling with books. Go on a mini vacation with these 6 best travel books as you adventure with the characters to places both real and imagined.
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Best Travel Books to Scratch the Travel Itch
1. To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedidiah Jenkins
If you’ve been with us for a while, you probably recognize this title. We recently read Jenkins’s latest book, Like Streams to the Ocean, and absolutely loved it. But if you’re looking for something to let you travel vicariously, To Shake the Sleeping Self is the one for you.
Jenkins’s first book chronicles his trip down the west coast from Oregon all the way to Patagonia. Did I mention he did this all on a bicycle? If anything is going to scratch that travel itch (you know, other than travelling itself), it’s going to be this book.
Jenkins writes in a super accessible, conversational style that makes it feel like you’re sitting with him while he tells a story. Throughout, he infuses meditations on life, faith, and relationships. It’s truly a pleasure to read. I fell in love with Jenkins’s raw honesty and his ability to make you feel like you’ve gone on this journey with him.
Listen to Episode 12: To Shake the Sleeping Self and Episode 65: Like Streams to the Ocean
2. The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
I spent my childhood hoping I would find doors to secret worlds—a wardrobe with no back to it, a white rabbit to follow, a rift in the fabric of the universe that opens up to something magical.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January is about exactly those kinds of doors.
At the beginning of the story, our main character, January, discovers a book about secret doors and passages to worlds beyond on our own. We get to read the book alongside January as she embarks on her own journey to discover exactly how she is connected to these hard-to-find places.
Harrow evokes these other worlds with exquisite detail, right down to the way they smell. She gives the reader a story of love and adventure and finding a place in the world (whichever world that may be). What could be better when we’re stuck in one place than a book that lets you travel to secret lands behind magic doors?
If you enjoy The Ten Thousand Doors of January, check out The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern.
3. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
For those who would like their travel with a side of history and exploration, I recommend Washington Black. It’s an astonishing accomplishment of historical fiction that weaves together natural history and Black history, all with an air of scientific obsession and adventure.
Esi Edugyan tells the story of Washington Black, beginning when he is 11 years old, enslaved on a sugar plantation in Barbados. There he meets the naturalist, inventor, and abolitionist Christopher Wilde and embarks on a journey that takes him from the Caribbean to the Arctic to Nova Scotia to England and, finally, to the Moroccan desert.
Along the way Washington hones his talent for illustration, documenting the marine life that captures his interest. Edugyan takes the reader on an adventure of wondrous discovery with gorgeous prose and incredible characters.
“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.”
Jhumpa Lahiri
4. The Long Way to A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Look, sometimes you just want to launch yourself into space. I get it. Earth can feel exhausting these days. If the standard travel tale just isn’t cutting it, why not expand into the cosmos? The Long Way to A Small Angry Planet is exactly the intergalactic travelogue that you need.
First and foremost, this book is just fun. It’s light on plot, but the true enjoyment in this book is riding along with the characters as they hop off to different planets. Sure, they’re also trying to bore a hole in space-time to create a superhighway between galaxies, while also avoiding an interstellar war, but honestly it’s all secondary. Before this book I never had any desire to travel to space, but Becky Chambers has me wanting to join the crew on the Wayfarer spaceship.
If you enjoy The Long Way to A Small, Angry Planet be sure to check out the rest of the books in the Wayfarers series—A Closed and Common Orbit, Record of a Spaceborn Few, and The Galaxy, and the Ground Within.
5. A Cook’s Tour by Anthony Bourdain
Anyone who loves to travel knows that one of the highlights is the food, and who better to take you on a food adventure around the world than Anthony Bourdain? A Cook’s Tour is Bourdain’s account of his experience filming the television series of the same name and he does it with the raw honesty and humour that made Kitchen Confidential so successful.
He takes readers around the world—Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, Morocco, Russia, and Portugal, just to name a few—and searches for the perfect meal in each place he visits. If you miss culinary experiences most of all, A Cook’s Tour will let you travel vicariously through Bourdain’s taste buds. It might even be better, since you won’t have to contend with food poisoning or indigestion.
6. Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper
When I was putting together this list of the best travel books, Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper was one of the first that came to mind. Which might seem strange, since the setting moves between only two places—a small town in Newfoundland, struggling under the collapse of the fishing industry, and Fort McMurray, Alberta, where work comes in the form of working on the oil sands.
The story centres on the Connor family, made up of parents, Aidan and Martha, and their children, Cora and Finn. The children stay in their small town of Big Running, which has largely been abandoned, while their parents work alternating months in Fort McMurray.
So why this book, then? Because Cora, desperate to escape her tiny village, takes to decorating neighbouring abandoned houses as different countries. It’s her way to travel while she’s stuck in one place. Something about this story evokes the strange stasis we currently find ourselves in, and grapples with a family separated by circumstances beyond their control.
The Connors are driven apart before they find their way back to one another. It’s a story about leaving and about coming back, about struggling through an impossible situation and making it through to the other side. I’m including Our Homesick Songs because I decided this list needed a book that wasn’t just about escape. You can commiserate with this story, and maybe, just maybe, find a kernel of hope at its center.
Daydreaming of Travelling with Books Again
Obviously books can only go so far in satisfying your wanderlust, but I also know that reading has absolutely helped me get through this pandemic so far. They’re like little escape hatches offering a bit of variety in otherwise monotonous days. For now I’ll keep reaching for books that take me away to new places, but I’m looking forward to the day when ‘travelling with books’ means I have a stack of them weighing down my suitcase.
