One of the things that we really like about traveling is that you easily find the time to read. We will recommend to you some books, worth reading before, during or after your travel.

Talking about books the most important question is:
What guidebook should I take?

We always take two:

1. The Lonely Planet (US Edition)
We find it especially useful when it comes to hostels and getting from here to there.
Cultural descriptions are a litte bit short though.
Tip: Always check the LP site for new release dates before you buy.

2. Reise Know How
This is a German guide book. We like it because it often has different hostels and hotel tips.  It’s real advantage however is the strong cultural content.

“Point it” could be a good extension to your guide book.
It’s a picture dictionary – you can’t remember the word? Point it!

Literature
We only list books that we really enjoyed, because they told us something about our destination. We read books just for fun as well of course.
We hope that you enjoy them too!

The countries that we have traveled to in alphabetical order:

Argentina

• Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Nightflight (Claudia & Tom)
  
  Within Nightflight Saint-Exupéry copes with his own experiences as an airmail pilot in Argentina in the 1930s. He describes the beauty of the night skies, the freedom and vastness up in the air but also the dark side of the winds and weather of wild Patagonia. A dedicated airmail pilot, his unyielding supervisor and the tragic events of a stormy night are the basics of the story.
• Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince (Claudia & Tom)
  
  World famous story about the power of friendship. An exciting journey, not only for kids.
• Magellan’s Voyage around the World, Antonio Pigafetta (Claudia & Tom)
  
  An eyewitness account of the first circumnavigation of the globe. In form of a diary report Pigafetta delivers fascinating insights into the events and the hardships of the historic voyage of Magellan.

Australia

• Marlo Morgan, Mutant Message Down Under (Tom)
  Review coming soon
  
• Wild, Cheryl Strayed (Claudia)
  
  I saw the film adaptation of Wild (with Reese Witherspoon) on the plane on our way from Chile back to Europe. Despite the bitter background story of Cheryl I had to laugh incessantly, especially at the beginning of the book. I had tears of laughter. In everything Cheryl was doing (wrong) with regards to her journey I remembered Tom and me and our first trekking experiences in Patagonia. Yes, as starters in the beginning we packed our backpacks totally wrong and in the end we found ourselves crawling aground like helpless turtles with excess luggage. And yes, the first time we were cooking outdoors, a lot went wrong… Tipp: milk powder and stormy weather don’t work together 😉 The movie was great, the original book – we bought it later in Australia – even better. It offers deeper insights into Cheryl’s feelings and thoughts.

Burma

• Burmese Days, George Orwell (Claudia)
  
  The story takes place in the 1920s in the northern part of British colonized Birma. At this time the British Empire already decayed. The main character is John Flory, an unmated English timber merchant. He is struggling to cope with his loneliness in a foreign world. At the European Club he is looking for help within the community of other Europeans. However, after his long stay in the country he also sympathizes with the Burmese people and their lifestyle. But then he meets Elisabeth… and the fate takes its course. Flory’s story tells about desire and burden, alcoholism, prostitution, heat and sweat, intrigues, the exploitation and the abuse of power of European colonialism but also about the fascination for foreign cultures, friendship, love and passion, and finally hope and death. As a police officer Orwell spent some time in Burma at the beginning of the last century. Later he quit his service and became a writer.
• Twilight over Burma. My live as Shan Princess, Inge Sargent (Claudia & Tom)
  
  Inge Sargent, an young Austrian student, marries a graduated Burmese mining engineer – so she thought – and returns with her husband to his native country. Arriving in Burma in 1953 she realizes he is the Prince of Hsipaw, an autonomous state in Burma’s Shan mountains. Her life totally changed. She immersed herself into it and fell in love with the country and its people. Her husband and she worked hard to improve the live of their people, their subjects. The military coup of 1962 destroyed everything. A true and compelling story, emotional, intimate, touching, shocking.

Chile

• Isabel Allende, The House of the Spirits (Claudia)
  
  Review coming soon… I want to read it a second time!
• Einfach losfahren, Fabio Volo (German Edition) (Claudia)
  Life is an adventure! The first time I discovered „Einfach losfahren“ was in the hands of another traveller in El Chalten in the south of Chile. I wanted to buy it soon but never got that far along our trip around the world. Back in Munich it literally jumps into my arms from a junk table of an old book store. A good pennyworth! In his work Volo describes the deep, unconditional, eternal friendship of Michele and Federico. Nothing is able to separate this two, not even a stroke of fate that changes the life of Michele forever – and redefines his love for Francesca.
• One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez (Claudia)
  
  Poignant and confusing. What is this story about? Hard to say… The ups and downs, the abyss of a family in the fictional Macondo in South America, told across generations – through which the loneliness runs persistently. By many One Hundred Years of Solitude is considered to be Márquez’s masterpiece.

China

• Zheng He. China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty, 1405-1433, Edward L. Dreyer (Tom)
  
  Review coming soon
• Fried Eggs with Chopsticks: One Woman’s Hilarious Adventure into a Country and a Culture Not Her Own, Polly Evans (Claudia)
  
  Review coming soon
• Theo’s Odyssey, Catherine Clément (Claudia)
  
  14-years old Theo got really ill, a mysterious illness nobody can heal. Hoping to be able to help Theo, its quirky aunt takes him with her on a long journey. Is there more in this world than we think to know? Aren’t we basically all the same? Can there be peace? Is there hope? These and other questions accompany Theo and us on our journey to the different religions of the wold.
• Sophie’s World, Jostein Gaarder (Claudia & Tom)
  
  An exciting philosophy course for beginners – told via the experiences of Sophie, who, unexpectatly, receives private mail from an foreign philosopher. A good read for long days and nights on a train. My thanks go to the funny Iceland woman whom we met on our trip from Irkutsk/Russia to Ulan Bator/Mongolia in May 2015. She made me aware of Sophie’s World.

India

• The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy (Tom)
  
  … coming soon
• Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts (Tom)
  
  … coming soon

Indonesia

• Paradies in Flammen, Charlotte Sandmann (German Edition) (Claudia & Tom)
  
  … coming soon

Italy

• Death in Venice, Thomas Mann – Venice (Tom)
  
  … coming soon
• Inferno, Dan Brown – Florence (Claudia & Tom)
  
  … coming soon
• Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare – Verona (Claudia & Tom)



• The Glassblower of Murano, Marina Fiorato (Claudia)

  … coming soon

Netherlands

• Winter in Wartime, Jan Terlouw (Tom)
  
  … coming soon
• The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank (Claudia & Tom)
  
  … coming soon

Russia

• Gorky Park, Martin Cruz Smith
  
• Russland to Go, Wlada Kolosowa (German Edition) (Claudia)
  
  Wlada is German, but born in Russia. She can’t really remember her native country, but also don’t really feels home or settled in Germany. Not German, not Russian she starts a journey to discover her roots and to find her place in the world – despite all the warnings from her family that she won’t be able to get along alone in Russia. With humor and lightness Kolosowa tells about her travels.
• War and Peace, Lew Tolstoi (Claudia)
  
  Tolstoy takes his readers to the time of the Russo-Napoleonic war, to times of victory and times of defeat. Relentlessly he shows the suffering of the soldiers, the lives of the population under the burden of war and the wounded souls of the survivors – tangibly told by the history and fate of three, closely linked families.

United States

• Hopp! Hopp! Es geht weiter., Oliver Tappe (German Edition) (Claudia)
  Entertaining „lean back“ reading with many moments of laughter. With humor and charming anecdotes Tappe tells about the „dream“-job travel guide. The author takes us with him on a three-weeks, guided tour through the West of the USA… with all the ups and downs that he experiences with his guests. A weird entertainment, not only for those who recognize themselves within the author.

The classic Around the World in 80 Days, Jules Verne – shouldn’t be missed in every well managed travel library. Best in the original version!

 

t.b.c.
Find Tom and his personal book tips on Goodreads