Bibliography

The following is an listing and critique of travel related books, which we either read before we went or took with us. The titles are split into Non Fiction (mostly guidebooks) and Fiction / Novels, within which I lump travelogues.

Non Fiction

Wanderlust Magasine - This was the most useful reference material that we used. This specialist adventure travel magasine comes out bimonthly. We were lucky enough to have a friend with three years of back copies and spent much time browsing the possibilities. Their subscriptions line is 01753 620426, or subscribe through their website.

Edward Hasbrouck

Practical Nomad - Packed with excellent advice on planning the "trip of a lifetime". The extensive coverage of the ins and outs, the scams and tricks of airline ticketing is a real eye opener, and helped us to save quite a few pounds from the cost of our travels.

Ben Box

South American HandbookFirst published over seventy years ago, 'Footprint's' South American Handbook is invaluable. It lacks the snazzy pictures of a Lonely Planet, but it includes everything you need to know about travelling in every South American country all in one compact volume..

Tim Burford

Backpacking in Central America This is a 'Bradt Guide'. This guide is very much aimed at people who wish to walk, off the beaten track with a back pack. It is heavily focused on natural and geographic features of the countries, with hardly any coverage of the countries' anthropology, history and scant description of the towns and cities and no help as regards accommodation. I didn't like it at all and gave it away at the earliest opportunity.

John Fisher

Rough Guide to Mexico (and other Rough Guides) - We used several Rough Guides - as ever superb for the independent traveller. I prefer to Lonely Planet, since I find them slightly more accurate - which is important when it comes to hotel prices, and I particularly like the historic and cultural contexts that are provided at the back of the guides.

Geoff Garvey and Mark Ellingham

Susan Griffith

Work Your Way Around the World Vacation Work, Oxford. Advice and contact information for people who want to work whilst they're on holiday (strange but true.)

Mark Ashton

Everything you need to know before you go Abroadsheet Publications. A wall chart summarising the key things you need to think about before you embark on a major trip.

Various Students

The Berkeley Guide to Central America An appalling book. Written by spaced out students from Berkeley university, California, it is highly inaccurate and incomplete - dangerous even. Don't buy it.

Novels

Dervla Murphy

Eight feet in the Andes - Dervla is an 'institution'. Charming book about her incredible 1300 mile trip on foot through the wildest parts of the Andes. Very understated style, nicely interspersed with historical nuggets, which save it from lapsing into a monotonous slog, like the ordeal itself must have been.

Mulk Raj Anand

Coolie - The story of the hard life of an Indian coolie circa 1927. This book is both sad and amusing, and a great one to pop in your pack if you're off to the subcontinent.

Mark Tully

No Full Stops in India - Mark Tully was for many years the BBC's correspondent in India, born in Calcutta, he is passionate about the country. This book is a collection of essays on a host of different topics that provide a marvellous insight into the complexities of this great culture. Highly recommended pre-reading for anyone intending to visit India

Dalai Lama

My Life and My Country- A great book if you're going anywhere near Tibet. A great book anyway - if you want to get the inside story on how this peaceful Buddhist nation was undermined and overrun and the struggles of its then teenage religious leader to 'do the right thing'.

John Krakauer

Into Thin Air - This is the terrifying account of the fatal events of 1990, when Everest took the lives of 13 people when poor weather closed in on badly prepared commercial expeditions (mentally and physically). Compelling reading.

Jules Verne

Around the World in 80 Days- I picked this classic up in a secondhand bookswap in a Malaysian travellers hostel, and what a find. The story of the indefatigable Phileas Fogg and his trusty sidekick are preposterously funny.

Justin Wintle

Romancing Vietnam- Justin Wintle was one of the first pioneering travellers/journalists who spent six months in Vietnam in the very early days of Doi Moi. It's an interesting book, and Justin meets some funny people, but it never really takes off.

Colonel Shelby L Stanton.

The Rise and Fall of an American Army- Colonel Stanton is a military strategist. This is a dispassionate analysis of the Vietnam war from the American perspective, warts and all. It's a great reference if you're travelling the former war zones (the whole country as far as I can tell), since it gives detailed graphic accounts of all of the key battles. Not a light read, but good context.

Bao Ninh

The Sorrow of War- By Vietnamese author offers the Viet Cong perspective on the war with America. The flyleaf proclaims "The war in Vietnam has berned (sic) ist (sic) brand so deep in film and fiction, it seemed there was nothing new to say. But the voice of North Vietnam has been silent until now." Unfortunately, this book is terribly boring, a disorganised rambling from a deranged mind with nothing interesting to say.

Bill Bryson

A Walk in The Woods- Bryson teams up with his old schoolmate Katz again for a mammoth hike across America on the Appenine way. It has plenty of comic moments but it's not his best book by far, and one feels a certain lack of empathy when they give up on the walk. I'm not sure they took any of it seriously. Read Nicholas Crane instead.

Travel Links                                                      Last Updated: 29th May 1999
Web Page by Adrian Ball  (adrian.ball@virgin.net)