“A genuine road book should open unknown realms in its words as it does in its miles. If you leave a journey exactly who you were before you departed, the trip has been much wasted, even if it’s just to the Quickee Mart.” William Least Heat Moon in Roads to Quoz.
While you could fill a library shelf with American Road Trip books, the 5 most outstanding American road trip books would fit on the nightstand.
(Note: For many more great books for the road trip, follow The Great American Road Trip every Wednesday here at A Traveler’s Library. It started with Blue Highways.)
Everyone lists:
Travels With Charley, by John Steinbeck
Blue Highways 
On the Road 
I would agree with those who also list:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
Lolita 
To follow Travels with Charley, San Jose State University Center for Steinbeck Studies suggests
Sideways by Rex Pickett (2004) (and the movie of the same name)
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955)
Loop Group, by Larry McMurtry (2004)
I Dream of Microwaves by Imad Rahman (2004)
On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1957) (also named 7th in 10 best travel books of 20th century by International Society of Travel Writing)
American Nomads by Richard Grant (2004)
Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon (1982) (also named 2nd in 10 best travel books of 20th century by International Society of Travel Writing
South of Haunted Dreams: A Memoir by Eddy L. Harris (1993)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig (1974)
And here are some miscellaneous others:
The Drifters by James Michener 1960’s young people traveling.
Through Painted Deserts:Light, God and Beauty on the Open Road by Donald Miller
Anywhere but Here by Mona Simpson (mother-daughter road trip)
Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own by Doreen Orion. (with a title like that, you gotta read it.)
The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America by Bill Bryson
Roads by Larry McMurtry (reviewed along with Steinbeck’s Travel’s With Charley
Autumn Across America by Edwin Way Teale (A Naturalist’s 20,000 mile trip)Teale also wrote North with the Spring, and Journey Into Summer and Wandering Through Winter.
Roads to Quoz by William Least Heat Moon (2008—seems to be sinking without much fuss)
Many other road trip books have been written about horseback journeys, bicycle journeys, walking journeys, and journeys in other countries. But for now, let’s stick with the U.S. and motorized transportation. Got more to suggest? Want to argue with my top five? Let’s talk.
Other road trip articles: 11 Literary Road Trips and Theroux Drives America; Guide Books for the Road Trip ; Historic Auto Journeys across America.
Tags: Bill Bryson, Books, Kerouac, Nabakov America., road trip, Steinbeck, Top Five
Hi, I found your site through Spot Cool Stuff about two weeks ago. I don’t have anything specific to add on the best road trip books (except to say that I loved Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance). Just wanted to mention how much I’ve liked reading your posts. Thanks.
Vera, thanks for reminding me of all the great “road trip” books out there. I wanta hit the road NOW!
judy
Twitter: pen4hire
says:
Brenda: Aww, blush. Glad you found us and hope you’ll stick around.
Judith: Yeah, one of the benefits/downsides of doing this blog is the constant temptation. Not only want to go–but want to buy an impossible number of books! But I just got back from a road trip, and don’t have road trips out of my mind yet.
Reach back a little and you will find Francis Parkman’s Oregon Trail is a fine road trip recollection and meditation from an age when roads were merely trails and hunches. If nothing else, his observations on the American Indians with whom he lived make this an American classic. Twentieth century road trips pale by comparison.
Twitter: pen4hire
says:
I agree that those pioneer trips are fascinating. The journals of the Conquistadors, Lewis and Clark, our great-great-grandfather….
But perhaps I should better stick to books that will be more applicable to today’s traveler? What do you all think?
I used to teach a course called, “The Great American Road Trip” and included many of the books listed above. I also recommend The Lies Boys Tell by Lamar Herrin, Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey (or Fool’s Progress, which is more of a road trip and less of a book), Richard Ford’s Rock Springs, and The Grapes of Wrath. And that’s just the start — I could keep on going for days!
Todd Felton´s last blog ..Tours to Go
Twitter: pen4hire
says:
Todd:
You always have such good ideas. Desert Solitaire is on my list for a series on Southwest literature. Somebody else mentioned Grapes of Wrath to me as a road trip book–had not thought of it that way. And I’ve never read any of Richrd Ford, or Lamar Herrin let along Rock Springs or Lies, so I need to get to work. Huge thanks, anyhow. Maybe we should have you back to talk about road trip books one of these days?
I’m an old road trip fan–and a booklover. My favorites are:
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert Pirsig)
- Travels with Charley (John Steinbeck)
- On the Road (Jack Kerouac)
- Air-Conditioned Nightmare (Henry Miller)
- Blue Highways (William Least Heat Moon)
Twitter: pen4hire
says:
Thanks for your contribution. I’m with you on three of your choices, but I must admit that I never heard of Air-Conditioned Nightmare by Henry Miller. Sounds interesting. But I still have a hard time including Kerouac’s On the Road in a list of road trip books. I think it is more of a coming of age memoir. He’s not so interested in the things he sees, and places he rolls through as he is in his own life and that of his pals. Plus, I have yet to find anyone who loves that book who read it after their twenties.
Twitter: kerrydexter
says:
this got me thinking that most of my favourite road trip books are about trips by foot. however, one that’ve liked that’s by motorized transport (scooter) is Peter S.Beagle’s I See by My Outfit. cross country trip in 1963.
Kerry Dexter hopes you will read blog ..patrick season: music and mist