January at A Traveler’s Library

No Report for January

Because of unusual traffic and numbers of comments due to the contest, I will not be counting the number of comments in January. Sorry, but I could not think of a way to make that fair to those who were leaving comments on posts rather than just entering the contest.

Likewise, popular posts was a little skewed, both because of the contest and because of the traffic brought in by the Bloggies, so favorite posts don’t mean a lot.

So, instead, I will take this look -back time to:

MY BEST READING OF 2009

Remind you to look at my list of the best literature to inspire travel that I read in 2009.  Those are over at Wandering Educators.

And share what some other people have had to say recently.

A TRAVEL RESOLUTION

I loved this from Antonia Malchik at the Perceptive Travel Blog, posted January 1, 2010:

The more connections we make between peoples and cultures, the more attempts we make to understand one another — our problems, our loves, our fears, our strengths — the better chance we have of creating a planet that truly sustains life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for everyone.

..So for 2010, I will for once cease longing to see the planet from space, and will instead hope that we will all see the planet at ground level, standing on our own two feet, from someone else’s point of view.

(I apologize, although I’ve linked to the excellent Perceptive Travel Blog, I could not find the link for this quote from Antonia Malchik. Maybe she’ll see this and come to my rescue.)

TRAVEL READING

The Dolman Award for Travel Books (Britain) 2009

Alice Albinia has won the Dolman Best Travel Book Award for 2009 for her book Empires Of The Indus.

The award, Britain’s only prize for travel books, is organised by the Authors’ Club. The £2,500 cash prize for the winner is donated by the Reverend Dr William Dolman.

Empires Of The Indus charts the history of the Indus river as Albinia travels along its 2,000-mile course. Albinia had the idea for the book during a two and a half year stint as a journalist in India.

The other shortlisted books this year were:

The Island That Dared by Dervla Murphy – the pioneering travel writer takes her daughter and grandchildren on a whirlwind tour of Cuba

Bandit Roads by Richard Grant – an exploration of Mexico’s macho Sierra Madre

Fishing In Utopia by Andrew Brown – Brown revisits Sweden twenty years after he lived there as a child

Street Without A Name by Kapka Kassabova – Bulgarian author Kassabova examines her relationship with her homeland as she revisits the places of her youth and the country’s tourist sites

Travels On The Dance Floor by Grevel Lindop – writer takes up salsa dancing and becomes so entranced he journeys to its roots in the Americas.

(These come courtesy of British Webzine, Wanderlust.)

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Here’s yet another travel reading list--this one from New Zealand.

An off-the-beaten-path book store.

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If you missed it, you might find interesting this LA Times article about books that might make a philanthropist out of a traveler.

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Tags: best travel books, Bloggies, L-A-times, Wandering Educators