Recommendations from the road; some of my most thumbed books for planning trips and passing the time waiting for that connection. Click to order for immediate delivery from Amazon UK.
TRAVELOGUES
The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux, Penguin Books, 1996
Certainly one of the finest rail travelogues ever published, written with an engagement and eye for detail that made for one of my most enjoyable train ride reads. Paul Theroux recounts a journey made as a young (and perhaps attractively naïve) traveller from Boston in America to the far south of Argentina, a trip which takes him almost the full length of the Americas.
Round Ireland with a Fridge, by Tony Hawks, Ebury Press, 1999
Many have attempted to match this seminally daft and entertaining travelogue, but none have made it even close. Tony Hawks wakes up with a hangover to discover he has been bet £100 that he can’t hitch hike around Ireland with a fridge. Never one to turn his back on a challenge, he heads to Dublin, invests in a fridge, and sticks out his thumb.
FOR RFERENCE…
There are a dozen websites out there that’ll help you plan your European rail trip, all with fancy interactive timetables and incomprehensible journey options. For those of you who prefer things the old fashioned way, Thomas Cook still publish quarterly rail timetables that’ll help you plan a route using consistently clear and reliable tables.
USA By Rail (6th edition) by John Pitt, Bradt Travel Guides, 2005
Despite the accuracy of this book being eroded by the alteration or suspension of various train services, USA By Rail is still the essential travelling companion when embarking on a major rail trip around North America (since it includes outline information about all major passenger routes in Canada as well). Every train has its own chapter with details about what to expect both on the train and out of the windows. Mile by mile guides highlight the sights and tell you what to watch out for. The next edition is eagerly anticipated.
AND THOSE BOOKS TO AVOID…
Worth listing here because it was such a tragic waste of an opportunity. Possibly one of the least successful or entertaining travelogues that I’ve ever had the misfortune to pick up: written with no apparent interest in the world beyond a six foot radius of the author, which is quite something for a book about travelling around America on a train. Simply terrible.
