Travel WritingJune 29, 2001Travel writing has always interested me. The genre tells of exciting places and experiences. It also conjures up hope or ambition that the reader will embark on journeys inspired by the tales of the various authors. I am an avid consumer of travel writing. This did not come to my attention until very recently. One day, I looked at my bookshelf and found nothing but travel literature and novels about people who travel. Then I thought to myself, "What does that mean?" My small bookshelf is crammed with the tales of Jack London, Peter Matthiessen, Michael Crichton, Bill Bryson, Joseph Conrad, along with some more local authors. The shelf below all these famous authors houses books on Macromedia's Flash, Dynamic HTML, JavaScript, Director, and Graphic Design/Multimedia. These are all tools I've used at one time or another to publish my own travel writing on the web and on CD-ROM. But why do I enjoy travel writings so much? My creative writing teacher once made an astute observation about my own writing portfolio. All of my short stories involved main characters that were desperately seeking life changes. Many of these characters did not do anything about this desire for change. The desire was strong, but action was limited. They dreamed about travel but did little in the way of actually travelling, for example. Perhaps this shows something of my desires. In the past years, I've wanted to make life changes but did little about this desire. Travel, in many of the books on my shelves, resulted in life-changing revelations for the characters. I do believe this is true. If one travels far enough or spends enough time on the road, they will learn a lot about themselves. This knowledge could result in new direction in a person's life - changes that could be for the better. This rambles entry was inspired by today's trip to Barnes & Noble. I have really been trying to find books from other genres to read. I looked around and saw little that interested me. Then I saw a display of Bryson's books at the end of an aisle. I'd read three of the books already, but the one about Australia was not one of them. I picked it up, sat in a comfy chair, and read the first twenty pages. I ended up buying it, thus continuing the trend. I really need to diversify my reading list. Speaking of that, here's a list of books I really enjoyed, just in case anyone cares:
From my younger years:
And, finally, a few local authors:
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