[NON-FICTION] A Sense of Place
A Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk About Their Craft, Lives, and Inspiration with Michael Shapiro. First reading.
I haven't read anything like a lot of travel writing--although I've been meaning to fix that--but when I saw this book I couldn't pass it up. Shapiro, himself a travel writer, spent several months traveling to visit other writers in the field whose work had inspired him and to interview them about their lives and their work. The result is a book that transcribes parts of these conversations, punctuated with Shapiro's own comments on their influence and quotes from their various books.
This is not a book of travel writing, then, and it's not even particularly *about* travel. And to tell you the truth, I'm not sure what I can say about it other than semi-meaningless things like, "I really enjoyed it", "it does a lovely job of showing writers' lives, the things that draw them to the craft, and the ways the writing intersects with the way they live" . . . that kind of thing. Some of the writers are people who've lived through great adventures and come home to tell the tale, while others have explored tamer parts of the world or perhaps not gone much beyond their own yards.
So now I have a long, long list of books to read, courtesy of the acknowledgements. *laughs* Which is, of course, one of the great hazards of non-fiction. And reading this made me hyper-aware of how long it's been since I've gone anywhere further than either of my home cities. (Ok, it's been less than two years. But that seems long. ^^)
Exotic Places Made Me Do It by Tim Cahill
Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home In Italy by Frances Mayes
Hunting Mr. Heartbreak: A Discovery of America by Jonathan Raban
Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meanings by Jonathan Raban
No Mercy: A Journey to the Heart of the Congo by Redmond O'Hanlan
My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile by Isabel Allende
Neither Here Nor There: Travels In Europe by Bill Bryson
A Masterpiece Called Belgium by Arthur Frommer
The Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search For Home by Pico Iyer
Falling Off the Map: Some Lonely Places of the World by Pico Iyer
Rick Steves' Postcards From Europe: 25 Years of Travel Tales From America's Favorite Guidebook Writer by Rick Steves
The Size of the World by Jeff Greenwald
All the Right Places by Brad Newsham
Take Me With You: A Round-the-World Journey to Invite a Stranger Home by Brad Newsham
The Birds of Heaven: Travels With Cranes by Peter Matthiessen
A Writer's House in Wales by Jan Morris
Really, I just want to pick up a copy of A Sense of Place if I come across it. (And not only to see if the mistake attributing Les Miserables to Andrew Lloyd Webber instead of Boublil and Schonberg has been fixed in later printings. >.>)
I haven't read anything like a lot of travel writing--although I've been meaning to fix that--but when I saw this book I couldn't pass it up. Shapiro, himself a travel writer, spent several months traveling to visit other writers in the field whose work had inspired him and to interview them about their lives and their work. The result is a book that transcribes parts of these conversations, punctuated with Shapiro's own comments on their influence and quotes from their various books.
This is not a book of travel writing, then, and it's not even particularly *about* travel. And to tell you the truth, I'm not sure what I can say about it other than semi-meaningless things like, "I really enjoyed it", "it does a lovely job of showing writers' lives, the things that draw them to the craft, and the ways the writing intersects with the way they live" . . . that kind of thing. Some of the writers are people who've lived through great adventures and come home to tell the tale, while others have explored tamer parts of the world or perhaps not gone much beyond their own yards.
So now I have a long, long list of books to read, courtesy of the acknowledgements. *laughs* Which is, of course, one of the great hazards of non-fiction. And reading this made me hyper-aware of how long it's been since I've gone anywhere further than either of my home cities. (Ok, it's been less than two years. But that seems long. ^^)
Exotic Places Made Me Do It by Tim Cahill
Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home In Italy by Frances Mayes
Hunting Mr. Heartbreak: A Discovery of America by Jonathan Raban
Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meanings by Jonathan Raban
No Mercy: A Journey to the Heart of the Congo by Redmond O'Hanlan
My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile by Isabel Allende
Neither Here Nor There: Travels In Europe by Bill Bryson
A Masterpiece Called Belgium by Arthur Frommer
The Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search For Home by Pico Iyer
Falling Off the Map: Some Lonely Places of the World by Pico Iyer
Rick Steves' Postcards From Europe: 25 Years of Travel Tales From America's Favorite Guidebook Writer by Rick Steves
The Size of the World by Jeff Greenwald
All the Right Places by Brad Newsham
Take Me With You: A Round-the-World Journey to Invite a Stranger Home by Brad Newsham
The Birds of Heaven: Travels With Cranes by Peter Matthiessen
A Writer's House in Wales by Jan Morris
Really, I just want to pick up a copy of A Sense of Place if I come across it. (And not only to see if the mistake attributing Les Miserables to Andrew Lloyd Webber instead of Boublil and Schonberg has been fixed in later printings. >.>)