Sunday, June 17, 2007

Armchair Traveler Challenge


Lesley at A Life in Books is hosting a new challenge, that obviously I couldn't resist. These are her rules:


  • The challenge runs from July 1 through December 31 during which time you must read six books that fall under the ‘armchair traveling’ theme.

  • Fiction or non-fiction works are fine, and do not need to be specifically travel related, as long as the location is integral to the book - I’ll leave that to your discretion. Locations must be actual places that you could visit, so no Middle Earths or galaxies far, far away.

  • Books may be cross-posted to other challenges, but you cannot count any books read prior to July 1st.

  • To join, make a post outlining your six choices and link to that post below. Because I like to have a little wiggle room, you can opt to switch out books throughout the challenge.

  • And yes, there will be prizes!

So, once again, as I've done so many times in the past couple of weeks, I've re-evaluated what is on my shelf, what I want to read, what I'm going to be reading and came up with this list. The only way I can make this challenge work, though is to cross-post some of these. I may try to find a few others, though, that will work for this category. I may even try to find some more favorable locales--as I'm not sure I would want to travel to some of these places...at least not right now.


*Note: My initial list had Heart of Darkness and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I misunderstood the criterion that books couldn't be read before July 1st. I took this to mean this year, but after more consideration, I've decided to switch these two out for books that I haven't ever read.

  • Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure - Sarah Macdonald (India)

  • The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien (Vietnam)

  • A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan)

  • The City of Falling Angels - John Berendt (Venice)

  • Snow - Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)

  • Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World - Rita Golden Gelman
Alternates:
  • Nothing to Declare: Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Alone - Mary Morris
  • Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman - Alice Steinbach
  • Blue Highways: A Journey into America - William Least Heat-Moon
  • Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia - Elizabeth Gilbert
  • In a Sunburned Country - Bill Bryson
  • Travels with Charley in Search of America - John Steinbeck

6 comments:

Coffeymuse said...

In the Garden of Good and Evil is so so so good-in fact I enjoyed both the movie and the book but as seperate pieces, if you get me. Hope you enjoy!

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

BJ--I have to admit that I've read it years ago, but its one of those that I would love to re-read (especially since I thought it was fiction the first go-round!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Wendy said...

Trish - hope you don't mind me putting this "invitation" here - I noticed you participate in a lot of reading challenges. I've started a Yahoo group for people who love to do reading challenges (a support group of sorts *grin*) and we have a great group over there. Would love to have you join us! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/
ANovelChallenge/

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

Thanks Wendy--I'd love to check it out!

raidergirl3 said...

The Pamuk book I read was Istanbul, and it was a memoir of his life, but so much more about the city itself. I had been in Istanbul last summer, and I wanted to know more about the city. Maybe his nonfiction is better than his fiction? I've read mixed reviews about some of his fiction, and he won the Nobel prize for literature - a killer endorsement for me:( So I want to try his fiction. The Istanbul book might be better for the Armchair Travel Challenge.

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

Raidergirl3--I haven't really heard anything about Istanbul (the book, anyway). It probably would be better, but I tried to use books that I already have on my shelf. These challenges are a great way to knock out that TBR list!