Presents accounts of encounters from villages to mountains, cruisers to African cities

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	• The Best Travel Writing 2008: True Stories from Around the World (Best Travel Writing) Travelers' Tales, 2008 - 328 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Presents accounts of encounters from villages to mountains, cruisers to African cities

This annual collection of great stories from the road comes from various award-winning writers - including Solas Awards winners - and represents the best in travel literature writing, making it a powerful pick for any library strong in travel writing. THE BEST TRAVEL WRITING 2008: TRUE STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD presents accounts of encounters from villages to mountains, cruisers to African cities, and is simply outstanding, involving reading for any armchair enthusiast.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Bite sized banquet of adventures

Travel writers are the best. They understand that self preservation in their craft is instant submersion in their stories. No wasted words, no patronizing prose. Their readers have litterally been there, done that. So they welcome readers like house guests and treat them like locals. I think it's the most respectful genre in writing. This book is perfect proof. Want to litterally cling to life on a New Zealand mountain? Gotta minute? Want to be a guest-turned-captive in a steamy African village and escape by the skin of your...skin? Take five. That's this book. Enjoy.

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Lives up to its name as a "best travel writing" collection

The Travelers' tales books come in a variety of types. Some are collections that focus on a particular region (Thailand, Italy, the American southwest.) Others are unified by particular running themes (food, danger, spiritual growth). Others are "best of" compilations, collecting the purported acme of the genre, often pieces that appear in other Travelers' Tales books.

I love the whole series, but I've been surprised in the past that the "best of" compilations aren't always (subjectively speaking) actually the best ones. But this one really is, and I highly recommend it.

The finest travelers' tales, of which this contains many, convey the full force of travel. Being a stranger in a strange place, you note and remember much that you'd ignore in your daily life; everything seems more vivid, more memorable. If you're in a particularly different place, perhaps your old life will seem strangely alien, even puny, when reflected upon in a different cultural context. These new people, landscapes, cities, loom so large in your consciousness, it's like being a child all over again.

The best stories in this collection convey those feelings, and many others.

Perhaps because I myself love traveling in SE Asia, I found this collection's pieces on the region to be among the book's best:

One, "The Ghost Road," covers the author's attempt to find the Burmese section of the old Stilwell road. The reader feels the cultural exoticism of the place, and also the spookiness of trying to outwit an authoritarian, nasty government.

"Circuit Broken" is a wonderful capturing of a moment many travelers have experienced; the author is determined to get away from the normal tourist path in Vietnam, and finds herself in a bleak, depressing place. She has an epiphany about the perils of being driven by negative emotions rather than by positive desires.

"Trigger Happy in Cambodia" describes the creepy overtones of the previous genocide that haunts that land still.

But there are plenty of fine pieces in here even for those who aren't, as I am, fascinated by SE Asia. I absolutely loved "Tipping Point in Tikal," for example. Solitary travelers all over the world have had experiences like this one; different people coming together quite accidentally on their respective pilgrimages, the things they share in conversation, the way they observe and remember each other. I still have very clear memories of people I have met in far corners of the globe, each with a different life story, each with a different motivation for travel.

These and other excellent pieces make this collection a fascinating one. The traveler who puts this in her/his backpack and hits the distant road will find it an insightful companion.

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Sensation

This "Best Travelers' Series" is a sensation. Truly, I don't think of anyone who would not find pleasure in reading these sketches. People who seek out 18th Century Asian poetry or 17th Century French judicial opinions would find a joy in these contemporary travel accounts.

reviews: page 1, 2

Since 1993, readers have looked to Travelers' Tales for award-winning stories about the world, adventure, spirituality, and the transformative experiences that accompany life on the road. The Best Travel Writing 2008 is the fifth volume in the series launched in 2004 to celebrate the world's best travel writing ? much of it never before published ? from Nobel Prize winners to up-and-coming new writers. The stories provide a perspective and depth of understanding that can only come from people who have actually been there, and encompass everything from high adventure to misadventure, spiritual growth to romance, service to humanity to encounters with exotic cuisines. Reading the book is like sitting in a café filled with fellow travelers, swapping tales about destinations near and far ? readers emerge changed, eager for more, and ready to plan their next trips.

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