Comments on: Great Books—and the Best Places to Read Them

By: The SageBook Whisperer

The SageBook Whisperer — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 22:59:54 +0000

What an interesting concept_”a vacation book”!I’m such a Bookaholic & always have some sort of printed material with me at all times.Never associated the vacation place with the book. However,I’m about to take an Amtrak train vacy from Texas to the Big Sur,California area for a Wine Tour.I love trains!I’m such a fan of Agatha Christie_especially Hercules Poirot in “Murder on The Orient Express”_so I purchased a hardcopy of the book for train ride reading..w/a bottle of Pinot Noir…”Perfection”!! And,I’ll read it again next year on my planned Orient Express Train ride from London to Venice….enjoyed your article.

By: richard spinner

richard spinner — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 19:15:26 +0000

If I were to go “off the road”, I would bring along a copy of “On the Road”.

By: Patty

Patty — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 12:51:08 +0000

I read Melville’s “Moby Dick” on a trip to Massachusetts and Nantucket. Seeing the typical sea captains’ houses, and especially Nantucket’s fine Whaling Museum, greatly increased my understanding of the whaling trade and deepened my appreciation of the book. Although we did not have time for it on this trip, taking a whale-watching tour would also have added to this experience.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 19:46:30 +0000

The Old Man and the Sea on a train along the Adriatic Coast of Italy.

By: Emma Smith

Emma Smith — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:33:49 +0000

Can’t agree enough with the poster who mentioned Gerald Durrell and Corfu, Greece! Also A Room With a View for Italy–that book made me travel to Florence. And Steinbeck and the Salinas Valley and Monterey.

By: Terrie

Terrie — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 14:22:18 +0000

You’re so right about connecting a book with a trip. I read ‘She’s Come Undone’ by Wally Lamb during a week in a beachfront motel in South Florida – at least 15 years ago – and just seeing that book on a shelf transports me to the view of that beautiful aqua ocean from our second story window, crashing waves, sand, wind, palm trees and pelicans, and the deep pleasure of being in summer clothes in the warm sun when it was still snowing at home. Not that this essay was the place for it, but equally as important, to me, is good – preferably new-to-me – music, which, after listened to multiple times during the course of a trip, becomes the soundtrack for the memories.

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 14:20:42 +0000

Serpico by Peter Maas takes me to Prague every time. I found an old copy in a youth hostel during a trip fifteen years ago and read it in cafes near the Charles Bridge. Perfect supplement (and contrast) to the beauty of old Europe.

By: musafir

musafir — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 14:12:03 +0000

Alexander Frater’s Chasing the Monsoon vividly describes India during the rainy season.

Wilfred Thesiger’s classic, Arabian Sands

Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts, and Between the Woods and the Water are sure to provide many hours of pleasure to
all those who think of, or have taken part in, long distance
walking tours.

By: Martin

Martin — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 13:12:44 +0000

This is the book through which I started to discover the US: John Steinbeck, “Travels with Charley in Search of America”.

By: Courtney

Courtney — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 02:00:47 +0000

Butcher’s Crossing (by John Williams) while camping in Rocky Mountain National Park.