Books about living in weird places
November 23, 2014 11:14 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for happy books (fiction or non-) about traveling and living in new or weird places.
Light-hearted, funny, and/or cheery are a must. I do not want anything that involves genocide or war or global-warming-related destruction. I want books that take me on an adventure, something outside of my urban American life. An outsider's perspective is fine but not necessary.
My ideal books are in the vein of Sex Lives of Cannibals (a Dutch guy's account of living in Vanuatu for a year). Peace Corps memoirs are great. I've read all of Peter Mayle, but am looking for something a little more different than France. No more specifications: go!
Light-hearted, funny, and/or cheery are a must. I do not want anything that involves genocide or war or global-warming-related destruction. I want books that take me on an adventure, something outside of my urban American life. An outsider's perspective is fine but not necessary.
My ideal books are in the vein of Sex Lives of Cannibals (a Dutch guy's account of living in Vanuatu for a year). Peace Corps memoirs are great. I've read all of Peter Mayle, but am looking for something a little more different than France. No more specifications: go!
Annie Hawes' memoirs about her life in a tiny Italian village are wonderful: the first is Extra Virgin and the second is Ripe For the Picking. I adore these books!
She also has a book about travelling in Tunisia, but I haven't read it. If it's anything like the other two, though, it'll be worth checking out.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:25 AM on November 23, 2014
She also has a book about travelling in Tunisia, but I haven't read it. If it's anything like the other two, though, it'll be worth checking out.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:25 AM on November 23, 2014
The Lost Cosmonaut by Daniel Kalder traces several visits he made to Tatarstan, Kalmykia, Mari El and Udmurtia, parts of Russia that most Russians never visit. The book's tone is a bit distant and mocking, but it does give a glimpse of odd corners we don't hear about much.
posted by zadcat at 11:38 AM on November 23, 2014
posted by zadcat at 11:38 AM on November 23, 2014
You'd probably enjoy James Skibo's Ants for Breakfast: Archaeological Adventures among the Kalinga.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 11:53 AM on November 23, 2014
posted by Monsieur Caution at 11:53 AM on November 23, 2014
Bruce Cahtwin's In Patagonia is an interesting, perplexing read.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:56 AM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:56 AM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
posted by hepta at 12:08 PM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by hepta at 12:08 PM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
Bill Bryson's books are so light that reading him feels like a guilty pleasure. I'd recommend especially Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe, Notes From a Small Island, and I'm a Stranger Here Myself.
posted by Corduroy at 12:19 PM on November 23, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Corduroy at 12:19 PM on November 23, 2014 [3 favorites]
Tim Parks' "An Italian Education" and "Italian Neighbours".
posted by fivesavagepalms at 12:35 PM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by fivesavagepalms at 12:35 PM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Contemporary books and non-Western Europe also preferred - thanks!
posted by quadrilaterals at 2:01 PM on November 23, 2014
posted by quadrilaterals at 2:01 PM on November 23, 2014
Some of Dervla Murphy's less gruelling journeys might suit: On a Shoestring to Coorg, mooching around southern India with a small child in the 70s
Jan Morris is usually perfectly light-hearted, she certainly always has a very good time, but on preview all I know of her is her (Western) Europe stuff.
Robert Byron is Wodehouse-esque sometimes: Road to Oxiana - Middle East in the 30s
Similar but more bumbling is Eric Newby, Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. His characterisations read a litte colonial maybe.
More recent is William Dampyrle, e.g. In Zanadu
But in terms of an adventure that will take you out of your ordinary life, but remains light-hearted, you have to try Patrick Leigh Fermor. He walked across Europe to Constantinople in the Thirties, dossing in hayricks or sponging off dukes. Everything and everyone he encountered dispeared in WW2, and the lyricism with which he describes totally lost folkways etc is utterly transporting. Bit of a show-off and he looses me on the longer architecture descriptions but do give it a go.
posted by runincircles at 2:31 PM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
Jan Morris is usually perfectly light-hearted, she certainly always has a very good time, but on preview all I know of her is her (Western) Europe stuff.
Robert Byron is Wodehouse-esque sometimes: Road to Oxiana - Middle East in the 30s
Similar but more bumbling is Eric Newby, Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. His characterisations read a litte colonial maybe.
More recent is William Dampyrle, e.g. In Zanadu
But in terms of an adventure that will take you out of your ordinary life, but remains light-hearted, you have to try Patrick Leigh Fermor. He walked across Europe to Constantinople in the Thirties, dossing in hayricks or sponging off dukes. Everything and everyone he encountered dispeared in WW2, and the lyricism with which he describes totally lost folkways etc is utterly transporting. Bit of a show-off and he looses me on the longer architecture descriptions but do give it a go.
posted by runincircles at 2:31 PM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
Arthur Grimble's A Pattern of Islands is a memoir of a former British Colonial officer in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands (now Kiribati and Tuvalu). It has some of the prejudices you'd expect but is amusing and well-written.
posted by orrnyereg at 3:14 PM on November 23, 2014
posted by orrnyereg at 3:14 PM on November 23, 2014
Anything by J. Maarten Troost, particulary Getting Stoned with Savages and The Sex Lives of Cannibals.
posted by storminator7 at 3:49 PM on November 23, 2014
posted by storminator7 at 3:49 PM on November 23, 2014
I'd like to recommend The Hills of Tuscany, by Ferenc Máté. I know the whole Tuscan utopia has been done to death as much as Procence, but I thought this was a particularly sweet account filled with wry humour and a willingness to be ridiculous. There's a second book, but I think this one is the best.
posted by ninazer0 at 3:57 PM on November 23, 2014
posted by ninazer0 at 3:57 PM on November 23, 2014
Peter Hessler wrote several books about living in China. Start with the one from his Peace Corp days: River Town.
posted by kbuxton at 4:26 PM on November 23, 2014
posted by kbuxton at 4:26 PM on November 23, 2014
Pico Iyer, especially Video Night in Kathmandu, Married to a Bedouin by Marguerite van Geldermalsen , Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Therourx.
posted by Morrigan at 4:39 PM on November 23, 2014
posted by Morrigan at 4:39 PM on November 23, 2014
Scotch and Holy Water, by John Tumpane--his story of ten years in Turkey in the 70s. We were there in 2000, and OMG it's still so spot on--especially the stories of driving in Turkish traffic. Funny book, and I'll vouch for the truth of it.
posted by BlueHorse at 5:14 PM on November 23, 2014
posted by BlueHorse at 5:14 PM on November 23, 2014
Oh, Hokkaido Highway Blues! A Canadian English teacher hitchhikes the length of Japan following the cherry blossoms. Charming and very funny, author is very earnest. You might also like The Geography of Bliss.
posted by jrobin276 at 5:39 PM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by jrobin276 at 5:39 PM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Tahir Shah is a look at India's more peculiar (at least, to me) side. The same author has written other travel books (available as a Kindle bundle) but this is a favourite.
posted by ninazer0 at 5:57 PM on November 23, 2014
posted by ninazer0 at 5:57 PM on November 23, 2014
Kobie Krüger's book Mahlangeni is about her family's life in a remote area of Kruger National Park in South Africa where her husband is a game ranger.
posted by poxandplague at 6:14 PM on November 23, 2014
posted by poxandplague at 6:14 PM on November 23, 2014
Seconding Lost Cosmonaut. I just read it a few months ago. The author's not entirely likable but the places he goes (pretty remote and non-touristy parts of Russia) is really fascinating. If you want not just cheery but actually funny, you might like Tim Cahill who has written a number of different travel books but Road Fever: A High-Speed Travelogue may be one of the funniest books I have ever read. The same is true for Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country but it's about Australia so not that non-Western. Susan Orleans is a great writer who has a collection of essays called My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who’s Been Everywhere. Some of it is unusual US, some of it is places far away like Bhutan.
Along fiction lines, I was really taken by The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason which is all about being in Burma under colonial rule. Very strange but a great short read.
posted by jessamyn at 6:15 PM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
Along fiction lines, I was really taken by The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason which is all about being in Burma under colonial rule. Very strange but a great short read.
posted by jessamyn at 6:15 PM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
Okay, I read your question and immediately thought of Ruth Ozeki's My Year of Meats. Then I thought I might have read the question too cursorily, and went back to check. Once again thought of My Year of Meats. Double-checked again. My suggestion is My Year of Meats.
posted by trip and a half at 6:24 PM on November 23, 2014
posted by trip and a half at 6:24 PM on November 23, 2014
No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith is a delightful series of books set in modern-ish Botswana. It was also made into a great BBC series. Not travel books, the characters are all locals. It's about two women who run a detective agency in the capitol city of Botswana.
posted by irisclara at 8:16 PM on November 23, 2014
posted by irisclara at 8:16 PM on November 23, 2014
Tony Horwitz's Into the Blue is pretty great. Horwitz attempts to visit all the islands in the Pacific visited by Captain Cook between 1768 and 1779. It's both hilarious and thought provoking, with great chapters on Niue and Tonga.
posted by Sonny Jim at 1:52 AM on November 24, 2014
posted by Sonny Jim at 1:52 AM on November 24, 2014
Dervla Murphy's first book, Full Tilt: Ireland to India With a Bicycle (1965) was inspiring and amazing and all the other adjectives. The adventures she had! I loved that her favorite country by far was Afghanistan. On a bicycle. In the winter. In the mountains.
Another: Travels of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman, a woman who, recently divorced, decides to live with no fixed address. Most of this book describes her eight years living in Bali with a local family but it has NO similarity to that Other Book. Ms Gelman is the real thing.
Christina Dodwell, Travels with Fortune (1979). Another fantastic book. This young woman packed up and set out to travel Africa by Land Rover but was essentially ditched by the side of the road after crossing the Sahara. Instead of returning home, she and her friend decided to trade their gear for two horses and a couple blankets and some food and set out into the bush. Unforgettable.
These can be considered travel books but the travel is done at a very slow pace and at a very basic level and mostly living amongst the local people for extremely long periods of time.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 3:27 AM on November 24, 2014
Another: Travels of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman, a woman who, recently divorced, decides to live with no fixed address. Most of this book describes her eight years living in Bali with a local family but it has NO similarity to that Other Book. Ms Gelman is the real thing.
Christina Dodwell, Travels with Fortune (1979). Another fantastic book. This young woman packed up and set out to travel Africa by Land Rover but was essentially ditched by the side of the road after crossing the Sahara. Instead of returning home, she and her friend decided to trade their gear for two horses and a couple blankets and some food and set out into the bush. Unforgettable.
These can be considered travel books but the travel is done at a very slow pace and at a very basic level and mostly living amongst the local people for extremely long periods of time.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 3:27 AM on November 24, 2014
It might be hard to find a copy, but I enjoyed Lis Sails the Atlantic, a nonfiction diary of a 12-year-old Danish girl whose father bought a boat and they sailed around the Atlantic in the 1920s.
posted by AzraelBrown at 6:41 AM on November 24, 2014
posted by AzraelBrown at 6:41 AM on November 24, 2014
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posted by angst at 11:18 AM on November 23, 2014 [9 favorites]