My "travel" book is a particular pleasure just now, because I am having to do some rehab for some bodily aches and pains.  I am enjoying reading

Isabella Bird's account of her travel by rail (steam locomotives, back then), by horseback (including one skittish animal from the local livery),

and afoot (when the horse, spooked by a bear,  unseated Isabel and ran off) in  sparsely settled parts of the" Old West".

The book, A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, consists of 17 letters originally written to her sister.  In them, the intrepid Englishwoman describes

the places she visited and the people with whom she interacted.  One "character" of special note is the mysterious one-eyed desperado known as Mountain Jim.

travel books are one of my favorite genres. I have read many over the years.

Bonnie, I read that book by Isabella Bird back in 2011, and I really enjoyed it also. Long Riders' Guild Press puts out a number of similar type books about  travels by horseback.  In fact, there is another for Isabella Bird that they publish called, 'Among the Tibetans'. I'm currently looking for, 'Last of the Saddle Tramps' by Messanie Wilkins.  I guess it is part of a series they publish called Equestrian Travel Classics.  Anyhow, that publisher has some interesting titles. These types of travel books are a pleasure for sure, and I always end up admiring those adventurous souls.

I liked A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains because it consisted of letters. The tone is spontaneous and fresh, in contrast to much late Victorian travel narrative, ornate. Also, it gave me a sense of how deprived and grim the lives of people "out there" were. Bird's books about Tibet and Hokkaido are sitting on my shelf.

I agree Matt.  Because the book is of an epistolary nature, it gives a refreshing sense of reality to what might have been just another Victorian style travel tale. I love a true slice-of-life look at these past times!

just read Orient Express by John Dos Passos. I read this book many years ago but I got it at that time through inter library loan so I had to read it fairly quickly to get it back to the library. I have my own copy of the book now so I can read it any time. The book is a really interesting snapshot of a particular time and place. The book has nothing to do with the train of the same name.

I'm going to check out Isabella Bird! Thanks for the tip.

                                                    Rose

(I'd only heard of her before in connection with travel clothing.)

From Heaven Lake Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet
Author: Vikram Seth

just requested this book this morning. the reviews look good. I'm looking forward to getting it.

I just posted a review of From Heaven Lake

http://majoryammerton.blogspot.com/2014/03/from-heaven-lake.html

did you like the book?

I liked From Heaven Lake - I like travel narratives generally but especially written by university-aged people, because they remind me of traveling when I was their age.

Matt B.:  Your post made me think of Francis Parkman.  After graduation from Harvard, he set out in 1846 to discover for himself the thrills and dangers of the Westward Trek.  His eye-witness account of his "road trip", The Oregon Trail, describes the wide variety of pioneers, adventurers, Mormons, outlaws, trappers, and half-breeds found then in that lawless, uncivilized region where buffalo still ran wild and dangerous and marauding bands of Indians made vigilance the price of life.

P.S.  My copy of The Oregon Trail has an introduction by A.B. Guthrie, Jr., the author of The Way West and The Big Sky.

Parkman is also a great stylist. I find his prose very enjoyable.

reading now The Lost City of Z by David Grann. true story of treks into the amazon jungle. really interesting.

Has anyone read Pulitzer prize winner, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters?  Very few books are so good I don't want them to end but this is the book for me. I love it. I've never laughed so many times.

I just requested In an Antique Land by A Ghosh. It hasn't been mailed yet but I have my fingers crossed. Sounds interesting. Anybody read it?

Finished In an Antique Land. Interesting read. Ghosh who is Indian went to Egypt for several years to research a slave who lived in the early 12th century. The book deals with the Egyptians he meets and comes to know while he is there. And there is the thread of his research going through the book also.

I have just started Sailing alone around the world by Joshua Slocum. Trip made from 1895 to 1898. Supposedly the first to do this. I read the book many years ago but it has been so long I don't remember it.

Finished several weeks ago. a fun read. enjoyed it. I have already sent it off to somebody who requested it.

From Heaven Lake

Interesting connection between this book and one I am reading now. After You, Marco Polo by Jean Bowie Shor. Travel book. Trip done in early 1950's. The author and her husband stopped for their honeymoon at Heaven Lake. They camped in an abandoned Buddhist monastery. Really enjoying this book. There is a blurb on the jacket written by William O Douglas. The blurb mentions a book Douglas wrote having something to do with the himalayas. I knew about Men and Mountains but I have never heard of a book about the himalayas.

After You, Marco Polo. What a great book. Just finished this morning.