I think we've established that I like lists by now. It's not that I'm convinced they're always right, but rather that they make starting places for discovery and discussion. In other words, they're a jumping-off point rather than a destination.
Blog of a Bookslut pointed me towards World Hum's fifth anniversary top travel books list, which fulfills both functions nicely. I'm unfamiliar with at least half of the books on this list and I'll be looking for many of them. Others are just plain wrong.
Paul Theroux's Great Railway Bazaar at number 3? Theroux may be a great writer, but he makes a piss-poor travel companion, even vicariously. He's grouchy, walls himself off from the inhabitants of the countries he visits, and even brings along his own food—so how much does he really "travel" in the sense of having new experiences?
Ronald Wright's Cut Stones and Crossroads: A Journey in the Two Worlds of Peru, which is not on the list, is far more worthy, in my opinion. Wright, an archeologist, is full of information on the Inca, Quechua, modern Peruvian reality, and the phenomenon of UFOs in Peruvian cooking—that's unidentified floating organs and it's 100% accurate.
Okay, I've started the conversation. Anybody else want to praise a book that's on the list, dis one, or offer substitutions?
