The world has come to a standstill. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, time at home has turned into a tedious affair. And with the global situation set to remain at the same stop for quite sometime, home is where holidays in near future are going to be, at least for a while.
While most of us rue the fact, the bookworms are having the last laugh. Staying home, cooped up in a cozy corner, away from the maddening world—social distancing is a game they have aced all these years. All they need is a supply of books, and their minds, souls and hearts can travel across the universe taking in each season and soaking in the beauty and be a part of the pathos too.
From Bill Bryson’s epic journeys across countries and continents and George Orwell’s descriptions of the Paris he grew up in, to Eric Newby’s walk around the ranges of Afghanistan and Gregory David Roberts’ bittersweet romance with Mumbai, these stories and more take readers on an adventure that is hard to forget. So put your feet up and get ready for a journey across the world as we bring you the 10 best reads to keep you busy.
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
By: Paul Theroux
Recreating a 25,000-mile journey, Theroux covers Turkey, Sri Lanka, China, Japan and Siberia. With his unmatched descriptive skills, Theroux brings the wide world into your self-isolated dwellings. Things can’t get any better.
In a Sunburned Country
By: Bill Bryson
Through conversations with Australians, Bryson goes beyond the beaten tourist path to unravel a world that is not often seen. The beautiful wild of Australia finds a perfect guide in Bryson with his witty and anecdotal writing.
In Xanadu
By: William Dalrymple
Written much before Dalrymple turned an Indophile and took to calling Delhi home, the book traces the journey undertaken by Marco Polo from Jerusalem across Asia to Xanadu. Both scholarly and hilarious, it is a college grad’s view of the world.
Eat Pray Love
By: Elizabeth Gilbert
A major life change that results in a quest to find the inner connect through continent-hopping and divinity, Gilbert’s memoir is a beautifully crafted story and is also spiritual in nature.
Under the Tuscan Sun
By: Frances Mayes
Mayes along with her husband takes readers through the trials chronicling her restoration of an Italian villa in the Tuscan countryside. The evocative language coupled with the cultural explorations make it a must-read.
A Year in Provence
By: Peter Mayle
Moving into a 200-year-old farmhouse in Southern France has its own adventures, as Mayle discovers. From goat racing to regional cuisine and a slower pace of life surrounded with French eccentricities, it is a traveller’s dream come true.
Into Thin Air
By: Jon Krakauer
Get a chance to explore Nepal and the mighty Himalayas as Krakauer engages the readers with his first-person account of a tragic 1997 Everest appointment. The book is a precursor of doom when the Himalayas would also be too crowded.
On the Road
By: Jack Kerouac
Based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across the US, it is a cult epic of the Beat Generation and Counterculture western world. It’s the perfect compliment to a world that is drowning in jazz, drink and drugs.
Wild
By: Cheryl Strayed
In the wake of her mother’s death and with her own marriage falling apart, Strayed has nothing more to lose as she sets out on an epic hiking journey all alone and with no training. Guided by an iron will, she attempts the impossible.
The Motorcycle Diaries
By: Che Guevara
Almost a decade before the Cuban revolution, Guevara and his friend embark on a journey from Buenos Aires to explore South America. By the end of it, he is a completely transformed man.