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You are here: Backpacker Resources > Travel Books > Top 5 Books for December 2009

Top 5 Books for December 2009

1. The Rough Guide to Classic Novels by Simon Mason
   

   If you want a succinct introduction to a great selection of literary greats, then this is the book for you. It rules out anything that even comes close to a short story and blends Austen with Kundera, and Dostoevsky with Voltaire. With this book you can sample a selection of 229 novels, from 36 countries, published between 1604 and 2002. Each carefully categorised title is accompanied by a tip for further reading and a note about noteworthy TV, and film adaptations. It’s like Wikipedia but well written. Get the gist of it for yourselves by taking a look at the free extract in the December 2009 E‐zine.

   The Rough Guide to Classic Novels by Simon Mason is published by Rough Guides (paperback; £7.99). It is also available through roughguides.com and all good booksellers.

2. Earthbound from The Rough Guides
   

   This Rough Guide to the world in pictures opens up the photographic library of this travel publishing house to the general public, and it does it with a bang. From evocative images of dramatic Argentinean Tango dancers to London’s Southbank skater park, this guide showcases it all with over 250 fantastic photos. At first glance this brick of a book also looks a little bit like a coffee table prop, normally found in a Dentist’s waiting room, however the quickest of flicks will reveal a little more substance. Each location shot comes with short essays from the corresponding Rough Guide correspondent and excitingly, every image has a QR code. Translated from Geek … you can scan said code with the camera on you mobile phone, which instantly translates it into a Google map location. Nifty.

   Earthbound from The Rough Guides is published by Rough Guides (hardback; £20). It is also available through roughguides.com and all good booksellers.

3. One People: Many Journeys from Lonely Planet
   

   On the subject of photos and being impartial, here is Lonely Planet’s answer to Earthbound. The factor however that differentiates this offering from the Rough Guide equivilant, is the purely people based focus. As the title suggests, this book showcases the universal human experience in the many different social settings ‐ on earth. Like Earthbound the pictures in this collection are given extra punch with a well written collection of thoughtful essays, illustrating the experiences we share with every other human on the planet, regardless of birthright. If this doesn’t inspire you to travel, then there’s something wrong with you.

   One People: Many Journeys from Lonely Planet is published by Lonely Planet (hardback; £25). It is also available through lonelyplanet.com and all good booksellers.

4. The USA Book (Pictorial) from Lonely Planet
   

   This is the last photo collection ‐ I promise, but I also promise that this is worth the mention. The USA is one of the most visually (and socially) stunning countries in the world with every lifestyle, landscape, political persuasion and then some. With four million miles of highways, a strong sense of national pride and a level of lucidity (in parts) that would make even the Dutch blush, it’s more than worthy of photographic documentation. From the purple mountains to the Alaskan tundra, and the blues bars of Memphis to the universally appealing strip joints of Los Angeles, this book shows you just what it means to be an American in the twenty first century. It’s both reassuring and whole heatedly terrifying at the same time.

   The USA Book (Pictorial) from Lonely Planet is published by Lonely Planet (hardback; £25). It is also available through lonelyplanet.com and all good booksellers.

5. American Pastoral by Philip Roth
   

   OK ‐ time for some literary meat and potatoes, and not a photo in sight. Roth’s rather dark novel walks the reader through the affluence of 1950s America ‐ all the way to the disenfranchised, dot‐com bubble bursting, bad times of the nineties. The mule horse for Roth’s didactic endeavour is Seymour Levov, a good looking star of New Jersey’s Jewish community and the heir to a successful glove making factory. Seymour is your focal point of despair after, having never stepped out of line, he and his family are destroyed leaving Roth’s alter ego (Nathan Zuckerman) behind to investigate why. By the end of this read, the American Dream is well and truly destroyed and the modern day replacement for America’s old school naivety is insightfully exposed.

   American Pastoral by Philip Roth is published by Vintage (paperback; £7.99). It is also available through amazon.com and all good booksellers.

‐ Rob Savage