12 of the Best Books to Inspire Wanderlust

Well, it seems like we’re gonna be in this for the long haul. As someone who lives and breathes travel, it’s very difficult to be cancelling all my future trips. And not knowing when I’ll even be able to book another one is very hard. It’s gotten me pretty down. But, something I am very thankful for is my home library. These travel books help me escape outside my stressed-out brain and into another time and place. 

I listed all the different amazon links to these books but I’ve also found that most local libraries have kindle or e-book versions available online. So if you have a library card, your local library might be doing more of these digital downloads to provide readers with more options during the pandemic when most libraries are closed. Also, if you’re local book shops are doing home delivery you should check these out too to help out those small businesses!

An Idiot Abroad: Travel Diaries by Karl Pilkington

Ok, I know this might be a silly one, but it is truly one of my favourite books. I grew up listening to the Ricky Gervais podcast and then went back to the XFM radio show archives and completely fell in love with Karl Pilkington. Karl is unknowingly hilarious and his almost child-like view on the world is so unique. Ricky Gervais produced a television show called An Idiot Abroad with Karl where they sent him all over the world to places he’d never even dreamed of visiting. As a reluctant traveller, Karl has the most opposite opinion to all of us in the travel blogging world and that’s what makes it so funny. While the show is great, I loved the book as it gives a little bit more insight into his mind and also feels like his very own printed travel blog. There are also so charming illustrations and photos from his journeys that are exclusive to the book here which just add to the entire story.

Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky

The Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky is such a charming and beautiful book. In a time when we feel like we’re never going to be able to travel anywhere again, her book brings a new perspective to visiting places in your mind. Judith’s book is all about 50 different islands that she herself has never visited (and never will). But by weaving together various scientific studies and recorded historical events, she manages to create a snapshot of each different island’s personality and character on every page. Each page features a gorgeously drawn cartographic view of the island and a story about it. It’s a wonderful way to learn about these faraway lands from the comfort of your couch!

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

The Bone People was a book I read as an angsty teenager and still to this day love to pick up and read. Its wildly descriptive pages transport you to the shores of pastoral New Zealand. The stories centers around Kerewin, a part-Maori artist, who herself self-isolates (by choice) and loves this isolation. But her life is torn apart when she comes to meets Simon, a mute six-year-old and his foster-father Joe. The book itself is quite emotional and riveting but also is a love story to the South Islands and Maori myths which are so important to New Zeland and its people.

Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders

If you’re looking for a book to pour over and plan future travels and adventures then this is the book for you. While some travel books focus on the most popular and highly regarded travel destinations and attractions, this book focuses on weird, wild, and even slightly odd experiences and collections around the world. This book inspired me to visit a few cities I would have otherwise never thought of travelling to if it were not for the one interesting exhibit or attraction to see there. And once you’re there you’ll find a myriad of other wonderful things to see as well. I treat it as a paper version of a cabinet of curiosities with treasures from all over the world.

In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

I think I left my copy of In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson in Australia, lost on a beach somewhere no doubt. But luckily my library had digital versions of it which I could take out to get my Bill Bryson to fix. Bill Bryson is a comedic travel writer, who brings his unusual personality to his travel experiences and his writing. I had read Bryson’s other books but his book on Australia was the one I loved the most and I treated it like my bible to pour over before I moved to Australia for a year in my 20s. His descriptions of this country on the other side of the world are some of the best representations of what it is like to travel there, so if you can’t go yourself, this is the next best thing!

DaVinci Code Series by Dan Brown

I think almost everyone has a dogeared copy of a Dan Brown book somewhere in their house. Maybe your quirky aunt gave it to you one Christmas and you never got around to reading it. Well, this is the perfect time to pick it up. While I think the overhype for these books in the media might have caused a lot of people to expect more from it than it intends to be, I LOVE these books. Especially for their descriptions of art, history and the cities in which they are set. Don’t take them too seriously and you’ll have such a great time with them! My favourite I think is Inferno, not for the storyline, but his sumptuous descriptions of Venice, Florence and Istanbul!

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Fear and Loathing is one of those books you can easily read on the porch over a weekend. It’s a frantic and fantastical tale set in Las Vegas in the 1970s. It is a slightly fictionalized account of Thompson‘s experience over one highly drug-fueled week in Las Vegas while trying to get a story. While his descriptions are at times surreal, I think it does a fantastic job of getting across the feeling of Vegas during that time in space. 

A Year in Provence, Peter Mayle

This book was one of the inspirations for my trip to Provence a few years ago. We rented a house in a small, non-touristy town, and although we were only there for two weeks, it was impossible not to imagine moving there for good. Mayle‘s book follows his journey of buying a hundred-year-old farmhouse in Provence and the adventures he encounters throughout his first year of living there. As you can imagine, there are a fair share of mishaps and misadventures but also so many joyful stories which make you wanna just pack up and move to France (after the pandemic of course).

The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell

Before visiting Sweden last year, I dove back into this book. Although not set in Sweden, there is something so interesting about learning about the Scandinavian way of life. The book follows British journalist, Helen Russell throughout her year abroad in Denmark. She wanted to understand why Danes are the happiest people on earth and so she spent a year living Danishly to see why this formula works! Not only is it a great book about another country there are so many things from this book that you can take and apply to your own life, even in quarantine!

Visitors to Versailles

This was a new acquisition to my library when I knew we would be put into self-isolation. I have a few books on the history of Versaille and its architecture and ornamentation but this book focuses on the visitors which have for centuries come to visit the palace. It follows stories of dignitaries and even 18th-century tourists as they came to see this architectural treasure for the first time. It allows the readers to see Versaille through the eyes of these visitors during different eras. It’s a gorgeous coffee table book full of rich photos of the clothing visitors would have worn and even – my favourite part – the souvenirs that visitors came away with even hundreds of years ago.

Vivaldi’s Virgins by Barbara Quick

When I was a little girl I would fall asleep almost every night to a book on tape about Vivaldi and the school he ran for girls in Venice. While that story was meant for children, this book follows the same theme but in a much more grown-up fashion. The book is rich with descriptions of 18th century Venice when the city exploded with new art, music and splendour. The story is a fictional tale of an orphan abandoned at Ospedale Della Pietà, Antonio Vivaldi’s school for music, and her journey to discover where she came from. Throughout the book, she explores the different areas of Venice in her search which allows you to feel like you are on the journey with her and are seeing these visions of Venice for yourself.

Colour by Victoria Finlay

My copy of Colours is so beat up at this point from the many times I’ve read it, but I suppose that is just the mark of a great book! This book details the history of colour through author Victoria Finlay‘s travels around the world. I read it for the first time when I was studying the colour blue for a paper I was writing at school. This history of where colours come from and their symbolic and cultural meaning is so fascinating to me but her descriptions of the places she travels to discover these secrets is one of the best parts of the book. Pure wanderlust.

Let me know if you’ve already read any of these books or what your favourite travel-inspired books are! Looking for anything and everything new to read these days! I hope you are all keeping safe and healthy and doing well!

Happy (imaginary) Travels, Adventurers