Books By Theme: Travel the World from your couch

Photo: Dave Austria

Have the travel itch but low on funds? Live vicariously through this sampling of travel writing...

Last Chance to See is as funny as travel writing can be but with a serious purpose. The late sf writer Douglas Adams and zoologist Mark Carwardine traveled the world searching out endangered species in their diminishing natural habitat to call attention to the fragility of their existence.


Michael Paterniti recounts one of the oddest trips he, or anyone else, has taken in Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein’s Brain. Accompanied by the 84-year-old doctor who performed the autopsy on Einstein and stole the scientist’s brain, Paterniti travels across the country to return it (housed in a Tupperware bowl) to the great man’s granddaughter.

Travel writer Tim Cahill may explore exotic places around the world, but his experiences and reactions will be familiar to anyone who has survived a long family car trip. A Wolverine is Eating My Leg is a collection of his misadventures from the Americas to Asia and beneath the sea.



As the result of an ill-considered bar bet, British actor/author Tony Hawks spends 30 days going Round Ireland with a Fridge, meeting many eccentric characters (eccentric even for someone traveling with a large household appliance) and even becoming a minor media celebrity.

Assassination Vacation combines Sarah Vowell’s love of travel and U.S. history as she visits the locations and sheds light on the personalities connected to the assassinations of presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley.