Valentina DaminHere ten books every traveller should read while walking the path. The books are always filled with wonderful and inspirational quotes, which we sometimes keep in mind, sometimes we write down on our diaries and sometimes we write on our body, as tattoos. Which is your favourite? Here’s a choice of books to be put on your shelf. Or in your backpack.
Haruki Murakami, Tokyo Blues, Norwegian wood
“What happens when people open their hearts? They get better”.
Here the suggestion we take from this wonderful Murakami’s novel. It is one of the masterpieces of this fabulous writer. It is a diary of Toru Watanabe, who looks back on his days as a student in Tokyo and his relationships with two girls. The book is about life, meetings, and travel, but it reflects also on the loneliness and the moments when we take care of ourselves.
Arundhati Roy, The God of small things
Are you travelling to Kerala? Or are you planning a trip to India? Here’s a story, a great story about how the most intimate relationships—lovers, twins, family—are shaped by the movement of history. This book is a description of how the small things in life affect people’s behaviour and their lives.
Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram
“Looking at the people, listening to the breathing, heaving, laughing, struggling music of the slum, all around me, I remembered one of Khaderbhai’s favourite phrases. Every human heartbeat, he’d said many times, is a universe of possibilities. And it seemed to me that I finally understood exactly what he’d meant. He’d been trying to tell me that every human will has the power to transform its fate”.
Shantaram is the 10 year journey through India of this Australian boy. Potent, lyrical, richly philosophical, the prose resonates with one on all the highs and lows of the multi-faceted plot. Fiction and real life events mingles together with the Indian magical atmosphere. Go through it!
Paulo Coehlo, The Alchemist
Coehlo books are great, as he is. This is a story which pushes you to follow your dreams. The story follows a young shepherd boy from Spain to Egypt as he follows his heart, goes with the flow, learns to love and learns the meaning of life.
“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting”.
Don’t you agree with him?
Kazuo Hishiguro, Never Let me Go
The novels follows the life-story of Kathy, a clone who is raised at a boarding school in England for future donors. The reader of Never Let Me Go does not know at the beginning of the story that Kathy is talking about clones, but he quickly realizes that there is a dark mystery at the root of Kathy’s recollection. It is a book about memories, about a journey back into life.
Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, pray, love
“This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something”.
This is a story, a diary, a confession of an American woman travelling to Italy, India and then Bali, looking for herself. If you are wondering “is this woman’s story extraordinary?” I would probably say “maybe not”. What engages the reader is that she is able to be very honest about her own mistakes and challenges. The book does bring up some good points about life, love and the pursuit of something meaningful.
Michajil Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
Moscow, 1929: a city that has lost its way amid corruption and fear, inhabited by people who have abandoned their morals and forsaken spirituality. This is the background and the city where the Master, a writer whose life has been destroyed by Soviet repression, and his beloved Margarita live. Their adventures reveal a story that began two thousand years ago in ancient Jerusalem – and its resolution will decide their fate. If you love Russian literature, you can’t miss this book. The story itself is very well written, there are a lot of twists and characters coming and going.
Jack Kerouac, On the road
“What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing?”.
That’s what Sal, the main character of the novel, asks himself while walking into the road. This is his masterpiece and it is one of those books every traveler should read in his life. Although it was written in 1957, it is a timeless travel novel. The story deals with his character, Sal, as he leaves New York City and heads west riding the rails, making friends, and partying the night away. The main character’s frustration, desire to see the world and adventures are themes that can resonate with many of us. During his travel, he becomes a better, stronger and more confident man. That is what travel, most of the time gives you: happiness, confidence and strength.
Antoine De Saint-Exuperie, The little Prince
If you think this is a book for children, you are completely wrong. Why? Because
“all grown-ups were once children… but only few of them remember it”,
suggests the writer. This simple, and short book is the one you should read twice and then present to your friends. It could be seen as a metaphor of our life, or as a journey through the meaning of life itself. Anyway, have a look at it and keep in mind that
“what saves a man is to take a step. Then another step”.
Jon Krakauer, Into the wild
A breathless book. We travel, run, smell, feel the nature with Chris. And while he is learning a lot of things, we do the same. He finds out that “the most important is that happiness only exists when shared”, and this is the main clue of this stunning book. Chris spends two years looking for it, looking for an answer, looking for himself and all the time the answer is just right there where he is.
