Traveling in Pairs -- Top Ten Travel Books

It’s spring—wanderlust time! Time to travel—or at least to read about travel. When I started thinking about my favorite travel books, they came to me two-by-two, for some reason. So, that’s the way my list of travel top-ten picks rolled out.

Notes from a Small Island (1997) and In a Sunburned Country (2001) by Bill Bryson. A slight edge goes to Small Island, if only because I read it while visiting the “small island,” England. As a British resident raised in Iowa, Bryson has the perfect vantage point for examining the peculiar differences between us and our neighbors across the ocean. Sunburned Country is about Australia and, despite Bryson’s unceasing references to peril and discomfort from flora, fauna and weather, the book still made me want to visit. Bill Bryson is not only my favorite travel writer—I find him to be the most consistently entertaining of all writers.

Blue Highways: A Journey into America (1982) by William Least Heat-Moon, and Names on the Land (1945) by George R. Stewart. My favorite book about traveling America is Heat-Moon’s Blue Highways, a true classic about the author’s peripatetic journey down the roads less-traveled, the “blue highways” on the map, in search of inner peace, which he seems to find in every encounter along the way. And what better book to take along on your “blue highways” tour than Names on the Land, a classic look at how different American places got their names?  One of our states’ names, for example, comes from the Siouxs’ name for the St. Peter River.  It meant “muddy water,” and was variously anglicized as Menesotor, Menisote, Minnay Sotor or Menesota.

Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages (2003) by Mark Abley and Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle (2008) by Daniel Everett.  I read about places I can’t visit, but I’m also a linguist wannabe, so when I find a book that combines treks to far-off lands with explorations of vanishing languages, I’m in word-nerd heaven.  In Spoken Here, the author visits with speakers of vanishing languages around the globe, from the Mohawk, Huron and Inuktitut speakers of Canada to the Boro speakers of India.  Daniel Everett spends decades among the Piraha people, whose language relies so much more on pitch than  on consonant and vowel sounds that it may be whistled or hummed, rather than spoken.

The Longest Walk (1988) by George Meegan and Road Fever (1992) by Tim Cahill. Two guys make the same journey--from the southern tip of South America to the uppermost reachable point in Alaska.  One drives it in 23 days; the other walks it in seven years. In The Longest Walk, author Meegan describes his arduous endeavor, during which his wife gave birth to two children, as almost a spiritual journey, full of trials and rewards.  Cahill, on the other hand, is hell-bent for a speed record, and encounters lots of corruption, calamity and car trouble along the way.  Both authors spend most of their words on wild and unpredictable South America.

Desert Solitaire (1968) by Edward Abbey and To the Foot of the Rainbow (1927) by Clyde Kluckhohn. Two worshipful accounts, four decades apart, of the Southwest desert and canyons.  Anthropologist Kluckhohn visited the Rainbow Bridge area when it was still pristine wilderness; Abbey spent time as a park ranger in the area when civilization had begun encroaching.

It also couldn’t hurt to check out Book Lust To Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers (2010) by indefatigable book recommender Nancy Pearl.  She not only breaks her picks down geographically, but includes sections on train travel, hiking, “Travel to Imaginary Places,” and other non-place-specific categories.

Top 40 Guilty Pleasure Albums

We all have skeletons in our closet, and sometimes they take the form of records, discs, or mp3s. Polling roughly 3,000 HPB Bibliomaniacs, a few bravely came forward and offered up the albums they're ashamed to let their parents and friends know they listen to.

From Styx to MC Hammer to Right Said Fred, these are the Top 40 Guilty Pleasure Albums selected by the HPB Bibliomaniacs. What are some of your guilty pleasure albums?

--JD

Storewide 20% Off Sale Memorial Day Weekend

This Memorial Day Weekend, Half Price Books is having a Storewide 20% Off Sale. Shop your neighborhood HPB from Thursday, May 24 through Monday, May 28 and stock up on great new and used books, music, movies and games for the whole family.

See what treasures people find in stores, and tell us about your own. Use #HPBhaul in your tweets and visit hpb.com/hpbhaul to see the action.

-- The HPB Blog Team

*No coupon needed. Discount valid in stores only. Not valid online nor on any gift card purchase.

Countdown to Summer: 4 Dystopian Young Adult Series

The Hunger Games trilogy has made way for a whole host of new dystopian teen fiction series to be published, much in the same way that Twilight did for paranormal romance. The dystopian series generally don’t have as much romance, but a lot more action and therefore tend to be more appealing to both boys and girls of all ages (yes, adults too!). Next time you’re in HPB, be on the lookout for some of these series for either you or your kids.
 
In the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth, 16-year-old Beatrice, a.k.a. Tris, discovers that she is not like the rest of the people in dystopian Chicago. Instead of being chosen for one of five factions – Candor (the honest), Erudite (the intelligent), Amity (the peaceful), Dauntless (the brave), and Abnegation (the selfless) – like the rest of the population, she is worthy of three: Erudite, Dauntless, and Abnegation. At the choosing ceremony, she chooses to be part of the Dauntless faction, while her brother chooses a rival. Tris then has to go through the Dauntless initiation process, where she discovers that her world isn’t as perfect as she once thought. Divergent makes way for the next book in the series, Insurgent, which was just published in May.
 
The beginning of The Maze Runner series, by James Dashner, starts with a boy named Thomas awakening in an elevator, remembering absolutely nothing but his first name. Once the doors open, he discovers that he is not alone. He is surrounded by other boys who were also dumped in an elevator with no memory. The very next day, something even more peculiar happens and a girl arrives. Every day they run through the maze, hoping to find the end so that they can escape this unknown place and discover who they really are and where they came from. if you didn’t get enough of your questions answered by the last novel The Death Cure, a prequel to the trilogy, The Kill Order, is scheduled for release in August. It is expected to shed some light on to how the world became such a dark and terrible place. Check out a sneak peek at the cover art and an excerpt from the book courtesy of USA Today.
 
Delirium by Lauren Oliver starts out in a dystopia U.S. where love has been banned. The government claims that love is a disease, or a “deliria” for which a surgical cure has been discovered. It is required that everyone receives this cure once they turn 18. Shortly before she is scheduled to have the operation, Lena falls in love with a man who has not had the cure. Because of this change in Lena, she decides not to have the procedure and to escape instead. Lena goes to live in “The Wilds,” where she encounters a whole new set of challenges. The next book in the trilogy, Pandemonium, was recently published, and the third book, Requiem is expected to be published in February 2013. There are also whispers of a "Delirium" movie adaptation.
 
The Legend series by Marie Lu, is the quintessential dystopian thriller for teens. Also set in a dystopian America,  a.k.a. The Republic, Legend features a rich and beautiful 15 year old girl named June, who is destined for the military, and Day, the country's most wanted criminal. Day becomes a prime suspect for the murder of June’s brother, and they meet only to discover that they are not each other’s true enemies. The Republic is hiding secrets The next book in the series, Prodigy is expected to be published in January 2013.

Want some more adventure? Stay tuned for the next "Countdown to Summer" reading recommendations -- 4 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Teen Fiction Series. And if you missed the last one, jump back to see 4 Vampire Romance Teen Fiction Series to try this summer.

-- Kristen B.

P.S. Get rewarded for your extracurricular reading! Kids 14 and under can earn $5 HPB Back-to-School Bucks during the Feed Your Brain® Summer Reading Program. Pick up your reading log at your local HPB today to get started!

Elementary, my dear Conan Doyle!

Being an insatiable trivia hound and a Sherlock Holmes enthusiast, I can think of no better way to celebrate the birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – the mastermind behind Sherlock Holmes – than to share a few interesting facts about the author and his most famous character.

“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
About Conan Doyle:

• Conan Doyle came from a very artistic, well-connected family. Both his grandfather and his Uncle Dicky were artists, and men like Walter Scott, William Thackeray and Charles Dickens were frequent dinner guests at the Doyle house.
• Conan Doyle attended university with James Barrie and Robert Louis Stevenson.
• His first short story, “The Mystery of Sasassa Valley,” was influenced by the works of Edgar Allen Poe and Bret Hart, two of his favorite authors.
• Conan Doyle was offered, and took the post of ship’s surgeon on the whaling boat Hope during his third year in medical school.
• Conan Doyle's first novel, A Study in Scarlet, in which we are introduced to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, was originally titled A Tangled Skein and the two main characters were named Sheridan Hope and Ormond Sacker.
• The character of Sherlock Holmes was inspired by Dr. Joseph Bell, one of Conan Doyle’s teachers at university who was a master at observation, logic, deduction and diagnosis.
• Much to his chagrin, Sherlock Holmes has remained Conan Doyle’s most famous and best loved character. Conan Doyle actually preferred writing historical novels over the Sherlock Holmes adventures.

“My dear fellow, life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.”
About Sherlock Holmes:

• One of Sherlock’s most famous sayings, “Elementary, my dear Watson,” was never used in Conan Doyle’s novels or short stories. It wasn’t until Sherlock’s first feature film with sound that Sherlock uttered those words.
• Sherlock’s drug of choice was cocaine, but he would occasionally use morphine as well, both of which were legal drugs in the late 19th century England.
•  All the techniques of forensic science advocated by Sherlock Holmes in his adventures later became a reality, but were generally in their infancy at the time Conan Doyle was writing.
•  In 2002, the Royal Society of Chemistry bestowed an honorary fellowship on Sherlock Holmes for his use of forensic science and analytical chemistry in popular literature.  He is the only fictional character to have this honor.
• Sherlock is also the only fictional character to have been given a real life Knighthood by the British Monarchy (along with his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).

Well, happy birthday, Mr. Conan Doyle.  Thank you for the gift of Sherlock Holmes, who has captivated the world with his crass, antisocial behavior and astute deductive reasoning.
 
Want to read more about Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? Look for the novels, short stories, and biographies at your local Half Price Books. -- Julie