To continue our monthly series of book lists, the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library would like to recommend the following fiction and nonfiction titles about traveling. Travel is a common theme in stories from the earliest days onward. I hope these books take you on a road trip in your mind.
September 2010—Travels: Books That Take You Somewhere.
The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
When Earth is demolished to make room for a galactic freeway, sole survivor Arthur Dent is forced to take up a life of hitchhiking around the cosmos with the aid of his alien friend, Ford Prefect, and a book called the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The Hitchhiker series novels, dated 1979-1992:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe and Everything; So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish; Mostly Harmless; and a bonus story, "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe" (1986). Foreword by Neil Gaiman. Cassette Book RC 62183. Digital Book DB 62183 is only available as a downloadable talking book from BARD http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.62183 .
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
A poetic comedy from fourteenth-century England. During the annual April pilgrimage to Thomas a Becket's shrine at Canterbury, the travelers stop at the Tabard Inn, where their host suggests a story-telling contest. The jovial tellers of the ribald tales include a friar, summoner, nun's priest, and miller. Braille Book BR 13235. Cassette Book RC 20461. Digital Book DB 20461 is only available as a downloadable talking book from BARD http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.20461 .
American Road by Pete Davies
In 1919, a military convoy of 81 vehicles set out to travel the Lincoln Highway from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco. Essentially a PR ploy to dramatize the need for good roads, the "First Transcontinental Motor Train" averaged just five miles an hour on roads barely better than trails. The venture spurred massive road building and the creation of the Interstate Highway system. 2002. Cassette Book CBA 7667. Digital Book DBW 7667. Digital Book DBW 7667 is also available as a download from WTBBL http://www.wtbbl.org/login.aspx .
The Gentleman from Finland: Adventures on the Trans-Siberian Express by Robert Goldstein
Russia, 1987. In this memoir, an American man of Mexican, Russian, and Jewish descent finds himself mistakenly aboard the wrong Russian train with voucher that claims he is from Finland. Though he speaks only a little Russian, the author must negotiate encounters with smugglers, thieves, and a beautiful, yet sinister, woman who may or may not be a government agent. 2005. Cassette Book CBA 7802. Digital Book DBW 7802. Digital Book DBW 7802 is also available as a download from WTBBL http://www.wtbbl.org/login.aspx .
The Way West [#2, Western Saga] by A. B. Guthrie
1840s. Dick Summers has been to Oregon before, but now that his wife has died he decides to return. He will guide a group of men and women from Missouri on the difficult journey along the Oregon Trail. Sequel to The Big Sky (RC 37502, DB69986, BR 14920). Pulitzer Prize. 1949. Braille Book 16478. Cassette Book RC 60818. Digital Book DB 60818 is only available as a downloadable book from BARD http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.60818.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
A group of young people epitomize the beat generation as they roam the American continent in a wild, desperate search for identity and purpose. Strong language and explicit descriptions of sex. Braille Book BR 18352. Cassette Book RC 31675. Digital Book DB 31675 is only available as a downloadable book from BARD http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.31675.
Life at Puget Sound: With Sketches of Travel in Washington Territory, British Columbia, Oregon & California by Caroline Leighton
After the Civil War, Caroline Leighton and her husband came to the Pacific Northwest, meeting pioneer families excited about new opportunities on the frontier as well as people wishing to escape the past. 1884. Cassette Book CBA 7649. Digital Book DBW 7649. Digital Book DBW 7649 is also available as a downloadable book from WTBBL http://www.wtbbl.org/login.aspx .