When it comes to train travel, the truest saying is that life is about the journey, not the destination. My family recently took a train ride that started with a seven hour delay, then we collapsed in the desert, then we got overly polite (or just a stickler for the rules) and let every freight train pass, and finally we arrived over twenty hours late. But I still highly recommend the experience, assuming you don’t need to get somewhere in a timely fashion. The actual journey consisted of going out with my family, eating good food and admiring the scenery as it went by, all of which are much more difficult to do behind the wheel of a car.
Even though I’m a fan of trains, I have to admit I don’t spend much time reading them, despite my dream of someday getting into model railroading. But there are many good books that don’t involve trains that focus on travel.
One of the more literal ones is Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth”. Professor Otto Lidenbrock and his grandson find a coded note telling them that the center of the earth can be reached through volcanic tubes found under a volcano in Iceland. They use the support of an Icelandic guide to help them discover the wonders hidden beneath the earth’s crust. This includes a large ocean, giants, and prehistoric animals. As a child I was fascinated by Jules Verne. His books featured epic journeys to the moon, under the ocean, over the earth and around the globe. These stories were written in the 1800s, which makes them even more interesting.
Also in 1800 we have “Three Men in a Boat” by Jerome K. Jerome. Jerome intended to write a travel guide, which is why there are historical fragments scattered throughout the book, but it’s actually just a funny book about the misadventures of three friends traveling the Thames by boat. It is one of the few books that really brought me to tears of laughter.
For a slightly more recent adventure, there’s John Green’s “An Abundance of Katherines”. Colin and his friend Hassan went on a road trip after graduating from high school, following Colin’s latest breakup from a girl named Katherine. This is Colin’s 19th relationship with a girl named Katherine, hence the title. Starting in Chicago, they end up getting a summer job in Tennessee by interviewing locals for an oral history project, and maybe even starting a relationship with someone other than Katherine.
Bill Bryson is known for his humorous travel books. My favorite Bryson book is “A Walk in the Woods,” which features his attempt, with a friend, to hike the Appalachian Trail. I have had enough hiking experience that this book is very recognizable. With modern means of transport, it is rarely necessary to travel long distances anymore (I speak for myself, of course). This means that the long hikes are purely for the sake of the trip. It allows you to slow down, focus on your steps, listen to the world around you, and hopefully ignore the annoying traits of your fellow hikers, such as their inability to keep an even pace, or not securing their gear, so it slams. and rattles everything in place.
To be fair with my initial anecdote, I feel compelled to mention at least a couple of books about trains that are now in the queue because spending more than fifty hours on a train has piqued my interest in other experiences. The first is “Off the Rails” by Beppe Severgnini, in which he recounts the various train journeys he made in his life around Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States.
And finally, we have Paul Theroux’s “The Great Railway Bazaar”. This book, first published in 1975, chronicles his journey from the UK to Japan and back over the course of four months. I am curious to find out if my experience has been unique or relatively common when it comes to traveling by train.
It would be difficult for you to throw a rock and not hit a book that only talked about the journey and not the destination. I know it. You know it. It’s a cliché for a reason. But also, don’t throw stones.
If you need help finding a new book and traveling, ask a librarian. We’re all over the library and we’re here to help.
