Random Thoughts on Reading

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Featuring Travel



Top Ten Tuesday is a great meme created by Jamie at The Broke and the Bookish that combines top ten lists and books. She’s come up with a great list of weekly discussion topics and I hope you’ll join in the discussion by commenting on this post or some of the other ones (you can find the list of participating blogs in this week's Top Ten Tuesday post on her site).

This week’s topic is Top Ten Books Featuring Travel.

The books that immediately came to mind tended to focus on traveling to fantastical places or featured strange modes of travel, so that’s what I went with.

1. Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
A magic portal between worlds (in the first book it’s a magic wardrobe, in the third it’s an enchanted painting, in the last it’s a train accident)—who doesn’t want one? I love magic portal stories and have always wanted to be whisked away to another world. I still get a thrill reading the description of the fur coats ever so slowly turning to pine needles as Lucy emerges in Narnia that first time.






2. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle
Imagine being able to traverse galaxies in the matter of minutes - without a space ship! This sounded amazing until they arrived in a two-dimensional plane and almost suffocated. Then I wasn’t quite so keen on traveling with the three Mrs. Ws. However, this book definitely opened my eyes—and my imagination—to the fantastical all around us. One didn’t need to slip through a magic portal to a make-believe land to have grand adventures. Real space travel seemed adventure enough.





3. Contact by Carl Sagan
This is both one of my favorite books and one of the saddest books I’ve ever read. Similar to A Wrinkle in Time, I loved the possibilities of space and science presented in the book. Here the journey is less mystical and more scientific—I was IN the capsule with Ellie and the others as they zoomed through the established wormholes and then slogged along creating new tunnels/hooking our “subway line” to the main one. Brilliant and amazing!






4. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Another space travel book – you’re going to think I’m a huge Sci Fi fan, but I’m not. In fact, I would say the three SF books on this list are on it BECAUSE they make space travel, something I know very little about, so accessible/easy to understand. In this book, a group of intrepid adventurers, including several Jesuit priests, set off to find the source of an interplanetary radio signal. Their ship? A hollowed out asteroid. My reaction? Holy crap - you can do that?! A little Google-Fu showed me that this, indeed, was a theorectical possiblity. Awesome! The first third of the book is about the preparations and journey to make first contact with aliens and it’s as fascinating as anything that comes after for the sheer realness and attention to detail. Later, towards the end, this book contains one of the best scenes I’ve ever read of the fragility of humans in space—one little slip up in the amount of fuel you use and that’s it, you’re stuck. Forever.

5. The Little Prince by Antoine de St. Exubery
While the journey here is more metaphor than literal, I love the idea of simply jumping or flying (floating?) from planet to planet. If only space travel was that easy.








6. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler E.L. Konigburg
I REALLY wanted to run away from home and try living in a museum after reading this book. I mean REALLY REALLY REALLY. I wanted to see if I was smart enough to pull off something like this. Plus, living in a museum, eating junk food, and sleeping all day and checking out the art at night seemed like the Best.Life.Ever! I actually still kinda think that.






7. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones
Seven league boots? A door that can connect to different locations? A magic castle on legs that wanders the countryside? Yes, please.








8. The City and the City by China Mieville
The City and The City is about two cities that occupy the same physical space. The reader is never really clear on whether Mieville is talking about real divided cities—like Jerusalem and Berlin—or a more SciFi “alternate universes” concept, but either way, the idea is brilliant. People are legally barred from seeing anything that doesn’t belong to their own city, so they learn to ignore cars, people, streets, and buildings that don’t “belong”—even though the things are physically there in front of them. To visit the “other” city, you have to leave (physically drive out of the city, through border guards and customs) and then turn around and come back in (through the “other” border guards and customs). To call a house next door that is technically in the other city you have to call an international operator and get connected. A brilliant exploration of apartheid, segregation, and the lengths humans are willing to go to support stupid, artificial constructs.

9. Zero Time by T.W. Fendley
This book features time and space travel! A dying alien civilization sends a team across the galaxy to Earth, but the team members all arrive at different times in history. Moving through time and space to unravel the mystery of what happened to the team and whether or not they succeed in saving their world, this story is the only example I’ve ever read of historical science fantasy. Is that even a genre? I don’t know, but if not, then T.W. Fendley just invented it.






10. Devil’s Cub by Georgette Heyer
Now, this book doesn’t quite fit in with the others as it’s a historical romance, but it features one of the funniest travel scenes I’ve ever read. Dominic, the main character, is a hot-tempered, impatient, brash young man. He’s dashing off cross-country to try and prevent the woman he’s realized too late that he loves from marrying another man. Unfortunately, the man in question is the love of his very girlie cousin Julianna, who insists on accompanying Dominic. What ensues is a hysterically funny journey in which Julianna and Dominic nearly kill each other—their temperaments are just not well suited to traveling together, in the least. Julianna thinks Dominic is a brute for traveling so fast the couch breaks a wheel (not seeming to remember they're actually trying to overtake people) and Dominic thinks Julianna is a “ninny hammer” for needing to stop and eat (before she passes out from hunger). Individually, either would have probably caught up to their quarry but together they are just a hot mess who get in each other’s way.

And there you have it! What do you think of my list—any surprises? What about you—what are some of your favorite books featuring travel?

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Comments  

# Brandy 2013-06-04 10:57
I really expected to see A Wrinkle in Time on more lists than I did. I'm happy someone out there thinks like me. :) I had a hard time deciding on which DWJ I wanted-Howl, Lives of Christopher Chant, or one of the Dalemark books. In the end Christopher won because I have a soft spot for him. Also I just love all the worlds in that book.
# Terri B. 2013-06-04 09:23
@Meghan: What's particularly great about Howl's Moving Castle is that the movie differs significantly from the book, but is really good in it's own right - so it's two for one! :-)
# Meghan 2013-06-04 08:52
Great list! I see what you mean by unconventional. I never would have thought to add A Wrinkle in Time even though it was one of my favourite books as a kid. I've been meaning to check out Howl's Moving Castle for ages! It sounds fantastic.
# Terri B. 2013-06-04 02:59
@Chrissi: I came to the Narnia books too late (too old) to believe there really was a portal to another world hidden in my house, but to this day, I keep hoping, in a corner of my heart, that there really is such a thing somewhere. :-)
# Terri B. 2013-06-04 02:48
@Vicki - LOL! Google knows all!
# Chrissi Reads 2013-06-04 02:44
Great list. I think the Narnia books are fabulous.
# Vikk @ Down the Writer's Path 2013-06-04 01:56
Interesting and eclectic list. I remember when The Sparrow came out. Lots of talk about it. I love that you Googled to see whether the premise was even possible. Great list.