Sometimes I get the overwhelming urge to give up on my life, throw in the towel and just go backpacking. See the world one day at a time. Sadly, my good sense and my knowledge that I would wander into a horror movie situation (I’m looking at you The Hills Have Eyes), keeps me grounded in my day to day life. This week on Top Five Wednesday video, Chelsey and I talk about our favourite books that contain travelling
This topic is near and dear to my heart. Other than a few smaller adventures, I tend to do the majority of my travelling through the novels I read. It’s not as sad as it sounds. Seriously, would you actually want to travel to Westeros? Not me thanks, I like my brief visits during my time reading the Song of Ice and Fire books enough, thank you. So grab your best walking stick and strap in folks.
Top Five Wednesday is a book tag started by GingerReadsLainey. Join the goodreads group to get each week’s topic and participate yourselves!
Top Five Wednesday: Books That Contain Traveling
5. GOING BOVINE – LIBBA BRAY
The only way to describe this novel is that it’s a book about a psychedelic road trip. After a traumatic hallucination on his way home from school, Cameron wakes up in the hospital to find out that he has Creutzfeldt-Jakob variant BSE (also known as Mad Cow Disease). The diagnosis is terminal and all he can really do is wait until his brain turns into mush. Just when he’s about to accept his fate, his misery is interrupted by a Valkyrie named Dulcie. She informs Cameron that he may be able to cure himself if he hunts down the mysterious Dr X and saves the world from the Wizard of Reckoning. What follows is a mad road trip adventure filled with surreal encounters, friendly cults and an Inuit rock band. Bovine can be described as an absurdist comedy. You get a feeling that this world is dystopic in the most ironic sort of way. Bovine is a fun ride filled with humour, heartbreak and amazing social commentary. If you haven’t read it, you should totally check it out.
4. THE NAME OF THE STAR (SHADES OF LONDON #1) – MAUREEN JOHNSON
The travelling in this book takes place at the very beginning, but we’re going to let that pass. Shades of London follows Rory who has left her home in Louisiana to start at a boarding school in London. Before she can get settled in, the city is rocked by a series of murders that mimic that of Jack the Ripper. Rory gets dragged into the investigations only to find out that the killer isn’t as straight forward as it originally seemed. Not to mention, one night she chokes on her dinner and that small brush with death means she can now see ghosts. This book is so well done, it grips you right away. You fall in love with all the characters and feel like you’re right there in the story with them. The third book just came out this year after a really long delay (check out our review of it here) and there is going to be fourth book coming out sometime in 2018. So if you like ghosts and serial killers, then this is the book for you!
3. AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES – JOHN GREEN
This is the story about Colin as he goes on a road trip with his best friend and tries to find out an equation to predict the outcome of any relationship anywhere. When it comes to relationships, Colin has only ever dated Katherines. It could be said that he has a Katherine problem. The novel has a typical John Green style. It has an offbeat sense of humour mixed with interesting facts and an overall sense of a hopeful outlook on life. It’s a coming of age story that we would recommend to any teenager.
2. THE LAST HERO – TERRY PRACHETT
If you’re a fan of Terry Prachett, then you already know what you’re in for when you pick up a Discworld Novel. This is spoofing the hell out of the epic tradition, and it’s so much fun. This book follows Cohen and his merry bunch of barbarians who are now senior citizens. They’re exactly what you would expect; dentures, weakness and a shift in priorities. In one of my favourite scenes where they spoof this scene from Conan, they ask Cohen what is best in life and he responds: “good dental work”. Their reputation is top notch, but their is nothing left for them to do, there is no challenge left. In a last ditch effort they decide to go on one last epic adventure to face down the gods. They get their group together, they snag a bard to record the story and they head out. The story is so much fun, so silly and so relevant. The edition of the book that both Chelsey and I read was illustrated, full of beautiful pictures spoofing famous pieces of art. If you’re a fan of Discworld, then you’ll enjoy the return to the world and the character cameos spread throughout the novel. If you know next to nothing about Discworld, you’ll still get the gist of it and the whole Cohen the barbarian is a fairly obvious spoof that anyone who loves fantasy fiction could enjoy.
1. THE LORD OF THE RINGS – J.R.R. TOLKIEN
This book is probably 95% travelling and a very obvious addition to this list. The Lord of the Rings is the quintessential fantasy epic quest travelling book. There is not much that we can say about this book other than it’s near and dear to my heart. Lord of the Rings inspired generations after generations of fantasy authors and is considered the beginning of the high fantasy genre, but you have heard all of this before.
So there you have it, five of our favourite books that contain travelling and only ONE of them is an epic fantasy quest novel (in the more traditional sense)! What are your favourite novels that contain traveling? Tell us about them in the comments below.