Travelogues Collection offers readers a unique glimpse into the diverse landscape, culture and wildlife of the world from the perspective of late 19th and early 20th century esteemed travelers. From the exotic islands of Fiji to the lush jungles of Africa to the bustling streets of New York City, these picturesque backdrops set the scene for amusing, and at times prejudiced, anecdotes of adventure, survival and camaraderie. Photographs and whimsical illustrations complement the descriptive text, bringing to life the colorful characters encountered along the way. The Shelf2Life Travelogues Collection allows readers to embark on a voyage into the past to experience the world as it once was and meet the people who inhabited it.

When Jerome K Jerome and his friend decide to attend the Oberammergau Passion Play, an Easter pageant that is performed in Oberlin, Germany once every decade, they turn the trip into a vacation. From London to Germany, the pair plan a cross-continent trip, excited to sight-see and experience different cultures. However, the friends run into conflict before they even take off, unsure what to pack. While they sort through contradicting advice from others, the pair cannot decide if it would be worse to take more than they need, or less. After they defeat their relatable packing struggle, they finally embark on their journey. The men encounter even more troubles, as they struggle to find directions, board their train, and overcome cultural barriers. However, through unfamiliar foods, strange beds, and misunderstandings, it is impossible to miscommunicate the gorgeous landmarks they encounter, including the Cologne Cathedral and the Rhine river. Their vacation may not go as planned, but it most certainly will be memorable! Featuring misadventures, iconic settings, and admirable friendship, Jerome K. Jerome's Diary of a Pilgrimage is a genius work of comedic nonfiction. Written in the form of essays depicting memorable anecdotes, Jerome's work is composed by delightful, humorous prose and poignant observations. Mixing humor and sentiment, Jerome extends his observations to everyday life, and uses the details of his journey to paint broader truths about civilization and the human race. With vivid descriptions of the social scene and stunning landscapes of major European cities such as London, Cologne, and Munich, Diary of a Pilgrimage paints a perfect image of the journey, allowing readers to experience a vicarious adventure throughout 19th century Europe. </ p> This edition of Diary of a Pilgrimage by Jerome K. Jerome features a stunning new cover design and is printed in a font that is both modern and readable. With these accommodations, Diary of a Pilgrimage caters to a contemporary audience while preserving the original hilarity of Jerome's work.

The so-called Travels of Sir John Mandeville (c. 1356) was one of the most popular books of the late Middle-Ages. Translated into many European languages and widely circulating in both manuscript and printed forms, the pseudo English knight's account had a lasting influence on the voyages of discovery and durably affected Europe's perception of exotic lands and peoples. The early modern period witnessed the slow erosion of Mandeville's prestige as an authority and the gradual development of new responses to his book. Some still supported the account's general claim to authenticity while questioning details here and there, and some openly denounced it as a hoax. After considering the general issues of edition and reception of Mandeville in an opening section, the volume moves on to explore theological and epistemological concerns in a second section, before tackling literary and dramatic reworkings in a final section. Examining in detail a diverse range of texts and issues, these essays ultimately bear witness to the complexity of early modern engagements with a late medieval legacy which Mandeville emblematises. -- .

WINNER of the USA Book News 2006 History: Media/Entertainment category!Everything important that has ever happened in New York began or ended in the city's best bars. From the deep mahogany of downtown to the polished brass of uptown, The History and Stories of the Best Bars of New York recounts the drama, characters, and stories of the city's most important meeting places. This book is about the people and events that have unfolded within these historic establishments, and demonstrates how each bar has served as a backdrop for both business deals and social gatherings, but also for private moments of reflection. Although their patrons have changed over the years, these bars have quietly remained a constant source of fellowship and conviviality from generation to generation. Over thirty profiles containing vignettes of famous lore and little-known history are accented by stunning black-and-white images sure to intrigue both longtime New Yorkers and visitors to the city. The History and Stories of the Best Bars of New York provides a unique glimpse inside New York's foremost bars and how they came to be what they are today.

A Buddhist monk takes up arms to resist the Chinese invasion of Tibet - then spends the rest of his life trying to atone for the violence by hand printing the best prayer flags in India. A Jain nun tests her powers of detachment as she watches her best friend ritually starve herself to death. Nine people, nine lives; each one taking a different religious path, each one an unforgettable story. William Dalrymple delves deep into the heart of a nation torn between the relentless onslaught of modernity and the ancient traditions that endure to this day. LONGLISTED FOR THE BBC SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE

One winter, Dervla Murphy, the four-footed Hallam (the mule) and her six-year-old daughter Rachel explored 'Little Tibet' high up in the Karakoram Mountains in the frozen heart of the Western Himalayas - on the Pakistan side of the disputed border with Kashmir. For three months they travelled along the perilous Indus Gorge and into nearby valleys. Even when beset by crumbling tracks over bottomless chasms, an assault by a lascivious dashniri, the unnerving melancholy of the Balts - the heroic highland farmers who inhabit the area - and Rachel's continual probing questions, this formidable traveller retained her enthusiasm for her surroundings and her sense of humour. First published in 1977, "Where the Indus is Young" is pure Murphy. 'The grandeur, weirdness, variety and ferocity of this region cannot be exaggerated,' she writes of the sub-zero temperatures, harsh winds and whipping sands that they faced. However much the region may have changed due to current day political situations her descriptions of the mountain splendour and cultures she explores are appropriately timeless.

A poetic meditation on life and death, by one of the most renowned and respected film-makers and intellectuals of our time. In November 1974, when Werner Herzog was told that his mentor Lotte Eisner, the film-maker and critic, was dying in Paris, he set off to walk there from Munich, 'in full faith, believing that she would stay alive if I came on foot'. Along the way he recorded what he saw, how he felt, and what he experienced, from the physical discomfort of the journey to moments of rapture. It is a remarkable narrative - part pilgrimage, part meditation, and a confrontation between a great German Romantic imagination and the contemporary world. This edition of the book is being published for the first time as a classic piece of proto-psychogeography, to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the legendary director's walk.

In Dana se nuwe bundel vertel hy die stories van ons land se mense, die gewone mense, mense wat sommerso onder die radar leef... Eg, warm en gevul met deernis, soos ons Dana leer ken en leer liefkry het. Hy skryf met groot nederigheid en respek oor die mense wat andersinds ongesiens lewe en in die proses verryk en verruim hy ons. Boonop is hy dikwels skreeusnaaks.

WINNER: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER READER AWARD FOR BEST TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016 WINNER: BOOKS ARE MY BAG READER AWARD FOR BEST AUTOBIOGRAPHY OR BIOGRAPHY 2016 Twenty years ago, Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to celebrate the green and kindly island that had become his adopted country. The hilarious book that resulted, Notes from a Small Island, was taken to the nation's heart and became the bestselling travel book ever, and was also voted in a BBC poll the book that best represents Britain.Now, to mark the twentieth anniversary of that modern classic, Bryson makes a brand-new journey round Britain to see what has changed. Following (but not too closely) a route he dubs the Bryson Line, from Bognor Regis to Cape Wrath, by way of places that many people never get to at all, Bryson sets out to rediscover the wondrously beautiful, magnificently eccentric, endearingly unique country that he thought he knew but doesn't altogether recognize any more. Yet, despite Britain's occasional failings and more or less eternal bewilderments, Bill Bryson is still pleased to call our rainy island home. And not just because of the cream teas, a noble history, and an extra day off at Christmas. Once again, with his matchless homing instinct for the funniest and quirkiest, his unerring eye for the idiotic, the endearing, the ridiculous and the scandalous, Bryson gives us an acute and perceptive insight into all that is best and worst about Britain today.

Skyward is as much the memoir of great American explorer Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Jr. as it is a fascinating narrative of America's early aviation history, much of which Byrd shaped with his explorations as a naval pilot and pioneering scientist. Through the life of Admiral Byrd, we see the seeds of America's aerial military force, commercial airline travel, and our understanding of the planet's most remote geographical locations planted. Byrd's outsized ambition has inspired generations to dare to push technological limits in order to achieve things greater than themselves. Reissued for today's readers, Admiral Byrd's classic explorations by land, air, and sea transport us to the farthest reaches of the globe. As companions on Byrd's journeys, modern audiences experience the polar landscape through Byrd's own struggles, doubts, revelations, and triumphs and share the excitement of these timeless adventures.

This second photo essay from Vicki Couchman provides a frank and honest insight into the many different cultures, tastes, and sights of South America. Each photograph eavesdrops on Couchman's experiences and gives insight into places both on and off the tourist trail. The photographs capture everyday life above and below the Equator in a relaxed and unobtrusive manner. They also give an uncensored account of the common thoughts, feelings, and emotions evoked by long distance travel, as well as the varied adventures and experiences to be had abroad-whether pleasurable or problematic, exhilarating or exhausting. This book is an inspiration to those wanting to take a leap into the unknown, and serves to soften the culture shock of stepping away from the developed world.

Following the Amber Route from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, C. J. Schuler charts the origins of amber, the myths and legends that have grown around it, and the dazzling artefacts crafted from it and traded along the way. Schuler reflects on the route's violent history through the centuries, not least his own family's experience of persecution and flight.

'4 stars. Attlee, who knows and loves Italy and the Italians, takes the reader through the country's scented gardens with her sharp descriptions, pertinent stories and quotes and intriguing recipes. I was there with her' Anna del Conte, Sunday Telegraph A delightful book about Italy's unexpected history, told through its citrus fruits The story of citrus runs through the history of Italy like a golden thread, and by combining travel writing with history, recipes, horticulture and art, Helena Attlee takes the reader on a unique and rich journey through Italy's cultural, moral, culinary and political past. 'Fascinating . . . A distinguished garden writer, Attlee fell under the spell of citrus over ten years ago and the book, like the eleventh labour of Hercules to steal the golden fruit of the Hesperides, is the result. She writes with great lucidity, charm and gentle humour, and wears her considerable learning lightly . . . Helena Attlee's elegant, absorbing prose and sure-footed ability to combine the academic with the anecdotal, make The Land Where Lemons Grow a welcome addition to the library of citrologists and Italophiles alike' The Times Literary Supplement 'A paradise of citrus is how I always think of Italy too: a place where ice-cold limoncello is sipped from tiny glasses on piazzas, and everything from ricotta cake to osso bucco is enlivened with zest. What a joy, therefore, to read Helena Attlee's The Land Where Lemons Grow, which tells the story of Italy through its citrus fruit' Bee Wilson, Telegraph

This book is a historical and critical assessment of contributions by American writer and lecturer John Lawson Stoddard (1850-1931). It is the first scholarly effort to provide visual and literary analyses of his illustrated travel works and political writings. It claims that Stoddard was a principle engine behind movements toward transforming tourism into a growing consumer culture, democratizing liberal arts education, and fueling anti-WWI campaigns. By the late 1870s, John Lawson Stoddard had played a major role in transforming the aristocratic Grand Tour into a mass cultural phenomenon. His photographs and accompanying public lectures on distant places and peoples caught the attention of decision makers in the U.S. government, but perhaps more importantly, his images and text were imprinted in the minds of millions of audience members. This book suggests how critical approaches borrowed from the interdisciplinary literature of visual culture are helpful in assessing the imagery and identity of a nineteenth-century American travel lecturer and author. It uncovers buried aspects of the personal and public life of Stoddard, and reveals his significant contributions to American political and social history.

Travelogues Collection offers readers a unique glimpse into the diverse landscape, culture and wildlife of the world from the perspective of late 19th and early 20th century esteemed travelers. From the exotic islands of Fiji to the lush jungles of Africa to the bustling streets of New York City, these picturesque backdrops set the scene for amusing, and at times prejudiced, anecdotes of adventure, survival and camaraderie. Photographs and whimsical illustrations complement the descriptive text, bringing to life the colorful characters encountered along the way. The Shelf2Life Travelogues Collection allows readers to embark on a voyage into the past to experience the world as it once was and meet the people who inhabited it.

Join Joe Shute as he travels across Britain tracing the history of our seasons and discovering how they are changing. We talk about them. We plan our lives around them. The changing seasons are part of us all. But what happens when the weather changes beyond recognition? Joe Shute has spent years unpicking Britain’s love affair with the weather, poring over the centuries of folklore, customs and rituals our seasons have inspired. But in recent years Shute has noticed a curious thing: the British seasons are changing far faster and far more profoundly than we realise. Daffodils in December, frogspawn in November, swallows that no longer fly home, floods, wildfires and winters without snow. Nothing is behaving as it should, sending nature into an increasing state of flux. In Forecast, Shute travels all over Britain tracing the history of the seasons, and discovering the extent to which we are now growing disconnected from them. While documenting these warped rhythms caused by the changing weather, he records the parallels in his personal journey as he and his wife struggle to conceive a child. This is a book that races to keep up with the march of the seasons as they rapidly change course. It examines how the weather is reshaping the world around us, and asks what happens to centuries of culture, memory and identity when the very thing they subsist on is slipping away.

America was a source of fascination to Europeans arriving there during the course of the nineteenth century. At first glance, the New World was very similar to the societies they left behind in their native countries, but in many aspects of politics, culture and society, the American experience was vastly different - almost unrecognisably so - from Old World Europe. Europeans were astounded that America could survive without a monarch, a standing army and the hierarchical society which still dominated Europe. Some travellers, such as the actress Fanny Kemble, were truly convinced America would eventually revert to a monarchy; others, such as Frances Wright and even Oscar Wilde, took their opinions further, and attempted to fix aspects of America - described in 1827 by the young Scottish captain Basil Hall, as 'one of England's "occasional failures"'. Many prominent visitors to the United States recorded their responses to this emerging society in their diaries, letters and journals; and many of them, like the fulminating Frances Trollope, were brutally and offensively honest in their accounts of the New World. They provide an insight into an America which is barely recognizable today whilst their writings set down a diverse and lively assortment of personal travel accounts. This book compares the impressions of a group of discerning and prominent Europeans from the cultural sphere - from the writers Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray and Oscar Wilde to luminaries of music and theatre such as Tchaikovsky and Fanny Kemble. Their reactions to the New World are as revealing of the European and American worlds as they are colourful and varied, providing a unique insight into the experiences of nineteenth century travelers to America.