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[Barrett]

The aim of this topic is to create a comprehensive, traveller-built recommendation list of the best books to read before travelling to a country or region, while you are there, and even after you have come back. I'm talking about cracking reads, that suck you in and bring a place alive for you.

While I travelled I always had a book or four with me. Sometimes my back and legs hated me for it but having great literature got me psychologically through some rather trying times.

If there is interest in this post, maybe in a few month time I can edit it down to what seems to be the popular consensus and we can post TravelPodder's Greatest Book List or some equally grandiose title.

So here's the start of my list, I'll add more as others contribute. And by all means feel welcome to critique.

Tibet: Seven Year's in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer

Tibet and India: Younghusband: The last great Imperial Adventurer

Nepal (Everest region): Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

Bombay and Calcutta: The Honourable Company by John Keay

North Central India: Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

Vietnam: The Girl in the Picture by Denise Chong

The Middle East: The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence

Turkey: Snow by Orhan Pamuk

Spain: Cervantes by Don Quixote

Austalia: The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett

The Balkans: Various books by Robert D. Kaplan including Balkan Ghosts and Eastward to Tartary

Russia and former Soviet Republics: Imperium by Ryszard Kapuscinski

[polydemic]

I constantly look for underground information on my destination. I'm not interested in the big corporate hotels & restaurant chains or what all the tourists do. I collect books like The People's Guide to Mexico, Alternative Vancouver, The Underground Guide to San Francisco, & Broke-Ass Stuart's Guide for Living Cleaply in San Francisco.