All Kinds of Armchair Travel

An Excellent Read that Takes Place in 20th Century China

As I outlined in my Discovery Map post, Traveling from Home, there are many ways to transport yourself to other lands through books, music, virtual museum tours–you name it! I’m sure you’ve discovered many as you’ve sheltered in place these past weeks. I don’t know about you but I have not been at all bored. All I need–at least in terms of armchair travel–is to experience something that evokes a strong sense of place. My favorite medium is books, which is a good thing because I don’t even have a TV (by choice).

Here’s a cool site where you can locate a book–fiction or nonfiction–by its locale:  Trip Fiction. Want to read something that takes place in Hawaii? Or how about Germany? Africa maybe? Trip Fiction will suggest to you the titles that tell stories that take place in those lands and many many more. Check it out!

My Travel Memoir: A Tour of the Heart

As for me, my favorite read of late has been The Good Earth, by Nobel Prize-winning author, Pearl S. Buck. It’s a classical novel of Pre-revolutionary China and I can tell you, it puts you right there in China as you follow the farmer, Wang Lung, and his selfless wife O-Lan on their triumphs and travails. They had far more of the latter than the former, so needless-to-say, this story makes you grateful for the life you have today no matter how challenging it might seem right now.

On a much lighter note, I can’t help but recommend my travel memoir, A Tour of the Heart:  A Seductive Cycling Trip Through France. I promise it will whisk you off to Paris and the French provinces where you’ll be able to sample lots of excellent food and wine along the way. As a gift to you, dear reader, I am offering the eBook version free tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday. If you haven’t read it yet, please do check it out. Tell your friends, too.

May you be safe, secure, entertained and informed during these COVID-19 times and always!