Tuesday 4 June 2013

Top Ten Books That Feature Travelling


I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday post in a while, mainly because I was starting to list the same books over and over! So, despite totally being able to fit a moving castle (with doors that open onto different locations) into this category, I'm going to hold back from adding Howl's Moving Castle to the list AGAIN, as I think you've all got the idea by now...

This week's topic is:

Books That Feature Travel in Some Way



1) The Odyssey. Well, this is pretty much the travel fiction, right? A fantastic story that tells of the ancient Greek hero Odysseus' journey home from the Trojan War, and the strange things he faces on the way.


2) The Black Magician trilogy, by Trudi Canavan. There's a really great subplot involving travel in these books.


3) Sharps, by K.J. Parker. The fencing team is travelling to another country to compete in a tour of competitions, but are they just pawns in a larger political plan?


4) The Spellcoats, by Diana Wynne Jones. All the books in this series involve travel, actually, but this was my favourite one. It involves a river journey, and I thought the story and world-building were wonderful.


5) The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula le Guin. Okay, this one pops up on my lists quite a bit as well, but it really needed to be included in this category. This book is one long journey across the frozen lands of a distant planet, and it is so beautifully and vividly described.


6) The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett. It's not the only Discworld book involving travel, but it is one of my favourites, and, along with its sequel The Light Fantastic, it does pretty much explore the whole Disc.


7) The Call of the Wild, by Jack London. Another one involving travel through a frozen landscape. This is a memorable book, and one of my favourites when I was younger.


8) Dracula, by Bram Stoker. Great book, and lots of travel in this one! By sea, by train, by carriage... across a large part of Europe.


9) Railsea, by China Mieville. This is a bizarre and fun mix of stuff, involving rail travel across the 'railsea': large stretches of flat ground crisscrossed with rails, and where giant burrowing creatures lurk.


10) The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Travelling through Middle Earth! :-)




11 comments:

  1. Love your list of books and that you started with The Odyssey and ended with The Hobbit. :)

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    1. Thanks Vikk! :-) Hehe, yeah they were very appropriate books to start and end a list about travelling weren't they?

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  2. He he, Darcula does have a lot of traveling. Here is my TTT

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    1. I didn't expect there to be so much, but really loved it when I read it. Especially the bits in Romania. :-)

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  3. Call of the Wild is a great choice! Definitely an awesome way to travel!

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    1. I'd love to try travelling by dog-sled, but not sure I could handle the cold!

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  4. Great top ten! A lot of these would have been on my list, especially Dracula, The Hobbit and Diana Wynne Jones :)

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  5. But you still squeezed Diana in somehow didn't you? ;)

    I probably could have managed this one when I think about it but I ran out of time. Boo!

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    1. Haha, always! :-D

      Aww, that's a shame. I'm not sure I'll join in next week's, as I'm not entirely sure what qualifies as a beach read. Might just browse other people's lists and then read their choies to find out for myself. :-)

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  6. I need to jump on the bandwagon and read The Hobbit!

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