Books on wheels

Whether you're planning your next trip or just dreaming with a wanderlust of far-off places, these travel book recommendations by our readers will take you on unforgettable journeys—one page at a time. From classic travelogues to the best epistolary novels, here are six essential books that will fuel your passion for adventure.

A well-written travelogue can make one feel as if they are transcending through space and time, being transported to a whole new place.

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The Historian

Elizabeth Kostova

A young woman embarks on a perilous journey across Eastern European churches, cathedrals, ruins, and universities, following her missing father's trail. Her father's relentless pursuit leads him to the perpetrator of her mother's murder—Vlad Tepes, the historical figure who inspired the enduring legend of Dracula.

Recommended by Sarazeen Saif Ahana

The Braided River: A Journey Along the Brahmaputra

Samrat Choudhury

In The Braided River, journalist Samrat Choudhury embarks on a journey to follow the river's braided path from the edge of Tibet, where it enters India, down to its confluence with the Ganga, near Bangladesh's largest red-light district. Throughout his travels, he has had several fascinating experiences—from encounters with suspicious Indian spies to visiting a shelter for baby rhinos and elephants in Kaziranga and moving between river islands and riverside towns, engaging with the locals. These vibrant tales delve into the history of the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh and the formation of the Assamese identity, a topic highly relevant to the National Register of Citizens, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, and the ecological threats posed by proposed dams.

Recommended by Sharmee Hossain

Truckbahone-McMahone

Nabaneeta Dev Sen

This travelogue is an account of Nabaneeta's impulsive trip from Jorhat in Assam all the way to the Indo-Tibetan border's McMahon line. During her journey, she encounters numerous ordinary people, and captures their reactions to a middle-aged woman embarking on a solo road trip across India in 1977. As extraordinary events unfold along the way, the narrative of her travel, both reflective and humorous, explores her feelings of liberation.

Recommended by Shararat Islam

Deshe Bideshe

Syed Mujtaba Ali

Syed Mujtaba Ali's Deshe Bideshe is a classic travel memoir. Based on the writer's experiences in Kabul from 1927-1929, where he worked as a teacher, including his journey from Peshawar and Khyber's Pass, this travelogue is filled with sharp observation and wit—as Syed Mutaba Ali navigates the Afghan society of that time. Ali finds himself reflecting and questioning his own identity while navigating throughout the book, finding similarities and dissimilarities between Bangali culture and customs with that of Afghanistan.

Recommended by Sabrina Sazzad

Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life

Sophia Samatar

Sophia Samatar's Opacities is a collection of notes on letters she exchanged with Kate Zambreno. They discuss the writing life, publishing, how race plays into it, among other things.

Recommended by Sarah Anjum Bari

In Xanadu

William Dalrymple

As he waits for the results of his college exams, William Dalrymple decides to take a trip on his summer break. However, this is no ordinary student vacation—he decides to follow the iconic journey of Marco Polo from Jerusalem to Xanadu, the ruined palace of Kubla Khan in the north of Peking. For the first half of the trip, he travels with Laura, whom he met at a dinner party just two weeks before he had left. In the second half, he is accompanied by Louisa, his very recent ex-girlfriend. In Xanadu is a sharp and witty example of travel writing at its finest.

Recommended by Zarif Faiaz

Letters to a Young Poet

Rainer Maria Rilke

In 1903, a military academy student sent his poems to a renowned Austrian Poet, seeking an assessment of their value. The established artist, Raina Maria Rilke, responded to the young poet with a series of letters—an incredible archive containing profound insights into Rilke's greatest poetry. The 10 letters included here were written during a pivotal period in Rilke's artistic development and feature the themes that would later appear in his best works. Rilke himself had later remarked that these letters embodied a part of his creative genius, making this volume a must-read for scholars, poetry enthusiasts, and anyone interested in Rilke, German poetry, or the creative process altogether.

Recommended by Tahsinul Islam Aurko

From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet

Vikram Seth

Especially recommended for those traveling through Nepal or northern India. Slim, easy to carry.

Recommended by Zyma Islam

Meet Me at the Museum

Anne Youngson

It is a story of a late, blooming friendship between two sexagenarians. Tina Hopgod, the protagonist of the novel, writes a letter to Professor PV Glob, once a curator of Silkeborg Museum in Denmark. In 1964, Glob had written a book about the mummified corpse of Tollund Man, dedicating his work to "The Bog People"—a group of schoolgirls who had inspired his book.

Tina was one of the many. Since then, Professor Glob had long gone and in his place was the new, though only relatively so, Professor Anders Larsen. Due to a sheer stroke of fate, Anders receives Tina's letter addressed to the former professor and, almost spontaneously, decides to send a reply. Thus, an unexpected correspondence forms between the two of them, dovetailed by their lifelong chronicles of loss, loneliness, grief, and most of all, regret.

Recommended by Nur-E-Jannat Alif

84, Charing Cross Road

Helene Hanff

It is an epistolary memoir composed of letters from the twenty-year correspondence between the author and Frank Doel, chief buyer for Marks & Co antiquarian booksellers, located at the eponymous address in London. It was later adapted into a 1975 television play, a 1976 radio drama, a 1981 stage play, and a 1987 film. The book is a love affair between writer Helene Hanff and Messrs Marks & Co, sellers of rare and secondhand books, in London.

Recommended by Neeman Sobhan