Journey by the Book

Your compass is pointing at the magnetic field of travel.

Journey by the Book is a tool enabling the pathfinder-whether tenderfoot or veteran scout-to explore uncharted seas and territories in the kingdom of travel.

Author Van Tassel discusses a vast sampling of travel narratives. If the story uses a voyage, pilgrimage, or journey as pivotal for its meaning and structure, it will figure prominently in the array of tales he tallies.

The book defines categories of travel literature and discusses the gamut of impulses prompting travel, travel writing, and travel reading.

The tales of travel summoned, explored, and scrutinized for the armchair traveler extend from imaginary journeys to very real ones, including:The Odyssey
Gulliver's Travels
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Road trips and tramps by Twain, Steinbeck, Kerouac, Pirsig, Bill Bryson, and others
Exotic adventures recounted by Polo and Newby
Epic voyages logged by discoverers Captain Cook, Conrad, Dana, and Heyerdahl
Marathon journeys by Theroux, Naipaul, Davidson, Simon, and Hoffman
And assorted other tales varying by mode and direction of travel

Multifaceted travel accounts, ranging from novels and guidebooks to travelogues and travel-oriented magazines and sketches, are all testaments to what the travel story can do: stoke and satisfy a reader's wanderlust. It's your turn.