I have The Practical Nomad and a few local guides for places I’m definitely spending time in. What else should I read to get me ready for 4-6 months of fairly unstructured world travel? I’m up for narratives to stoke my excitement as well as purely informative books, since I won’t be leaving until December. No fiction though, please.

Looking forward to your recs.

I'm currently reading 'Surviving the Volcano' by Stan Williams. Good, if you like science mixed with gory stories about volcanoes erupting while people are on them.

I'd highly recommend anything by Tim Cahill. He's had some great adventures, he's great at descriptions of exciting places, and he's often very funny. I think Pass the Butterworms is my favorite book he's done.

I haven't read it yet, obviously, because it's not out yet, but there's a soon-to-be-published travel humor book by my favorite blog author, Ken Vollmer of Brainwoofer.com. He's calling it The Wanderlust Survival Guide: Tips and Tales for World Travel. It's going to have lots of funny stories from his RTW trip and tips based on what he's learned. Should be a hoot. You can read some of his blog entries on the site and see if you like his style.

Best of luck planning your trip!
ML

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scars are souvenirs you never lose
the past is never far

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The Australian author Peter Moore has written a couple of interesting, informative and amusing books about his travels. Try "The Wrong Way Home" (England to Australia overland) and "The Full Montezuma" (Central America).

Pete