Five of our favourite travel books

Photo / Getty Images

1 On the Road - Jack Kerouac

Why we love it: The hipster king allegedly wrote the first draft of his ode to the travelling life in one mammoth three-day sitting. The urgency and rush of movement shows in the final charging text.
Sample text: "Sal, we gotta go and never stop going 'till we get there." "Where we going, man?" "I don't know but we gotta go."

2 Notes From a Small Island - Bill Bryson

Why we love it: If you can't be clever, be funny. Where possible, be both. Bryson's lovingly observed portrait of Britain is superbly informative about the place and reveals him to be endearingly smitten with the people and their peculiar charms.
Sample text: "Is it raining out?" the reception girl asked brightly as I filled in the registration card between sneezes and pauses to wipe water from my face with the back of my arm. "No, my ship sank and I had to swim the last seven miles."

3 Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail - Cheryl Strayed

Why we love it: A story about a woman walking more than 1600km along a lonely trail through the Sierra Nevada mountains transcends into an emotional autobiography about grief, love, strength, and self-acceptance. Strayed is played to good effect by Reese Witherspoon (pictured) in the movie adaptation. As she moves forward, she moves on.
Sample text: "There's always a sunrise and always a sunset and it's up to you to choose to be there for it," said my mother. "Put yourself in the way of beauty."

4 The Art of Travel - Alainde Botton

Why we love it: Professional clever bugger, de Botton eases our mere mortal brains into grand philosophical and psychological themes by shining his brainbox light on everyday experiences. You'll feel smarter after reading this.
Sample text: Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than a moving plane, ship or train. There is an almost quaint correlation between what is in front of our eyes and the thoughts we are able to have in our heads: large thoughts at times requiring large views, new thoughts new places. Introspective reflections which are liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape. The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do.

5 Alone in Antarctica - Felicity Aston

Why we love it: The takeaway message from this stirring account by the first woman to ski solo across the Antarctic is "keep getting out of the tent". Wherever your tent may be and however hostile the outside world may seem, you have to keep going and learn to trust yourself. Inspiring stuff.
Sample text: Expeditions temporarily empty my life of all but the basic concerns of eating, sleeping, travel and staying safe. Like clearing undergrowth from a garden to discover the outline of borders and flowerbeds underneath, reducing life to just the essentials reveals the fundamental structure that underpins the whole. I found that, with life at its most basic and my spirit stretched, what was most dear to me was memories of time spent with those I love.