Traveling to novel destinations

     Has anyone noticed I haven't been around in a while?  It's true!  I've been on vacation for three weeks, something not many people get to do.
     Where did I go, you ask?  Well, not anywhere in particular.  About 30 minutes, 30 miles in all directions.  Mostly stayed home and enjoyed reading.  Remember in an earlier blog I told you about all those books I want to read this summer?
     And I joined another book club!  Just can't seem to get enough of those book clubs.  One club meets on the fourth Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at Western Sizzlin'.  Another book club meets the first Monday at 10 a.m. at an apartment complex's clubhouse.  But the third book club is right here at the Moultrie-Colquitt County Library.  And its theme is "Novel Destinations."
     Meeting each Tuesday evening in June from 6:30 to 7:30 in the library, our little group consists of about 14 people, just the right size for sharing what books we're reading (or have read) and having a program.
     Last week Janet Litherland from Thomasville, an author who has traveled to Ireland and Scotland, gave a program about how she researches for her books.  She showed us pictures of the various sites she has visited and told how the scenery and people influenced her stories.  Tonight we're going to have a speaker talk to us about cruises she has taken, the various ports where she landed, and how enjoyable her trips were to foreign lands.
     Our displays around the library consist of suitcases filled with books that pertain to different countries, different cultures, adventures, and fabulous travels.  Our two lighted glass cases hold items from a variety of foreign countries; some items that will make you even more curious about that particular land.
     As for some of the books we have in the library that might interest you in joining our book club, maybe these will encourage you to read about novel destinations.
     A Book of Travellers' Tales Assembled by Eric Newby.  There are some 300 plus writers and subjects represented in this book, a veritable Who's Who of travellers from 430 B.C. to the 1980s.  There is a story about David Livingstone being attacked by a lion in Africa.  Cecil Beaton has an evening with the Rolling Stones in Marrakesh.  Hannibal crosses the Alps.  And Byron visits Ali Pasha, the bloodthirsty governor of Albania.  Even a story about John Steinbeck trying to get out of a small town in upstate New York.  Sounds like a good read to me.
     A book I think I'd really like to read is My Love Affair with England, A Traveler's Memoir by Susan Allen Toth.  In her book, Ms. Toth brings a special England vividly to life as she tells about exploring the countryside, traveling in both second-class and in luxury, theatre-hopping, ghost-hunting, and honeymooning.  It's not only a humorous and bittersweet writing, but wonderfully eccentric and gives us a different view of England, rather than being an extension of the States.
     The Way of the Wanderer, Discover Your True Self Through Travel is by David Yeadon, who has also illustrated the book with delightful pictures.  Jan Morris, author of Fifty Years of Europe, said, "This book is full of strange, moving, and entertaining experiences, drawn from 25 years of wandering our mysterious globe."  Yeadon takes us on his solo jaunt at age four just outside his Yorkshire front door, through Iran in later years, into Aboriginal old ways, on a deer hunt in Norway, and into a Shinto temple in Japan.  His stories provide a road map for fellow wanders to realize their dreams and experience travel as a key to their own multifaceted selves.
     There are so many books about travels you can find at the Moultrie-Colquitt County Library.  Be sure when you start your search for the perfect travel book that you look for the one with the alligator on the cover.  It's titled Up the Amazon Without a Paddle, 60 Offbeat Adventures Around the World, written by Doug Lansky.  I'm going to give you a hint...it's on the table with the big green suitcase!
     If you can't make tonight at 6:30, then plan to come next Tuesday, June 28, for The Virtual Tourist.  And schedule your calendar so you can attend on July 12 for Romanzo Destinazioni (about Italy) and August 9 for a surprise program.
     You just can't beat a good book club as a wat to find out about great books!!!!