More Armchair Traveling Ahead

 Wrapping up Bout-of-Books 32 and my rapid round-up of armchair traveling, I'm ready to dive into the adventures I selected for myself. All in all, a successful week of reading in place.

I'll be revisiting my favorites and exploring new ones. 

When it comes down to it, every book, novella, and short story we encounter, takes us to another place and another time. Maybe that's why we all read, to take us somewhere else and help us understand other people and their lives.

Thanks for letting me share my reading in place adventures. See you soon, I hope.

By the way, the next Bout-of-Books begins January 3, 2022.

Day 7 Interstellar Travel

 It’s the final day of Bout-of-Books. By now, my habit, and hopefully yours, of reading every day and reading in place is well set. Today, I’m going to sit in my armchair and travel among the stars. I’ll go beyond the sky and visit the moon, Mars, and the worlds beyond.

 

As a tried-and-true original series Star Trek fan, I’d start there with the shows and movies and all the books. But that’s perhaps cheating since I’m watching and not reading. Therefore, I’m turning to books that take me into the beyond.

 

There’s a universe of science fiction that speculates on life beyond planet Earth, of life in the stars. Some describe traveling, others the planets themselves. When we get past the “Golden Age” of Sci-Fi writers, Robert Heinlein is at the top of my list, particularly his juvenile fiction where teens are the main characters. 

 

I read Heinlien's Juvenile titles over and over again including “Red Planet,” Tunnel in the Sky,” and “Have Spacesuit – Will Travel” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17792442-have-space-suit-will-travel  I just loved imagining living on other planets and was ready to pack my bag and go. The last Juvenile title was written in 1958, and sadly we still haven’t made it to the stars. Maybe our grandchildren’s children will get there.

 

Heinlein’s adult books are many with “Time Enough for Love” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1348631.Time_Enough_For_Love featuring Lazarus Long tops my favorites list and takes me on a journey across the United States and into the stars.

 

 Sadly, Heinlein died in 1988, leaving a hole in the genre that’s been filled by many talented writers including Catherine Asaro and Mary Robinette Kowal.

 

“Primary Inversion” by Catherine Asaro https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/365672.Primary_Inversion takes use beyond our solar system to the Skolian Empire. The Skolians communicate using “faster-than-light” communication mostly telepathy and are involved in a long-term interstellar war. Asaro is a talented physicist who writes about life elsewhere and does her best to make the science obey “the rules.”

 

My new favorite Sci-Fi writer is Mary Robinette Kowal. Her evolving series “Lady Astronaut Universe” begins with “The Calculating Stars” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33080122-the-calculating-stars

 

“The Calculating Stars” is set in an alternative universe where earth was hit by an asteroid in 1952 and humankind must escape to nearby planets and moons, beginning with Earth’s moon. Using slide rules and computers, both human and early hulking machines, pilots and then astronauts take to space stations and then the moon. The next two books in this series take armchair travelers to Mars and beyond. 

 

If you want to read about some of the women computers featured in "The Calculating Stars," check out “Hidden Figures” by Margot Lee Shetterly https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25953369-hidden-figures. These women were on the forefront of the space race and are just now being recognized for their contributions.

 

Reading in place, secure in my armchair, I’m ready to dive into new adventures. Watch for more books and reviews or bibliophilic ruminations in this ever-evolving blog. Thanks for reading.

Day 6 – Traveling Lands Real and Imagined

 I’ve been thinking about other types of travel tales that take us to places beyond our wildest dreams. While perusing my shelves and think of this rather different take on reading in place and traveling while sitting in my armchair, I decided that this next set of books falls into the categories of fiction and historical fiction. 

The first is Northwest Passage by Kenneth Roberts https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1274754.Northwest_Passage. It’s  a classic tale of exploration and adventure that takes the reader from rather known New England across the expanse of North America in search of a waterway from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. You travel through the mountains, plains, and more mountains in search of that elusive “road.” Along the way, the explorers meet indigenous peoples, see the flora and fauna, and describe what they see. Thankfully, armchair traveling means no dirt, hunger, or privation, all of which the members of the expedition experienced.

 

 

The Hobbit or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien takes travelers through the imaginary world of Middle Earth https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42672.The_Hobbit. Replete with maps, illustrations, and extensive descriptions, armchair travelers hike through the mountainous countryside and the deep ravines, through the elven forests and along waterways. While the map may be spare, the words are not. Dive into the journey of the quiet, home-loving hobbit Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, the Dwarves and Elfs, and meet the curious creatures along the way. What an amazing journey from the Shire to the caves of the dragon Smaug the Magnificent, and back again.

 

Next in this list of odd, tangential armchair traveling trips while reading in place, is the Chronicles of Narnia, most particularly The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, Geoffrey Bles is the cover artist of this wonderful book, first published in 1950 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28491033-the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe . You can read more about this book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion,_the_Witch_and_the_Wardrobe and the author https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis on Wikipedia. Having read this many times, I realize you travel from wartime England, through the Wardrobe and into Narnia. If you read the other books in the series, you get to travel the great seas, the desert, and the forests with Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy, and of course Aslan.

 

I decided to add one more wonderful work of fiction that takes the reader on a journey, including Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass originally published in 1865 with illustrations by John Tenniel https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17828612-alice-s-adventures-in-wonderland-and-through-the-looking-glass . Alice’s journey takes here from England to an imaginary place, filled with a host of magical creatures. Armchair travelers get to hitch a ride on Alice’s journey. You can read more about this famous book on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland

 

We’re almost done with this series of armchair traveling while reading in place. The final day (Day 7) we’ll travel beyond the boundaries of Earth into the vast unknown. Stay tuned.

Day 5 – Armchair Traveling through Maps

 

Armchair traveling using maps and following mapmakers is the perfect way to explore a country or place, event or battlefield, real or imaginary. In essence, maps are “visual” travelogues, the perfect way to travel while in your armchair.

 

Books of maps and maps in the fronts of books show the reader where places are for their future journeys. They also allow us to follow someone else’s journey while reading in place.

 

I pulled a few books of maps and mapmakers from my shelves to refresh my experience of traveling via maps. 

 

I’m going to start with mapmakers, those cartographers and surveyors who traveled through unknown lands and set boundaries onto paper.

 

John Noble Wilford’s “The Mapmakers,” originally published in 1981 with the subtitle “The Story of Great Pioneers in Cartography from Antiquity to the Space Age” is a classic book of vignettes about “great pioneers and adventurers, mapmakers” who “expanded our knowledge of the world around us.” Within the thick volume, you’ll explore the world with Chinese cartographers, Christopher Columbus, Magellan, and even Lewis and Clark. Exploring my shelves, I realize I have multiple copies of this lovely book, the hardcover containing much clearer maps. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6053648-the-mapmakers

 

Another book about mapmakers is “Measuring America: How an Untamed Wilderness Shaped the United States and Fulfilled the Promise of Democracy” by Andro Linkletter https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/498349.Measuring_America This book looks at how American surveyors, under Congress’ direction, figured out how to measure land, divide it up for sale, and help fund the Revolutionary War debt. There’s lots of discussion of the political debate. Better yet, there are maps and images of the surveyors who were instrumental during the early period of exploration of the American continent.

 

While not quite a book of maps, Simon Winchester’s “the Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/921954.The_Map_that_Changed_the_World takes readers on a journey through the folds of the earth and the ups and downs of Great Britain’s landscape as Smith’s map shows “the hidden underside of England.” There’s nothing like a journey through canals, coal mines, archaeological digs, and rural terrain to help readers travel while in their armchairs.

 

Jeff Shaara’s “Civil War Battlefields: Discovering America’s Hallowed Ground” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/101650.Civil_War_Battlefields takes readers on a journey to and through the many battlefields and troop movements of the Civil War. It’s a slim volume replete with maps, photographs and drawings of the numerous battlefields scattered throughout the East, South, and West of continental United States. Take this book on a journey through the Civil War or just learn about the countryside, as the master of historical fiction about US wars tells you about those fateful days and nights. 

 

My shelves are full of books of maps, many atlases, and more books about travel through maps than I can believe.

 

 

Just to put your mind at ease, I do travel with paper maps of the states and towns I'm planning to visit on any road trip. I study the maps first, find those lovely blue highways and byways I wrote about yesterday, and then hit the road. Thanks to my AAA membership, I happily stock up with current maps and guidebooks to explore and read before, during, and after I hit the road.

 

 Tomorrow, Day 6, we’ll do some armchair traveling through imaginary lands with imaginary people.