Archive for Items Categorized 'Adventure', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

Three Men in a Land Rover

by Waxy Wainwright, Mike Palmer, Chris Wall

Three school friends, a £400 Landy, wanderlust in the name of a bigger cause: the United Nations. This 1969 adventure makes for a unique tale, not least because it could hardly happen today because the world has not become a friendlier or more stable place since then.

Via Corsa Car Lover’s Guide

by Ronald Adams

For the traveler with automotive interests, the specificity of these books far surpass the generic tourist guides. The first two releases in this new series cover Arizona and Southern Germany. Having lived in both of these places, this reviewer can say with conviction that they are thorough enough to surprise even the locals with their level of detail.

The Art of the Airways

by Geza Szurovy

Award-winning aviation journalist Geza Szurovy has had a life-long love affair with airplanes and he’s even a pilot himself. And because he thinks about the world and the place of everything in it, he connects some interesting dots.

A Reliable Car and a Woman Who Knows It: The First Coast-to-Coast Auto Trips by Women, 1899–1916

by Curt McConnell

McConnell’s two related earlier books about transcontinental trips are supplemented here by the story of pioneering women drivers who tackled great distances just to show it could be done. None of the three books makes reference to the others and we continue to be puzzled by this odd bit of marketing strategy.

Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age

by John A Jakle & Keith A Sculle

The whole concept of “the roadside” as an entity in and of itself, let alone as a topic deserving of serious thought, still seems to be outside of the field of view of the general motoring public. Books like this seek to give visibility to the complex and often hidden influences of the automobile on culture and everyday life.

Route 66: The Empires of Amusement

by Thomas Arthur Repp (Photographer)

It is reassuring to note that Repp’s book was received positively by the inner circle of established Route 66 writers such as Michael Wallis or Jim Ross. Sort of like going to an ethnic restaurant and seeing “natives” there. Presumably they know what’s what and their presence legitimizes the joint.

Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip

by Matthew Algeo

Road trips, and the books wherein the tales of each are told, continually attract and delight readers. First-person stories from writers like William Least-Heat Moon with his Blue Highways and John Steinbeck telling of hisTravels with Charley have entertained, informed, and motivated others to go exploring.

The Longest Ride: My 10-Year 500,000 Mile Motorcycle Journey

by Emilio Scotto

Scotto must be the bravest man on the planet. In 1985, with no credit cards and just $306 in cash in his pocket, the Argentine adventurer climbed aboard his 1980 Honda Goldwing and set out on a 10-year journey to discover the world.

Jupiter’s Travels: Four Years Around the World on a Triumph

by Ted Simon

It takes a special kind of wanderlust to travel overland around the world. Even more so if it is 1973 and you’re traveling on a Triumph Tiger 100 motorcycle.

Peking to Paris, 100th Anniversary Edition

by Luigi Barzini

Barzini was a newspaper reporter by profession and war correspondent, but more than that—as this book attests—he’s a terrific storyteller with a terrific story to tell. He was along on every one of the 8,000 miles on two roadless continents in 1907.

Che’s Chevrolet, Fidel’s Oldsmobile: On the Road in Cuba

by Richard Schweid

A popular urban myth says that Cuba is filled with pristine examples of American cars from the 1950s and, that when Fidel Castro finally dies, a wave of these befinned wonders will roll up on our shores. Schweid traveled throughout the island nation researching its automotive history.

Vintage Travel Guides

Navigation systems in cars are here to stay. They can be a real boon to getting where you need to go on time. But, for the less time constrained, there is another way of finding your way around new environs. True, it isn’t as quick and easy as plugging in your destination and then mindlessly following the synthesized voice of your mechanized navigator. However, it is more fun, more romantic and much more stylish to plan your motoring trips with the aid of vintage travel guides.