This column, featuring Omaha Public Library's staff recommended reads for travel, appeared in the July 21, 2024 edition of the Omaha World-Herald (NE), page 8E of the Living Section. It is also available at Omaha.com (opens in a new tab), opens a new window.
The Omaha Public Library wants to help readers find new books — or at least books new to them.
Our employees recommend reading based on different writing genres, themes or styles. For this edition, staff suggest some of their favorite books that inspire wanderlust and travel. Find these books and more at your local branch or omahalibrary.org.
Omaha Public Library touts books that inspire travel and wanderlust
“The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old & New” by Annie Dillard. Annie Dillard is one of the finest writers of literary nonfiction in the English language. “The Abundance” includes her classic essay on traveling to see a total eclipse, a beautiful meditation on the power of travel, nature and awe. — Colby Jenkins, senior clerk at the Downtown Branch
“Dead Presidents: An American Adventure into the Strange Deaths and Surprising Afterlifes of our Nation’s Leaders” by Brady Carlson. Carlson takes readers on his outings to U.S. presidents’ grave sites. As he discovers along the way, a president’s reputation changes over time — sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. He also readily admits that it can get weird in a lot of different ways. Anyone up for visiting the life-size, joke-telling animatronic version of LBJ? — Theresa Jehlik, strategy and business intelligence manager
"The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien. I will never forget my first adventure through Middle-earth with Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, Thorin and the rest of the dwarf party. I loved following Bilbo, who reluctantly left the comfort and familiarity of his hobbit hole in the Shire to help his new friends reclaim their ancient home inside the Lonely Mountain. If only I could travel to Rivendell, feast with the elves, fight goblins in the Misty Mountains, find a mysterious ring that makes me invisible, fight a dragon and discover heaps of treasure. (OK, some of that sounds a little iffy.) This is one of those books that gets better each time you read it. — Ashlee Coffey, library specialist at the Saddlebrook Branch
The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again
“South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation” by Imani Perry. Part history, part memoir, part journalistic observations, Perry, an Alabama native, explores various Southern regions from Appalachia to Texas to the Caribbean. With an astute ear and eye for detail, the author introduces the complex, and often searing, history of the region through the people she meets during her journey. — Jehlik
“Subpar Parks: America’s Most Extraordinary National Parks & Their Least Impressed Visitors” by Amber Share. The beautiful illustrations, fascinating facts, helpful ranger tips and hilariously bad reviews made me want to visit each of these parks myself. It inspired me to pick up a National Park Passport a couple of years ago, and now it’s my grown up version of Pokemon: “Gotta catch ‘em all!” — Amy Wenzl, branch manager at the Charles B. Washington Branch
“The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War” by Tim Butcher. Travel back in time to the Balkans where the fate of the world changed with one wrong turn. For those of you who know your history, you will have guessed this is the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Travel back and forth in time as the author travels the path of the assassin Gavrilo Princip. Along the journey, the reader gains a greater understanding of the culture, history and geography of the Balkans. After finishing this book, you will be adding another area of the world to your bucket list of places to visit. — Lois Imig, branch manager at the Willa Cather Branch
“The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Five Novels in One Outrageous Volume” by Douglas Adams. This is the classic science fiction farce about, well, Life, the Universe, and Everything, paranoid androids, why people who want to be in charge shouldn’t be, the Shoe Event Horizon, fish causing numerous conflicts, advanced mathematics based on restaurant checks, Cricket-themed armageddon and many other little bits on the edges of the plot which will make you laugh and then think. What better way to read a book about an electronic guidebook than by checking out the ebook? We also have the digital graphic novels, because travel guides are always better with pictures! — Torsten Adair, library aide at the Benson Branch
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy |The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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