Thread by @Mikeachim, I've seen a lot of travel folk saying "should I write about [...]

I& #39;ve seen a lot of travel folk saying "should I write about travel when everyone& #39;s on lockdown (or should be)?" My answer would always be yes, if you want to write about:

- wonder
- curiosity
- learning how other people live
- tolerance
- empathy...

(1/)

- the joy of looking stupid & getting other people to laugh at you (my beat, I& #39;m starting to think)
- landscape & history
- all the sciences & arts
- the importance of community and of helping others who need that help

(2/)

- how to connect with things far greater than you& #39;ll ever be, and why that& #39;s a really good thing for your ego in the long run

And other stuff I& #39;m not smart enough to have thought of.

But I reckon there& #39;s plenty.

(3/)

Easier said than done.

(And zero comfort for anyone watching their travel-related income fall off a cliff right now.

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😞" title="Disappointed face" aria-label="Emoji: Disappointed face">No easy answers there.)

But I reckon travel is also about hope, and I think we& #39;re going to need a hell of a lot more of that in coming weeks and months.

(4/)

This book from @Al_Humphreys is a good example. It& #39;s more about what goes on in your brain, it& #39;s very British, it& #39;s wise in a non-preachy/annoying way, and it& #39;s a fun read.

And he just reduced it to free on Kindle:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doorstep-Mile-Live-Adventurously-Every-ebook/dp/B082BGD7QR/

Grab">https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doorstep-... it.

(5/)

Also about travel-except-not-really-except-yes-absolutely-really:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00OPO9ZMQ/

It& #39;s">https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00OPO... @Eric_Weiner chasing down ideas of happiness around the world, about how we choose to be happy & what we can do about it.

It& #39;s also funny. A double assault on grumpiness.

(6/)

Also about travel-except-not-really-except-yes-absolutely-really: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00OPO... @Eric_Weiner chasing down ideas of happiness around the world, about how we choose to be happy & what we can do about it.It& #39;s also funny. A double assault on grumpiness.(6/)

This book is wonderful, playful, a bit mad, and a perfect example of a travel-not-travel-yes-travel book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/024195388X/

Read">https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/produc... this lowdown on it at @brainpickings: https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/08/24/how-to-be-an-explorer-of-the-world-keri-smith/

It& #39;s">https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/08/2... about opening your eyes to what& #39;s around you - including at home.

(7/)

This book is wonderful, playful, a bit mad, and a perfect example of a travel-not-travel-yes-travel book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/produc... this lowdown on it at @brainpickings: https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/08/2... about opening your eyes to what& #39;s around you - including at home.(7/)

(I also love this statement from her book - screenshotted from the Brain Pickings article.

Ye gods. If you& #39;re looking for a template for the kind of writing-about-travel that can be done right now, THAT& #39;S it in a nutshell.)

(8/)

"Towards the end of the 18th century, a young aristocrat, confined to his house in Turin for 42 days as a result of a duel, decided to both ease his boredom and make a joke of it all by writing a – well, there it is in the title."

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/04/journey-around-my-room-review

(9/)">https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

A Journey Around My Room by Xavier de Maistre – review

Nicholas Lezard's paperback of the week: This is a witty response to being confined in your room

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/04/journey-around-my-room-review

That book is mentioned in the final chapter (I think?) of this one by Alain de Botton:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002RUA4U2/

...which">https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002RU... is about the great ideas underpinning why humans like to travel, including a few that are self-deceiving nonsenses that need rethinking.

(/10)

That book is mentioned in the final chapter (I think?) of this one by Alain de Botton: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002RU... is about the great ideas underpinning why humans like to travel, including a few that are self-deceiving nonsenses that need rethinking.(/10)

This book by @DogUmwelt is about what you can see when you go for a 10-minute walk:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009CBJ5RC/

No,">https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009CB... really. A whole book on just that:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/08/12/on-looking-eleven-walks-with-expert-eyes/

We">https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/08/1... see so little and miss so much. This book is a wake-up call.

(/11)

This book by @DogUmwelt is about what you can see when you go for a 10-minute walk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009CB... really. A whole book on just that: https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/08/1... see so little and miss so much. This book is a wake-up call.(/11)

I& #39;m going to keep adding to this thread (see the top for what it& #39;s about). Friends who are worldier than I am, please yell suggestions at me if you have & #39;em!

(/12)

There are plenty of travel writers who write about staying put for a while.

Take @candacerardon& #39;s lengthy stay in a yurt, which she wrote about at @NatGeo& #39;s Intelligent Travel... https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/intelligent-travel/2014/07/18/the-power-of-not-unplugging/

...and">https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/in... turned into a sleep story for @calm: https://blog.calm.com/blog/magic-of-yurts">https://blog.calm.com/blog/magi...

(/13)

The Magic of Yurts — Calm Blog

If I had to point to a single place that has had the greatest effect on me in the world, I’d have to point to the three months I spent living in a yurt on a rural island in Canada. It wasn’t my...

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/intelligent-travel/2014/07/18/the-power-of-not-unplugging/

(Good on Calm for doing this, by the way: https://www.calm.com/blog/take-a-deep-breath)

(/14)">https://www.calm.com/blog/take...

Let’s look after ourselves, and each other. — Calm Blog

As days of isolation turn into weeks, many of us are feeling increasingly uprooted from our normal lives. In a world on lockdown, it isn’t just our routines that are being disrupted, but our relati...

https://www.calm.com/blog/take-a-deep-breath

Travel essayist Pico Iyer wrote a book subtitled "Adventures In Going Nowhere":

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Stillness-Adventures-Going-Nowhere-ebook/dp/B00JSRWJ2S/

Considering">https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Still... things right now, it sounds alarmingly on the nose - but it& #39;s really about finding stillness to stop your brain catching fire. Needed.

(/15)

Travel essayist Pico Iyer wrote a book subtitled "Adventures In Going Nowhere": https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Still... things right now, it sounds alarmingly on the nose - but it& #39;s really about finding stillness to stop your brain catching fire. Needed.(/15)

Here& #39;s a book about not going overboard (eg. buying your own body-weight in toilet rolls in a single shop):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lagom-Swedish-Secret-Living-Well-ebook/dp/B06XQ1RXYN

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lagom-Swe... href="https://twitter.com/LolaAkinmade">@LolaAkinmade is a travel writer. But this is a book about a way of living that can be adopted *anywhere*.

4 rolls max, please.

(/16)

Here& #39;s a book about not going overboard (eg. buying your own body-weight in toilet rolls in a single shop): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lagom-Swe... href=

@LolaAkinmade is a travel writer. But this is a book about a way of living that can be adopted *anywhere*. 4 rolls max, please.(/16)" title="Here& #39;s a book about not going overboard (eg. buying your own body-weight in toilet rolls in a single shop): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lagom-Swe... href="https://twitter.com/LolaAkinmade">@LolaAkinmade is a travel writer. But this is a book about a way of living that can be adopted *anywhere*. 4 rolls max, please.(/16)" class="img-responsive" style="max-width:100%;"/>

Award-winning journo @evaholland is smart & brave & does crazy outdoorsy things - but she& #39;s not at all fearless.

But since she& #39;s smart & brave (& maybe crazy) she wrote a book about fear. Go preorder it here: https://www.amazon.com/Nerve-Adventures-Science-Eva-Holland/dp/1615196005">https://www.amazon.com/Nerve-Adv...

Good time to read such a book: check.

(/17)

So, from a travel perspective, try writing about fear (after reading Eva& #39;s book).

Or write about risk, after reading @kaytsukel& #39;s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Risk-Science-Courage-Caution/dp/1426214723

Or">https://www.amazon.com/Art-Risk-... uncertainty, after reading this by @jonathanfields: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052RHDY2/

(/18)">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052R...

( @kaytsukel @evaholland @jonathanfields I think all three of you should gang together and write a book called "Foreboding: The Science Of Anticipating (And Avoiding) The Worst". You could get really creative with your preorders marketing.)

(/19)

"Travel is, at its heart, as much about fascination and learning as it is about physical exploration." - @patriddell, NatGeo Traveller UK editor: https://twitter.com/patriddell/status/1242791809262202881

(Reckon">https://twitter.com/patriddel... that& #39;s also why most people read travel stuff, even when movement is unrestricted.)

(/20)

https://twitter.com/patriddell/status/1242791809262202881

Okay, so, this book.

It& #39;s included in any roundup of famous travel books - but it& #39;s...not *really* about travel? Except maybe kind of?

It& #39;s an honest, unflattering self-portrait of someone falling apart (the film, not so much: http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/life/haters-guide-eat-pray-love-879103/)....

(/21)">https://travel.cnn.com/explorati...

...but the travel& #39;s a backdrop, & the focus is usually inwards.

Worth noting that Liz Gilbert never meant it turn into a "how to find yourself" guide for the emotionally fragmented, or a "travel the world & fix your life" thing.

Which is good because it& #39;s neither.

(/22)

Or stay home and mercilessly take the piss out of the kind of travel you love! (May be a British thing.)

"Nomad" is tremendously awful, the pettiest and least self-aware Partridge has ever been, & the results are sublime/excruciating.

Read it.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HY8NSQ8/

(/23)">https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HY8...

This book& #39;s a rare thing: an expat "year in the life" tale about living not on an olive farm in the country, but in a big, noisy city:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eurydice-Street-Athens-Sofka-Zinovieff/dp/1862077509

It& #39;s">https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eurydice-... also "On Looking" put to work. Write about where you are, where you live right now. (Look hard at it.)

(/24)

Intermission:

A good way to discover how woefully ignorant you are of what the world actually looks like, at ground level?

Play this game, and make a guess that& #39;s less than a hundred miles out:

https://www.geoguessr.com/

Bet">https://www.geoguessr.com/">... you can& #39;t.

(/25)

Further, #lockdown-related intermission:

This thread from @FloraBaker is a couple of cubic miles of good stuff to keep yourself busy with right now:

https://twitter.com/FloraBaker/status/1240637169372467207

(/26)">https://twitter.com/FloraBake...

https://twitter.com/FloraBaker/status/1240637169372467207

"All great civilizations are based on parochialism. To know fully even one field or one land is a lifetime& #39;s experience...it is depth that counts, not width."

- Patrick Kavanagh, from @RobGMacfarlane& #39;s intro to Nan Shepherd& #39;s & #39;The Living Mountain& #39;: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005GK7LQK/

(/27)">https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005GK...

This book (I& #39;m currently reading it for the first time - reason: https://twitter.com/RobGMacfarlane/status/1241793461759639554)">https://twitter.com/RobGMacfa... is a gorgeous example of the power of looking closely at what& #39;s so familiar to us that we never actually see it. A book created from attention fully paid:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005GK7LQK/

(/28)">https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005GK...

https://twitter.com/RobGMacfarlane/status/1241793461759639554

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