The Travel Bookshop

Fodor’s publishes English language travel and tourism information, hiring local writers based in each guidebook destination rather than travel writers. As a result, their travel guides are often great for those wanting to experience a destination “like a local.” In total, they’ve published over 300 travel guides that cover more than 7,500 destinations around the globe. Fodor’s has been writing and publishing guide books for nearly eighty years.   Fodor’s guides cover the material one might expect a travel guide to include, but the content is organized a bit differently. These books have five sections: Experience [Name of Country], A [Name of Country] Primer, City/Area Chapters, Understanding [Name of Country], and Travel Smarts. The Experience section launches into current affairs, top attractions and experiences, etiquette, money-saving tips, and several planning suggestions. If you only have a few minutes to read a Fodor’s guide, you’ll find everything you need in this first section. The Primer chapter includes detailed information about local arts, pop culture, sports, current affairs, history, cuisine, natural environment, and religion. This section is often photo-dense.   The City and Area Chapters are the most information-heavy parts of Fodor’s guides, providing miniature guides for each area including sights, activities,…

Whether you’re visiting, thinking about a trip, or live in Chicago, Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City is a must-read. Written in 2003, this historical non-fiction book is presented in a novelistic style. The story is based on real characters and events, telling the story of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition from the perspective of the designers (including renowned Chicago architect Daniel Burnham) and H.H. Holmes, the notorious serial killer.   Set in 1893 Chicago, Larson artfully incorporates both stories—those of Daniel Burnham and Dr. H.H. Holmes—in a dramatic and revealing fashion. The book is divided into four parts; the first three happen in Chicago between 1890 and 1893, while Part Four takes place in Philadelphia in 1895. Daniel Burnham’s plot line consists of the struggles he overcomes to build and design the World’s Far. The other, strikingly different plot line belongs to Dr. H.H. Holmes a pharmacist turned serial killer who forms a plan to use an abandoned lot close to the Fair to lure in and kill multiple victims, all of whom have traveled to Chicago for the international spectacle.   This book is an essential read for any and all people interested in Chicago. Larson…

With the advent of the modern travel industry and the globe-setting lifestyle that many people lead today, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden doesn’t even register as a travel book to a lot of people. Borrowing an ax and building a cabin in your friend’s backyard would seem like anything but a wanderlust read. But the impetus behind this act seems to be removing oneself from society in a way that unlocks a specific kind of freedom and wanderlust of the mind. For after building this cabin that could be retreated to when needed for shelter and rest, Thoreau seemed to spend awfully little time in it. Instead, he would walk, hike, climb, and boat his way around the neighborhood on some days, the better part of eastern Massachusetts during some weeks.   In another interesting tidbit of tension, Thoreau had no great love for the new kid on the block when it came to modes of transportation. Though it would take a little more time to fully ensconce itself into American culture, the railroad had already make its way to New England by the mid-19th century when Thoreau was writing. It would seem to many like the railroad held an endless…