Banff Mountain Book Festival

by Neil Woodburn on

While researching today’s post on the Banff Mountain Film Fest, I learned about another competition held in Banff at the same time: The Banff Mountain Book Festival.

As is the case with the film festival, the book festival recognizes the best literature and photography dealing with outdoor and mountain themes.  The categories are alluring on their own: Mountain Literature, Mountain Image, Adventure Travel, Mountain Exposition, and Mountaineering History.

This year’s Grand Prize winner, Being Caribou by Karsten Heuer, tells the story of a husband and wife team who accompany a group of migrating Porcupine Caribou across 2,000 miles of Alaskan backcountry. 

The best book in the Adventure category was awarded to Learning to Breathe by Andy Cave.  Cave, who has a Ph.D. in the sociology of mining, begins his journey underground before eventually scaling the very dangerous Changabang peak in the Indian Himalayas. 

Based on the quality of films I see every year at the Banff Film Festival, I can only imagine that their taste in literature is equally outstanding.  Check out the list of all winners because I’m sure each is a gem unto itself. 

 

Books as Travel Companions

by Neil Woodburn on

Deciding upon the right book to bring on your travels is often as important as deciding upon the place itself.  I always put a lot of thought into which books I bring with me while traveling. I’ve discovered I enjoy mindless, Harry-Potter-type reads on my tropical vacations, and more intellectually stimulating books on my other travels.  One thing I don’t like to do is to read books about my destination while I’m actually there.  I learned this the hard way by reading Riding the Red Iron Rooster while traveling on the Trans-Siberian.  Six days on the train made the novel about train travel a redundant and unnecessary read that was akin to beating a dead horse.  Books about my destination should be read before, in order to inspire, and after, in order to wax nostalgically about my journey.

Whatever your philosophy on literature and travel, you should always read something before going.  One of my favorite sections of every Lonely Planet guide recommends a selection of books, both fiction and historical, relevant to the destination it covers.

I recently ran across a column in The Sunday Times (London) that has done the same with France.  Although this isn’t a regular feature in the newspaper, I think it is such a great idea that the editors should expand it into a weekly column highlighting various locations around the world and the literature they have inspired.  Travel isn’t just about the body, it’s about the mind as well. 

 

Last Explorer?

by Neil Woodburn on

It’s so very rare these days to consider anyone a true “explorer.”  I mean really, what is there left to explore in this Starbucks infested world?  Hasn’t everything been discovered already?

Tell this to Ian Baker and he would vehemently disagree. 

While in Katmandu, Baker heard stories about a mystic waterfall hidden deep in a Tibetan valley that was virtually unknown to the outside world.  In true explorer fashion, he spent the next 15 years researching its possible location and mounting various expeditions to locate the hidden falls.  In the time honored tradition of all great explorers, Baker has written a book detailing this search. 

The Heart of the World: A Journey to the Last Secret Place, has all the ingredients necessary for any grand adventure: blood-sucking leeches, impenetrable jungles, Chinese bureaucrats, fraternizing with the natives, and the eventual discovery of what is being searched for. 

Pick up a copy today and read it down at your local Starbucks. 

 

William S. Burroughs Birthday Party

by Neil Woodburn on

For all of you Beat poets out there looking for something to celebrate, William S. Burroughs’ 92nd birthday is coming up.  Yes, he might be dead, but his spirit lives on in a small hotel in Desert Hot Springs, California, where a month-long birthday celebration kicks off on February 4th.  Festivities at the InterZone Beat Festival include a Harold Chapman photography exhibition, performances by Husker Du singer/songwriter Grant Hart, slide shows, and various book exhibitions. 

The Beat Hotel, just a ten minute drive from Palm Springs, was renovated in 2003 to celebrate the life and work of Burroughs.  Each of the eight guestrooms is decorated with photos and artwork by the author, Beat era furniture, and a vintage typewriter.  There is also an onsite library featuring various works and first editions of the Beat Generation.

The hotel was based upon the original “Beat Hotel” in Paris, at 9 Rue Git-le-Coeur, where, between 1957-1963 Burroughs, Alan Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac and other Beat artists lived and dabbled. Burroughs wrote most of Naked Lunch there while Ginsburg penned his famous poem, Kaddish.  Fans who would rather pilgrimage to the original site can still do so.  The Parisian Beat Hotel has been renamed the Relais Hotel du Vieux and still accepts tenants.  Don’t go expecting the ramshackled, opium den which so inspired the Beat Generation, however.  The hotel has been upscaled with doilies and soft beds that are more apt to inspire The Bridges of Madison County than Howl. 

 

One for the Road (01/18/06)

by Dave (Blogsmith Old) on

I enjoyed Thomas Swick’s guest blogging at World Hum last week and decided to profile one of his travel books for today’s suggestion: A Way to See the World: From Texas to Transylvania With a Maverick Traveler was published in 2003, and includes many stories that first appeared in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, where Swick has been the Travel Editor since 1989. Some of the places he visits and mentions in his stories include trips to Turkey, France, Hungary, Ohio and Minnesota. Here’s a World Hum interview with Swick from when the book was released. It sounds like a neat collection. Also be sure to check out Swick’s posts from his recent week at World Hum — he shared some really great stuff about travel and the travel writing profession, that is sure to be of particular interest to aspiring wanderlust writers.