It started with a backpacking trip on a barrier island . . .

Several years ago I was preparing to lead a group of high school students on a six-day backpacking trip to Cumberland Island, GA.  The island is an amazing place with a rich, layered history – both human and ecological.  It’s a place with wild horses, Nine-Banded Armadillos, ruins of Carnegie mansions, alligators, a small chapel where JFK, Jr. married Carolyn Bessette . . . a place with more than enough curiosities to engage a group of teenagers for the week.

In planning the trip though, I wondered how I might facilitate a deeper connection to the place where we would be traveling.  How could I help teenagers really connect to this amazing place?

It was at this point in my planning that a friend recommended I read John McPhee’s book Encounters with the Archdruid.  In this story, McPhee, a master of creative non-fiction, recounts his travel to the island with two nemeses: David Brower, one of the leading environmentalists of the late 20^th century, the “archdruid”; and Charles Frazier, one of the most famous coastal real estate developer in the Southeast.  McPhee documents the conversations and arguments of these two unlikely traveling companions as they walk, explore, and camp on the island together.  In the hands of McPhee this story unfolds in an engaging—even engrossing—way.

Reading a book beforehand transformed our experience of the place . . .

I found McPhee’s story compelling enough that I asked all the students to read it before the trip.  While backpacking on the island we found that having read the book beforehand completely transformed our experience of the island.  The book became a reference point for our thoughts and conversations, and we felt closer to Cumberland.  In short, the island was alive for us in a way that it probably would not have been without the book.

 On subsequent trips I have found that the right book allows a connection to place that moves beyond the superficial.  Reading John Muir’s My First Summer in the Sierras before a trip to Yosemite changed my experience of those mountains.  Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast potentially gives the traveler a point of connection to Paris that is eye-opening and invigorating.  Reading Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels potentially changes the experience of walking the grounds at Gettysburg. . . .

abookformytrip.com is born. . .

Some travelers are content with the superficial, gaze-into-the-fishbowl mode of travel where you move through a place but never really connect to the place.  Others yearn for a deeper connection to the places they visit on tour or vacation.

There should be a website, I thought, that book lovers could turn to before a trip that would guide them to powerful books that have the potential to transform their experience of traveling.

abookformytrip.com aims to enhance people’s experience of reading and travel.  I hope it’s helpful to you, and I hope you’ll consider helping expand the site by submitting your own articles that link travel destinations with great literature.

All my best,

Cotton Bryan

Founder

Amazon.com: 

Encounters with the Archdruid

Author: John McPhee

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1980)

Binding: Paperback, 245 pages