My favorite books usually reflect movement; the very best ones capture the sadness and excitement inherent in all great departures. They have to make me want to get out of the house, out of the country, to wander and explore and see things that I won’t ever forget. So, apart from my own collection of stories, 'Goat Trees: Tales from the Other Side of the World', what do I have on my bookshelves to take me away during those times when I can't actually escape?

The most interesting book I own has few words at all: 'The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon'. This is a beautiful, poignant and boisterous photo-book of the intimate journals made by the youngest ever Reuters photographer, Dan Eldon, a very interesting and, sadly, now dead, young man whose life ended at the hands of a Somali mob at the age of 23. Before any trip, whether it be a simple trek to Montana or a month-long squat in Cambodia, this is the book I reach for to inspire me to go and see the world while there's still time. After all, it's always later than you think.

Of the writers who are master travelers, a few names come into mind, none more so than Paul Theroux, most famous for 'The Mosquito Coast', an amazing tale of survival and pride. Many of my friends agree that before an overseas jaunt, finding a Theroux novel, fiction or nonfiction, is essential and the best preparation they can do. 'The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas' for South America and 'Riding the Iron Rooster' for China are two amazing journeys through exotic places that will make you want to start stuffing your pack straight away.

The consummate expatriate award goes to Paul Bowles, who lived most of his 90-some years in one of my favorite countries, Morocco. Writing about the Arabs with a dry, unsentimental prose, Bowles brilliantly captures the feeling of being an outsider in a strange culture. My favorite of his few novels is 'The Sheltering Sky'; his talent was better suited for the shorter format, so also be sure to check out his powerful, hefty collection of stories, 'The Stories of Paul Bowles'.

Go and buy 'Drifters' today, right now. Set in the sixties, this Michener masterwork revolves around a group of disaffected young people from America, Sweden, Israel, and England, who travel together in a yellow VW pop-top from Spain to Marrakech to Mozambique. As relevant to our times as it was to the time in which it was written, Drifters should be read by anyone who is interested in revolutionary thinking in the strictest sense of the word. 'Caravans' is another Michener novel well worth reading. Like Theroux, James Michener is one of those authors whose books can be more useful than a travel guide if you’re about to head out. Chances are, if a place exists, Michener has been there, and has subsequently written a thousand pages on it.

'The Year of Living Dangerously' is a great one by Christopher Koch about a very tumultuous period in sixties in Indonesia. Political intrigue, government coups, love and jealousy among foreigners messing about where they don't belong ... this is one taut book. In an entirely different but no less pleasing direction, one of the most atmospheric books around is also famous for being the first paperback ever published. 'Lost Horizon: A Novel' by James Hilton. I read this about every year, and it always makes me want to pack a very small bag, get on a plane to central Asia, and just vanish there into the mountains, never to be seen again. (In a good way, I swear!)

This next book is an inner journey written by a little known master of lyrical prose, John Hawkes. The only really accessible novel by this former Brown University professor is 'The Blood Oranges'. Written in the seventies about free love and the consequences of not openingyourself to others, it is a brilliant book by a prose stylist nonpareil.

Now I'd like you to meet a very special woman: Isabelle Eberhardt. Born in 1877, Isabelle left her European home at the age of 18 to escape a family plagued by sickness and suicides. She settled in Algeria, where this tall, beautiful woman underwent nothing short of a metamorphosis in the truest sense of the word: she disguised herself as a man and transformed herself into a nomad, a marabout (a wandering saint) drifting through the Sahara in a quest to find true freedom—"for those who know the value of and exquisite taste of solitary freedom (for one is only free when alone), the act of leaving is the bravest and most beautiful of all." She suffered constant starvation, persecution, overpowering addictions to alcohol, tobacco and hashish, exile, betrayal, colic, fevers, malaria, an attempted assassination, and, as a result of what she wrote was her “strange desire to suffer, to drag [her] physical body into dirt and depravation,” syphilis. She pushed constantly at the boundaries of her physical and emotional self in the hopes that an extreme life would drown out her inner torments. She didn’t write much, but what she did write is laden with a strange mix of girlish sentimentality, fierce determination, and incredible sadness. 'The Oblivion Seekers', called "One of the strangest human documents that a woman has given to the world," is a remarkable collection of her short fiction, while 'In the Shadow of Islam (Peter Owen Modern Classic)' contains beautifully rendered vignettes of her life. Her diary, 'The Nomad: The Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt', is heartbreaking.

Along with 'The Bell Jar: A Novel (Perennial Classics)', 'The Virgin Suicides' by Jeffrey Eugenedes is one of the most sweetly melancholy books written in the English language since Emily Bronte’s 'Wuthering Heights'.

Other great books to get you in the mood to move: 'A Season in Heaven: True Tales from the Road to Kathmandu'--Tales from the hippie trail that led overland from Europe to Kathmandu, as remembered by those who made the trek. 'Let's Get Lost: Adventures in the Great Wide Open'--Funny stories of bizzare experiences in the far corners of the world. 'Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World', from the amazing, inspiring Rita Golden Gelman. This woman knows how to do life!

Last but not least: Lonely Planet. Seriously. Pick a country at random, read the LP that goes with it, and you’ll want to visit, and soon. Some of the LPs I can see on my shelves from here: 'Lonely Planet Morocco (Lonely Planet Morocco)', 'Lonely Planet Cambodia (Lonely Planet Cambodia)', 'Lonely Planet Laos (Lonely Planet Laos)', 'Lonely Planet Myanmar (Burma) (Lonely Planet Myanmar (Burma))', 'Lonely Planet Libya (Lonely Planet Libya)', 'Lonely Planet Brazil (Lonely Planet Brazil)', 'Lonely Planet North India (Lonely Planet North India)', 'Lonely Planet South India (Lonely Planet South India)', 'Lonely Planet Vietnam (Lonely Planet Vietnam)', 'Lonely Planet Istanbul to Cairo on a Shoestring (Lonely Planet Shoestring Guides)', 'Lonely Planet South-East Asia on a Shoestring (10th ed)'. Let me put it this way: I wouldn’t dream of going anywhere without two books. One of them is a Paul Theroux. The other is an LP. No exceptions!

That should be enough to get you started! As for me, all this talk about these great books makes me want to flop out in the hammock with one of them, and dream about where I'll escape to next.

Visit me at my website! You'll have to find it yourself (hint: my name plus a dot com) because I'm not allowed to plug it here, but if you do, you'll be rewarded with world photography, stories, and information about my Goat Trees Travel Mate contest, in which one lucky reader will win a 14-day, all-expense-paid adventure with me to anywhere in the world!

See you on the road!
David Rozgonyi