We had to read some pretty awful crap in school. A lot of it in different styles and periods. I don’t think we read a travelogue. At least not an American one written within the past 20 years. What a damn shame. You could teach geography, history, and literature with a slightly smaller set of books.
I started a book that would be an excellent candidate for HS reading. A woman and her husband bicycle across the world in 1979. First, the US and it’s leaded gasoline, Spain after Franco died, Morocco before the Spain/Morocco bridge was built, Portugal’s cobblestone/dirt roads, England, Ireland and Norther Ireland during the bombings, France, Austria, Greece, Egypt during the Egypt/Israel peace talks, India and southeast Asia. The writing is really good. Easy and fast. The story reads like a long tale told in a college coffee house after dark. There are many long 5 star reviews on Amazon.
She doesn’t leave out human things about travel. Fights with her husband due to 24/7 living together, getting the runs in a hostile 3rd world country, mechanical breakdowns, and magical happenstance. The coolest one bit of circumstance was that in their 2 yr trip they stayed in a church only once. Cycling through England in an area where the author had ancestors she was vaguely aware of. When they woke in the morning they discovered that the church was part of her family history hundreds for years and her maiden name (all 3) were in the registry a dozen times.
Anyway, good book. Reads fast. Very interesting.
Miles from Nowhere: A Round the World Bicycle Adventure
Barbara Savage