Pillow Book Friday

Sei Shonagon was a noblewoman living in the Japanese court in the 11th century.  While she served the Empress, she wrote her famous "Pillow Book", containing poetry, gossip, her observances and lists.  Well-to-do Japanese ladies of the time were known to keep notebooks near their beds in which to record stray thoughts and dreams.  Sei made this form of writing famous.  She kept lists of things she liked and disliked, things that depressed her, elegant things, things that were embarrassing and lists of anything else that caught her fancy.

In honour of Shonagon and her "Pillow Book", I wish to introduce my own version with "Pillow Book Friday".  Every Friday, I will make lists of things that are important to me.  Today, I thought I would combine two things I'm obsessed with: travelling and reading.  So, today's list is all about travel literature.  When I'm not able to travel, I love to curl up with a good book and travel in my mind, setting up house, eating decadent food and meeting new people vicariously through the pages of well-written experience.  I have accrued quite a collection of these books myself.  My list for this week contains my favourites.

Travel books I've read and highly recommend:

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An Embarrassment of Mangoes chronicles Ann Vanderhoof's two year sailboat journey though the Caribbean with her husband, Steve.  I mentioned it briefly here.  This book makes me feel like I'm a stowaway on their sailboat, Receta.  I hope they don't find me.

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Under the Tuscan Sun, the quintessential travel literature read by Frances Mayes, is a beautifully written, lyrical ode to life in Italy.  I've read and re-read this book so many times it's like a familiar, favourite sweater.  It makes me want to pack everything in, buy a tumble-down villa and start restoring.

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A trip to a London bespoke perfume maker turns into a multi-country odyssey as Celia Lytton tries to track down the origins of all of the ingredients found in her own personal scent.  The Scent Trail was as magical as its name.

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I picked up Led By Destiny in a London bookstore while I was living my own dreams.  A Polish couple, Kinga and Chopin, hitchhike around the world for five years, starting with less than $600, two plane tickets to New York and a dream.  The contents of the book and its premise are all the more poignant with the knowledge of Kinga's death due to malaria in Africa while living her dream.

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Kate T. Williamson studied sock design in Japan for a year.  She chronicled her time there in paint in A Year in Japan.  The beautiful images in this book need to be drunk in and savoured.

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Marlena de Blasi is making every moment of her life count.  She lives vividly and recounts the details lovingly and descriptively in her books (I have also read A Thousand Days in Venice and A Thousand Days in Tuscany, but The Lady in the Palazzo is my favourite of the three).  The Lady in the Palazzo chronicles her wait, alongside her husband, for their home in Orvieto to be renovated.

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I have a soft-spot for travel lit dealing with Morocco.  My husband is Moroccan and Morocco is a second home to me.  Tahir Shah and his family chose adventure in Casablanca at The Caliph's House over the security of their London lives.  This story is hilarious and the characters are memorable.

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Miranda Innes moves from Spain to Morocco and attempts to set up house in Marrakech.  Cinnamon City is another tale of following your heart and taking chances in another country.  Every last detail of this novel is exquisite.

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Lost on Planet China tells of the zany adventures of J. Maarten Troost in China.  Troost is not big on planning and reservations, and I don't know how much he ends up understanding about China and the Chinese, but it's a funny and engaging read.

What are your favourite travel lit reads?  I am always looking for recommendations!