travel books (for when you have no time and/or money to travel)

When I was a cadet at West Point I spent some of my (minimal) free time reading travel memoirs or novels that took place in places I wanted to go. From my barracks room I traveled to Spain, Greece, Mexico and France through books (I swear it's not as lame as it sounds...I really needed to get away, at least mentally!), and I was briefly able to escape the gray weather, gray uniforms, and gray buildings of West Point. I just recently finished reading Lunch in Paris, and it was a fun, quick read that enabled me to pretend I was eating delicious food and shopping at French markets. Oh how I'd love to be sipping a café au lait at a Parisian café right now! Here are some of my favorite travel memoirs and novels about exciting places that I’ve read over the past few years. Many of these I read before traveling to the place where the story takes place. I read The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemmingway right before I went to Spain, and it got me excited to explore the country (which I did and fell in love). No bullfights for me, but I did enjoy the tapas and sangria probably more than I should have. I’d rather be exploring these places myself, but for now a good travel book will have to do. What books do you think I missed? I'm looking for a light easy read right now and would love to hear your thoughts!

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