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Books about travel/spirituality/values?

So for my English Lit/Lang coursework I need to read two books which will then be used for inspiration for our own writing. One book needs to be fiction and one non-fiction. My non-fiction piece is Into the Woods by Jon Krakauer and I want to explore the themes of life values and the travelling life style. However, I'm unsure of which Fiction book can be paired with this which holds similar themes? Any Ideas?
Original post by EmmaL.AM
So for my English Lit/Lang coursework I need to read two books which will then be used for inspiration for our own writing. One book needs to be fiction and one non-fiction. My non-fiction piece is Into the Woods by Jon Krakauer and I want to explore the themes of life values and the travelling life style. However, I'm unsure of which Fiction book can be paired with this which holds similar themes? Any Ideas?


How about the American writer William S. Burroughs? He is one of the prolific writers from the Beat Generation which usually included written accounts of a sexual freedom and cultural liberation. He often wrote about his hedonistic lifestyle of homosexual sex and drug taking. He often did this whilst exploring Central America in Mexico. This was in the 1950s, so this could really go well with what it means to value one's life and of course his depiction of the travelling life around Mexico. I've read both Queer and Junkie. I would perhaps say Junkie is more interesting and captures the "white traveler in a foreign country" than Queer does. They are both relatively short. Queer is only less than 130 pages, whilst Junkie is just under 200 pages.

I've also heard The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler is a good novel. Slightly different as it's more of a crime/detective novel. However, it still questions life's values and travelling life.

I honestly don't know what Into the Woods is about. But if you want novels about travelling life and life values check out novels by Khaled Hosseini, Chinua Achebe and Chimanda Adichie. These authors often write about 3rd world countries and the conflicts surrounding them; whilst their protagonist escape these conflicts by travelling to the New World like America.

Hope I've helped; good luck! :flutter:
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EmmaL.AM
OP
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Original post by The Empire Odyssey
How about the American writer William S. Burroughs? He is one of the prolific writers from the Beat Generation which usually included written accounts of a sexual freedom and cultural liberation. He often wrote about his hedonistic lifestyle of homosexual sex and drug taking. He often did this whilst exploring Central America in Mexico. This was in the 1950s, so this could really go well with what it means to value one's life and of course his depiction of the travelling life around Mexico. I've read both Queer and Junkie. I would perhaps say Junkie is more interesting and captures the "white traveler in a foreign country" than Queer does. They are both relatively short. Queer is only less than 130 pages, whilst Junkie is just under 200 pages.

I've also heard The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler is a good novel. Slightly different as it's more of a crime/detective novel. However, it still questions life's values and travelling life.

I honestly don't know what Into the Woods is about. But if you want novels about travelling life and life values check out novels by Khaled Hosseini, Chinua Achebe and Chimanda Adichie. These authors often write about 3rd world countries and the conflicts surrounding them; whilst their protagonist escape these conflicts by travelling to the New World like America.

Hope I've helped; good luck! :flutter:


The William Burroughs books do look really interesting, even if i don't use them for my work! I find the drug scene does interest me quite a lot and I'll probably read Junkie purely to see Burroughs views on illegal substances. However, aren't these books non-fiction as they're accounts of Burroughs own life?
Original post by EmmaL.AM
The William Burroughs books do look really interesting, even if i don't use them for my work! I find the drug scene does interest me quite a lot and I'll probably read Junkie purely to see Burroughs views on illegal substances. However, aren't these books non-fiction as they're accounts of Burroughs own life?


Junkie is a semi-autobiographical novel. Which is where reality and fantasy are usually blurred. So that means Burroughs wrote about his own experiences, but he fictionalised it; the characters, stories, conversations. They're all of what he knows, but it isn't a fact-of-life novel, like say In Cold Blood by Truman Capote where all of what he wrote were based on facts and evidence such as newspaper articles, transcripts and so forth.

Does that make sense?
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Avatar for OGGUS
OGGUS
21
The Qu'raan.
Original post by EmmaL.AM
So for my English Lit/Lang coursework I need to read two books which will then be used for inspiration for our own writing. One book needs to be fiction and one non-fiction. My non-fiction piece is Into the Woods by Jon Krakauer and I want to explore the themes of life values and the travelling life style. However, I'm unsure of which Fiction book can be paired with this which holds similar themes? Any Ideas?


As it has already been said, Hosseini's novels are great for this sort of thing.*

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