What Best Travel Books Is About

Hi, I'm Anthony Sowerby, the creator of Best Travel Books for travellers who love to read books about travel. Amazed when searching the internet that there was no decent site recommending great travel books inspired me to set up this site. 

Best Travel Books is about showcasing the best travel literature, so that you can spend more time reading. My tastes, which of course influences what I consider to be the best travel books, is extremely varied, but if I had to pick a favourite genre, I'd most definitely go for travel books that make me laugh. Life's too short to spend your time being serious all the time. To me, the Thai rule of living life according to sanuk, best represents this, where one strives to achieve satisfaction and pleasure from whatever we do. 

Growing up in New Zealand exposed me to some great domestic travel experiences but my first overseas trip, if you can call it that, was when I travelled to Australia on a rugby trip at age 16. After that, it wasn't until I was 23 in 1996 that I made my first real trip abroad, travelling the other side of the world to the United Kingdom as part of my OE (overseas experience).  A three month trip in the equivalent of a combi van with six other guys around Europe opened my eyes as to what there was in the world to see. The freedom of doing what we wanted, when we wanted was unbeatable.

That trip awakened a desire to go and travel the world on my own terms, without having to compromise with other people and over the course of the next five years when not working I travelled to such amazing places as the Middle East, Indian sub-continent, Africa (twice) and South East Asia. Then I went really crazy, settled down, got a real job, married my wonderful wife and procreated.

Refusing to let the onset of being a supposedly responsible adult slow me down has led us to exploring our own backyard both here in New Zealand and in the South Pacific. And what an experience that has been. Swimming with whales in Tonga, playing on the beautiful beaches of Iles de Pines, posting letters in the world's only underwater post office in Vanuatu and scrambling around the temples on Java just to name a few (see the map below to view the 61 countries I have visited to date). Sure, things have changed, as too has the way in which I've travelled, but it hasn't changed for the worse.

Unfortunately, as I've yet to win the Lotto, I still have to earn a living which at this point necessitates being tied to a 9 to 5 regular job, but the travel force stayed strong in this one.  To satiate my travel bug when not actually travelling I do the next best thing - reading about others travelling. Living vicariously through others in this fashion, apart from being entertaining and informative, ensures that I'm getting my sanuk bucket filled. Hopefully some of what I'm producing here will help you do the same.

If you ever feel like dropping me a line or are interested in a personalised book recommendation feel free to email me at thereadytraveller5@gmail.com.

Thanks for taking the time to visit Best Travel Books and I look forward to helping you read more great books.

All photos on this site (unless credited) were taken by Anthony Sowerby and no selfie sticks were used or harmed in the making of the Best Travel Books website.