This summer when I was traveling in the Basque Country in Spain I thought about how much landscape and literature go hand in hand for me. I’d brought with me a copy of THE SUN ALSO RISES and was reading the parts that took place in San Sebastian and Pamplona (the best parts of the book for me really).
Whenever I travel, I bring with me books that seem particular to the place where I’ll be. AUSTERLITZ by Sebald when we went to Belgium. THE COLOSSUS OF MAROUSI by Henry Miller when I last was in Greece. In Italy a few summers ago I read with great delights ENCHANTED APRIL. I’m not sure why this is so, but when I am on the road, I must read about where I am. Anything else creates a kind of disonance for me.
I decided I wanted to think and write about this more and a blog, called The Writer and the Wanderer: Reflections on Literature and Travel, seemed a good place to begin.
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