‘Tis the season…
I wouldn’t call a list of books a holiday gift guide per se, but all of these would make lovely presents for the voyager or language enthusiast in your life (or for you!)…
One or more (there are box sets ranging from 10 to all 18 books) of Miroslav Sasek’s classic “This is” series, of which “This is Paris” was the first published, in 1959.
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Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London, a memoir and cultural history focused on women who stroll the world’s greatest cities.
Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders, the book version of one of my favorite websites.
When in French: Love in a Second Language, by the New Yorker contributor Lauren Collins, whose articles on the same subject I always love.
A travel-related Taschen coffee-table book. Here are a few gorgeous ones from 2017:
National Geographic: Around the World in 125 Years – Europe
National Geographic: Around the World in 125 Years – Asia & Oceania
Nomadic Homes: Architecture on the Move
And this one coming out later this month seems worth waiting for:
The Grand Tour: Rediscover the Golden Age of Adventure
The World Atlas of Street Photography, full of gorgeous images.
Lonely Planet’s Where to Go When, which arranges travel destinations by the month when they are at their best.
The Bonjour Effect: The Secret Codes of French Conversation Revealed, which might have saved me a lot of grief during my first month or two in France.
Toilets of the World, because how sanitation customs and facilities differ around the world is a fascinating subject (and an important one – see “Meet Mr. Toilet” for proof).
What She Ate: The Culinary Biographies Of Some Remarkable Women sounds fascinating if you’re interested in both history and food.
Transit Maps of the World, which many people I know would totally geek out on.
Around the World in 80 Cocktails
I’m looking forward to digging in to a bunch of these books when I get back to the States / English-language bookstores and libraries.
And p.s. just one non-book idea:
SUCK UK has amazing crafty gifts for travel lovers including globe “journals,” i.e. globes that you can draw and write on, a cork globe (either tan and black or color) so that you can literally pinpoint your travels, and an amazing cross-stitch map that you can personalize.
talk foreign to me 