#TripLit: Inside Traveler’s Book Club

When we’re not on the road, the folks at Traveler love to read and share stories that inspire us to travel. Sometimes they even spark ideas for future features.

More than four years ago, Amy Alipio, who edits our monthly Trip Lit column, started an informal, travel-oriented book club open to all Nat Geo staffers to give everyone at the Society an opportunity to scratch that travel itch — and get to know each other better.

“Hearing about the travel experiences of others in the book club adds a sense of reality to the books,” Program Manager Elena Takaki says. “It’s also nice to hear such personal opinions come out in co-workers. Often, in a work setting, we avoid talking about politics or personal views, but that’s not the case when you’re discussing how a book or passage made you feel.”

Oh, and there’s food. To conjure a sense of place, members contribute to a potluck that reflects the book’s region or theme. Our most recent read, Cheryl Strayed’s Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, inspired a lunch that featured trail mix, beef jerky, and Pacific salmon.

This month the club is reading Pauls Toutonghi’s latest novel, Evel Knievel Days: A Novel, about a Montana man who travels to Cairo to learn more about his Egyptian father. Anyone have a good recipe for baba ghanoush?

The Traveler Book Club is now nearly 50 members strong, with a reading list that spans the globe. Here’s what we’ve read so far.

What should we should read next month? Share your #TripLit recommendations with @NatGeoTraveler on Twitter or leave a comment below!

Traveler Book Club Reading List

1. The Lost City, by Henry Shukman
2. Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson
3. The World Before Her, by Deborah Weisgall
4. Travels with Charley, by John Steinbeck
5. Silverland, by Dervla Murphy
6. The Kindness of Strangers, edited by Don George
7. Body of Lies, by David Ignatius
8. The Van, by Roddy Doyle
9. A Guide to the Birds of East Africa, by Nicholas Drayson
10. Cold Beer and Crocodiles, by Roff Smith
11. Pictures at an Exhibition, by Sara Houghteling
12. The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto, by Pico Iyer
13. Geography of Bliss, by Eric Weiner
14. A Year in Provence, by Peter Mayle
15. Baghdad Without a Map, by Tony Horwitz
16. Saving Fish from Drowning, by Amy Tan
17. Sag Harbor, by Colson Whitehead
18. The Man Who Loved China, by Simon Winchester
19. Moonlight in Odessa, by Janet Skeslien Charles
20. The Lemon Tree, by Sandy Tolan
21. Motorcycle Diaries, by Che Guevara
22. Hitching Rides with Buddha, by Will Ferguson
23. Too Close to the Sun: The Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton, by Sara Wheeler
24. An Embarrassment of Mangoes, by Ann Vanderhoof
25. Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson
26. The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
27. A Week at the Airport, by Alain de Botton
28. A Moveable Feast, edited by Don George
29. Planetwalker: 22 Years of Walking. 17 Years of Silence, by John Francis
30. Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel García Márquez
31. Smilla’s Sense of Snow, by Peter Høeg
32. The Commoner, by John Burnham Schwartz
33. Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life, by Frances Mayes
34. Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists, by Tony Perrottet
35. A Death in Vienna, by Frank Tallis
36. The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, by Jennifer Steil
37. City of Thieves, David Benioff
38. Sex Lives of Cannibals, by J. Maarten Troost
39. Lights, Camera…Travel, edited by Don George and Andrew McCarthy
40. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo
41. Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day, by Doug Mack
42. American Shaolin, by Matthew Polly
43. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed
44. Evel Knievel Days:A Novel, by Paul Toutonghi
45. Tell us what we should read next by using the #TripLit hash tag on Twitter.