1. Searching for Crusoe: A Journey Among the Last Real Island, Thurston Clarke (2001). Clarke visits an island off the coast of Chile, Mas a Tierra that inspired Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe. Appropriately read this book while visiting the island of Bikini in the Marshall Islands with Walter Kropf, October 2005. Bought used but can't remember where.
2. The Voyage of the Nina II, Robert Max (1963). In December 1962, Marx retraced Columbus's voyage in Nina II. Bought used and can't remember where. In 1964, inscription says it was owned by JWC Spencer.
3. From the Holy Mountain: A Journey Among Christians of the Middle East, Willman Dalrymple (1997). In 587 AD, two monks set off on an extraordinary journey that would take them in a journey across the entire Byzantine empire, from the Bosporus to the sand dunes of Egypt. More than a thousands years later using the monks' writings for his inspiration, Dalrymple set off to retrace their footsteps.
4. No-Man's Land: One Man's Odyssey Through The Odyssey, Scott Huler (2008). Huler doggedly retraces Odysseus's journey from the ancient ruins of Troy to his final destination of Ithaca. Along the way, he looks for the Cyclops's Sicilian cave, visits the land of the dead in Italy and other landmarks of his predecessor's great story. Bought new.
5. Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook has Gone Before, Tony Horwitz (2002). Horwitz retraces Captain Cook's three epic journeys of discovery into the Pacific. He takes to the sea in a replica of Cook's ship. Bought used but can't remember where.
6. Beyond the Edge of the Sea: Sailing with Jason and the Argonauts, Ulysses , the Viking s, and other Explorers of the Ancient World, Mauricio OBregon (2001). A small elegant history that retraces fourteen historical journeys. Bought new at Olsson's books in Washington, DC.
My Antonia, The Magic Mountain?
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