Nancy Pearl sells books: hers and those of the authors she recommends. Book Lust To Go is 120 places to read about before you go. Consider the entry Indicative of Indonesia,” in which
Nancy Pearl urges travelers to read V.S. Naipaul’s Among the Believers and Christopher J. Koch’s The Year of Living Dangerously. Wanderlust-y reading for prospective travelers
to Ireland begins with the cheeky: Let’s not start with James Joyce and just say we did, okay?” then goes on to recommend such gems as Nuala O’Faollin’s Are you Somebody? and J. P.
Dunleavy’s Ireland In All Her Sins and Some of Her Graces. This enthusiastic literary globetrotting includes stops in Korea, Sweden, Afghanistan, Albania, Parma, Patagonia,
Texas, and Timbuktu. But Nancy Pearl is a reader and a librarian, not a travel agent, so she can’t resist recommending reading for Travel to Imaginary Places” (including Ursula K. LeGuin’s
The Wizard of Earthsea and Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union) and stories of chucking it all and moving to Spain or Greece under the heading So We/I Bought (or
Built) a House In . . . ” Book Lust To Go brings Pearl’s amazing ability to summon the perfect book to connect with a particular interest with the art of having an adventure whether
it requires a passport or just an armchair.
