I try to keep this blog travel-themed. Sometimes, I admit, the link is tenuous.

Travel books. Essential for a well-planned excursion, intoxicating fuel for the desire of future adventures. For those of the travel-planning variety, I'm partial to Lonely Planet guides. Journals can be fun and inspiring too (I must give credit to "The Lead Goat Veered Off" for partially inspiring the idea and style of this blog in the first place). Then there are the books that aren't so much about travel destinations themselves, or even past journeys. Some books simply toy with the idea of travel itself.

Terry Pratchett is a fantasy author, whose brainchild is named Discworld. The premise of his first Discworld novel, the 1983 book "The Colour of Magic", revolves around a tourist from a far-off continent plunked into the middle of his bizarrely conceived land. From the point of view of a debut in a series (that currently stands at about 35 books and counting), it's a clever way to introduce a vastly new scenery to the reader. Using a tool is one thing, having some fun with it is another.

Perhaps some examples would be appropriate. The only lead-up necessary is some character introduction: Twoflower is the mayhem-inducing tourist, and Rincewind in the name of his inadvertant and sometimes indisposed guide.

"Picturesque. That was a new word to Rincewind the wizard (BMgc, Unseen University [failed]). It was one of a number he had picked up since leaving the charred ruins of Ankh-Morpork. Quaint was another one. Picturesque meant - he decided after careful observation of the scenery that inspired Twoflower to use the word - that the landscape was horribly precipitous. Quaint, when used to describe the occasional village through which they passed, meant fever-ridden and tumbledown.
Twoflower was a tourist, the first ever seen on the discworld. Tourist, Rincewind had decided, meant 'idiot'."

"'Sometimes I think a man could wander across the disc all his life and not see everything there is to see,' said Twoflower. 'And now it seems there are lots of other worlds as well. When I think I might die without seeing a hundredth of all there is to see it makes me feel,' he paused, then added, 'well, humble, I suppose. And very angry, of course.'"

If you have any affinity towards travel books, fantasy novels, or stories written in the English language, give "The Colour of Magic" a read.

If you have any desire to see a hundredth of what our beautiful world has to offer, then - damn it - get on out there. The guides and locals may think you're crazy for caring about seeing their little corner of the globe, and who knows? Maybe they're right, but you can be the judge of that yourself.