The CGIS Study Abroad Book Club

Follow along with literary travelers to prepare for your study abroad adventure!

Watch your inbox every other week for our newsletter that will link to recommendations of books, short stories, and essays carefully selected by CGIS staff to inspire, provoke, and encourage you on your own travels.

Grab one or more of these texts for your plane, train, or bus ride and let your imagination take flight.

Too busy to read through a full book on your journey? We recommend reading local news in your destination country and seeking out inspiration from music and visual art.

Image courtesy Bustle.com
  • In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

    • Bill Bryson is a master of the modern travel essay. In a Sunburned Country , perhaps his funniest book, follows his journey through Australia, that hot, dry, strange, kangaroo-filled country, where he explores the cities, deserts, ocean, people, and regions with weird names (Tittybong!). Bryson's cheery and supremely curious travel ethos will inspire you to adopt a similar attitude on your journey abroad.

      Excerpt from In a Sunburned Country: "In the late afternoon, I stopped at a roadhouse for gas and coffee. I studied my book of maps ... Then, having nothing better to do, I leafed through the index and amused myself, in a very low-key way, by looking for ridiculous names, of which Australia has a respectable plenitude. I am thus able to report that the following are all real places: Wee Waa, Poowons, Borrumbuttock, Suggan Buggan, Boomahnoomoonah, Waaia, Mullumbimby Ewylamartup, Jiggalong, and the supremely satisfying Tittybong." Provided by Bustle.com