By Joyce Deming, Information Services Librarian, Golden Library

Summer is vacation season, but for many of us, family, jobs and other commitments limit our travel experiences to just a few short weeks. However, that doesn't mean you can't travel the world from the comfort of your own home. Here are some armchair travel titles to get you started.

Iran is a mystery to most Americans. Our perception is colored by news stories of kidnappings, terrorism and religious fundamentalism. But when Canadian journalist Alison Wearing donned a chador and traveled in Iran for five months with a male friend, she was surprised to find a country full of warm and generous people. Her discoveries, chronicled in Honeymoon in Purdah, may surprise you too.

The opportunity to try new foods is one of the reasons many people travel, including celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain. In his book, A Cook's Tour, Bourdain travels the world sampling local cuisines such as fugu, the poisonous blowfish delicacy prepared only by specially licensed Japanese chefs, or haggis, that Scottish dish made from various sheep parts and oatmeal, which he describes as "glorious ... peppery, hot and meaty." While the food described may not appeal, Bourdain's conversational writing style certainly will.

It's not necessary to crisscross the globe to experience the mind-opening benefits of travel. In our quest for unique experiences, we sometimes forget the adventure waiting just outside our door. No one is better at describing these adventures than the late Charles Kuralt. On the Road with Charles Kuralt and Charles Kuralt's America are travel classics. If you can find either of them on tape or CD with Kuralt narrating, so much the better.

Another classic travel tale is John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, the story of his driving adventure across America in 1960 with his beloved standard poodle Charley. Even if you read it years ago in school, try it again. It's travel prose at its best.

I love anthologies and especially like the books in the "The Best American Travel Writing" series. Individual editors include Paul Theroux, Bill Bryson and Frances Mayes. Another delightful anthology is Not So Funny When it Happened, a collection of travel humor and misadventures from writers such as Tim Cahill, Dave Barry, Anne Lamott and David Sedaris.

While many of my friends talk of traveling to warmer climes, I have my sights set north. Perhaps that's why I enjoyed Jill Fredston's Rowing to Latitude so much. Rowing started as a yearly newsletter to Fredston's friends and family chronicling her journeys each summer in a 15-foot rowing scull in and around the Arctic. Whether she's describing an unexpected dip in icy Arctic waters, rowing in 20-foot seas or an encounter with a hungry polar bear, she is an absolute joy to read.

More titles

Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger

The Great Railway Bazaar and Ghost Train to the

Eastern Star by Paul Theroux

In Siberia by Colin Thubron

Looking for Lovedu: A Woman's Journey Across

Africaby Ann Jones

News from Tartary by Peter Fleming

Passage to Juneau by Jonathan Raban

Red Dust: A Path Through China by Ma Jian

A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby

You can check out these travel books and many more at any Jefferson County Public Library location. Go to http://jefferson.lib.co.us to search the catalog and place holds.