International Mankini Challenge

With long bus journeys, days of lazing on the beach and a lot of spare time on your hands, a good book to travel with is a necessity. With space in your backpack at a premium and fellow travellers careful as to what book they swap their prized read with, you need to make sure you’ve good literary collateral. I’ve listed below the current most popular reads on the road – in South and Central America that is.

Top 5 Most Popular Books Read While Travelling in South and Central America

1. The Millenium Series – while not widely read amongst those with English as their first language, Scandinavians and the Dutch seem to be everywhere reading these three books

2. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini’s best selling book (and now film) about growing up in Afganistan can be seen being read on many a bus in Latin America

3. Shantaram – The unbelivable story of Gregory David Roberts in india squeezes its way into the backpack despite its 933 pages. It’s nearly as big as the South America on a Shoestring Lonely Planet Guide!

4. The Alchemist – An oldie but a goodie. Some may find it a little philisophical or patronising, but open up your mind a little and take it for what it is and you’ll find it articulating things about travel in a way you wish you could

5. White Tiger – booker award winning story, and backpackers can see why, about an Indian driver

As well as the most popular I thought you maybe interested in what I considered to be the best (when I’ve not got my nose stuck in the Lonely Planet working out my next Mankini location), and so I’ve added my top 5 books to read while travelling too.

Top 5 Books I’ve Read While Travelling in South and Central America

1. The Power of One – The tale of growing up in Apartheid Africa is a little on the large size for the traveller, but well worth finding the room for. The movie isn’t too bad either

2. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas – Another classic case of the book being great (I read it on a bumpy four hour bus ride in Bolivia) but the film being awful (watched it on a bus ride in Colombia)

3. Marching Powder – Illegal in Bolivia (although Coco Travel on Calle Jiminez in the Witches Market in La Paz has original and photocopied copies) and virtually impossible to get in book exchanges, the story of San Pedro Prison is not to be missed. 2010 sees a film of the book being made too

4. Three Cups of Tea – The tail of mountainier Greg Mortenson is again hard to get hold of while travelling, but worth the endeavour to read about how the people you meet while abroad can touch your life and how you can help change theirs

5. The Iceman: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer – It may sound a bit gory, and it is a little, but it’s also an intriguing real life story. I’d never heard of Richard Kuklinski before, which is strange considering he personally killed over 200 people America and beyond

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