Every week the New York Times Book Review interviews a writer – or, sometimes, a person from another profession who’s written a book – about their reading habits. These latter interviews can be somewhat embarrassing. Yesterday the interview subject was Sam Heughan, an actor who has written five books. One of the questions, which I have rarely seen posed, was: “Do you have a favorite travel writer?”
Heughan said “Anthony Bourdain,” which was fine. Bourdain was a good writer and an excellent host of a travel show. But then he followed it with “was the greatest.” I am tempted to write to the Times for Heughan’s address so I can send him works by Robert Byron, Rebecca West, Norman Douglas, Freya Stark, Kate Simon, M.F.K Fisher (since he’s apparently a foodie), Patrick Leigh Fermor, Norman Lewis, Jan Morris, Bruce Chatwin, Paul Theroux, Jonathan Raban and Colin Thubron.
