The Site: Atravelerslibrary.com
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A Traveler’s Library is a blog for readers who love to read and travel. The author, Vera Marie Badertscher, is a freelance writer who “travels when she can and reads all the time.” Â She reviews the travel-related reading she does on her blog.
The Good:
A Traveler’s Library is an interesting twist on the travel blog theme. Instead of limiting their reviews to travel books, the author and guest posters review books and movies that are set in travel destinations.  New Book Review and Interview, for instance, is about Cemetery of Dreams, a self-published historical novel set in Iran. In the course of the interview with author, S. Mostofi, we learned enough about Iran and Iranian culture in 5 minutes to make us feel like we were sitting in a café in Tehran, listening in on a conversation. Bizbee, Arizona has never been high on our list of must-see destinations, but after reading the review of Going Back to Bizbee AZ, we felt like that was our loss.
The Bad:
As readers, we loved A Traveler’s Library. Â As travel blog reviewers, we have to say it’s not really a travel blog. We had to scroll far down her “Favorite Links” page to find any travel sites and blogs. Â Although there are great travel books in her extensive library, we found them a little hard to find. Â Some of them are in her “Travel” category, while others are not. Â Nonetheless, if you enjoy reading books, A Traveler’s Library is for you.
A Traveler's Library Travel Blog | ATravelersLibrary.com,
A Traveler’s Library helps me make my library check-out list, since I can’t afford to go anywhere exotic these days, and thankfully this is a free alternative!
I love that I can come to Traveler’s Library and find books about faraway places. Since travel is too expensive right now, I’m taking more “staycations” with books that let my mind go places I wish the rest of me could be.
Our definitions of a travel blog seem to differ. The many trips detailed by the owner of A Traveler’s Library read like letters from a good friend who is sharing inspirational, tempting, and humorous anecdotes garnered during her explorations into the history and culture of a place. The interviews, book reviews, and related articles seem chosen in the same spirit: not with a view to finding the cheapest tickets in town or how to efficiently get from point A to point B, but to open up ways of connecting with and understanding a place or a people on a human, intimate level. This is my favourite travel blog
I’ve shared posts from this site with several friends and family who like to combine a literary or historical perspective to their travels. I always get emails back saying how much they loved it, and that they were so happy to find a book about the place they were visiting, but one that told a story that really brought the destination alive.
Since the site is named A Travelers Library, I was expecting to find a resource of books on different destinations. That’s what I got — and I couldn’t be more pleased. The films are a bonus. I don’t think the site should be judged on what it isn’t!
I am an avid fan of A Traveler’s Library. I love to travel, but as a parent it’s not a feasible as it once was. Now I travel vicariously through words and via this blog.
I receive the posts to the site in my email and find them consistently interesting. Not able to travel as much as I like, the range of the material is particularly valuable to me. I do feel I get a substantial introduction to cultural aspects not as accessible in the traditional travel sites. I would rate it 5 stars.
I love A Traveler’s Library. It’s a great blog about travel that includes not only books, but movies, too.
A Traveler’s Library is a brilliant melding of travel and literature. I appreciate that it focuses on literature versus typical travel guides. Have you seen her Favorites List? Many links to travel blogs and travel companies are included.
Funny that you do not see the benefit of reading books about places before traveling to them. Books allow another country to be experienced in a totally different way. I totally disagree with you. Travel guides bore me.