Books About Road Trips

Nov 5

Explore this curated list of books about road trips and find your next read. From road trip romance books, to travel memoirs about road trips, and classic novels about road trips, you’ll find recommendations for reading a book about road trips here.

Confessions of a Middle-Aged Runaway: An RV Travel Adventure
by Heidi Eliason
IN A NUTSHELL. Woman’s transformative road trip at mid-life
SHORT & SIMPLE. 45-year-old Heidi quits her job, sells her house, and sets out on a 5-year RV trip
GO FOR THIS BOOK IF…you want to read a mid-life memoir about a road trip.
At 45, the author found her daily routines suffocating and was longing for adventure, so she quit her job, sold her home, and set out on a 5-year road trip in an RV with her dog. This is the story of how she found adventure, community, freedom, and herself on the road.
nonfiction + biographies & memoirs
You Are Here
by Jennifer E. Smith
IN A NUTSHELL. Road trip romance about a girl going to visit her long-lost twin brother’s grave
SHORT & SIMPLE. Emma discovers she has a twin brother and that he recently died, so she sets out on a road trip with her neighbor, Peter, to visit his grave
GO FOR THIS BOOK IF…you want to read a young adult novel about a road trip.
When Emma discovers she has a twin she never knew about and that he has just died, she and her neighbor Peter set out on a road trip to visit his grave. As Emma and Peter learn about each other and try to make sense of their own places in the world, romantic sparks begin to fly.
fiction + romance + young adult (YA)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
by Hunter S. Thompson
IN A NUTSHELL. Classic drug-fueled memoir from Hunter S. Thompson
SHORT & SIMPLE. Classic story of a 1960s drug-fueled road trip originally published in Rolling Stone
GO FOR THIS BOOK IF…you want to read a classic memoir book about a road trip.
This classic 1970s road trip book from Hunter S. Thompson tells the story of a journalist and his attorney on a drug-fueled trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
biographies & memoirs + classics
The People We Keep
by Allison Larkin
IN A NUTSHELL. Teen dropout seeks self on a road trip
SHORT & SIMPLE. A teenage dropout in the 90s sets out on a road trip in a stolen car to find herself.
GO FOR THIS BOOK IF…You’re looking for a coming-of-age book about a road trip.
In The People We Keep, April Sawicki, a high school drop out in 1990s New York sets out to find the life that truly fits her. April’s journey to find herself involves a quite literal journey, as she heads out on a road trip in a stolen car with no destination. This 2021 novel is Larkin’s fourth, and it’s a charming coming-of-age book about a road trip.
fiction
A Cross-Country Christmas
by Courtney Walsh
IN A NUTSHELL. Hallmark Christmas movie about a road trip in book form
SHORT & SIMPLE. Lauren is road-tripping home for Christmas with her childhood crush
GO FOR THIS BOOK IF…you want to read a Christmas romance book about a road trip.
Lauren finds herself on a road trip home for Christmas with her childhood crush. Will romance bloom as the two road trip from California home to Illinois? If you’re looking for another road trip romance, check out the second book in this series, A Cross-Country Wedding.
fiction + romance
The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey
by Rinker Buck
IN A NUTSHELL. Modern brothers travel the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned way
SHORT & SIMPLE. The modern author tells the story of journeying the Oregon Trail in a covered wagon with this brother.
GO FOR THIS BOOK IF…you want to read a book about an unconvential road trip.
Released in 2015, The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey is the story of how the author and his brother traveled the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned way, in a covered wagon. This travel memoir from author Rinker Bunk filled with moving descriptions of the landscape was a New York Times Bestseller.
nonfiction + biographies & memoirs
On the Road
by Jack Kerouac
IN A NUTSHELL. Search for freedom and meaning on the road
SHORT & SIMPLE. Classic work about jazz, poetry, and drugs on road trips in the late 1950s
GO FOR THIS BOOK IF…you want to read a classic book about a road trip.
Inspired by Kerouac’s own life, On the Road, is a classic novel about the search for self on a series of road trips throughout the United States and Mexico that take place in the late 1950s.
fiction + classics