I’ve had really good luck with these collections:[url=‘http://travelerstales.com/’]Travelers’ Tales[/url]
They run the gamut of destinations, style of writing, and types of travel. Some of them are funny, some are poignant, all are descriptive.
I’ve read the Hawaii one, the Southwest France one, the Paris one; the Sand In My Bra one is hilarious.
The only problem is that this kind of "armchair travel" might inspire the reader to enjoy vicariously rather than make his own adventure.

Hi Katy, I don´t think that you
would need a book to get someone intrested in travel,
it´s a personal thing, but if you are going to travel anytime soon
invite him to join you, and try to make if as fun as possible.
It´s better if you go with friends that way you´ll have much fun
as a group, and that way he won´t feel to much pressure, by beeing
abroad.

Oh, he’s been invited to come, but due to lack of vacation time (which I have plenty of since I’m a teacher), he can’t join me.

I don’t recall books that made me want to leave, but I did cry my eyeballs out when I couldn’t leave after watching the movie "Motorcycle Diaries"…

Try[url=‘http://kahunna.net/’]Kahunna’s[/url] website. It’s really good. Read the logs too.

Paul Theroux, Paul Theroux, Paul Theroux. I believe that this signifigantly unestimated travel writer is destined to become huge one day. Try "The Old Patagonian Express" and "Dark Star Safari". His scepticism, wit and cynicism will appeal to people who doubt the advantages of travel themselves.

I particularly enjoy the introduction to "Dark Star Safari" though it’s about Africa it provides a glimpse of travel in general with insights that will remind all travelers of their own expeditions. I won’t ruin it, just read it!

Paul Theroux is actually a well-established writer who’s been around quite awhile. I need to read more of his non-fiction, I very much enjoyed the fiction I’ve read (loved Hotel Honolulu.)
This interview mentions how being a traveler helped his writing.
In conversation as in his writing, Theroux pulls no punches. Having spent nearly forty years roaming the planet, living and traveling amongst whomever would have him, he’s earned the right to say he’s seen a few things. In fact, he’s witnessed first-hand so many of the formative cultural changes of our lifetime. "I thought, I’ll never write a blockbuster. I’ll never write The Great American Novel," he explained. "What I’d write would reflect where I’d been and what I’d seen — what I know…."[url=‘http://www.powells.com/authors/theroux.html’]Interview with Paul Theroux[/url]

Our other travel book thread:
[url=‘http://www.eurotrip.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=108990’]book thread from Guidebooks[/url]

"The Silver Surfer" – He travelled a lot.

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Hello!
I suggest Behind the Forbidden Door, a Tiziano Terzani’s magic book that changed my life..