20 Must-Read Road Trip Books

"An apocryphal quote floating around dictates that all great literature is either a man going on a journey or a stranger coming to town. Leaving aside the limited thinking evident in this quote — what about the great literature where an animal goes on a journey??? — I am inclined to agree with one part of it. Road trip books make for some of the best literature around. The setting provides so much opportunity for discovery: of landscapes, fellow travelers, and of characters' true selves. Traveling inevitably creates unforeseen problems to solve and prompts vulnerability for characters out of their element. Road trip books typically have a goal, even if the real treasure ends up being the friends made along the way."