6 Books to Read if You Loved Eugene Levy’s The Reluctant Traveler
Every episode of The Reluctant Traveler, Eugene Levy’s new show on Apple TV+, begins with him narrating: “A great philosopher once said, ‘The world is a book, and those who don’t travel read only one page.’ Well, I’ve got to say, I’ve read a few pages, and I’m not crazy about the book.”
He comes across pretty reluctant, and most of his reasons for not traveling revolve around comfort… but it’s so inspiring that at 75-years-old, he’s getting out of his comfort zone to experience the world. Even if some of those experiences include flying over painted deserts or staying in a historical Venetian hotel featured in Architectural Digest… so to an average person, they seem pretty comfortable, if not outright luxurious. He does admit that his favorite part of traveling has always been the hotels, so the show caters to fascinating resorts, but there’s always a twist, like, for example the one made of renovated train cars that’s perched atop a bridge to a South African game reserve, or the one that delivers his breakfast to the pool on his terrace so he has to fish it out rather than wade into the water.
The show definitely does lead him to do some activities that even an adventurous person would hard pass on, like swimming in a Finnish ice bath, or scuba dive on a Maldivian coral reef among trigger fish that literally ate part of a woman’s actual ear. Levy does take a lot of chances, but he still respects his hard boundaries, which in my opinion is modeling good behaviors. (Oh my God, when I thought they were going to make him bungee jump off that plateau in Utah, I was like… “Eugene! You ain’t got nothing to prove! Don’t do it!”)
Even when he is hamming up his crotchety curmudgeon schtick, there are certain moments of pure joy that undeniably run across his face, like when he learns about the Navajo beliefs of the slice caverns (that they were carved by the sighs of adversity), or when he learns that the gondoliers in Venice have a family business.
But who am I telling? If you came here, you probably already loved (or think you might love) The Reluctant Traveler, and you’re looking for recommendations like it. With no further ado, here are 6 books to read if you loved The Reluctant Traveler:
If you love Eugene Levy, you probably love Schitt’s Creek, too. This beautiful coffee table book includes profiles on all the characters, at least a few pages about each episode, momentous occasions on the show, and special features like catalogs of Moira’s wigs or dance steps to “A Little Bit Alexis.” It’s a compendium of onscreen and behind-the-scenes trivia for the real sitcom fanatic.
Granted this book is more about letting your mind wander than actually taking one’s body traveling, but if you’re really a reluctant traveler, you might need to start here first. In this book of nonfiction, a pre-eminent neuroscientist explains how daydreaming and worry—though they can pull your attention and contribute to anxiety and depression—are actually purposeful. He also applies his research about this mindwandering to better control it and have it work for you.
If you’re a fan of the traveling host, there’s no way you don’t known about Anthony Bourdain’s shows, but until Tom Vitale’s travel memoir, there wasn’t a huge behind-the-scenes look at following the chef to some of “the most volatile places in the world.” Vitale was the director and producer, and he pulls back the curtain to reveal that the more things went wrong, the more interesting the show was… but it was also always going wrong.
Eugene might be a reluctant traveler, but there’s something to the fact that he seeks comfort—according to pioneering anthropologists, rituals infuse every single human society. People say they’re important, but they can’t articulate why they’re important. In this book, Xygalatas applies scientific technology to some of the most ubiquitous rituals from silent prayer to handshakes, parades, and walks across fire.
This book might lean more toward self-help than travel writing, but it still applies: Scare Your Soul is a book full of exercises that teach the reader how to take baby steps that will expand their comfort zone (just like Eugene!). It also illustrates that courage works like a muscle in that the more you use it, the more you can use it, and the stronger it gets.
As I mentioned before, the parts of the show where Eugene seemed to be the happiest, the ones where you could see him actually enjoying himself, were when he really connected with the people he met on his travels. In this book of nonfiction, the eco-philosopher Lyanda Lynn Haupt illustrates how to root oneself in the nature around us and make those kinds of spiritual connections that leave us feeling more fulfilled than before.
Mary Kay McBrayer is the author of America’s First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster. You can find her short works at Oxford American, Narratively, Mental Floss, and FANGORIA, among other publications. She co-hosts Everything Trying to Kill You, the comedy podcast that analyzes your favorite horror movies from the perspectives of women of color. Follow Mary Kay McBrayer on Instagram and Twitter, or check out her author site here.