I spent countless hours in 2017 cramped in the back of of rickety buses, passing the time with books travelers left behind in hostels or free on Kindle downloads. The result was a random assortment of literature I wouldn’t normally consider.

• No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith
• The Stranger, Albert Camus
• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
• Anne of Green Gables Series, Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Bangkok 8, John Burdett
• The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion
• On the Road, Jack Kerouac
• Sightseeing, Rattawut Lapcharoensap
• Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
• *The Kite Runner, Khalld Hosseini
• *Theft by Finding, David Sedaris
• One More Thing, B.J. Novak
• *Swimmer Among the Stars, Kanishk Tharoor
• *Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari
• China Dolls, Lisa See

* LOVED it