12 April 2010

Kombi Kake! (and some favourite road-trip books)

The Tall Designer had a birthday on the weekend.

And just look at the genius with which he was presented today...


That, my friends, is a cake. A cake shaped like his Kombi van.
Best. Thing. Ever.
Happy birthday, Bruno! Nice work, SB!*

And who can look at a Kombi van without thinking ROAD TRIP? Here are some of our favourite road-trip books.

Rose by any other name by Maureen McCarthy
What could be better than a road trip to unkink your thoughts and smooth yourself out? Well, just about anything it turns out, if your Mother decides she's coming too. Prickly, tangled-up Rose is such a wonderful character. And Nat? Be still my beating heart.

Paper Towns by John Green
The road trip in this book is pants-wettingly funny. Or, perhaps more accurately for the characters, funnily pants-wetting.

Guitar Highway Rose by Brigid Lowry
Just read it. It's wonderful. That is all.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Cameron embarks on the mother of all road trips into the dark (yet hilarious) heart of what it means to be alive. The strapline pretty much says it all really: Love. Death. Microwave popcorn. And a wild trip to save the world.

Lord of the Rings (and The Hobbit) by JRR Tolkien
Of course, this isn't a road trip in the sense of a car and tunes and hitchhikers and freedom and first love and getting into exciting kinds of trouble (OK - now I want to go on a road trip. Who's with me?), but these guys are literally on the road the ENTIRE trilogy. I mean, Bilbo even has a song about it.

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

And while we're in that spirit, let's include The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. Not for Toad's obsession with the motorcar, but for Mole and Rat and Toad (and the long-suffering horse) on the open road in their canary coloured caravan.




Any others favourite road-trip books we've missed?



*You might remember her from such previous cakes as The Gingerbread House

2 comments:

hackpacker said...

That is an impressive cake.
Someone has to say On The Road, but does Down & Out in Paris & London count? More sleeping on the road I guess.

Unknown said...

I'm so glad you reminded me of Guitar Highway Rose! i loved that book, must go home and dig it out