Readers may note a new list on the right side of Route 66 News’ home page, called “Recommended books.”
These are books that gave me greater insight to the Mother Road. Some are old, like Jack Rittenhouse’s “A Guide Book to Highway 66,” first published in 1946. Most are more recent, including the “Images of 66” volume that came out a few months ago.
Except for the historically significant Rittenhouse book, I didn’t include ones that are strictly guidebooks because they could be a subcategory all their own. The books on my list brought more to the table than just instructions on how to get from Point A to Point B on the Mother Road.
And one book never took place on Route 66 at all, to my recollection. But William Least Heat Moon’s “Blue Highways” remains one of the best travel books ever (better than the much ballyhooed “On the Road,” in my opinion). It exerted an influence on me that still looms large today.
If you read the books on the list and don’t become a road warrior, you never will be.