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Sorry for my many posts on http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/09/19/travel/reif-larsen-norway.html?smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0 but this travel article just charmed me. What's this kind of writing called?

This non-fiction travel article talks about a person's direct 100% factual experiences, is excellently written like fine English literature but is NOT actually a dreamy, fanciful, fictive, imaginative literary work and offers life lessons and edifying observations.

Verlyn Klinkenbourg writes slightly too lyrically for me and doesn't always educate on or uplift life.

1) I want to read more writing like this which don't have to be short articles. But I'm NOT searching for those travel guides or popular travel writing that just jabbers and spouts travel facts, details, and the like, with writing at the middle-school level.

2) To boot, what are some adjectives that describe this kind of writing that I missed? Many thanks.

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  • Does this article fall in the same genre? "Mother Earth Mother Board: The hacker tourist ventures forth across the wide and wondrous meatspace of three continents, chronicling the laying of the longest wire on Earth." archive.wired.com/wired/archive//4.12/ffglass_pr.html (The article originally appeared in the December 1996 edition of Wired, along with wonderful photographs.)
    – Jasper
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 16:18
  • Among a few things I think I would call the mentioned piece of writing are a prose, a personal essay, and a short story.
    – Damkerng T.
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 16:22

2 Answers 2

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There is a 20th century word for it:

travelogue:

A film, book, or illustrated lecture about the places visited by or experiences of a traveller. (ODO)

It is a new word, but it's gaining popularity

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I don't think there's a single word for what you described. You should probably be looking for non-fiction literature, and creative nonfiction in particular. Those are broad terms, though, and will probably include those "dreamy and fanciful" works too. You'll need to be your own judge :)

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