Lots of people travel just to find out who they are. Maybe they're going through a divorce or struggling with addiction, or maybe they have a suicidal love of nature, but they're all finding themselves on the road. I don't like it. I already know who I am and I'm boring. I prefer travel books about people trying to lose themselves in places where they're not sure where they are or how it's going to end.
In 1924, Alexandra David-Néel dressed up as a pilgrim and became the first European woman to visit the Forbidden City in Tibet. The perils and discoveries along the way wound up in her memoir My Journey to Lhasa, which has inspired generations of reckless travelers.
On the brink of World War II, Rebecca West traveled through the former Yugoslavia, producing the massive and deeply insightful Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. It takes some time to get through, but her attention to detail gives you a profound sense of the clumsy weight of history and culture.
Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia is less about the territory at the southern end of South America and more about the author's vision of it. So long as you can forgive the author's lenient enthusiasm when it comes to the facts, you'll enjoy the compelling storytelling, which transforms the land and its inhabitants into something bordering on myth.
Instead of taking trips to find out about yourself, consider looking into all those things that aren't you. You might end up learning something.
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