Top ten books for any backpacker or traveler in Southeast Asia to get you out of, keep you out of, and occasionally get you into delicious trouble while traveling.

1. Lonely Planet Southeast Asia: On a Shoestring

(Paperback) by China Williams, Celeste Brash (April 2010)
Hefty at 991 pages but very thorough. Read this encyclopedia before you go and take notes about places on your itinerary or get the Kindle edition

2. Southeast Asia: An Introductory History

(Paperback) 2010 edition By Milton Osborne
342 pages, history and art references, so read before you go and take along.

3. Southeast Asia: Lonely Planet Phrasebook

(Paperback) By San San Hnin Tun , Lonely Planet Phrasebooks (Author), whether this solves or creates communication problems, it seems like a good companion to On a Shoestring, above.

4. Virtual Lotus: Modern Fiction of Southeast Asia

(Paperback) 2002 Teri Shaffer Yamada (Editor)

5. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

(Oct 13, 2009)
It is always good to read a fictionalized history for a different perspective. This is the American point of view.

6. A Thousand Tears Falling: The True Story of a Vietnamese Family Torn Apart by War, Communism, and the CIA

(hardcover) by Yung Krall (Dec 1995)
The story of Vietnam from the Vietnamese side, both north and south represented in the same family. Fascinating.

7. Aung San Suu Kyi: Fearless Voice of Burma

(Hardcover) (Lerner Biographies) by Whitney Stewart (Apr 1997)
This is one strong and lucky (to be still alive, although they don’t want martyrs) woman and her story will be the story of her country’s recent history.

8. Brown River, White Ocean: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Philippine Literature in English

(Hardcover) by Luis H. Francia (Jul 1, 1993)
The Philippines had many challenges during the 20th Century (and they’re not finished yet), so an anthology would be an excellent way to understand the multiple points of view that authors have of the events.

9. The Adventures of Mouse Deer: Tales of Indonesia and Malaysia (or Indonesian and Malaysian Folktales)

(Paperback) by Aaron Shepard and Kim Gamble (Jan 1, 2005)
Little people are people too, and so I want to read about some of the stories that they might know. Who knows what serendipitous nugget I might find that I can exploit in my travels?

10. Travelers’ Tales Thailand: True Stories

(Paperback) Larry Habegger
If I had the time and money to do so, I would visit Thailand, but I would put this book on my Kindle. At nearly 500 pages, it is another of those items that could be read at home before departure, but I want to take it, to savor the author’s descriptions and metaphors on-site, so to speak.

If all these books could be put on the Kindle, it would make for a perfect travel accessory to a trip around South East Asia.

Use this list as guidance. Don’t forget to check out the fiction books which make sense to include since fiction is better researched and less a political diatribe than other writings.

Ask friends who have done what you want to do; find out what resources they used before they went and what resources they wish that they had used before they went. And trust your own instincts as you run your hands over those dusty tomes in a used book store.

Remember – The book that is right for you will call you – a funny twinge or heat or coolness that its neighbors do not have.

Whatever you do, enjoy yourself and don’t forget to take your head out of the books every so often to take in the beautiful scenery you will encounter along your journey!

This list was contributed by Idea from Salle.