Step inside any bookstore or library and you'll find whole sections devoted to travel. Travel guides, travel narratives, travel anthologies - we are a nation obsessed with being anywhere but home.

For some, travel is not just about the thrill of seeing new places, meeting interesting people or trying strange foods. It's a journey to a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them. Here are a few titles to inspire your own journeys within.

Often, the best journeys are not to faraway places, but to areas close to home. Richard Nelson, a cultural anthropologist living in the Pacific Northwest, discovered a nearby island, an area covered in dense forest and muskeg, and inhabited by black-tailed dear and brown bears. His book, The Island Within, was written "not as a travel guide but as a guide to non-travel" and "to acclaim the rewards of exploring the place in which a person lives rather than searching afar ... of nurturing a deeper relationship with home."

The journey within is often a spiritual one and Kathleen Norris has written an engaging account of her discoveries. She has been a Benedictine oblate, or lay associate, for ten years and lived at a monastery in Minnesota for two. The Cloister Walk is a deeply moving look at the spiritual journey of this poet, married woman and Protestant who found solace in the community, ritual and symbolism of the monastery.

Sometimes a journey is undertaken not to discover one's beliefs but to confirm them. Scott Savage, a Conservative Quaker, walked 120 miles across the state of Ohio to voluntarily turn in his driver's license to affirm his commitment to swapping his car for a horse and buggy. His eight-day pilgrimage, chronicled in the book, A Plain Life, is a testament to the lifestyle he and his family have chosen, one without the trappings of modern life, technology and media.

The plain life has attracted other travelers as well. While shopping one afternoon, author Sue Bender chanced upon several Amish quilts being used as backdrops in a department store display. This discovery led the family therapist and ceramic artist on a journey to Ohio and Iowa, where she lived and worked with two different Amish families. Here, she found beauty in simplicity, realized that any type of work can be meaningful, and pondered the question, "Am I a successful human being, not only a success?" The record of her journey, Plain and Simple, is a small, quiet and lovely book.

You can check out these books and more at any Jefferson County Public Library location. Talk to your librarian for more recommendations.