2 comments about John Freely's Istanbul.

1. We bought this together with the D-K Guide to Istanbul Istanbul (Eyewitness Travel Guides) prior to visiting the city, and found them to be an excellent combination. Freely, an American who came to Istanbul in 1960, taught Physics at the Roberts Academy, later the University of the Bosphorus, but his real accomplishment has been to write a fine series of books about the city he loves so much. Devoting one chapter to each of the seven hills of the city, Freely does a great job of discussing their history, art and architecture.
   
   Highly recommended.
   
   A third guide worth considering is the Knopf guide. Knopf Guide: Istanbul (Knopf Guides Istanbul and Northwest Turkey) Less structured, it is far more broad-ranging and cotains some delightful surprises.



2. Great overview of this fascinating city. Freely is the expert on Istanbul and he brings the culture and history to life.

No comments about Time Out Mumbai and Goa (Time Out Guides).

3 comments about Everest: The Unclimbed Ridge (Adrenaline Classics).

1. Heart-breaking, tense and on some level maddening, this is the story of Pete Boardman and Joe Tasker's last expedition. Copious quotes, especially from Pete's diary, give it its emotionally touching quality. Bonington chillingly describes the survivors' long wait and gradual realization that something has gone terribly wrong. No one really knows what happened to Boardman and Tasker, especially since their bodies were later found, indicating they were not killed in a fall as Bonington surmised. This book cannot illuminate the mystery, but can illustrate the magnitude of our loss.



2. "Everest: The Unclimbed Ridge" is the story of the 1982 British attempt on the then-unclimbed Northeast Ridge of Mount Everest. Co-authored by Sir Chris Bonington and Charles Clarke, it illustrates both the thrills and deadly perils of extreme high altitude alpine-style climbing.
   
   Bonington put together a light but elite team for his 1982 expedition, featuring himself and accomplished climbers Pete Boardman, Joe Tasker, and Dick Renshaw, backed by two support climbers, Adrian Gordon and Charles Clarke. The first part of the book is a quick recap of previous climbing on Everest, following by a fascinating narrative of the team's journey to its base camp on the North side of Everest.
   
   The struggle to forge an alpine-style route up the Northeast Ridge is candidly portrayed by Bonington and Clarke. Their narrative is supplemented by quotes from Pete Boardman's diary and letters. The team, climbing at over 8,000 meters without oxygen and with only limited use of fixed ropes, makes slow and painful progress over challenging terrain.
   
   After weeks on the mountain, things begin to go wrong. All the climbers are physically deteriorating from too much time at high altitude. Chris Bonington, then in his late 40's, discovers he can no longer keep pace with his younger counterparts. Dick Renshaw suffers two minor strokes and must be evacuated to medical care. Pete Boardman and Joe Tasker make one last try at the summit, and disappear.
   
   The bodies of Boardman and Tasker would be found years later on the ridge near where they were last seen from a distance by Bonington and Gordon. The Northeast Ridge would finally be climbed, with fixed ropes and supplemental oxygen, in 1995. These facts were obviously unknown to Bonington and Clarke when they closed out this narrative in 1983. The reader is left with a poignant mystery and the enduring question of high altitude climbing: was it worth it?
   
   This book is highly recommended as a fascinating and well-written narrative of a high altitude expedition and its effects on the climbers.



3. I am not a climber but become hopelessly addicted to the mystery of Everest nonetheless. I enjoyed reading this heartbreaking tale of Everest as it opens another window into what climbers face on the mountain. Honest and informative, at times it painted a very different picture of a journey onto Everest. If you have an interest in Everest, climbing or enjoy the thrill of adventure than you will enjoy this book!

No comments about Selected Subaltern Studies (Essays from the 5 Volumes and a Glossary).

5 comments about News from Tartary: A Journey from Peking to Kashmir (Marlboro Travel).

1. I haven't bought this edition yet. I read this while in Nepal and India and loved it. It is one of the finest pieces of travel writing I know of. I rank it with Harrer's "Seven Years in Tibet", Newby's "A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, Thesiger's "Arabian Sands" and Stark's "Valleys of the Assassins." No new-age, PC navel-gazing here: just an honest and humorously-told narrative of an adventurous overland crossing of central Asia in a turbulent time. If you are interested in central Asia, I think this book is a must.



2. This is probably the best travel narrative ever written about China (although Owen Lattimore's 'The Desert Road to Turkestan' is a close second) and has influenced a great deal of subsequent writing about the region--not in content, but in style. Fleming presents himself as a bumbling amateur traveller, a mild eccentric, and someone who has only the vaguest idea what's going on. Later writers, attracted no doubt by the fact that this book has stayed in print for nearly 70 years, have taken this as justification to write narratives which revel in their own ignorance. But Fleming's amateurishness is merely a pose, and the book is full of humorous detail on life in China at that time, backed by sound journalism and knowledge of the political situation. It's also full of perceptive observations on the people he meets and their behaviour, guaranteed to bring a smile to the face of the modern traveller when coming across their latter day counterparts, both Chinese and expatriate foreigner.



3. Peter Fleming's "News from Tartary" is a classic travel book about trekking through the wilds of Asia. Unfortunately, it has been badly served by this edition; it's overpriced and lacking in quality. It doesn't have the 26 illustrations of the original; it doesn't even have the absolutely necessary map. Reading it is like watching a great movie without sound or captions. Fleming (Ian Fleming's brother, as it happens)would have had a well-turned phrase of damnation had he seen how this edition emasculates the original. I urge you to read the book, but not this way. Go online and buy a used copy of the hardback for not much more (over 50 copies were listed when I checked abebooks.com)and enjoy Fleming's travel saga as it deserves to be enjoyed. I feel cheated; readers should be informed when a reprint edition is, like this one, incomplete. My one star rating is not for the writing--its for this shoddy presentation of a great travel book.



4. "News from Tartary" is number 64 on National Geographic's list of 100 all-time best adventure books -- and it deserves the ranking. The author, Peter Fleming, brother of James Bond creator Ian Fleming, would deny that the book is about an "adventure" and claim that he and companion Ella K. Maillard merely took a long walk through Chinese Turkestan and, oh yes, crossed the Himalayas. Maillard wrote her own book about the trek, "Forbidden Journey," and it's also worth reading.
   
   "News from Tartary" is the story of a seven-month, 3,500 mile journey in 1935 from Peking to Kashmir, beginning by train and continuing by bus, foot, camel, and horse. Fleming is the British amateur par excellence. His equipment consisted of "a rook rifle, six bottles of brandy, and Macaulay's "History of England." He claims no qualifications or expertise to speak of, no purpose in traveling other than his own entertainment, and he gained little in the way of earthshaking wisdom that he shares with us. (If you read Maillard's book, you will find that his modest and self-mocking attitude may not be too far from the truth -- although Fleming is certainly an outstanding writer and journalist.)
   
   This is a cracking good story, more informative than it may seem, and charmingly told. Of an acquaintance, Fleming says that he "had seen me act more than once at Oxford, but he was of a forgiving disposition and prepared to let bygones be bygones." And, the author to the contrary, it was an adventure. Fleming and Maillard traversed some of the most unforgiving terrain in the world at a time in which banditry and political strife were rife. Fleming describes vividly the Chinese, Tungans, Turkis, and Tibetans they meet, the impossibly remote oasis towns at the foot of the Himalayas, and the passage across 15,000 feet mountain passes into British India. One of the more interesting elements of the book is the intrusion of modern politics into this narrative of exotic lands and unchanging people. The pair encounter civil war, Russian soldiers and airplanes in Kashgar, and "Great Game" intrique.
   
   I recommend you read this book with a good map at your side - or better yet buy a used copy of the original hardback edition which has a map and some good photos.
   
   Smallchief



5. Peter Fleming (1907-71) was Ian Fleming's (James Bond) older brother. Peter first rose to popularity in his 20's, during the early 30's, with 3 major travel/adventure books about trips through Brazil (33'), China (34') and Central Asia (36'). 'News from Tartary' (1936) is the last of the three and describes a 6 month 3500 mile trip from Peking (Beijing) due west across Chinas western provinces and south to India ("Tartary" is a Western term roughly meaning Central Asia). At the time China's most western province of Sinkiang (sometimes known as "Chinese Turkestan") was embroiled in a complex struggle of colonial and civil wars with Russia, China, etc.. and was a black hole of news. Sort of like Chechnya today, it held a certain dangerous fascination for intrepid western adventurers. Fleming traveled with Swiss writer Ella Maillart (1903-97) who was herself an accomplished adventurer, although not so well known in the English speaking world, she also wrote her own book about this trip and the two can be read for profitable comparison. There are many re-prints of News in circulation but the original edition is best as it contains dozens of fascinating black and white photos, thick rough-cut paper and a color tri-fold map of the route.
   
   'News from Tartary' is today considered a classic of travel literature ranked #64 on National Geographic's "100 Best Adventure Books". It is an early example of "British understatement", the bumbling amateur English gentleman who travels for no reason other than traveling, as would be copied in the post war years, with authors such as Eric Newby. Fleming graduated from Oxford with an advanced degree in English literature and while he believed in adventure, he wondered how - in a modern world of motor vehicles, trains and planes - real adventure could be written of anymore. Just as Cervantes in 'Don Quixote' believed in the spirit of chivalry, but knew its time had passed, he was able to write about it through a bumbling knight who could be laughed at. Likewise Fleming sought to disarm his readers with word play and self-deprecation, thus strengthening the more serious parts of the book and lending the author more credibility - Fleming succeed, in the readers eyes, not because of physical prowess and skills, but despite them. By being an approachable everyman, he is more able to vividly convey to his readers - who probably have never been to remote central Asia and never will - how it feels to travel through the Gobi desert on camels, arriving in oasis, going through sandstorms and traveling through the Himalayas.

5 comments about Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God: Retracing the Ramayana Through India.

1. This is a wonderful book about the travel experiences of a young Harvard scholar in South Asia and how they evoked or resonated with certain episodes of the Ramayana. In one way or another the Ramayana has had an immense influence on South Asian civilization (as well on that of S.E. Asia) so it was interesting to see how Blank brought together, and exposed as timeless, so many of the epic's themes. This is a excellent introduction to India. Highly recommended.



2. I guess this book has been out for some time, but I had not known about it until I stumbled upon it at the bookstore and I am very glad I did. The book is written in a style that is unlike other travel books I have seen or read about India in that it reflects on one of the treasured literary epics in Hindu/Indian culture and mythology--the Ramayana. Each chapter focuses on a single aspect that is explained through the characters in the Ramayana, (caste, kings, swamis, fate...etc..), and each chapter begins with a summarized "Jonah Blank" version of the epic of Rama, Sita, and Hanuman. What I have enjoyed so much about this book is that the point of view that Blank brings is that of a twentysomething who is seeing India from the eyes of a young person who at times is both humorous and skeptical, yet idealistic and hopeful. You can truly tell that Blank, although a young person at the time of the writing, truly has passion and depth of vision about the complexities of India and you yourself get caught up in the majesty and the mysticism of India through his journy and the journey of Rama and Sita.



3. I love India and have been there many times but this book taught me a lot I don't know. The book has an original format which was risky but works. You really get both caught up in the story and then feel like you've visiting the countries he's talking about.
   
   As travel writing, it doesn't get better than this. So refreshing to not be talked down to and he avoids the horrible snobbishness often encountered in the gendre.
   
   I just wanted to savor each page. It's not a book you flip through. I was sorry when I finished it. I just wish I could give it six stars.



4. This book is a riveting read.
   It touches upon a myriad of social, economic, political, emotional and ultimately human themes from the Ramayan epic and juxtapositions them with the present day Indian psyche.
   The substance is informative and interesting without falling into the trap of being academic or verbose.
   The author's style is succinct, witty and appropriately poignant.
   Being a non-resident Indian, I was pleased to read such a well written and objective analysis of such a behemoth of a country.
   This is a very vast, tricky and interconnected subject matter to tackle.
   Jonah Blank does it with aplomb.
   I would recommend that anyone wanting to know about India read this book.



5. I was first tuned into Jonah Blank through the Travelers' Tales of India anthology. Reading his hilarious account of discovering that a poorly functioning Delhi airport clock was in fact manually operated, I expected more of the same in this book. While there are more of these entertaining cross-cultural discoveries throughout, this overly ambitious book addresses what you'd expect from a naïve twenty-something writer, covering the broadest of all philosophical topics- with chapter titles including "Rites," "Fate," "Caste," "War," and "Love." The scary thing is that he succeeds, displaying a remarkable ability to grasp complex issues.
   
   This work is held together with a strong narrative thread. Beginning each chapter by retelling a passage from the Ramayana, he then applies this theme to modern Indian culture, and compares this with life in America. Despite a reflexive defensiveness of American culture and government, he portrays a deeply nuanced understanding of the complexities of Indian traditions as they clash with modernity. For example, he dispels any notion that Hindu fatalism is the same thing as passivity. Unlike Christianity, you can't just pray for salvation in Hinduism; you have to earn it and change yourself to adapt to an unchanging world. In a later chapter, he credits Hinduism's adaptability to the well-educated elite's acceptance of metaphorical (rather than literal) interpretation of the Vedas, and credits Sikhism's sustainability to its openness that the Gods of all religions are really different manifestations of the same entity.
   
   In his chapter on love, he respects the value of an arranged marriage in offering stability in a hard peasant life, acknowledges the potential rewards of society's increasing acceptance of the risk of marriage for love, but listens to an individual who swears the happiest people he knows are the ones who arranged marriage through a matchmaker.
   
   Traveling to India is a life-changing experience in itself. This book is one of the most articulate reflections I've seen on what that experience can be like.

5 comments about Culture Shock! India (Culture Shock India).

1. I read this book approximately a month before going to India on business. Although this added to my already growing excitement, I found that this book was really geared more toward one who was either going to be casually traveling or living there on a permanent basis.

   I found that I was not at all prepared for what India had to offer - now, that wasn't because I hadn't done enough research, rather because of the random and chaotic nature of where I was located.

   Pros: The first few chapters go into topics such as political history, represented religions, holidays, festivals, and other good things to know. The author then takes us through setting up a household, to having servants, how dinner parties are organized and executed, and other feasibly useful information.

   Cons: Although this is written by an Indian person, the information within is simply given without explanation. I didn't learn why some of the comments made in the book were true until I had been there for a while, and I didn't realize how classist some of the situations presented were until I had experienced the situation myself.

   If you are looking to learn of practical things to do, ways to get around, and what to probably really expect once you step off of the plane on your first visit, I would suggest a travel book such as Lonely Planet, or Fodors.

   This book is worth reading, but don't expect this to be your only guide.




2. I'll be brief, so as not to echo others' comments. Preparing for a six month stint in India for business, I was unsatisfied after reading other "guide" books. Looking for something more than a history lesson and hot spot list, I reached for Culture Shock!. This book details subtle nuances that exist between US and Indian cultures. Great read and highly recommended!



3. This book brought me interesting thoughts about India; both nostalgic and humorous. The book is written with a view to satisfy a female traveller, but it does not make much generalizations in this aspect. Even though a person living in India might feel this book paints a distorted view, anyone who has seen the world outside India will find this book more entertaining and useful.
   This is not considered as a tour guide for a person who is just passing through the airports. If you ever thought India is just like what you see in Jackson heights (N.Y.) or Devon St (Chicago) or as in the movie "City of Joy", you are mistaken . Nowhere in the world you could see people living with contrasting environments and outlook of life, sharing a wall between 19th and 20th (21st?) century at the same moment.
   Gitanjali Kolanad introduces some assumptions as to why the Indian life is so contradictory in many aspects. The author provides a brief, but well narrated history of this south Asian region and tries to analyze the origin of the social heirarchy,the division of labour and the attitudes of Indians to these.
   This book is an honest oversimplification of the problems a foreigner will face and the author gives some valuable advice and certain quick fixes. I would say you need an open mind and this book before you start your passage to India.



4. Although this is the first book I've read on Indian culture, I think it would be difficult to find another book written with such detail about so many aspects of Indian culture as Kolanad's does. Her insight into how Westerners think is invaluable as she herself grew up in a Western society for part of her life. Being Indian, she gives authority to what she writes. I truly enjoyed reading this book and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in Indian customs and etiquette.



5. As a Westerner having already visited to India for some time (and who would like to go again), I found this book to be extremely accurate in its detailed descriptions of the many cultures and customs of this facinating country. I also learned some more things here that I didn't know the first time around, and found it very helpful and entertaining as well.
   
   Although anyone would be very hard pressed to cover the immense complexities of this country, I think the author did a very good job, and should be a must read for anyone going for the first time, along with a "quicky" travel guide book of specific places to go and see.
   
   The only problem I had with the book were in certain parts where she put down some of the religious beliefs and their followers, disregarding the validity and meaning they may hold for those that follow them, with little jabs at the end of each paragraph. It seemed obnoxious, judgmental and opinionated, as if she assumed her view was the only one worth considering. A real turn-off. A little more broadmindedness would have been more enriching.
   
   Other than that, I thought the book was quite good, detailed and well written. Highly recommended.

5 comments about Sorcerer's Apprentice.

1. Tahir Shah is an Englishman of Afghani/Scottish descent who writes what may be a new form: The eccentric maybe true, maybe not true, but true on a metaleval travel book. What I mean by that is that, while the details of his day-to-day experiences may be exaggerated and padded to make the book work with a coherent theme, the facts about the country remain true. I genuinely enjoyed this second book of his that I have read. In it, an 11-year-boy meets the guardian of his ancestor's tomb, learns a bit of magic, grows up, travels to India to tour and meet the guardian again, hoping to learn more slight of hand illusion magic. From there he is referred to his teacher's teacher, who is definitely the archytypical teacher as sadist. As Mr. Tahir learns the craft, we learn a great deal about India, about the travelling magicians, godmen, sadhus, charletans, etc. I found the book engaging from beginning to end and highly recommend it.



2. I ordered my book and got it in 3 or 4 days in flawless
   condition. Many thanks.



3. I loved this book !!! It is the second book I read by this author (the first was the Caliph's House which I also loved) and I intend to read ALL his books past and future.
   I simply fell for his style of writing, it goes to the core and makes you feel like you are present and for me that is what books should do, suck us into the narrative. I had a travel guide of India by me to look up all the locations mentioned in the book and i just marvelled at the amount of information I learned about magic tricks. I hope more people read his books and that he keeps writing.



4. When I purchased this book, due to the title of the book, I expected the book to have an esoteric, occult, flavor and to describe some of the esoteric practices of India - perhaps something along the lines of the books on Aghora, given the illustration on the cover where the individual looks as if he were a devotee of Kali. To me the word "sorcery" represents working in some way with consciousness and energy. This book has nothing of the sort. It is all about performing illusions and is in a way a collection of tricks done by street magicians. If you like street magic, you may enjoy this book. Some of the tricks are based on outright deception, as in the slight-of-hand, while others may involve some knowlede of chemistry, physics, anatomy and psychology. You may feel inspired to get one of those Harry Potter science experiments kits or similar that begin by teaching you how to pass a boiled egg through a glass bottle. You may then progress onto other illusions as performed by David Blaine, Derren Brown or Chris Angel.
   
   I did find the writing style of the author rather entertaining and at time rather funny, which helped to swallow some sad facts about the life of the poor people in India (as in beggars renting babies so that they could make money - the book also has pictures of a "baby dealer" in Calcutta), about the way people look at and treat widows, and few other beliefs and customs that made me appreciate all over again all the comforts I have and sometimes take for granted.



5. This book gets an A+. I've been swimming through Tahir's safaris for the last few months and benefiting to an immense degree. The books are baited with hilarity and insight and inspire to take a more thorough look into our own worlds and the world at large, beyond the illusion of our own delusions. The India presented by Tahir is riveting-- a course in smells, spells, and sales. I read this book in two days, one because I'm so smart, and two... well... I don't want to ruin the sirr-prize, you're fired!

No comments about Insight Guides India.

1 comments about The Soul of the Rhino: A Nepali Adventure with Kings and Elephant Drivers, Billionaires and Bureaucrats, Shamans and Scientists and the Indian Rhinoceros.

1. I was skeptical about the title of this book, but enchanted with the picture on the cover. In my hands, there was absolutely no marketing hype. This book will capture your heart with Hemanta Mishra's clarity, humanity and commitment.
   
   Mishra has worked in Asia on a number of conservation projects for over 30 years. This book tells the story of efforts to save the greater one-horned Asian rhino from extinction. He calls it "a mystical beast legendary for its power, its sexual energy, its unpredictable temperament, and its prodigious strength." He describes the political violence in Nepal beginning with the massacre of the king's family in 2001 by the eldest son and ending with the Maoist insurgency.
   
   Kings play a key role in the conservation efforts. The murder of the recent king led to its now uncertain future. In the Tarpan ceremony a Nepalese king must hunt and kill a male rhino and offer the beast's blood in a prayer for peace and prosperity.
   
   Mishra's book puts humanity into the Smithsonian's summary of the status of these rhinos: "Greater one-horned Asian rhinoceroses once ranged from Pakistan across northern India to Nepal, Bhutan, and the border with Myanmar (Burma), and perhaps ranged even further, into southern China. Today, they are confined to a few small, protected populations totaling about 2,000 animals. Most live in several parks in India and in Nepal's Royal Chitwan National Park."
   
   Hemanta Mishra worked in the Nepalese wildlife office in the early 1970s and ran the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation. He was awarded the J. Paul Getty Prize for Natural Protection in 1987 for "for his ground breaking biotic studies on Mt. Everest, his development of Nepal's park systems, and his work on implementation of "Operation Tiger," the largest conservation project in Asia."
   
   I agree completely with "Scientific American": "Mishra, a Nepalese wildlife biologist trained in the West, is not a professional writer, but his intelligence and wit make this a mesmerizing account that intertwines politics, conservation and tensions between the traditions of East and West."
   
   You can hear Mishra discuss his book and his conservation efforts on Leonard Lopat Show on the WNYC website. You'll hear his voice for a long time after you read his book.