No comments about Devious Mind Bending Puzzles.

3 comments about Travels Through Sacred India.

1. This is a great book for anyone who is interested in understanding the Indian culture in a profound way because the basis of Indian culture is really a spiritual one. The Indian spirituality may not always be obvious to the casual observer, espcially in the more westernized areas; and one does meet with all sorts of false sadhus, etc, but still it's there and it is what is truly great about India. To enjoy India one really has to go beyond the superficial level. This book is a really enjoyable read. It's beautifully written and highly interesting all the way through. It is certain to delight anyone who is not stuck on the surface of life and I am sure many people who are will be inspired to look a bit deeper. It's really one of my favorite books.



2. This introduction to the sacred practices of India is especially enjoyable because it is all contained in a travel narrative so instead of lots of abstract thoughts you get the basic premises plus one or more of Housden's real life encounters with a practicing guru or sadhu. The anecdotes keep things at an earthly level and Housden knows just how much information is the right amount. I've always had an interest in Indian ways of thinking but never found the right kind of introduction to suit my level of interest until reading this book which was perfect for my mind which just wanted an introduction that could also serve as a reference book when needed. Very satisfying to have read this and its proven very useful to have around especially when reading a travel book or piece of fiction that assumes you know who all the Gods and Goddesses are and all their various incarnations( the Gods/Goddesses all go by many names) or what a Sikh or a Jain or a Sufi is. Housden is reverential in attitude toward Indias many sacred traditions but always plainspoken. I found much here that greatly appealed to my thinking which is philosophic and earthy and unconventional so the popular and older and earthier traditions appealed to my naturally earthy leanings and some of the later reformation movements(non-sectarian, non-caste, equal rights to women) appealed for their practical applications. India makes a lot more sense after reading this book. A good place to begin any Indian journey, sacred or secular.
   Plus for those planning a visit to India there is an extensive "Gazetteer" in the back with lists of sacred places, routes, festivals, ashrams.



3. This is a well written book and anyone seriously interested in
   the subject matter should try to find a copy.
   My only complaint is that it was not published on acid free paper, and
   my copy, that was published only 11 years ago, has PAGES that ARE
   already TURNING YELLOW. This smallish, cheaply produced book
   is currently going for $44.00 to $125.00 on the Amazon Marketplace.
   Seems like a lot of money for what you get.

No comments about A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fa-hsien of travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline.

No comments about Khmer Mythology: Secrets of Angkor.

1 comments about Heirs to Tibet.

1. This book is dated, it was written in the mid 80s and some things have changed. However, Andrew Powell's writing is so good that one finds it as captivating as a novel. Though at times he seemed to skim the surface a bit more than I'd like, the book was consistent in it's approach from start to finish, and the turns of phrase and colorful adjectives employed by Mr. Powell often made me laugh with rememberances of my own visits to the locations he reported from, and my own experiences with Tibetan people. Overall I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to truly understand the situation in Tibet. Even though the information is somewhat dated, it perfectly captures the thoughts and opinions at the time it was written and provides a very sound overview including history of the Tibetan struggle and dispersion of Tibetans in India.

No comments about Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the Panjab: In Ladakh and Kashmir; in Peshawar, Kabul, Kunduz, and Bokhara. >From 1819 to 1825. Volume 2.

No comments about The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India, and Ethiopia, A.D. 1503 to 1508.

No comments about A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush.

1 comments about SPITI: Adventures in the Trans-Himalaya.

1. Spiti isnow an "open area" abd hence this book became very popular. Now second edition is just released. It is freely available through publisher or author.

4 comments about Anni's India Diary.

1. This is a great book! My son is 9 years old and went to India a couple of years ago. This book vividly brought back all his memories. What I liked best was that even though it is not written by an Indian, it is so authentic. The illustrations are just great! I highly recommend it.



2. This is a great book! My son is 9 years old and went to India a couple of years ago. This book vividly brought back all his memories. What I liked best was that even though it is not written by an Indian, it is so authentic. The illustrations are just great! I highly recommend it.



3. India is a large and diverse country, the home of many ancient and interesting cultures. This book is the travel dialog of a young girl named Anni as she travels through India with her mom and dad. They travel by train, bus, camel and elephant. There are many illustrations and they illustrate the daily street life of India. You see people bathing in the Ganges River, carts being pulled by oxen, people cooking their food in the streets, street vendors hawking their wares, children at school under a tree, and the clothes that the Indians wear. What was most interesting were the pictures of products they encountered in India. Postage stamps, matches, cameras, railway tickets, lottery tickets, honey, fireworks, fabrics, hotel receipts and other products that I did not recognize.
   An excellent introduction to India written for young people, this book demonstrates some of the variety and vitality of a country whose culture was old when the first white people landed in North America.



4. This is a great book if you're planning a trip to India with children aged 4-11, or if you've been to India with them and you want to help them recapture the experience. (I'm not sure what children who have no other connection to India would make of it.)
   
   My son is four and loves the book in spite of all the text. He's been to India, and so have his parents. The wonderful jumble of drawings (mostly quite accurate--must have been either on-site or from a good photo collection) and collage is captivating enough that I think most youngsters would be capable of sitting through the lengthy text, though the diary format is a little awkward for reading aloud. There are occasional minor inaccuracies (the library review above correctly points out the "puja" problem... but then, this book doesn't pose as an encyclopedia entry), but as children's books on India go, this one's on the more accurate side of the scale. What's most impressive is the girl's eagerness to meet children from another place, culture, and economic class. She makes friends in a way that seems genuinely non-judgemental. (She and her family chat with a poor pavement dweller in Calcutta, an incense worker in Mysore, a fruitseller on the beach in Goa...)