Compulsively Aimless

If you want to organize your adventures and discoveries three different ways: by geography, by person, and by experience.  Here are three on my bookshelf. 1.   The Oxford Book of Exploration, Selected by Robin Hanbury-Tenison (1993).   Excerpts of famous and obscure adventures divided into the seven continents with entries ordered chronologically.  Bought used at an impromptu book sale on the steps of townhouse in Adams Morgan.    2.  Dictionary of Discoveries, I.N. Langnas (1959).    Organized by explorer.  Starts with Luigi, Duke of Abruzzi, Italian mountain climber and participant in Italian Arctic expeditions and ends with Eugen Zintgraff, German explorer of Africa.   Bought used at The Bookshop in Chapel Hill, NC.                3.  The Rand McNally Almanac of Adventure: A Panorama of Danger and Daring, Richard Whittingham (1982).   An attempt to cove...

A section of myself dedicated to another author-adventurer--Tim Severin.  Severin's unusual career takes history out of the classroom and travels with a purpose--retracing great moments of history.  My shelf has about half his books.  There are plenty more.    1.  Tracking Marco Polo (1964).   By motorcycle from Venice to Central Asia retracing Marco Polo's route along the Silk Road.  Bought used but can't remember where.   2.  Explorers of the Mississippi (1968).   Severin starts his journey at Lake Itasca in a Birch bark canoe to tell the story of DeSoto and other European explorers of the Father of Waters. Bought used. 3.  The Oriental Adventure: Explorers of the East (1976).   Severin retraces paths of European explorers in Asia.  Lots of quality pictures and prints.  Bought used.   4.  The Brendan Voyage (1978) .  Severin sails a leather currach from Ireland to Newfoundl...

This list is a surprise because it is unintentionally the longest.  I didn't intend to collect river books but I think rivers serve a special place for explorers, travelers and story tellers.  There's a defined purpose to start at the mouth of the river and move upstream to its source.    Rivers have served as the source of religion, mythology, cradles of civilization, and cultural inspiration.  For the Greeks, there was the River Styx, which divided the underworld from the world of the living.  Mark Twain used the flow of the Mississippi to tell the story of America in Huckleberry Finn .  Lewis and Clark followed rivers during much of the Voyage of Discovery.  Joseph Conrad used the river of the Congo for the path of Marlow to find Kurtz in Heart of Darkness .    Books about rivers have proved captivating for readers and publishers.  In making the list, I discovered at least two different series that had been published on ri...