Compulsively Aimless

In a moment that out did Yogi Berra, General De Gaul is quoted as saying, "China is a big country inhabited by many Chinese."   I'll say the same with books-China is a big country with many books written about it.  I've mentioned books on China from my other lists (Paul Theroux, Colin Thubron, Ella Maillart and others) but this is a short list of  western writers and travelers who shared their insight and passion about the country.   1.  River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, Peter Hessler (2001).  Hessler is a gifted writer and patient observer--two qualities that were well suited to his two years in the Peace Corps in a backwater of China.  His travels and experiences teaching English literature in China are wonderful and rewarding.  Hessler has since gone onto write other books on China and pieces for The New Yorker.  Bought new.   2.  Frontier of Heaven, Stanley Stewart: A Journey to the End of China, Stanley...

For a while my obsession was collecting travel books about central Asia.  Rather than do one long list, I'm always looking for new categories.  Here's a new sub-sub category: One trip--two views.  1.  News From Tartary: A Journey from Peking to Kashmir, Peter Flemming (1936; Library of Travel Classics).  One of the most difficult routes that can be taken, Flemming and his traveling companion Ella Maillart, a Swiss journalist traveled through western China over the Taklaman desert and the Himalayans.  Flemming was the brother of Ian Flemming, author of the 007 James Bond novels.   Bought used, State Department Book Store. 2.  Forbidden Journey, Ella Maillart (1937; The Century Travel Series).  Ella Maillart was told the journey she was about to undertake was impossible for a westerner and certainly impossible for a western woman. Maillart was instrumental in getting Flemming through with her amateur medical skills.  A remarkab...

The biggest body of water I've every raced on was the Chesapeake.  Racing around the British Isles or around the world solo is another mater.   Sport quickly becomes a fight for life.  Two stories of that here.   1.  Fastnet Force 10, John Rousmaniere (1979),   Force 10 is a mariner's scale to say a violent storm at sea.  In 1979, a force 10 storm ripped though a storm in the Irish Sea during the Fastnet race.  Forty foot waves damaged over half of the 300 boats.  Rousmaniere who was in the race, assembled the stories into a single riveting narrative.  Bought used at the State Department book store with a book plate from "Jane Murdoch." 2.  Godforsaken Sea: Racing the World's Most Dangerous Waters, Derek Lundy (1999).   The world's most dangerous race is the Globe Vendee, a single-handed sailor around the world with no stops.  During the 1996 race, sailor Derek Lundy, a contender for the lead, turned his ...

Books on globalization aren't new.  There is just more of them.  Here's a few: 1.  The Clash of Civilizations: Remaking of World Order, Samuel Huntington (1996) .  Huntington analyzes the world through 9 civilizations. Bought new.  2.  The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Friedman (2005).   Friedman's examination of how technology is connecting the world.  Bought used somewhere. 3.  The J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall, Ian Bremmer (2006) . Bremmer presents a helpful theory to understand how nations transition from totalitarian states to democracies.  Received from book signing. 4.  America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, Mark Steyn (2006).   Steyn sees Europe in decline from its falling birth rate and welfare state, and America still able to survive through its ideas but just barely. Bought new.  5.  Democratic Ideals and...

Starting from childhood, I've been fascinated by maps.  I often picked the most obscure or remote places and wondered what it would take to travel there and what would I do once I arrive.   Whether its National Geographic or the Rand McNally Road atlas, you can always plant your imagination on some part of the map.  Maps have evolved from ancient works of art owned by Kings and considered state secrets to the digital age where GPS navigation makes paper versions obsolete.  Here's some of what I've collected on maps: 1.  New Worlds: Maps from the Age of Discovery, Ashley and Miles Baynton-Williams (year?).   Beautifully illustrated reproductions displayed in chronological order.  Over 120 maps shows the evolution of European history through maps.  Bought new.   2.  Men Who Changed the Map: Vol. I: AD 400-1914, Erick Berry and Herbert Best (1967).   The book flap this is a book to give basic background to for young readers....

Lewis and Clark opened the American way west.   They inspired our romance with traveling west.  Over two hundred years later, Americans have created a ritual of road trips west.   1.  The Journals of Lewis and Clark, edited by Bernard DeVoto (1953).    The title says it all.  From St. Louis to the Pacific and back.  Edited by the great western historian DeVoto.  Bought used but can't remember where.  2.  Lewis and Clark: Historic Places Associated with the Transcontinental Exploration, edited by Robert Ferris (1975).   A modern retracing compiled by the National Park Service.  Complete with black and white pictures, maps, and paintings.  Bought used somewhere.   3.  Undaunted Courage: Merriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, Stephen E. Ambrose (1996).    Best seller that provides the full text of the adventure from beginning to the e...

Newby's life was an adventure from the mundane to the extreme. He is most likely my favorite travel writer for his humor, self-deprecation and gift for understatement in the face of the most ridiculous adversity.  Amazon Reviews offers a Newby-like summation saying he "has never been bedeviled by practicality."   Born near London, he left a job as a junior ad writer to sign up as an apprentice on a Finnish windjammer Moshulu  that rounded Cape Horn from Australia to Europe.  This gave him his start for the book  The Last Grain Race.   His sailing life was cut short by WWII and he enlisted in the Black Watch, an elite commando force.  He was captured off the coast of Sicily in 1942 and later escaped with the help of local Italians.  He later married the daughter of the farmer who sheltered him during the escape, which he wrote about later in h is memoir  Love and War in the Apennines.   After the war, he worked in the women'...