Books on Board

For American Bird Lovers

noreply@blogger.com (backpacker) — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 19:11:00 +0000

Bird Songs is an amazing book that apart from the accurate description and pictures of 250 different birds of North America, it has a digital audio-player that allows the reader to listen to the songs and calls of every bird depicted in the book, from wild turkey to trumpeter swan and from American robin to lark sparrow.

Postcards and Secrets

noreply@blogger.com (backpacker) — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 01:41:00 +0000

What is a secret? Something that only a few people know and for some reason don't tell others, perhaps something that just one person know or feel. What happens to secrets? Well, there is always the temptation of telling secrets to another person. So, what if someone ask high school and college students to send him their secrets anonymously in a especially designed postcard? He receives hundreds of postcards telling him all kind of secrets. Then there are enough secrets to make a very special book: My Secret: A Postsecret Book.

A 1000 Places Journey

noreply@blogger.com (backpacker) — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 18:15:00 +0000

Taking into account that at the moment there are 814 sites in 138 countries declared World Heritage by UNESCO, and that there are still lots of sites that may be included in this list in the future, then the book 1000 Places To See Before You Die by author Patricia Schultz sounds very interesting for both the armchair explorer and the real traveler. This book will take the reader from Edinburgh Castle to Machu Picchu and from the old Cairo to the city of Prague. An excellent book for any library.

Long Journey Through China

noreply@blogger.com (backpacker) — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 04:01:00 +0000

In the 1930s, Peter Fleming was a famous journalist, always ready to participate in difficult travels through isolated and unknown regions of the world. The accounts of his travels are written in a particularly elegant style and with a lot of humour to tell the small misfortunes that here and there happens to all travellers. Among his books, it is specially interesting
News from Tartary: A Journey from Pekin to Kashmir. There Fleming tells the long journey he made in the company of the Swiss explorer Ella (Kini) Maillart, who was as stubborn as Fleming himself. In those years the north of China was invaded by Japan, and there was a Civil War between the communist guerrilla and the nationalist Chinese government, so it didn't seem a good idea to even think in such a journey. But Fleming and Maillart were determined to travel to India through Sinkiang territory. Old trucks and camels were the means of transportation used by the travellers who most of the time were running away from Chinese authorities in this Tintin like adventure.

Adventures in Siberia and Mongolia

noreply@blogger.com (backpacker) — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 18:59:00 +0000

Beasts, Men and Gods is not just a travel book, but the real history of a man that run for his life through Central Asia in the middle of Russian Revolution of 1917. The author is Ferdinand Ossendowski, a Polish scientist that at that time was working in Siberia, and was found guilty of being counter-revolutionary. In fact, he had being related to a movement that tried to establish the independent Republic of Siberia, seceding Siberia from revolutionary Russia. The Soviet government tried to put him under arrest, but he was warned just moments before the Red Guards arrived to his home. So he left Vladivostok, escaping through the countryside.

Ossendowski passed the winter hidden in the cold Siberian woods, where he met another fugitive, a killer that tried to eat him (yes, it was winter time and there were no food in miles around). After that, Ossendowski managed to reach Outer Mongolia, always avoiding bands of irregulars and bandits. Once in Mongolia, Ossendowski entered what seemed another world: on the one hand there were the Buddhist lamas and his Holiness the Living Buddha (one of the three main figures of Buddhism, along with Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama from Tibet). The Living Buddha although drunk was surrounded by the mystery of his mysticism (yes, you will be surprised). On the other hand, there was a very decadent White Russia army commanded by a legendary figure, Baron von Ungern-Sternberg which was considered almost a living demigod by his men (and also by his enemies), and who claimed that had known for years the exact date of his own death. What a counterpoint of characters if you think this is not fiction and that these people really existed!

A five stars book that deserves to be read.

Books

noreply@blogger.com (backpacker) — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 03:54:00 +0000

Books, books, books. I love books. Many of us love books. In this blog, I am going to comment different aspects of lots of interesting books. All subjects are welcomed. All readers too.