Thanks for posting the link to your reading list and reviews, Jim; I'm intrigued and amazed that many of the same books interest me!
I'm almost equally dismayed that time constraints have prevented me from reading very many whole books this year (including those authored by Andre), Instead, most of my pleasure reading has been collections and anthologies I can pick up and lay down while waiting for appointments and such (at least one copy lives in the car so it is handy to grab as a time-filler). I just finished reading
Death Locked In, Edited by Douglas G. Greene with Robert C.S. Adey (ISBN 1-55882-138-4)). It is a collection of "locked- room" or "impossible" mysteries, and includes many from the 1800s and even one from Lillian de la Torre, based on court documents and transcripts of a crime and following trial in 1733. The writing seems very contemporary, despite the passage of years; I guess it is the universality of the human condition that makes it so.
Last Christmas, I found an intriguing book for my father which I then read as well. Far beyond a travel essay, this is a Quest and journey into self.
Wheelbarrow Across the Sahara (ISBN 0-586-21377-5) is the story of a Manchester parrish priest who walked over 3,000km from Algeria to Nigeria, carrying his food and water in a specially built Chinese sailing wheelbarrow (!). The walk took 93 days in 1974-75. It was an incredible feat (the wheelbarrow was enormous and had storage lockers on either side, a single very large central wheel, the sail, and two handles for the "pilot" (photo of it on the paperback edition's cover, here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wheelbarrow-Across-Sahara-Geoffrey-Howard/dp/0586213775 ). As with many such committed, audacious adventures, there is almost an underlying monomaniacal madness to the effort, not unlike the determination shown by the great Arctic and Antarctic explorers.n It might take just that to pull off such feats. Frankly, the effort was incredible, and the reader is continuously prompted to ask, "Why?!" The answer? Because it *could* be done (
just) it *must* be done.
Excerpt here on one of my favorite campstove collectors' (!) sites:
http://www.spiritburner.com/fusion/showtopic.php?tid/692/post/last/m/1/I was intrigued by the story for many reasons, partly due to the desert setting and partly in the parallels between the Chinese wheelbarrow and a pannier-laden expedition touring bike. And, of course, it is a Grand Adventure, a Mountain climbed simply because it is There. Used copies start at about a penny on eBay and via Amazon (surely adding to your wish list, Jim!).
Good things, books.
Best,
Dan. (...whose life is a uh, opened book
)
