I really don't get to read as many book review articles now as I did when I was in the library... but I read a couple great ones yesterday.
Rory Stewart is a Scot who decided it'd be a good idea to walk across Afghanistan in January of 2002. He wasn't trying to be macho, and his book isn't pointedly for or against any political party. I guess he just thought it'd be an interesting trip, from this NY Times book review. It helped that he spoke Persian, but...
Even in mild weather in an Abrams tank, such a trip would be mane-whitening. But Stewart goes in the middle of winter, crossing through some territory still shakily held by the Taliban- and entirely on foot. There are some Medusa-slayingly gutsy travel writers out there - Redmond O'Hanlon, Jeffrey Tayler, Robert Young Pelton - but Stewart makes them look like Hilton sisters.
Paul Theroux once described a certain kind of travel book as having mainly "human sacrifice" allure, and how close Stewart comes to being killed on his journey won't be disclosed here. He is, however, sternly warned before he begins his walk. "You are the first tourist in Afghanistan," observes an Afghan from the country's recently resurrected Security Service. "It is mid-winter," he adds. "There are three meters of snow on the high passes, there are wolves, and this is a war. You will die, I can guarantee." For perhaps the first time in the history of travel writing, a secret-police goon emerges as the voice of sobriety and reason.
The new collection of Will Self essays sounds interesting, too. Anybody read his stuff? From this review, his style sounds pretty fantastic.
I had a great great great great time with PhillipetheOtter, Les, Ryan, and a bandmate of mikael's on Sunday. A week's worth of stress melted away like buttah, baby. I dropped off a couple job applications, updated my resume's look after a decade of (perhaps over-using) my bare-bones-one, and if brain-trouble does come up again I got a shipment of valium. themanmachine hooked me up with some craigslist/ ebay-ready pics to sell crap... and already this week is making me not really crappy. Not to jinx me or anything. I will expect good and bad from life at all times, but if the stress fucks off I can handle it.
Rory Stewart is a Scot who decided it'd be a good idea to walk across Afghanistan in January of 2002. He wasn't trying to be macho, and his book isn't pointedly for or against any political party. I guess he just thought it'd be an interesting trip, from this NY Times book review. It helped that he spoke Persian, but...
Even in mild weather in an Abrams tank, such a trip would be mane-whitening. But Stewart goes in the middle of winter, crossing through some territory still shakily held by the Taliban- and entirely on foot. There are some Medusa-slayingly gutsy travel writers out there - Redmond O'Hanlon, Jeffrey Tayler, Robert Young Pelton - but Stewart makes them look like Hilton sisters.
Paul Theroux once described a certain kind of travel book as having mainly "human sacrifice" allure, and how close Stewart comes to being killed on his journey won't be disclosed here. He is, however, sternly warned before he begins his walk. "You are the first tourist in Afghanistan," observes an Afghan from the country's recently resurrected Security Service. "It is mid-winter," he adds. "There are three meters of snow on the high passes, there are wolves, and this is a war. You will die, I can guarantee." For perhaps the first time in the history of travel writing, a secret-police goon emerges as the voice of sobriety and reason.
The new collection of Will Self essays sounds interesting, too. Anybody read his stuff? From this review, his style sounds pretty fantastic.
I had a great great great great time with PhillipetheOtter, Les, Ryan, and a bandmate of mikael's on Sunday. A week's worth of stress melted away like buttah, baby. I dropped off a couple job applications, updated my resume's look after a decade of (perhaps over-using) my bare-bones-one, and if brain-trouble does come up again I got a shipment of valium. themanmachine hooked me up with some craigslist/ ebay-ready pics to sell crap... and already this week is making me not really crappy. Not to jinx me or anything. I will expect good and bad from life at all times, but if the stress fucks off I can handle it.
VIEW 14 of 14 COMMENTS
alyssum:
I don't so much care about the house/kids/marriage thing, I have my own goals that I'm not meeting. 
prophetnoise:
oh hell yeah. How did you do that? Did you download it, re-size it, and then re-upload it? Or did you change the size here in SG land?