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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
My one sentence review: I was most captivated when Harris wrote about the actual nitty gritty of cycling the Silk Road, and ultimately that's what I wanted more of (what was her actual route? what went into the packing and planning? what happened to the blog and fundraising that was only briefly mentioned? how long did this actually take?).
A very interesting book, where I learned more about an area of the world I will probably never see in person. The geographic descriptions and context were my favorite parts.
This book was amazing. I learned so much about the Middle East, and Asia. It was so nice to learn about an area that I have never learned anything about. The writing was phenomenal and very atmospheric. It was gorgeous. I had never heard of some of the countries mentioned or the different cities. This is a great travelogue.
I admit that the last fourth of this book dragged a bit, but it still gets five stars from me because of so many passages that were like for the first time in my life someone truly understood my soul.
Part 1 is a bit of a slog but oh man, once you get through it
Crazy cycling adventure across the Silk road, with lots of philosophy and politics.
I am a little undecided about how I like the book
The writing is so so with some brilliant lines (mostly quotes from other writers)
However what I cannot wrap my head across is how brave and adventurous this trip is . 2 young women have the courage to go across the world in bicycles !
I am happy that the duo have the courage and are not shackled by fear . At least it’s possible and achievable for girls in other corners of the world. , some day the little Indian girls can also hope to do This . As in India , a girl is always hyper cautious of her environment that she cannot dream of such adventures, her own self doubt. Will stop her from dreaming big . Always makes me think “what could have been ? “ if we were a safer country for women.
Well if not anything the book indeed brought out topics unrelated to the silk route
The writing is so so with some brilliant lines (mostly quotes from other writers)
However what I cannot wrap my head across is how brave and adventurous this trip is . 2 young women have the courage to go across the world in bicycles !
I am happy that the duo have the courage and are not shackled by fear . At least it’s possible and achievable for girls in other corners of the world. , some day the little Indian girls can also hope to do This . As in India , a girl is always hyper cautious of her environment that she cannot dream of such adventures, her own self doubt. Will stop her from dreaming big . Always makes me think “what could have been ? “ if we were a safer country for women.
Well if not anything the book indeed brought out topics unrelated to the silk route
Reading can be such a wonderful conduit for 'travel'. Good literature transports its readers in time and space, widening perspectives and broadening horizons.
Travel literature is the antithesis to 'travelling through reading'.
People who write books (or even worse - blogs) on their travels are often suffering from two conditions that go hand in hand: inflated sense of self, and a condescending (cough, ORIENTALIST, cough) view of the rest of the world. I so wanted Kate Harris to prove my ideas about travel writing wrong, but instead she provided me with the perfect example to support my theory.
Harris loves a good quote about being different and untamed and enjoying the wilderness and blah blah blah. She's fond of combining these with bad puns. Because she's so different and all. Right.
I managed to grit my teeth and push through most of the book, making excuses for Harris. She's obviously a bright woman, adventurous, self-assured, and eager to push her boundaries. All of my excuses for her came to a halt when she arrived in Turkey. For some reason, Harris decided to ignore her common sense in order to get a good punch line that would demonize an entire nation. She mistranslated the word in Turkish for foreigner, which is yabancı. It was much better for her book if she decided to declare that the word for foreigner is gavûr - a slur that has been out of favour for nearly a century. Kate Harris decided that she would accept the hospitality of Turkish people, then turn around and declare that they are inhospitable and have an unfavourable view of foreigners, whom they apparently all call gavûr (which translates more closely to "infidel").
Great shock factor ("those barbaric orientals think everyone is an infidel, but I, the brave Kate Harris, biked through their land!"), shitty tactics. If you're going to outright lie in your book, it should be about something that isn't easily discovered through Google Translate.
Oh, Kate. Sweetheart... If the people of Turkey were calling you a gavûr then you must have some insane interpersonal issues that need to be worked out. Good luck with that.
Travel literature is the antithesis to 'travelling through reading'.
People who write books (or even worse - blogs) on their travels are often suffering from two conditions that go hand in hand: inflated sense of self, and a condescending (cough, ORIENTALIST, cough) view of the rest of the world. I so wanted Kate Harris to prove my ideas about travel writing wrong, but instead she provided me with the perfect example to support my theory.
Harris loves a good quote about being different and untamed and enjoying the wilderness and blah blah blah. She's fond of combining these with bad puns. Because she's so different and all. Right.
I managed to grit my teeth and push through most of the book, making excuses for Harris. She's obviously a bright woman, adventurous, self-assured, and eager to push her boundaries. All of my excuses for her came to a halt when she arrived in Turkey. For some reason, Harris decided to ignore her common sense in order to get a good punch line that would demonize an entire nation. She mistranslated the word in Turkish for foreigner, which is yabancı. It was much better for her book if she decided to declare that the word for foreigner is gavûr - a slur that has been out of favour for nearly a century. Kate Harris decided that she would accept the hospitality of Turkish people, then turn around and declare that they are inhospitable and have an unfavourable view of foreigners, whom they apparently all call gavûr (which translates more closely to "infidel").
Great shock factor ("those barbaric orientals think everyone is an infidel, but I, the brave Kate Harris, biked through their land!"), shitty tactics. If you're going to outright lie in your book, it should be about something that isn't easily discovered through Google Translate.
Oh, Kate. Sweetheart... If the people of Turkey were calling you a gavûr then you must have some insane interpersonal issues that need to be worked out. Good luck with that.
adventurous
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced