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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
This is an enjoyable travel memoir. It was quick read and well-written. The author sometimes seems to wander in her thoughts, but overall, I liked it quite a bit!
Harris is certainly a phenomenal author and biker, but what I appreciated most about this book was how devoted of a learner Harris seemed to be. Every chapter revealed another nugget of information that Harris ferreted out about some surprising topic or an adventure that she jumped into wholeheartedly without hesitation just for the purpose of satisfying her curiosity. This had the enticing effect of making me want to learn more about disciplines and cultures and histories I hardly knew existed (geography included!) as I followed, page by page, her months-long journey(s) along the Silk Road routes.
adventurous
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
It's hard for me to rate a memoir, but this one is a pretty good travel memoir.
The story is of the author who went to bike the Silk Road with her best friend, Mel. She had this dream of going to Mars and so academically was geared towards that goal. She was also enamored with the stories of Marco Polo and wanted to be an explorer like him. Interspersed among the road stories are ruminations about national borders, politics, economics, religion, and ecology. She showed us the challenges involved in crossing borders and of traveling as a female in these foreign lands. Through the people they met, we also get a glimpse into how life is for ordinary folks in these countries.
The story is of the author who went to bike the Silk Road with her best friend, Mel. She had this dream of going to Mars and so academically was geared towards that goal. She was also enamored with the stories of Marco Polo and wanted to be an explorer like him. Interspersed among the road stories are ruminations about national borders, politics, economics, religion, and ecology. She showed us the challenges involved in crossing borders and of traveling as a female in these foreign lands. Through the people they met, we also get a glimpse into how life is for ordinary folks in these countries.
adventurous
slow-paced
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
A magical journey, tugs at my hair and pulls me away, filling me with wanderlust.
Some of my favourite passages (which I've also added to the quotes)...
On the romantic pleasure of cycling:
"I'm not sure where I go when I spin wheels for hours on end like that, except into the rapture of doing nothing deeply—although"nothing," in this case, involves a tantrum of peddle strokes on a burdened bicycle along a euphemism for a highway through the Himalaya. But in the singular focus of that task, the most tantric simplicity of it—breathe, pedal breathe—I took in everything at once: the dust settling on my skin, the ache and strain and release of my quads, the river glittering far below like an artery of light, the shining silver vein..."
P 27
On the dopamine rush of curiosity and discovery:
"...I stayed up all night reading [The Structure of Scientific Revolutions] with demented avidity to the final page, my empirical understanding of the world undone by Kuhn's argument that scientific theories are in essence evolutionarily selected stories, that is fictions that best fit the available facts—until the discovery of new facts forces a paradigm shift to a different and better fiction. More than that, he argues that scientist who embrace a new paradigm at an early stage—before sufficient evidence has been amassed to trigger a scientific revolution—do so not out of a sober consideration of the available facts, or at least not only that, but also with a subjective, irrational, from-the-gut leap of faith."
p 47
"Dillard's books should have prepared me for this. "What is the difference between a cathedral and a physics lab? she asks in one of them. "Are they not both saying: Hello?""
p 48
Some of my favourite passages (which I've also added to the quotes)...
On the romantic pleasure of cycling:
"I'm not sure where I go when I spin wheels for hours on end like that, except into the rapture of doing nothing deeply—although"nothing," in this case, involves a tantrum of peddle strokes on a burdened bicycle along a euphemism for a highway through the Himalaya. But in the singular focus of that task, the most tantric simplicity of it—breathe, pedal breathe—I took in everything at once: the dust settling on my skin, the ache and strain and release of my quads, the river glittering far below like an artery of light, the shining silver vein..."
P 27
On the dopamine rush of curiosity and discovery:
"...I stayed up all night reading [The Structure of Scientific Revolutions] with demented avidity to the final page, my empirical understanding of the world undone by Kuhn's argument that scientific theories are in essence evolutionarily selected stories, that is fictions that best fit the available facts—until the discovery of new facts forces a paradigm shift to a different and better fiction. More than that, he argues that scientist who embrace a new paradigm at an early stage—before sufficient evidence has been amassed to trigger a scientific revolution—do so not out of a sober consideration of the available facts, or at least not only that, but also with a subjective, irrational, from-the-gut leap of faith."
p 47
"Dillard's books should have prepared me for this. "What is the difference between a cathedral and a physics lab? she asks in one of them. "Are they not both saying: Hello?""
p 48
fast-paced
This was a good read. A modern explorer shares her experiences traveling the Silk Road by bike and touches on politics, environmental and cultural issues, and the history of the region. She covers a lot of ground in a relatively short book and does not go into too much detail about any specific country that she and her friend/co-explorer traveled through, but for the most part, I found what she did describe to be a smart way of depicting the journey. It seemed realistic to me that they wouldn't have gleaned too much from any individual region because they spent most nights camping by the side of the road; they did not speak the languages of the countries they traveled in; and they were exhausted from biking 50+ miles a day, existing almost entirely on dried noodles, instant coffee, and sludgy oatmeal, and not always sleeping well. The snapshots that Harris decided to share seemed true to what they would have experienced and provided a general picture of the people they met.
The one flaw I found in this was more to do with personal preference. The writing style was poetic, but there were a few sentences that I thought included too much metaphor. In general, though, I thought the memoir was well written, and many of the metaphors were beautiful. There were just a few that I didn't think added anything, and those tended to pull me out of the book.
This is a good book for explorers, bike riders, and history lovers. There is a lot of sadness in the world, and a lot of tragedy in the specific regions Harris rode through, and I appreciated her skill at depicting that while still showcasing the joy they witnessed.
The one flaw I found in this was more to do with personal preference. The writing style was poetic, but there were a few sentences that I thought included too much metaphor. In general, though, I thought the memoir was well written, and many of the metaphors were beautiful. There were just a few that I didn't think added anything, and those tended to pull me out of the book.
This is a good book for explorers, bike riders, and history lovers. There is a lot of sadness in the world, and a lot of tragedy in the specific regions Harris rode through, and I appreciated her skill at depicting that while still showcasing the joy they witnessed.
adventurous
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced