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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
I wanted to like this book, but I found myself skipping through pages at a time. It just wasn’t for me.
This book is about bicycling the silk road. Harris is fucking smart and the book is heavily researched, with quotes from Charles Darwin and Marco Polo and dozens of explorers throughout. She examines and critiques the history of science and exploration. It's a dense book with lots of interesting moments but feels like, maybe, in an effort to not be pigeonholed as a writer of women's travel, or to not write a journey of high emotional stakes, the author minimizes the emotional stakes of the journey altogether. And, she buried the lede: she has a wife! Which I only really figured out through the acknowledgements. Does that matter? To me, yes. I want more queer travel, yes it matters.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
What an amazing, thoughtful, engaging, and well written meditation on what it means to be an explorer, the meaning of borders, our connection to other humans, and our connection to the world! Harris uses her bicycle trip along the ancient routes of the silk road as a jumping off point for a deeper understanding of the world and our place in it. Even though her thoughts and the larger points and stories are wide-ranging, the book hangs together extremely well and will be a thoroughly enjoyable read for any would-be explorer.
I really, really wanted to love this book, and maybe the 2.5-star rating (rounded to 3) reflects my excessive anticipation rather than the book's quality. I picked up Land of Lost Borders thinking it would be a bit like Dervla Murphy's Full Tilt, which I read and enjoyed almost two decades ago. (It's from 1965.) But no.
I didn't exactly find the story unpleasant, but at no time did I feel lifted from the pages and carried to the remote landscapes Kate Harris traversed on her bike. Nor was I transported to identify with her desire to escape to Mars, or to be an explorer. (I did get jealous about the fabulous opportunity she had of becoming a Rhodes Scholar and drink with like-minded friends out of jars.) When I got the hint that the author and her cycling buddy were filming some kind of documentary about conservation in the liminal zones, I thought I'd learn more about that, but that turned out to be a very brief and inconclusive detour. Saddest of all, I didn't feel that I got to know the stories of the people whose countries she traveled through... perhaps because it didn't seem that she got to know them either.
What perhaps ticked me off the most was that the author bemoaned that ecotourism provided an economic justification to conserve some wilderness, and that people living in the territories she crossed "saw money in the marsh in the form of grazing land for animals, or income from growing pulses or grains." The author was disappointed that people couldn't see the value and meaning of the land beyond its usefulness to them. Knowing how little many of the people she met have to live with, that seemed a little rich. Combined with the lack of engagement with the people who live along the Silk Road, it felt cold.
A central question that Harris seems to care about is whether exploration can be a force for good. She sure wishes it was, but I don't feel that she made case for it through her travels as retold in this book. Maybe she wasn't quite ready for it?
Harris asks: "We're only here by fluke, and only for a little while, so why not run with life as far and wide as you can?" Why not? Ok. Why though? To do what? Why can't we be content where we are? Could we not look deep instead of far?
3 stars because anyone who cycles that far deserves a bit of recognition, and also because I enjoyed learning about a few random things like the backstory of the "pale blue dot" picture and of the Golden Record aboard the Voyager space probe.
I didn't exactly find the story unpleasant, but at no time did I feel lifted from the pages and carried to the remote landscapes Kate Harris traversed on her bike. Nor was I transported to identify with her desire to escape to Mars, or to be an explorer. (I did get jealous about the fabulous opportunity she had of becoming a Rhodes Scholar and drink with like-minded friends out of jars.) When I got the hint that the author and her cycling buddy were filming some kind of documentary about conservation in the liminal zones, I thought I'd learn more about that, but that turned out to be a very brief and inconclusive detour. Saddest of all, I didn't feel that I got to know the stories of the people whose countries she traveled through... perhaps because it didn't seem that she got to know them either.
What perhaps ticked me off the most was that the author bemoaned that ecotourism provided an economic justification to conserve some wilderness, and that people living in the territories she crossed "saw money in the marsh in the form of grazing land for animals, or income from growing pulses or grains." The author was disappointed that people couldn't see the value and meaning of the land beyond its usefulness to them. Knowing how little many of the people she met have to live with, that seemed a little rich. Combined with the lack of engagement with the people who live along the Silk Road, it felt cold.
A central question that Harris seems to care about is whether exploration can be a force for good. She sure wishes it was, but I don't feel that she made case for it through her travels as retold in this book. Maybe she wasn't quite ready for it?
Harris asks: "We're only here by fluke, and only for a little while, so why not run with life as far and wide as you can?" Why not? Ok. Why though? To do what? Why can't we be content where we are? Could we not look deep instead of far?
3 stars because anyone who cycles that far deserves a bit of recognition, and also because I enjoyed learning about a few random things like the backstory of the "pale blue dot" picture and of the Golden Record aboard the Voyager space probe.
On the plus side:
-Cycling the Silk Road is an incredible adventure and accomplishment by the author and her friend. Harris is an excellent writer and her descriptions of landscapes, people, feelings, interactions, food, and experiences put you right there in the midst of it.
-Female explorers doing awesome stuff - what's not to love?
-Being a species/enviro nerd, I enjoyed the thread relating to wildlife conservation and protected areas. Harris and her friend visited some extraordinary places and met with people doing important work in the hardest of conditions.
But...:
-I would not recommend the audiobook. I found the narrator offputting, especially when she tried to read with accents - everyone just sounded like an angry Russian. Go for the written word on this one.
-Cycling the Silk Road is an incredible adventure and accomplishment by the author and her friend. Harris is an excellent writer and her descriptions of landscapes, people, feelings, interactions, food, and experiences put you right there in the midst of it.
-Female explorers doing awesome stuff - what's not to love?
-Being a species/enviro nerd, I enjoyed the thread relating to wildlife conservation and protected areas. Harris and her friend visited some extraordinary places and met with people doing important work in the hardest of conditions.
But...:
-I would not recommend the audiobook. I found the narrator offputting, especially when she tried to read with accents - everyone just sounded like an angry Russian. Go for the written word on this one.
I was very interested in the premise for this book - women cycling along the length of the Silk Road, stealthily crossing borders, overcoming unforeseen obstacles and grinding out hard miles of unforgiving trail - but sadly it did nothing but disappoint.
The prologue had an exciting account of Harris and her friend Mel ducking under a border gate with their heavily-loaded bikes in the dark of night, all clothed in black, trying to evade the Chinese border guards as they sneaked into Tibet without the required documentation. Thrilling! But soon afterwards, Harris went on and on about her life of privilege and her dream of living on Mars. Unable to fix herself to any one thing, she vacillates between attaining university degrees and travelling, knowing that at any time her family could bail her out financially or politically.
My issue with the book is simply that there wasn't enough about her cycling trip and that is the only reason the book captured my attention and imagination. So, once I realized that this is actually a memoir of her entire life, I set it aside.
The prologue had an exciting account of Harris and her friend Mel ducking under a border gate with their heavily-loaded bikes in the dark of night, all clothed in black, trying to evade the Chinese border guards as they sneaked into Tibet without the required documentation. Thrilling! But soon afterwards, Harris went on and on about her life of privilege and her dream of living on Mars. Unable to fix herself to any one thing, she vacillates between attaining university degrees and travelling, knowing that at any time her family could bail her out financially or politically.
My issue with the book is simply that there wasn't enough about her cycling trip and that is the only reason the book captured my attention and imagination. So, once I realized that this is actually a memoir of her entire life, I set it aside.
Kate Harris just made me want to bike the Silk road. It felt like eat pray love, if all you had to eat was instant noodles and oatmeal.
Lands of Lost Borders, eloquently described the geo/political landscape of Asia, while still trying to recognize the bias Harris held, especially as a westerner.
Her resourcefulness to accomplish a dream is admirable and the way she talks about her evolving life plan. The growth and shifting that happened as she experienced new things gave me hope.
The ending, was an emotional goodbye to dreams accomplished. The deep, constant and evolving friendship between Kats and Mel that I got to bear witness too.
May we all have a friend we would follow 17,000 feet up a mountain for.
Lands of Lost Borders, eloquently described the geo/political landscape of Asia, while still trying to recognize the bias Harris held, especially as a westerner.
Her resourcefulness to accomplish a dream is admirable and the way she talks about her evolving life plan. The growth and shifting that happened as she experienced new things gave me hope.
The ending, was an emotional goodbye to dreams accomplished. The deep, constant and evolving friendship between Kats and Mel that I got to bear witness too.
May we all have a friend we would follow 17,000 feet up a mountain for.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced