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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
It goes faster than it feels. I was a little lost at the beginning, assuming the bike ride you start off in is the bike ride the book is titled for, but I figured it out. Maybe needed less about her school life, but I guess it’s a memoir/travelogue instead o just travelogue. It reminded me a lot of Full Tilt, which I read last year. But more recent.
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
2.5. Content is great, but need to get past the writing style / voice.
This was not the book I was anticipating based on the synopsis. This book leads one to believe its about a bike ride, and the author’s experience of all aspects of that ride, perhaps with elements of history and culture to be woven in. Something along the lines of Wild by Cheryl Strayed. Rather, this book was a history and geo-political book, with elements of a bike ride experience. Frankly, I feel like she could have narrated the facts and information in this book without the bike ride, and it would not have lost anything as a reference book.
I feel like Harris does not convey a lot of emotion in this book, either (though she talks a lot about eating Ramen noodles). Additionally, the book felt more cynical than motivational/insightful. Perhaps that was the reality of her trip, but I feel like there’s not a large sense of hope that comes through in the [fleeting] positive experiences she describes. Nor a lot of gratitude regarding the experience. Reading this book has felt much like her bike ride came across to me—a kind of slogging thru. I skipped most of the last couple chapters, because I just couldn’t read any more of an experience that had failed to be conveyed meaningfully all along.
I feel like Harris does not convey a lot of emotion in this book, either (though she talks a lot about eating Ramen noodles). Additionally, the book felt more cynical than motivational/insightful. Perhaps that was the reality of her trip, but I feel like there’s not a large sense of hope that comes through in the [fleeting] positive experiences she describes. Nor a lot of gratitude regarding the experience. Reading this book has felt much like her bike ride came across to me—a kind of slogging thru. I skipped most of the last couple chapters, because I just couldn’t read any more of an experience that had failed to be conveyed meaningfully all along.
Hmmm, talented writing but I didn’t want to be riding along with them on the journey. They didn’t paint their landscapes in a bright light. I wanted to learn more about this area in the world but they didn’t seem to enjoy it and I’m still left in a state of curiosity. 🤷
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
This book will go down as one of the best books I have read, of all times.
Through her words, Harris took me along with her on the Silk Road, sneaking into the Tibet, going through the bureaucratic processes in the 'stan' countries, riding in the high lands and the steppes - and through this amazing journey I took from my couch, Harris gave me enough backstories about a few real world problems and how they are affecting us.
Though I will never have the stamina, ability and willpower to undertake a trip of this size, and the ability to write so beautifully about it, seeing Harris' views on wildness vs wilderness (one being a type of place, another the state of mind), tourists claiming wanderlust towards the exotic and ignoring the everyday, that one can travel wildly anywhere should one want to, love for nature, mountains and the untouched, freedom, borders, her own privilege which opened up so many roads for her, a viewpoint where we seek risk on our travels whilst the natives go through them everyday etc made me feel on multiple occasions that it could be me writing these - I felt a strange sense of validation in Harris's writing, that most of my opinions are not exclusively mine in a gratifying way - I am glad it is in writing!
I think this love for the author, and hence her words and experiences started when I read her implicit views about Tibet and the Chinese oppression there as she refuses to enter Tibet legally; and then it only grew as she spoke about how borders are irrelevant in places like Siachen and yet there they are, soldiers guarding it night and day; continuing on to see her impeccable achievements in school, Oxford and MIT; the fact that she is a fellow Pacific North Westerner; her love for books, referring various authors and the sheer beauty of her words as she is giving you a glimpse into her emotions; the motivation to ride down the Silk Road, which is to see beyond the borders - a job she does really well through that one year.
I learnt a lot about the world as I read about Fanny Bullock Workman and her expedition to Siachen; the skirmish at Mt. Ararat (a place that I have always wanted to go because of the Noah mythology ) , the Turks and Armenians; the saints and rules and the rich civilization that came from the 'stans'; the life of Tibetans in Tibet vs in India; the concrete roads by the Black Sea and the ecology destruction there; caviar diplomacy and so many other nuggets of information which have made me more aware.
We need more such books to be written - books which talk about the joy of feeling free when one is going about the world; where travel is not glorified as THE ONLY THING that matters but that exploration is important to expand our horizons; where travel is not for Instagram but for the self; which intersperse, lest we forget, memoirs with travel experiences with local life - all said as a matter of fact, and not by taking sides.
Need I say more, I LOVED every single word in this book!
(And I was so glad to see it was blurb-endorsed by my other favorite author, Pico Iyer)
Through her words, Harris took me along with her on the Silk Road, sneaking into the Tibet, going through the bureaucratic processes in the 'stan' countries, riding in the high lands and the steppes - and through this amazing journey I took from my couch, Harris gave me enough backstories about a few real world problems and how they are affecting us.
Though I will never have the stamina, ability and willpower to undertake a trip of this size, and the ability to write so beautifully about it, seeing Harris' views on wildness vs wilderness (one being a type of place, another the state of mind), tourists claiming wanderlust towards the exotic and ignoring the everyday, that one can travel wildly anywhere should one want to, love for nature, mountains and the untouched, freedom, borders, her own privilege which opened up so many roads for her, a viewpoint where we seek risk on our travels whilst the natives go through them everyday etc made me feel on multiple occasions that it could be me writing these - I felt a strange sense of validation in Harris's writing, that most of my opinions are not exclusively mine in a gratifying way - I am glad it is in writing!
I think this love for the author, and hence her words and experiences started when I read her implicit views about Tibet and the Chinese oppression there as she refuses to enter Tibet legally; and then it only grew as she spoke about how borders are irrelevant in places like Siachen and yet there they are, soldiers guarding it night and day; continuing on to see her impeccable achievements in school, Oxford and MIT; the fact that she is a fellow Pacific North Westerner; her love for books, referring various authors and the sheer beauty of her words as she is giving you a glimpse into her emotions; the motivation to ride down the Silk Road, which is to see beyond the borders - a job she does really well through that one year.
I learnt a lot about the world as I read about Fanny Bullock Workman and her expedition to Siachen; the skirmish at Mt. Ararat (a place that I have always wanted to go because of the Noah mythology ) , the Turks and Armenians; the saints and rules and the rich civilization that came from the 'stans'; the life of Tibetans in Tibet vs in India; the concrete roads by the Black Sea and the ecology destruction there; caviar diplomacy and so many other nuggets of information which have made me more aware.
We need more such books to be written - books which talk about the joy of feeling free when one is going about the world; where travel is not glorified as THE ONLY THING that matters but that exploration is important to expand our horizons; where travel is not for Instagram but for the self; which intersperse, lest we forget, memoirs with travel experiences with local life - all said as a matter of fact, and not by taking sides.
Need I say more, I LOVED every single word in this book!
(And I was so glad to see it was blurb-endorsed by my other favorite author, Pico Iyer)
one of my favorite books of all time — i generally don’t love nonfiction/memoir-type books but this one is so beautifully written and inspiring. kate makes me want to hop on my bike this second