Books for the Journey

The numbers in square brackets show the page where further details appear,
e.g. ⌈1⌋ for Books 2016 Q 1.

General

  • Travel
    • Lots of Lonely Planet guidebooks were freely available on Kindle Unlimited.
    • Peter Frankopan, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World.
  • Pilgrimage
    • Phil Cousineau, The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker’s Guide to Making Travel Sacred ⌈1⌋
  • Religions
    • Janwillem van de Wetering, A Glimpse of Nothingness ⌈1⌋
    • Charles S Fisher, Meditation in the Wild: Buddhism’s Origin in the Heart of Nature
      (with translation of the Heart Sutra used when walking the Wisdom Trail in Hong Kong; also relevant to Japan)
    • John Mabry, The Monster God: Coming to Terms with the Dark Side of Divinity
    • John Mabry, A Christian Walks in the Footsteps of the Buddha ⌈1⌋
    • Willian Johnston, The Mirror Mind ⌈2⌋
    • Tenzin Chögyel, The Life of the Buddha ⌈2⌋

Countries

  • Iceland
    • Halldor Laxness, Independent People.  Bought after passing Laxness’s farmhouse, but did not get into it.  One of his books is about Thingveillir but that one was not available on Kindle.
    • Sarah Moss, Names for the Sea ⌈3⌋
  • Canada
  • USA
    • Jack Kerouac, On the Road.  Bought after visiting the Beat museum opposite City Lights Bookshop, but I got no further than the preface.
    • John Muir, Wilderness Essays.
    • Henry Thoreau, Walden.
  • Korea
    • Jennifer Barclay, Meeting Mr Kim ⌈1⌋
    • Simon Winchester, Korea ⌈1⌋
  • Japan
    • Craig McLachlan, Four Pairs of Boots ⌈1⌋
    • Matthew Amster-Burton,  Pretty Good Number One ⌈1⌋
    • Pico Iyer et al., Deep Kyoto Walks ⌈2⌋
    • Marcus Powles, The Tokyo 33-Kannon Pilgrimage ⌈2⌋
    • Sarah Moss, Signs for Lost Children. ⌈3⌋
  • Hong Kong
    • Charles S Fisher, Meditation in the Wild: Buddhism’s Origin in the Heart of Nature
      (with translation of the Heart Sutra used when walking the Wisdom Trail in Hong Kong)
    • Matthew Amster-Burton, Child Octopus: Edible Adventures in Hong Kong
       Pretty Good Number One which is about Japanese food.
  • Vietnam
    • Graham Greene, The Quiet American (Vietnam)
    • Norman Lewis, Dragon Apparent: Travels in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.  The author’s own travels, when travelling around the area was not easy.  A good companion to the Graham Greene novel.
  • Cambodia
  • Thailand
  • India
    • Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains ⌈1⌋
    • Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children. I read about 25% on the journey, which brought the main character to the age of 10.
    • Indu Sundaresan, The Twentieth Wife.   Recommended in the Exodus trip notes.  A useful introduction to the time of the Shahs.  It is the first of a trilogy, but the others are not available on Kindle.
    • E M Forster, A Passage to India
    • David Charles Manners: In the Shadow of Crows