Welcome to Litsy!

I thought I‘d love this book. I always enjoy travelogues and I am very interested in the Silk Route countries but I cannot finish this book. I am annoyed by the author who is way too smug to my taste.

Amazing! Highly recommend. Good balance of adventure story and introspection

So, my friend from book club chose this. She's a true worldly traveller who has seen much of the far East and Australia and has a real passion for geography.
This account of the Silk Road and the change and fluctuating borders sounds great 😊😊🌏

I don‘t think I‘ll be finishing any more books today, so here‘s my September wrap up!

Favorites: The Testaments, Evelyn Hugo, And White Fragility.

Another book chosen for my bookclub‘s travel topic.
Kate Harris grew up thinking she wanted to be an explorer. Her destination of choice? Mars! But after participating in a Mars simulation study in the Utah desert, she realized her preference was for the wide open, freedom in nature and the open road. So she set out to bike the Silk Road.

My favorite part: it‘s impossible to get a Visa to enter Tibet, but once you‘ve snuck across the border⬇️

Absolutely gorgeous writing from a brilliant person. This account of science, geography, nationalism, bike travel, exploration, you name it, manages to tie everything together in a way that was completely satisfying to me even if I wouldn't have taken this trip in the same manner she did. I immediately want to read it again.

Excellent travelogue, adventure, history of exploration, Bildungsroman, and examination of philosophies of borders.

Beautiful memoir, I hope my kid does something like this someday!

Opinionated kitty who would NOT move aside, I‘m a huge admirer of the author and I really wanted to love this this book... but I didn‘t. The narrative throughout was jerky, oddly paced and all over the time spectrum and, while lyric and approaching poetic, her random flights of fancy were often annoyingly jarring. Harris takes the idiocy of national borders as her thesis and is eloquent doing so. ⬇️

😂😂😂😂 Yep. (Okay, this shouldn‘t make me laugh but hey, Indian traffic, it‘s laugh or cry!!).

The next line, which spans two pages, is: “ The sudden, jerky movements with which we manoeuvred around [a group of monkeys on the road] made us look deranged ourselves - a word from the French meaning “to flee from orderly rows”, and the organising principle for traffic in India”.

😂😂😂 So true, so very very true!

Nope - now we‘re on a page where we‘ve acknowledged the crazy despot the populace are terrified of in one paragraph ... then gone on to “how we ignored local laws and bribed our way across Uzbekistan because we didn‘t set out with enough money to pay for hotels”.... 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ THIS! This is why subsequent travellers can have such a hard time. Idiots like this. 😡Lands of Lost Borders is not going to end up a Pick from me.

I think this is why the book is annoying me (Also, it‘s moments of brilliance are bogged down with random flights of semi-lyric fantasy that probably should have been mercilessly edited out). Anyway - point: you set out to cycle the Silk Road and yet knowingly also set out to break rules in the former USSR nations of Central Asia and China. With PHDs each, they‘re not unintelligent but they sure are stupid (which drives most of the “suspense”).

Still going with Lands of Lost Borders. This time thought, it‘s all on me - came down with a cold (in 36c/98f weather which is just mean, thank you VERY MUCH Mumbai) but I‘m always a sucker for a Muir quote.

Struggling with this one. It‘s a good book but the author keeps veering wildly off tangent. Sometimes they‘re flashbacks and sometimes they‘re random philosophy like the above that just makes me argumentative (wildness vs wilderness and the merits of each...). Probably though, I just need more sleep... someone else tell me if this is slightly annoyingly phrased in the middle of a travel narrative currently in Azerbaijan...?

“Helping” a friend who threw her back out with her riding students in Shanghai (FYI, I am terrible at cleaning hooves 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️). Sometimes life sounds a lot more glamorous than say the reality of squat toilets but this morning, life is good.

1). Off to help some friends pack up thejr life in Shanghai (casualties of some nasty corporate politics 💔) and enjoy some old stomping grounds for a few weeks!!
2). Very good so far. Fingers crossed!
3). Maybe a walking tour (playing serious tourist when not packing to help them farewell the city. Should be fun!)
4). Metal hand painted tiffin boxes in a lounge display
5). “it‘s the story”....
#Humpdaypost

There‘s so much to love about this book: Harris‘s wonderful writing, the travel via bike along the Silk Road, the cultural observations, and the history of science and exploration. I‘m so impressed with her courage to bike with Mel for 9 months by camping and couch surfing throughout multiple countries. The wanderlust that Kate beautifully depicts is contagious. Wonderful, engaging read!

Love the last line but couldn‘t cut it all down!

Ahhhh hope.... 😂🤦🏻‍♀️😂🤦🏻‍♀️😂

The author is very human but so far, I‘ve got a massive crush on Mel, her traveling companion.

Two birds, one stone! A quote from Lands of Lost Borders which is proving a delight and my entry for today‘s #tarottakeover #octoberphotochallenge (SURELY I can manage ten days of photos???? 😶🤞🏻😶🤞🏻😶). Okay, The Sun: what‘s more vital and incognito than the burning desire for exploration and adventure?

I love to travel, but I‘m not the most adventurous risk-taker. 😉 But I really loved Kate Harris‘ beautifully written reflection on her bicycle trip following the ancient Silk Road. As much a philosophical treatise on exploration as it is a travelogue, this was a fascinating book. 🗻🚲🌲

"We need this world, and this world doesn't need us. Why do we persist in behaving as if the converse were true?" Kate Harris will be at #emwf18 to read from Land of Lost Borders, a travelogue that chronicles her journey biking the ancient Silk Road, and weaves adventure with deep reflection and the history of science and exploration. bit.ly/2Kq7JXw @PenguinRandomCa #canlit

It‘s been a long day, so I‘m crawling into bed earlier than usual. I‘m hoping to read a few chapters of my new book before my eyes close 😴 #emwf18 #canlit

I don‘t often pick up travel books, but I was wooed to this memoir of biking the Silk Road by comparisons to Rebecca Solnit and Cheryl Strayed. I don‘t know if I agree 100% with the use of those names, but I enjoyed the trip, learned a lot about the history and geography of the area, and was enthralled by Harris‘ lyrical writing. This is a writer I‘ll watch out for. I look forward to seeing where the road takes her next.