Itemize Books Conducive To Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu

Original Title: Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu
ISBN: 0792274571 (ISBN13: 9780792274575)
Edition Language: English
Books Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu Free Download
Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu Hardcover | Pages: 320 pages
Rating: 3.93 | 616 Users | 73 Reviews

Chronicle During Books Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu

After 37 years of never reading about Mali, I have managed two books about that country in the last month. The previous book (The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts) gave more information about the history of the region, and informed my reading of this book as well. This edition appears to be a 2016 reprint of the original book published in 2004 by National Geographic.

Last year, I read another book by Kira Salak about her solo journey across Papua New Guinea (Four Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea, so I already knew about the author's fearlessness, her unrelenting pace, and her preference of traveling alone. Actually knowing these things about her made me look forward to reading her only other book-length non-fiction account of her travel. She has written multiple essays on other travel experiences for magazines like National Geographic, even winning the PEN Award for her reporting on the war in Congo.

This 2003 journey, taking Kira 600 miles on the Niger River from Old Ségou to Timbuktu, is modeled after the 18th century explorer Mungo Park. He attempted this journey twice, not surviving the second attempt, despite having over 40 travel companions. His writings (journals, letters) as well as writings about Park are laced throughout this book. Salak clearly looks to him not only to see which parts of the journey they had in common, but to find shared experiences in the emotions along the way. Kira's trip was well documented by a National Geographic photographer, and many of those photos are up on her website.

What the photos can't contain is Salak's writing, which I found engaging, especially descriptions of the landscape and its effect on her as a solo traveler.

One sample:
"Where is the river of just this morning, with its whitecaps that would have liked to drown me, with its current flowing backward against the wind? Gone to this: a river of smoothest glass, a placidity unbroken by wave or eddy, with islands of lush greenery awaiting me like distant Xanadus. The Niger is like a mercurial god, meting out punishment and benediction on a whim. And perhaps the god of the river sleeps now, returning matters to the mortals who ply its waters?"
She also chronicles how the people along the river change as she gets closer to Timbuktu. The tribes shift, the friendliness shifts, the tension shifts. At times I was a little frustrated because she was not taking the time to understand the culture and gain acceptance into it, and often left quickly due to fear. To me, fear can be a form of racism, so I'm a bit wary of that reaction. But I reminded myself that this was the Mali that housed Al Qaeda training camps and attempted to destroy the original manuscripts of centuries ago, during this same time period. And that this is a travel writer, not an ethnographer. But it really is a distinct difference - about the journey and the faces one might encounter along the way, and the occasional orange soda.

I was kindly approved for a review copy of this book by the publisher in Edelweiss. It was perfect timing for my African reading project, and I appreciate it!

Identify Of Books Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu

Title:Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu
Author:Kira Salak
Book Format:Hardcover
Book Edition:Special Edition
Pages:Pages: 320 pages
Published:November 1st 2004 by National Geographic Society
Categories:Travel. Cultural. Africa. Nonfiction. Adventure. Autobiography. Memoir. Western Africa. Mali

Rating Of Books Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu
Ratings: 3.93 From 616 Users | 73 Reviews

Notice Of Books Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu
Kira Salak just at the cusp of her 30s took time away from an English PhD to paddle a kayak six hundred miles along the Niger to Timbuktu, following the path of the doomed 18th-century explorer Mungo Park. "Cruelest Journey" matches Park's final expedition with Salak's intention to test herself against the river, to open herself up to the world along its banks. Physical exhaustion and isolation, cultural shock and sickness--- Salak teaches herself to face all those things. This isn't a book

Although the nation of Mali does not often cross my radar as an interesting place to read about, is a desperately poor country to boot [1], as someone who likes reading books about interesting travels [2], this book caught my attention, as cruel journeys are something that sounds very Nathanish to me at least.  And although the author's religious beliefs and her openness to witchcraft were not something I greatly appreciated reading about, and her feminism was certainly off-putting, there was

After 37 years of never reading about Mali, I have managed two books about that country in the last month. The previous book (The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the Worlds Most Precious Manuscripts) gave more information about the history of the region, and informed my reading of this book as well. This edition appears to be a 2016 reprint of the original book published in 2004 by National Geographic.Last year, I read another book by Kira Salak about her solo journey

Having read Ms. Salak's previous nonfiction book, FOUR CORNERS, I was so pleased to find a level of maturity and wisdom in this book that was lacking in the other. In FOUR CORNERS, she seemed both lost and driven in her pursuit to explore Papua New Guinea, and took unnecessary risks that not even she could understand why. But in THE CRUELEST JOURNEY, we have a woman who can articulate why she would undertake such a dangerous journey (traveling the Niger River by kayak, facing village after

After 37 years of never reading about Mali, I have managed two books about that country in the last month. The previous book (The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the Worlds Most Precious Manuscripts) gave more information about the history of the region, and informed my reading of this book as well. This edition appears to be a 2016 reprint of the original book published in 2004 by National Geographic.Last year, I read another book by Kira Salak about her solo journey

So I am going to ask the question that seemingly every person who encountered Salak during her journey asked--indeed, even she herself keeps asking: WHY?? Why would a lone American woman choose to paddle 600 miles on the Niger river in a blow up kayak to reach Timbuktu? The closest answer I found was "I want to avoid that stagnant life. I want the world to always be offering me the new, the grace of the unfamiliar." Well, Ok. I want that, too...but I'm not going to be putting myself into extreme

I obsessed with Mali, so I thought this book might be good tour of the country down the Niger river. Instead it's another lame explorer veneration, this time Scottish explorer Mungo Park. The best travel advice I ever got, also traveling as a woman alone in a nearby area, was that a country is more than its landmarks, and that you should try to get to know as many people as you can if you really want to know what a place is like. I feel like she barely makes an effort to engage with people, nor

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