I find few things as satisfying as discovering an author, particularly when the author has actually been writing for decades and I'd just never paid attention: I can go from book to book and have a nice long while before running out. The latest is Colin Thubron, who I got totally incoherent about when I first started Shadows of the Silk Road--some insane and completely vague babble about countries I'd never heard of and still couldn't find on a map and now wanted to visit except the only way to get there seemed to be a combination of horrible buses and donkey carts and I'd only read about 45 pages and it was already my favorite book of the year (and yes, I think this was all one sentence). I still doubt I could find most of the places on a map (and actually, there's a reasonable chance some borders have changed since the book was published in 2006).
I haven't tracked down the novels yet, but I've read three of the non-fiction books and am working on a fourth. My least favorite--and it's still quite interesting--is The Hills of Adonis, written in 1967 about a walk through the hills of Lebanon; when he writes about exploring the countries belonging to "the mother goddess", he gets a bit 60s-rhapsodic and I get a bit bored. The whole list of titles and subjects is right here.For those too lazy to click the link, I'll say that his focus is China, Russia, and all the smaller countries in the area where we are so committed to dropping bombs.
Thubron has a way of being both objective and personal that I envy, particularly when he's writing about religion. He seems able to cross cultural and ideological boundaries easily, being respectful without falling into blind admiration--and when he catches himself feeling defensive or confused, he's able to write about it without getting slapsticky. He takes the time to provide small stories (breaking a tooth on a picnic in Uzbekistan) and details (some of which, like the blond hair/blue eyes of countries around the Caspian Sea, come up repeatedly) which makes his writing more appealing and less academic--but the well-researched history is astounding in scope.
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