There are good books worth reading and this post is not actually related to travel as such but more in way of sharing some very well written, informative and interesting books with you, the readers of this blog.
In our world of electronics and eReaders, being able to access excellent reading materials is made simpler or in the event you wish to read a "book" like I do, then there are a number of ways to obtain a copy of the books that I will mention in this post.
In the lists below you will not find romantic novels, fictional writings but instead historical accounts which for those who enjoy well written and informative books, then these are some of the best reading materials I can recommend.
1. With so much of our daily press and news reports showing the problems in what we call "The Middle East", there is one book which was originally authored a long time ago and then updated years later to include more recent developments. The original author is Peter Mansfield and you can take this link to read a bit about his biography. During his career one of the last books he wrote prior to his death was one of the best overall historical accounts of the development and formation of what we now know as the "Middle East". His book is written with great details and in a very non-political fashion. The original book has been revised by his colleague, Nicolas Pelham, who has now published a 4th edition which updates the original writings through 2012. This book, though it was originally written many years ago is still very relevant to what is going on in this region of the world. In a sense it also explains why the Russians behave they way in which they are concerning Syria. The title of the book is "A History of the Middle East". Here are the links to the book and eBook as well. I encourage any one who enjoys reading and wishes to understand how this part of the world formed and developed to read this book.
2. During the 19th century a rivalry existed between the British and French which in a sense revolved around their own respective colonial empires of that time. The French had accomplished grand projects as had the British but their rivalry still continued with each country trying to out do the other. It was during this time frame that a lowly French engineer came up with a plan to put the French back on the "look what we have done" map and his plan was centered in North Africa, in the then French colony of Algeria. His plan was audacious, bold, and in a region that had never truly been mapped or traveled by Europeans, yet he was determined to succeed in one of the grandest schemes conceived at that time. His plan; to construct a Trans-Africa railway which would follow the old caravan routes from the Sudan, across North Africa and ending on the coast of Morocco. The book is written from factual accounts which were contained in the public media (news papers), letters, expedition progress report dispatches, and survivors of the expeditions. The title of the book is "Sands of Death". This book is an extremely well written account of this little known historical event. The author writes in such wonderful details that you can almost smell the air, see the color of rocks as they travel through the deep canyons or feel the heat of the sand as you read the book. Here are the links to the book and eBook as well. I hope that you will either buy or download this book as it chronicles one of the grandest of plans and failures in the history or that era (time).
3. For any WWII enthusiast there is one book which was written that gave an extremely excellent account of the war in the Pacific region. This book begins with a short history of the American thinking about trade with the Pacific region, specifically Japan. The book follows historical accounts from the first American encounter with Japan through the end of WWII in the Pacific. It is written in such great details which chronicles the Japanese military high command decision making and planning and the reasons for their entry into the war. It also gives some of the best untold accounts during the war and how, toward the end, the Americans planned to finish the war, their decisions and methods for bombing the Japanese mainland islands and why the two atomic weapons were finally deployed. The name of the book is called "Flyboys". Without giving too much away at this point, a little know fact of the war was that when the Japanese were facing terrible losses, their military commanders sent a communication to their stranded soldiers in New Guinea advising them that there would be no rescue and the fact that the soldiers had no supplies of food meant that starvation was becoming a problem. The communication addressed the lack of food supplies in this way "forage" meaning find your own food on the island and this led to something that little has been written or spoken about until this book was published. Here are the links to the book and eBook as well. At the very end of the book there are some statistics which will simply shock the reader and in terms of the book as a whole, I have never read an account as detailed as is contained in this book for the war in the Pacific.
4. The English language never truly had its own dictionary unlike the French language so it was decided to do something about this as the British wanted to document the use of the English language in the form of a dictionary. This compilation of words, their origins, usage and meaning began around 1865 and there is a book which was written by the author Simon Winchester. This book is a fascinating account of how the Oxford English Dictionary was researched, who the the principal single contributor to the dictionary was and is one of the best accounts written on the subject. The name of the book is "The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary". Here are the links to the book and eBook as well. The book goes into exquisite details about how the British viewed the importance of the English language as well as other beliefs during that time in history. This is an excellent read for anyone interested in learning how this amazing collection of the words in the English language came about.
This next bit is not directly related to books but instead an excellent series as published on the BBC.com web site. It is a link to their vast collection of history and after I reviewed this I decided to include this link for you to see. Please click here and this will open a new browser window to their link. I found it very interesting, especially the one on ancient history and I hope that you will find it as interesting too.
Happy Reading