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Reading

Felix Luna: A Short History of the Argentinians
An excellent book for any traveller to Argentina. Clear, easy to read and covering the county's turbulent history from independence up to the second government of Juan Peron.
Charles McCormac: You'll Die in Singapore: The True Account of One of the Most Amazing POW Escapes in WWII
Jolting account of Allied servicemen escaping from Singapore's horrific Pasir Panjang Japanese POW camp. A study in human suffering and determination. Excellent.
Don Starkell: Paddle to the Amazon
Father and son enter the Guinness Book of Records for the longest canoe journey ever from Winnipeg, Canada to Belem, Brazil - an amazing modern day adventure story
Giles Milton: White Gold
The terrible tale of the European slaves, kidnapped at sea by the infamous Barbary Corsairs and sold to Moulay Ismail, the inhuman first Sultan of Morocco.
Heinrich Harrer: Seven Years in Tibet (Paladin Books)
Latterly controversial because of his Nazi past, but still one of the greatest adventure stories ever written
Ben Macintyre: Josiah the Great: The True Story of the Man Who Would Be King
The strange story of the American adventurer who apparently inspired Kipling's character "Daniel Dravot"
JRL Anderson: The Ulysses Factor
Fascinating theories about the urge to explore by modern men and women, some ideas dated but a thought provoking read
Robert Graves: Goodbye to all that
The harrowing autobiography of the young poet in WW1
George Pottinger: Afghan Connection
The story of Ulsterman Major Eldred Pottinger, the legendary "Hero of Herat" Excellent.
Ekai Kawaguchi: Three Years In Tibet
Japanese Buddhist monk disguises himself and sneaks into the forbidden kingdom of Tibet at the turn of the 20th Century
George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London (Essential.penguin S.)
Brilliant and insightful read into the lives of the underclass
Mary S. Lovell: A Rage to Live
Recent Bio of the legendary explorer, with new material. Lady Burton gets a fairer treatment too, belatedly. A must
Fawn Brodie: The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton
The classic biography of the most extraordinary man of an extraordinary era

Fiction

Bao Ninh: The Sorrow of War
Vivid novel about the Vietnam War, from the perspective of a North Vietnamese soldier. Brutal and tender at the same time.
Joseph Conrad: Lord Jim
Conrad, the master of the exotic. Here he returns to a favourite theme: White man plays God with the natives and becomes undone. Unlike Kurtz, Jim is an innocent.
Malcolm Lowry: Under the Volcano
Geoffrey Firmin. A broken Englishman drinking himself to death in Mexico. Lowry's haunting yet elegiac tale has the most callously vivid final sentence of any book I've ever read.
Jack London: The Sea Wolf
Has there ever been in literature a character as monstrously magnificent as Wolf Larsen? London's raw and brutal adventure is an often shocking psychological study.
Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness
"The horror! The horror!" Conrad's bleak adventure tale lifts the false veneer of civilisation, exposing the savage heart of man underneath. The inspiration behind "Apocalypse Now", one of cinema's finest moments.
Wu Ch'eng-En: Monkey
We all remember the slapstick craziness of the 1970's "Monkey" TV series. The classic story of "Journey to the West" by Wu Ch'eng-en shows there's more depth to this quintessentially Chinese fable than one would at first imagine
James Hilton: Lost Horizon
The search for "Shangri-La". Hilton's classic adventure launched a thousand identically named hotels (none like the real thing of course), and quite a few regional Chinese tourist agency disputes. But does Shangri-La (Shambhala?) exist? If so, where can it be found?
Jack Kerouac: The Dharma Bums (Penguin Modern Classics)
"Better to sleep in an uncomfortable bed free, than a comfortable bed unfree" - so speaks the master chronicler of life on the road

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Wednesday, 16 January 2008

A Tale of Two Parades

Phew! It's been a while since I last posted on here! Many things have happened since returning from our around the world trip. First off V and I and Big J visited Northern Ireland, where the two limeys got to see their first Glorious Twelth parade in Ballymena. It was a funny drunken day, and we met a few nutters that I grew up with, including this one:

We also visited Giant's Causeway on the north Antim coast, and it was a glorious summer day. Not often you can say that about Northern Ireland.

Back to England for August and V and I rented a new flat in Brighton, right next to Preston Park. The Brighton Gay Pride parade literally marched past our front window, and we got a load of beers in, watched the parade then went to the park which was heaving with people. These photos are great.

As for the future - V and I are living back at her Mum's house for a while. We're both out of work, although I've been doing a few security jobs here and there. I'm waiting on word for a security job in Uganda/DRC in Africa, but I'm not sure if it will happen at all. As for adventure and travel - who knows what 2008 will bring. If it happens it will be detailed here, Insh'allah.