101 Most Influential People who never lived
It's purpose "to provoke debate and discussion."
It's real purpose is to fill what the authors perceived as a publishing niche with things like "academic" discussions of the importance of such characters as Kermit the Frog, Charlie Brown and Tom Sawyer. Absolute rubbish, best read on the toilet; probably, in fact, written with that in mind. A shame, there is a market for a dictionary or guidebook to fictional characters in literature. This isn't it. Note to publisher: Print next edition on Toilet Paper.
Travelers' Tales Tibet
There's something about Tibet that spurs the imagination. That used to spur the imagination, I'm only half through this book yet I'm beginning to feel that I've had one too many Yak-Butter Teas, and I've never been. The multiplicity of points of view are homogeneous, most of the writers going out of the way to get off the beaten track, record their adventures, and yet somehow there's a dull repetition in it that accords badly with their mission. What was I looking for? I don't know. Tales of levitation, of enlightened monks and hidden monasteries and esoteric manuscripts and teachings, not another soul-searching trekker, mountain biker or land-roverer talk about how bloody cold it was and how it's not how it used to be and how bad China is to have taken them over. I wondered about this - I mean, how can you write a boring travel article about Tibet - and then it dawned on me. There are no Tibetans in the book. I mean, there are the stock descriptions - the "Color" that serves as a background to the western searcher's spiritual awakening, but there are no Tibetan characters.There are some good writers - Heinrich Harrer, Wade Davis, yet it just doesn't come together in a way that makes for a great or riveting read. And the format of the book, with the little inset quotes and blurbs (designed to look like a travel guide, presenting you with factoids and other author's opinions, always as boring as the author your currently reading...). Give it a miss. There are much better travel books out there. And if you're going to Tibet I'd request that when you're done you please don't write about it. Or if you absolutely have to I challenge you to see if you can do it in an intelligent way that doesn't make the Dalai Lama or the Tibetan cause the backdrop of your spiritual journey, I challenge you to do it without talking about Yak-Butter Tea or how cold it is or how badly you're feeling the effects of altitude sickness. It's all been done, we know.