Books, Books, Books: Part I
If there's a more apropos place to read Doors of Perception than perched atop a rocky outcrop overlooking Wadi Rum desert in the south of Jordan, than we've yet to visit it
The more or less arbitrary changing of one calendar year to the next seems as good a time as any to start writing up some articles for this site, and since we're big believers in going for the lowest of low hanging fruit (it is the the tastiest after all!), we thought why not start with a list of our favourite books - both travel and otherwise. So without further adieu (accept for a lengthy affiliate disclaimer)….
This article contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something, we may earn a commission.*
*Just joking! You will never find an affiliate link on this site. It's not because we don't need the money (Lord knows we do!), it's because modern capitalism is total scam and we refuse to take part in it whenever we can.
Also, let's be honest, virtually 100% of the time "affiliate link" is just a euphemism for Amazon aka Evil Corp aka the real life Bond villain who goes by the name of Jeff Bezos. No thanks! If any of the books below sound interesting to you, try to buy them from a local bookshop, or just check them out from a library - yes, those are still things, who knew? Of course, we're also blatant hypocrites, because the Amazon subsidiary bookdepository.com has long been our bookshop of choice. The low prices and free international shipping are too good to resist. Being ethical usually isn't cheap, and once again, we're poor….
Travel Books
Since this is ostensibly a travel website, let's go ahead and start with some travel books….
The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton
tl;dr Our first true love in the realm of travel writing. Combining philosophy, art and literature, it lays out what exactly travel is and why we do it, in a series of easy to digest themed vignettes.
[NB: Our opinion of both The Art of Travel and de Botton was - rightly or wrongly - retroactively taken down a notch or two after we found out he was the heir to a €500m fortune left by his Swiss financier father. So if that's something that might affect your opinion too, then it's better you don't read the preceding sentence.]
De Botton's trip to Provence and the life and work of Vincent van Gogh are the basis for Chapter 7 in the Art of Travel: On Eye-Opening Art
Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb
tl;dr All the more interesting bits of 20th century southern Italy ('On Art, Food, Travel, History & La Cosa Nostra' is the subtitle) woven into a thoroughly enjoyable travelogue.
Friends and anti-mafia magistrates Paolo Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone were both assassinated in 1992, but did at least get Palermo Airport named in their honour and also play key roles in Midnight in Sicily
Chains of Heaven by Philip Mardsen
tl;dr All the most interesting bits of 20th century Ethiopia woven into a thoroughly enjoyable travelogue, primarily covering the rugged north of the country.
[NB: This one is a bit bittersweet though, as we read it whilst stuck in Addis Ababa for a week rather than visiting the places being written about in person, after learning the hard way that during Christmas time literally every single plane and bus out of the capital will be fully booked well in advance. Oops….]
Reading Chains of Heaven is all but guaranteed to make you want to visit Lalibela, Ethiopia - just make sure to plan ahead if you go around Christmas time © Gerald Schombs / Unsplash
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
tl;dr A French dandy's early 19th century observations of America and its people are still depressingly accurate almost two-hundred years later. Should be required reading for all Americans.
Sure, Alexis de Tocqueville was an aristocratic French dandy who scammed a free nine-month trip to the United States on the French government's dime by pretending to be studying the US prison system, but don't let that dissuade you from the fact that many of his insightful observations still seem insightful two centuries later
In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin
tl;dr Bruce Chatwin was kind of a cunt - both in his personal and professional life - but if you can get over the fact that he shamelessly betrayed the trust of a whole host of fascinating characters in Patagonia, this is one of the best travel books ever written.
The penguins of Punta Arenas, Chile might look adorable, but just whisper the name of Patagonian persona non grata Bruce Chatwin, and this vicious little guy will waddle over, spit in your eye and not feel guilty about it for one second © Elisa Kerschbaumer / Unsplash
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
tl;dr If forced to chose our single favourite book at gunpoint, we'd almost certainly hesitate way too long and end up getting shot (which means everyone reading this now knows that we're a Libra), but Hemingway's posthumously published memoir of his years balancing carousing amongst a who's who of famed expats with having a young family (not balancing well mind you, he was a Cancer, definitely not a Libra, so it was like 90/10 in favour of the carousing) in the most romantic city's most romantic decade, 1920s Paris, would be one of the first to cross our mind.
Hemingway & Co outside Shakespeare & Co in Paris, 1923 © Agentur Bridgeman
Line in the Sand by James Barr
tl;dr Okay, this isn't a travel book, but it so succinctly and objectively (as possible) explains how the Middle East became the clusterfuck it is today, that it should be required reading for anyone travelling to or interested in the region. Spoiler alert: It's all the fault of the British and French (but mostly the French) and colonialism was fucking terrible.
The titular ‘line in the sand' as originally drawn up by two historical bastards of epic proportions, Mark Sykes & François Georges-Picot. Also, for what it's worth, the name itself is a misnomer, because there's really not much sand there © Royal Geographical Society
Books That Are More Important Than the Travel Ones Above
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
tl;dr Will change the way you see human history and society. In short, basically everything is a just a shared myth with zero grounding in any kind of objective reality. In other words, the same underlying principles of crypto currencies and Ponzi schemes have more or less been the basis for all of human civilisation. Ouch.....
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
tl;dr Will change the way you feel about everything you believe. In short, most of your beliefs and opinions (from your strongest convictions to what you want for lunch) essentially exist because your brain is fucking lazy most of the time.
Humankind by Rutger Bregman
tl;dr The antidote to our hopelessly polarised contemporary society. In short, people and human nature are generally quite decent, all the most famous examples showing otherwise are total bullshit, and Bregman has all the receipts to prove it.
[NB: Can't be bothered to google the book or even play the clip below? The promotional article / summary of the book's first chapter will surely pique your interest: “The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months”. See? That tingly feeling in your orbitofrontal cortex is your interest being piqued….]
This clip has nothing at all to do with Humankind, but his first (and presumably last) appearance at Davos in January 2019 definitely helped sell some books.
How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
& Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxely
tl;dr Will change the way you see drugs, especially psychedelic drugs. Pollan investigates the re-emergence of scientific research into various psychedelic drugs, which had to take a forced three-decade hiatus, because Timothy Leary was too much a self-serving loudmouth. Doors of Perception is way shorter, rambling and philosophical, but also much broader in its historical scope, and of course also gave us the excuse to use that borderline surreal photo from Wadi Rum for the header of this article.
Walkable City by Jeff Speck
tl;dr Will change the way you see cities and the quality of life in general. In short, urban planners have spent the last 70 some years building cities for cars, even when it has been obvious for the past 40 some years that what they were doing was making cities shittier places to live for people.
[NB: If you can read this in a city like Kuala Lumpur, Dubai or pretty much any major city in the US that's not NYC you'll appreciate it much more, because you can see all of the terrible, 20th century, car-oriented, urban planning principles in action on a constant basis.]
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
tl;dr We never read this because the premise - TV is bad - seemed pretty matter of fact, but turns out it's actually way more applicable today than it was in 1985, so much so that we gifted copies of the book to more than a dozen people as soon as we finished reading it.
[Or in the words of my much more articulate friend Ian's hastily written FB message: “Neil Postman is a genius - that rare form of genius that yields bear clairvoyance. His descriptions of the problems associated with information glut as well as the double edged “Faustian bargain” that technology represents in our culture and our lives is so apropos to the modern age. One he saw emerging on the horizon 30+ years ago.”]
Don't be thrown off by the low quality of the recording, this two-part interview more or less sums up the major ideas in the book.
Propaganda by Edward Bernays
tl;dr Both lauded (and reviled, but sadly much more of the former than the latter) as the godfather of public relations, and to a large extent modern marketing in general, the most surprising thing about Bernays’ modestly-sized masterwork from 1928 is how brazenly it explains exactly how to manipulate the masses for whatever purposes you might have in mind - selling them loads of crap they don't need, getting them to vote for terrible political candidates, or just convincing them that all the evil shit their government does abroad is actually righteous and just. It's as impressive as it is terrifying.
Our first intention was to include a video from the contemporary Slovene indie rock band Bernays Propoganda, but then decided that this topic deserves some seriousness. Don't be thrown off by the Lego thumbnail, as the narrator has a British accent, which more than makes up for it when it comes to being serious.
Unabomber Manifestos
Industrial Society and Its Future by Ted Kaczynski
tl;dr More or less perfectly lays out how people are controlled, society is managed and technology has basically doomed humankind. The only small shortcoming is that his solution is absurdly impractical and immoral (depending of course on one's morals). But still quite impressive for an insane genius who lived alone in the woods for more than two decades.
Assistant Professor Ted Kaczynski at UC Berkeley in April 1968. Despite appearances, he'd apparently already lost his proverbial shit at this point, but was still a year or two away from moving into the woods, and starting work on his magnum opus © George M. Bergman
That's it. Happy reading! At some point there might be a Books, Books, Books: Part II that adds some fiction to the mix, but since empty promises and procrastination are two of our favourite things, don't count on it.....