Andrew Eames, an adventurous, insightful and sympathetic observer, sets out to travel from London to Baghdad by train, following the route of the old Orient Express and an identical journey made by Agatha Christie in 1928. Agatha's journey was to change her life completely and led to her spending thirty seasons on archaeological digs in the deserts of Syria and Iraq. Eames's own journey reveals fascinating details of this little-known but exotic chapter in the life of the world's most wifdely read author.

While this was well-written and contained lots of information, I struggled with it. Whether it was because there was just too much information, or that the writer kept drifting off in different directions, I'm not sure.

I finioshed it, but only because it was for a reading group - otherwise I would probably have given up!

Hope someone else enjoys it more!

RELEASE NOTES:

Sending to CandyDarling

The book arrived today, thank you camis! I'm really looking forward to reading this book, as I'm a student of Assyriology and thus very interested in the Iraq region. As I was looking through this book today, I realized I probably should read Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express before reading this though. I've only read a couple of her Miss Marple mysteries when I was 10, and didn't like them much, so maybe I should try a Hercule Poirot mystery instead.

Giving this to pippis, who will give it to sakirmo, who has promised to give it to Makke after she has read it. :)

The book made it here, many thanks to everyone involved! :)

The book looks heavy and thick but I got through it surprisingly fast. Not least because I'm always keen on travelogues, especially if it's about a place I haven't been to yet. I could have done without all the Agatha Christie stories (sure I'm very impressed by her travels back in the 20s/30s but didn't really care to read about her writing career or love life right now) and all historical ramblings weren't quite so interesting to me either, but mostly I enjoyed this book. Too bad it's not the best idea to start planning a train trip to Syria or Iraq these days, I feel kinda tempted to do that just now.

And now on to makke at today's (hopefully) meet-up!

Oh yeah, got it today! Thanks to all!

I didn't proceed with this that fast either but I on my side liked the book a lot. The journey itself was fascinating and Eames manages to create a captivating combination of on-going and slow travelling. I've never been to the places located along his journey but I was happy with the way he wrote about them. And the little side paths he took didn't bother me, they belong to travelling, too. He also described the people he met in a very interesting way. I learned a lot of new things, too, such as about the Balkan crisis and the history of Trieste. The part I liked most was anyhow the rail connection between Turkey and Syria.

Making a bicycle trip to neighbouring town and dropping this to the mailbox of the next reader as a wishlist tag.

Thank you for the wishlistbook! You really rode your bicycle all the way here! Amazing. I hope you enjoyed your journey and the scenery. :)

I can't get into reading this book, so time to pass it on.

BC-KESÄPÄIVÄT

Onnittelut! Olet löytänyt aarteen, kiertävän bookcrossing-kirjan!
Lue, journaloi ja vapauta uudelleen.