Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land

by Tim Mackintosh-Smith | Travel |
ISBN: 9780719597404 Global Overview for this book
Registered by blackwidow1971 of Southampton, Hampshire United Kingdom on 2/18/2010
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2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by blackwidow1971 from Southampton, Hampshire United Kingdom on Thursday, February 18, 2010
Mackintosh-Smith travelled to Yemen while studying Arabic, in order to improve his skills. He never left and has been there over 20 years.

This was interesting, but I didn't enjoy it as much as his more recent books. I got into it more as I kept going. It does make me want to go to Yemen, but still slightly put off by those tourists getting kidnapped and shot a few years ago.

Journal Entry 2 by blackwidow1971 from Southampton, Hampshire United Kingdom on Saturday, February 27, 2010
On its way to another BCer as a surprise RABCK to help with her lifetime Geographical Challenge.

Journal Entry 3 by wingLeishaCamdenwing from Alna bydel, Oslo fylke Norway on Wednesday, March 10, 2010
This book arrived in my mailbox yesterday - a total surprise!! Thank you so much, blackwidow! I appreciate it so much, you are so sweet. :-) I've never heard of this writer before but will definitely be reading this book!! :-)

Journal Entry 4 by wingLeishaCamdenwing at Alna bydel, Oslo fylke Norway on Saturday, June 30, 2012
Oops ... !! I've actually read this book, ages ago, but I see that I've been totally forgetting to journal it. I'm sorry!! Better late than never?

I enjoyed this book to the extent that it was interesting to get a bit of a glimpse into a culture that is very little known to me. The book is quite well written. I was put off, though, by the extent to which the author has gone native ... I don't like the way he relativizes this in many ways primitive culture when it comes to the way they treat women and force the sexes into segregation. Also when he talks about khat ... obviously since he has himself become addicted to this drug he feels the need to defend it and minimize the dangers of its use, but I really am not interested in hearing drug users defend their substance of choice. I'm sure many people have great experiences with heroin too, but it's still a harmful drug and the users are deluding themselves ... and the same goes for khat. Yemen is hardly rich enough in water to be wasting such amounts of it on drug production, and I would prefer to have these issues discussed by non-addicts. So that kind of ruined the book for me. The author writes well, but when he shows so relatively little self-insight I don't feel I can trust his insight into this foreign culture too far either. But so far it's definitely the best book I've read about Yemen. ;-) I would recommend the book to others if they're interested in learning about Yemenite culture, however with warnings as to the issues mentioned above. I'm not sure I would want to read more by this author, though.

All in all an interested reading experience, I suppose I have to say. :-) Thank you for sharing it with me, blackwidow! The book will be released very shortly.

Journal Entry 5 by wingLeishaCamdenwing at FriendsFT-OBCZ in Oslo Sentrum, Oslo fylke Norway on Saturday, June 30, 2012

Released 11 yrs ago (6/30/2012 UTC) at FriendsFT-OBCZ in Oslo Sentrum, Oslo fylke Norway

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