To be discussed at the February Lass O'Gowrie book club meeting:

Blurb: Lost Cosmonaut documents Daniel Kalder's travels in the bizarre and mysterious worlds of Russia's ethnic republics. Obsessed with a quest he never fully understands, Kalder boldly goes where no man has gone before: in the deserts of Kalmykia, he stumbles upon a city dedicated to chess and a forgotten tribe of Mongols; in Mari El, home to Europe's last pagan nation, he meets the Chief Druid and participates in an ancient rite; while in the bleak industrial badlands of Udmurtia, Kalder looks for Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK47, and accidentally becomes a TV star.

I actually enjoyed this one. It got slated at the book club for having nothing in it of interest and no body seemed to like the author.

On the other end I thought it was refreshing because there was nothing in it and the author wasn't likable.

On the back of the book it says that the author has an 'anti-tourism attitude' and if you read it knowing that then I think it's enjoyable. It is very surface skimming, not your usual travel journal type book, but it's quite nice to read a bit about some places that I am never likely to visit and in fact, didn't know existed! The author provides some interesting facts and descriptions about the places and although he doesn't make himself particularly likeable as a protagonist, it's still an enjoyable book and pretty quick to read.

Received today in Madison, WI, USA - what a nice surprise! The packaging was mighty tight; I had to jam a pair of scissors into it to get a hole to open it, thankfully it didn't cut any pages. Looking forward to reading it when I get a chance to tackle Mt. TBR. Thanks for the postcard as well!