The Silk Roads: A Route and Planning Guide

(This refers to the 3rd edition, printed in the UK in 2010.) Packed with information describing a modern travel writer’s experience and research on a complex series of routes across several Asian countries developed by the Mongols more than a thousand years ago, this book—despite very fine print on nearly 450 pages—is legible and well informed. There is SO much information that to compress it all into a tightly-bound volume makes it difficult to read without holding the book open to any page with both hands. As a well-worn traveler myself, I customarily make pencil markings in a book of this nature to identify details I want to remember and access again. The book covers routes between Turkey, Syria, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and China. Like the several routes formed by the Silk Road, the geography alone, plus cultural differences and history entail considerable volume plus travel details to retrace any and/or all of these routes beyond a superficial summary. Trying to incorporate so much information into one volume requires physical considerations to pack it all in. For the reader, physical demands require a heightened level of dexterity which leads to awkwardness to fully open the book. With this much detail a spiral format would make the book more accessible and easier to read. As it is, it might be too bulky to pack for a trip when traveling portions of any of the Silk Road routes, but invaluable if planning to cover large sections in the same journey. Having traveled portions of these routes myself the corresponding text that I have read so far are compatible with my own experiences. Who knows, if it were easier to read the book, I might be less enthralled—but at this point I recommend it as a reference for anyone interested in the history and current conditions of these grand traverses, especially if considering retracing any of them.