oxytocin reviewed Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris
Hmm
2 stars
The author didn't feel relatable/sympathetic to me.
Paperback
Published June 15, 2019 by Vintage Canada.
4 stars
(5 reviews)
As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she most craved--that of a generalist explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and philosopher--had gone extinct. From her small-town home in Ontario, it seemed as if Marco Polo, Magellan and their like had long ago mapped the whole earth. So she vowed to become a scientist and go to Mars.
To pass the time before she could launch into outer space, Kate set off by bicycle down a short section of the fabled Silk Road with her childhood friend Mel Yule, then settled down to study at Oxford and MIT. Eventually the truth dawned on her: an explorer, in any day and age, is by definition the kind of person who refuses to live between the lines. And Harris had soared most fully out of bounds right here on Earth, travelling a bygone trading route on her bicycle. So she quit the laboratory …
As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she most craved--that of a generalist explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and philosopher--had gone extinct. From her small-town home in Ontario, it seemed as if Marco Polo, Magellan and their like had long ago mapped the whole earth. So she vowed to become a scientist and go to Mars.
To pass the time before she could launch into outer space, Kate set off by bicycle down a short section of the fabled Silk Road with her childhood friend Mel Yule, then settled down to study at Oxford and MIT. Eventually the truth dawned on her: an explorer, in any day and age, is by definition the kind of person who refuses to live between the lines. And Harris had soared most fully out of bounds right here on Earth, travelling a bygone trading route on her bicycle. So she quit the laboratory and hit the Silk Road again with Mel, this time determined to bike it from the beginning to end. Like Rebecca Solnit and Pico Iyer before her, Kate Harris offers a travel narrative at once exuberant and meditative, wry and rapturous. Weaving adventure and deep reflection with the history of science and exploration, Lands of Lost Borders explores the nature of limits and the wildness of a world that, like the self and like the stars, can never be fully mapped.
martina.pugliese reviewed Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris
Review of 'Lands of Lost Borders' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I've been on a "adventure/travel" books spree for a while and this didn't disappoint. In fact, I've quite enjoyed it and I've learned a few things. You end up feeling like travelling with the two cyclists along the Silk Road yourself, and this isn't the type of "everything is awesome" book with a touristy approach. It's full of reflections on what is travelling for discovery (yes, even today) and what it means that we are part of nature and must be respectful. I leave here some quotes (for lack of a features that allows you to add them manually if you read a physical book):
"[...] for if people see themselves as distinct and separate from the natural world, they believe they risk nothing in destroying it. What Thoreau was really saying was that he'd travelled wildly in Concord, that you can travel wildly just about anywhere. The wildness of …
I've been on a "adventure/travel" books spree for a while and this didn't disappoint. In fact, I've quite enjoyed it and I've learned a few things. You end up feeling like travelling with the two cyclists along the Silk Road yourself, and this isn't the type of "everything is awesome" book with a touristy approach. It's full of reflections on what is travelling for discovery (yes, even today) and what it means that we are part of nature and must be respectful. I leave here some quotes (for lack of a features that allows you to add them manually if you read a physical book):
"[...] for if people see themselves as distinct and separate from the natural world, they believe they risk nothing in destroying it. What Thoreau was really saying was that he'd travelled wildly in Concord, that you can travel wildly just about anywhere. The wildness of a place or experience" isn't in the place or experience, necessarily, but in you - your capacity to see it, feel it."
"I lay in my sleeping bag, aching all over, and fervently hoped humans never made it to Mars. We didn't deserve a new world; we'd just wreck it all over again."
"The problem with borders, I was beginning to realize, isn't that they are monstrous, offensive and unnatural constructions. The problem with borders is the same as the problem with evil that Hannah Arendt identified: their banality. We subconsciously accept them as part of the landscape - at least those of us privileged by them, granted meaningful passports - because they articulate our deepest, least exalted desire, for prestige and permanence, order and security, always at the cost of someone or something else."
Rainer reviewed Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris
Cool Adventure Story
4 stars
Overall I enjoyed this book, but the author's aside observations in each chapter really made the book feel like a bit of a slog. While many of these were insightful and educational, they interrupted the flow of the adventure story.
I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone interested in cycling, adventure, or the Silk Road. It's a crazy and epic road trip story that will teach you more than a few things about the world.
