oxytocin reviewed Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris
Hmm
2 stars
The author didn't feel relatable/sympathetic to me.
Paperback, 336 pages
English language
Published July 25, 2019 by HarperCollins Publishers.
3 stars
(6 reviews)
In the vein of Rebecca Solnit and Pico Iyer, a fierce debut about the author's decision to bike the Silk Road from beginning to end, and about the limits we place on ourselves and our natural world.
As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she craved—to be an explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and metaphysician—had gone extinct. From what she could tell of the world from small-town Ontario, the likes of Marco Polo and Magellan had mapped the whole earth; there was nothing left to be discovered. Looking beyond this planet, she decided to become a scientist and go to Mars.
In between studying at Oxford and MIT, Harris set off by bicycle down the fabled Silk Road with her childhood friend Mel. Pedaling mile upon mile in some of the remotest places on earth, she realized that an explorer, in any day and age, is the kind of …
In the vein of Rebecca Solnit and Pico Iyer, a fierce debut about the author's decision to bike the Silk Road from beginning to end, and about the limits we place on ourselves and our natural world.
As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she craved—to be an explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and metaphysician—had gone extinct. From what she could tell of the world from small-town Ontario, the likes of Marco Polo and Magellan had mapped the whole earth; there was nothing left to be discovered. Looking beyond this planet, she decided to become a scientist and go to Mars.
In between studying at Oxford and MIT, Harris set off by bicycle down the fabled Silk Road with her childhood friend Mel. Pedaling mile upon mile in some of the remotest places on earth, she realized that an explorer, in any day and age, is the kind of person who refuses to live between the lines. Forget charting maps, naming peaks: what she yearned for was the feeling of soaring completely out of bounds. The farther she traveled, the closer she came to a world as wild as she felt within.
Lands of Lost Borders is the chronicle of Harris’s odyssey and an exploration of the importance of breaking the boundaries we set ourselves; an examination of the stories borders tell, and the restrictions they place on nature and humanity; and a meditation on the existential need to explore—the essential longing to discover what in the universe we are doing here. Like Rebecca Solnit and Pico Iyer, Kate Harris offers a travel account at once exuberant and reflective, wry and rapturous.
Lands of Lost Borders explores the nature of limits and the wildness of the self that can never fully be mapped. Weaving adventure and philosophy with the history of science and exploration, Lands of Lost Borders celebrates our connection as humans to the natural world, and ultimately to each other—a belonging that transcends any fences or stories that may divide us.
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.
Subjects
- Bicycle touring
- Silk road
- Women, biography
- Asia, central, description and travel