The Black Sea: A History - Charles King

A basic history of the region.  Bit of an uninspiring read but some good background information.  While King covers the basics, he doesn't necessarily do a great job of putting things in the wider context - I am currently reading another book on the same subject which is much better in that way. (Black Sea by Neal Ascherson)  The most interesting part was the section about the Kalmouks and their reverse migration during the time of Catherine the Great.

Some interesting characters to look up:
Pero Tafur - Travels and Adventures - travelling in the area in the 1430s
Bratianu - La mer noire - Hungarian monks travelling the area in the same period

To find:
The Western Question in Greece and Turkey - Arnold Toynbee

Adventure Cycle-Touring Handbook - Stephen Lord

- latest edition from 2010
Includes some discussion of bikes, gear, how-to, etc.
Most of the book looks at touring in specific regions and includes some helpful information without going into too much detail.
Might be worth buying depending on what else is out there.

Bike Touring: The Sierra Club Guide

Detailed but understandable discussion of many technical aspects of choosing bikes, components and gear.  Also includes well-explained sections on packing, shipping bikes, planning trips, etc.  Does not discuss specific areas or tours.
Probably worth buying?

The Coming Anarchy - Robert D. Kaplan

Originally published in 1994.  It seems like a collection of shorter pieces probably written for magazines.  Focuses on the future of the political international landscape after the fall of the USSR.  Makes predictions about developments in various parts of the world in the coming decade.  He predicts increased strife, more tribal or ethnic politics  and political divisions.  It would be interesting if I had the time to take some of his specific predictions and examine how events and politics have unfolded in that area since 1994 - now almost 20 years ago.

The most interesting piece is entitled, "Was Democracy Just a Moment".  It looks at various forces which Kaplan claims will make it unlikely that functional democracy will take hold in many areas of the developing world:  poverty, economic stagnation, powerful elites, conflicting racial or ethnic identities, regionalism, the rise of international corporate power and the shrinking power domain of governments.   He also traces some of these same factors eating away at democratic institutions in the U.S.  He also mentions some noteworthy failures of democratic government (Hitler, Mussolini, Rwanda) and points to some authoritarian leaders who have on the whole had a beneficial effect of their country's social well-beoing.  Worth a reread.


To find:  Balkan Ghosts, Robert D. Kaplan

Silk Road - A New History Valerie Hansen

An interesting approach to the topic; different point of view.  Well organized into chapters focusing on specific key locations or sections of the trading routes, examining archaeological evidence.  Also an interesting chapter devoted to the Sogdians, who seem to really be the only people who actually moved along the whole eastern end of the route, from Khorasan to China, and even further afield.

Some very interesting suggestions regarding the nature of this trading route:
- mostly short, local trading
- silk moved along it chiefly as a way of paying the Chinese troops stationed on the route as far as wester Xinjiang
- troop payments and supplies were the chief driving engine of the route.


Well-written, generally a happy medium between scholarly and popular.  Good reference text.

To find:

The Silk Road, Sven Hedin 1936

Life of Hiuen-Tsiang, trans. Samuel Beal
A Biography of the Tripitaka Master, trans. Li Rongxi