Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road

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A travelogue and memoir of the author s journey by bicycle along the Silk Road, and an exploration of the history and future of exploration itself.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. New Read Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road Author Kate Harris For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr The end of the road was always just out of sight Cracked asphalt deepened into night beyond the reach of our headlamps, the thin beams swallowed by the blackness that receded before us no matter how fast we biked Light was a kind of pavement thrown down in front of our wheels, and the road went on and on If you ever reach the end, I remember thinking, I ll fly off the rim of the world I pedaled harder Some lights shine brighter The sky is full of stars, all with their distinct glow, col The end of the road was always just out of sight Cracked asphalt deepened into night beyond the reach of our headlamps, the thin beams swallowed by the blackness that receded before us no matter how fast we biked Light was a kind of pavement thrown down in front of our wheels, and the road went on and on If you ever reach the end, I remember thinking, I ll fly off the rim of the world I pedaled harder Some lights shine brighter The sky is full of stars, all with their distinct glow, color, and twi... Beyond avenging my childhood ideals of explorers, and figuring out how to be one myself, I wanted to bike the Silk Road as a practical extension of my thesis at Oxford to study how borders make and break what is wild in the world, from mountain ranges to people s minds, and how science, orspecifically wilderness conservation, might bridge those divides So there I was, rich in unemployable university degrees, poor in cash, with few possessions to my name beyond a tent, a bicycle, and som Beyond avenging my c...I received an advance reader s copy fro a Goodreads giveaway You can t hep but admire the determination of Ms Harris and her companion Mel to complete the bicycle journey along the Silk Road This journey took over a year in conditions varying from freezing to scorching temperatures, and very little in the way of creature comforts along the way I really enjoyed her descriptions of the terrain, and the many of the historical references to the locations s...What a disappointing book Kate came across as incredibly privileged I wouldn t have minded reading a book about a woman who biked across Asia and read about her journey from start to finish I would have loved reading about a woman who travels off the beaten path and makes deep meaningful relationships with people and their cultures Reading her boast for pages and pages about how she s an explorer and destined for greatness, chronicling her Oxford and MIT experiences didn t wow me Was it sup What a...I had been craving a good travel memoir for some time now Kate Harris Lands of Lost Borders not only hit the spot, it completely exceeded my expectations Packed with historical, geographic and scientific facts, literary references and philosophical wisdom, this book is an impressive debut and well deserving the recognition Harris passion, curiosity, and love for mountainous landscapes and vast spaces are contagious Though I ve never felt particularly drawn to Central Asia as a travel de I had been craving a good travel memoir for some time now Kate Harris Lands of Lost Borders not only hit the spot, it completely exceeded my expectations Packed with historical, geographic and scientific facts, literary references and philosophical wisdom, t...Disclaimer I did not receive a free copy of Land of Lost Borders A Journey on the Silk Road I paid full price for it at the bookstore and I am so glad that I did Kate Harris really is a wonderful writer and eventhan that she is a wonderful thinker Her ability to make connections between her lived and inner experiences and the wider, wilder, world are what make this book fulfilling There are so many books out there about journeys alone the Silk Road that it would seem as though one mo Disclaimer I did not receive a free copy of Land of Lost Borders A Journey on the Silk Road I paid full price for it at the bookstore and I am so glad that I did Kate Harris really is a wonderful writer and eventhan that she is a wonderful thin...I won an advanced copy of Lands of Lost Borders from the publisher and it arrived just as I got sick with the first bad cold of the winter I was so excited to delve right in to this delicious read and escape my misery This book is part memoir, part adventure travel guide, part history lesson and part science fiction at least for me Harris had always dreamed of traveling to Mars but found herself instead cycling from Istanbul, Turkey to Leh, India. roughly 10,000 km in 1o months For me, he I won an advanced copy of Lands of Lost Borders from the publisher and it arrived just as I got sick with the first bad cold of the winter I was so excited to delve right in to this delicious read and escape my misery This book is part memoir, part adventure travel guide, part history lesson and part science fiction at least for me Harris had always dreamed of traveling to Mars but found herself instead cycling from Istanbul, Turkey to Leh, India. roughly 10,000 km in 1o months For me, her story might as well have taken place on Mars It seemed as remote, unfamiliar and at times, as inhabitable, as life on another planet I can t say her story inspired me to want to live on instant noodles for months at a time or sneak across any border check points but it did make me want to be adaring an...Reading can be such a wonderful conduit for travel Good literature transports its readers in time and space, widening perspectives and broadening horizons Travel literature is the antithesis to travelling through reading People who write books or even worse blogs on their travels are often suffering from two conditions that go hand in hand inflated sense of self, and a condescending cough, ORIENTALIST, cough view of the rest of the world I so wanted Kate Harris to prove my ideas a Reading can be such a wonderful conduit for travel Good literature transports its readers in time and space, widening perspectives and broadening horizons Travel literature is the antithesis to travelling through reading People who write books or even worse blogs on their travels are often suffering from two conditions that go hand in hand inflated sense of self, and a condescending cough, ORIENTALIST, cough view of the rest of the world I so wanted Kate Harris to prove my ideas about travel writing wrong, but instead she provided me ...From small town Ontario, Kate Harris went on to study at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, and earned science degrees from UNC and MIT The passion driving her was space exploration but once she ended up in a lab she took off to explore the Silk Road by bicycle and reinvented herself as a nature and travel writer Her writing style, powers of observation and academic background, along with her thirst for e... Lands of Lost Borders A Journey on the Silk Road is a delightful memoir by author Kate Harris Inspired as a child when she found an illustrated and abridged book, belonging to her mother, and highlighting Marco Polo s travels on the Silk Road Combine that with an adventurous spirit and the dream of one day, pursuing science and perhaps going to Mars, Harris talks a childhood friend, Mel, in accompanying her cycling the fabled and historic Silk Road What follows is an exciting adventure and a Lands of Lost Borders A Journey on the Silk Road is a delightful mem...

Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road
  • English
  • 15 March 2017
  • Hardcover
  • 320 pages
  • 0062839349
  • Kate Harris
  • Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road