Travelers' Tales: India
Can't stop thinking about this book. Want to read it all the time. To me the very best kind of nonficiton is that that makes you feel you are sitting in a really thoughtful, well-illustrated lecture by an subject expert who takes great joy in sharing experiences and getting you excited about the subject too. This is one of those books. I especially like how it compiles different lengths of text on a much bigger array of subjects than would ever occur to me to look for. And I keep learning things and discovering bits of history and culture that I've never heard of. For example, the amazing ruins of Hampi, the capital of the Vijayanagar empire - which includes a temple whose columns are musical - slap them with your hand and they produce a pitch and are tuned to each other for sympathetic resonance. I was certain I couldn't handle a flat-out history of India without some kind of accompanying class, but the essays here definitely build up a sense of different times and peoples. My only complaint is about the maps: there are two maps but neither is clearly labeled or definied. The first one has regions marked out but I'm not sure if the areas are states or provinces or something else, or if they are historical or current. There is also another map, a few pages away, with cities. I wish these were combined. It takes me a few flips back and forth to really locate each of the essays.
