Stephen R. Bown is a critically acclaimed author of several literary non-fiction books on the history of science, exploration and ideas.His latest book is Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on the World's Greatest Scientific Expedition.
Recently I asked the Bown about what he was reading. His reply:
Right now I’m reading the memoir of the man who spent 23 years backpacking around the world visiting every country and region on the planet. It is called The World’s Most Travelled Man: A Twenty-Three Year Odyssey to and Through Every Country on the Planet, written by Mike Spencer Bown. Mike is my brother, so many of his incredible stories are familiar to me from talks over the years. He didn’t start out with a plan to visit everywhere, he began as most travellers do, exploring different countries out of curiosity and a sense of adventure. But Mike continued beyond the natural time for travel one has in their 20s: he and his then girlfriend ran a gardening accoutrement business out of Bali in the 1990s and he continued travelling around Asia during the off seasons. For the past ten years, however,Learn more about the book and author at Stephen R. Bown's website and Facebook page.Mike has single-mindedly devoted most of each year to travel in dangerous and unpleasant places. His stories include being the first tourist in war-torn Mogadishu, hitchhiking through Iraq during the Second Gulf War, being served a platter of goat eyeballs as the guest of honor at a Mongolian feast, and living and hunting with the Mbuti Pygmy tribe in the Congo. His philosophy of travel, and life in general, is “stories, not stamps” – a reference to a certain type of traveller who does so merely to get a stamp in their passport, which he suggests would be like claiming that you “did England,” for example, because you changed planes at the airport in London on your way to Italy. Anyway, this book is a fascinating window into the weird and shadowy places of the world written by someone who actually has been everywhere and seen all the sights.
My Book, The Movie: The Last Viking.
The Page 99 Test: White Eskimo.
My Book, The Movie: Island of the Blue Foxes.
--Marshal Zeringue
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