Preserving the literary treasures of Timbuktu

by Sean McLachlan on

Mali has been getting a bad rap lately with the kidnapping of a French aid worker and travel warnings about the dangers of terrorism, all thanks to Al-Qaeda’s local band of nutcases. But like everywhere else there are more good people than bad in Mali and they’ve been working hard to preserve a unique literary heritage in the famous city of Timbuktu.

Timbuktu is often thought of as a remote place, but it stands at an important point for the trade routes between West and North Africa. In the Middle Ages it was the center of a powerful empire and home to one of the first universities in the world. Students from all over the Muslim world came hear to learn about science, mathematics, geography, religion, philosophy, and more. Today the leading families of Timbuktu preserve the legacy of that golden age of learning–more than 100,000 handwritten manuscripts dating back as far as the 12th century. They cover a wide range of topics. The one pictured here is a treatise on astronomy.

Now these manuscripts will be available to the public thanks to the Ahmed Baba Institute, a state-of-the-art library built to preserve the crumbling documents and display them to the public. Several exhibitions are planned that will add historical context to one of the world’s more popular adventure destinations. The collection of manuscripts will be a lengthy process. Nobody knows just how many families in Timbuktu and other part of Mali have treasures squirreled away, so the institute should be seeing a lot of growth and changes in the coming years.

An interesting video about the project can be seen here.

Oprah’s 10 terrific reads for 2009 showcase diversity and travel

by Jamie Rhein on

Regardless of what one thinks of Oprah, it’s hard to argue that the woman doesn’t have her thumbprint on some mighty great stuff. Her “10 Terrific Reads for 2009,” for example, is filled with suggestions that capture the flavor of travel, adventure and diversity. Many of them are about people from one country who have been brought to another by life’s circumstances or their drive to explore.

If you read these 10 books, I’d say you’ll have a thought-provoking and enlightening journey through certain parts of the world, particularly Africa. Before you head out on your next journey, pick up one of these and pass it on.

Here are the 10 books with the countries that provide the setting or settings. For a summary of each book, click each title.

  • The Bolter, Frances Osborne–Kenya (Great Britain connection)
  • Dreaming in Hindi, Katherine Russel Rich–India (U.S. connection)
  • Little Bee, Chris Cleve–Great Britain (Nigeria connection)
  • Blame, Michelle Huneven–U.S. (This one doesn’t have a cross-cultural component but is compared to Sand and Fog which is one of the best novels showing cross-cultural connections gone wrong that I’ve ever read.)
  • Losing Mum and Pup, Christopher Buckley–U.S. (Another without a cross-cultural component, but loss of parents is cross-cultural and Buckley’s dad, William F. Buckley certainly had a lot of opinions about the world.)
  • Zeitoun, Dave Eggers–U.S. (Syrian connection) I met Dave Eggers. He’s as wonderful in person as his writing reflects. Truly splendid. I’m buying this one.
  • Say You’re One of Them, Uwem Akpan–Kenya and Rwanda. Akpan is a Nigerian writer.
  • Some Things that Meant the World to Me, Joshua Mohr–U.S. Part of this novel takes place in Home Depot in San Francisco. Doesn’t the bring up an unusual mix of images?!
  • The Invisible Mountain, Carolina De Robertis–South America. The reading guide mentions Argentina.
  • Strength in What Remains:A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness, Tracy Kidder–Burundi and U.S.

Seven ways to explore the world without leaving home

by Katie Hammel on

Travel can be an escape – a chance to get away from the stress of our daily lives – but it can also be much more. Travel is about exploring a destination (new or familiar), understanding and connecting with the local culture, and seeing how people in a different place live.

Even more than the physical act of moving to a new place, traveling is about discovery, and just because you can’t get away from home at a particular time doesn’t mean you can’t still embrace that philosophy of adventure. Here are seven ways to “travel” without leaving your hometown.
Movies
Movies can take us to other worlds – real or imagined, of this Earth or not. Next time you are suffering from serious wanderlust, pick up a movie set in a foreign land. Explore the sweeping grasslands of Kenya with Out of Africa, ride the back roads of South America with Che in The Motorcycle Diaries, wander the chaotic streets of Tokyo through Lost in Translation, or explore India by train on The Darjeeling Limited.
Public transportation roulette
Travel is all about exploring a foreign place. For most of us, that doesn’t mean we need to venture far to discover a place that is new to us. I’ve lived in Chicago for three years, but there are still pockets of the city I’ve yet to step foot on. It’s easy to fall into a routine and only visit the same reliable places in your hometown, but this can lead to a feeling of boredom. Spice up your daily life by seeking out new places in your own city.

If you live somewhere with a good train or bus system, pick a weekend to play what I like to call “public transportation roulette.” In Chicago, I hop on one of the El lines and get off at a stop I’ve never visited before. Then I spend the afternoon checking out the area’s restaurants and shops. If your city has an ethnic enclave, like a Chinatown or Greektown, spending an evening wandering the streets there can also feel like a mini cultural journey.

Books
Just like movies, books can take us places (see, that poster in the Library didn’t lie!). Whether you prefer to read creative nonfiction set in a specific place or places – explore the idiosyncrasies of the Chinese with J. Maarten Troust in Lost on Planet China, ride the rails through Asia with Paul Theroux in The Great Railway Bazaar, or return to the Paris of the 1920’s in Earnest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast – or to read more about the idea of wandering (try The Little Price by Antoine de Saint Exupery), books can help keep us in a traveling state of mind.

For a whirlwind tour of the world, try an anthology like the Best American Travel Writing series. Or for a mini shot of travel inspiration, I keep a copy of Make the Most of Your Time on Earth: A Rough Guide to the World on my coffee table and flip through it often.


TV
When I start to get itchy feet but know that I don’t have a trip scheduled for a few weeks, I start renting all my favorite travel shows. I explore the world through food with Anthony Bourdain on No Reservations, or laugh along with Ian Wright and the Globe Trekker crew as I learn about destinations I plan on visiting in the future.

Food and drink
Traveling through my taste buds is one of my favorite ways to “virtually” experience a destination. In most countries I visit, I try to schedule a cooking class to learn to make at least one local dish. When I get home, I can then make that meal any time I am feeling nostalgic for the country. I can’t make fresh pasta without being transported to my honeymoon in Tuscany. Empanadas and some Malbec wine take me back to Buenos Aires, and fresh paella recalls my days in Barcelona.

Even if you didn’t learn to make a special dish while you were in a country, you can try to recreate memorable meals at home, or just pick a local specialty from a country you’d like to visit, and make it with the help of a recipe found online. If you can’t cook more than a piece of toast, no worries – just head to your local ethnic restaurant. You might not be fooled into thinking you are really in Ethiopia as you spoon up stewed meats with spongy injera bread, but a little taste of a foreign country might satiate you until your next trip.

Theme nights
Remember that episode of the Gilmore Girls when, after Rory’s big trip to Asia was cancelled, Lorelei turned the living room into a tour of the continent with food and decorations from various Asian countries? Just like that, you can host a theme night to celebrate a destination you’ve been to or are planning a trip to. Heading to Japan? Host a Japanese night, complete with sake, anime movies, sushi and geisha costumes. If you have friends of various ethnicities, take turns hosting and ask each person to tell a story about their culture’s traditions.

Cultural centers and events
A large part of traveling is learning about another culture, and while nothing can really substitute for the experience of being there, a trip to a local cultural center can help you explore the history and traditions of a culture in your local area. Fore example, in Chicago, the Irish American Heritage Center hosts traditional Irish music at the onsite pub. When I sit there and drink a Guinness, I know I’m still in the US, but if I close my eyes and listen to the the proliferation of Irish accents around me, I almost feel like I’m back in Dublin.

Cultural festivals, which often feature food, music, and art from the home country, are another festive way to immerse yourself in a foreign culture.

The Bookmobile: swapping stories and hitting the road

by Alison Brick on

It’s appropriate that at Litquake — the recent week-long celebration of books in San Francisco — I’d find out about unconventional ways of honoring the written word.

I came across the Bookmobile, parked on busy Valencia Street with its doors open wide, inviting visitors to come inside.

‘Is it a library or a bookstore?’ I wondered, trying to categorize it so I could understand it. The thing is, it’s neither.

It’s a truck that’s empty inside, except for wooden shelves on each of the side walls, which are filled with books. The concept is simple and brilliant: step inside and get a book. In return, they don’t ask for money. They ask to videotape your response to the question “what book influenced your life?”

Creative and thought-provoking, right? Even better, the Bookmobile will soon put its wheels in motion to reach people in small towns along the Lincoln Highway. It’s set to leave San Francisco in April and arrive in New York City in mid-May.

At the helm is founder, Tom Corwin, who has had success as an author, music producer, and film producer. And if you think the driver looks familiar, you’d be right. Along the way, different authors — including Amy Tan, Tom Robbins, and Dave Eggers — will be joining the road trip and taking their turn at the wheel.

At the end of the project, Tom will combine the interviews with a history of the Bookmobile and create a documentary, appropriately named “Behind the Wheel of the Bookmobile.” He hopes to finish the film by spring 2011.

“Books influence our lives in ways too often untold,” says Tom. “Our trip is designed to tell some of those stories while our back roads route connects the project to America’s literary history.”

You can only imagine the stories waiting to be told — both by people along the Lincoln Highway and the authors themselves. They’re likely to be as varied as the books out there. Already in the archives is the story of Ralph Eubanks, the Director of Publishing at the Library of Congress, who recalls being thankful to visit a bookmobile during his childhood. As an African-American in Mississippi, he could get books there, when he couldn’t get them at the library.

The Bookmobile on this trip is authentic, alright. Until recently, the “Old Gal” made her rounds of the suburban Chicago area for 15 years (and 70,000 miles) to bring books and the love of reading to children and adults. Bookmobiles have been used as mobile libraries for towns without library buildings and for people with difficulty accessing libraries — the first U.S. bookmobile ran in Maryland in 1905.

Books have already been donated by libraries and publishers, but what the project could use now are money donations (from $35 for ‘buy a mile’ to more for ‘buy a state’).

If you’re not on the cross-country route, you can still be a part of the Bookmobile experience. Submit the story of the book that influenced your own life (in 200 words or less) to the Bookmobile website. And follow along via the website’s blog and interviews, or get updates on Twitter and Facebook.

Chesley Sullenberger, of Hudson River plane landing fame, touts new book on the Daily Show

by Jamie Rhein on

Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot who landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River, was the guest of last night’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Stewart, with the energy akin to an adolescent Golden Labrador, gave Sullenberger– one of the more reserved and modest people on the planet, a venue to talk about his new book and rehash details about that day and its aftermath.

Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters is not only about that day back in January. It’s about all the moments that led up to the point when Sullenberger decided to go for the river landing. For Sullenberger and First Officer Jeff Skiles, that decision changed how they view their purpose in life.

As Sullenberger says, the plane landing was much needed good news for people. Last January, when the river event happened, the economy was in shambles. Job loss and foreclosures were taking up much of the news and producing a sense of hopelessness. The plane landing gave a boost towards hopeful thinking.

As a result of that day, and the response afterwards, both Sullenberger and Skiles have looked for ways to continue to make positive contributions–in essence to keep hope alive.

Along with highlighting Sullenberger’s book and rehashing the details of that remarkable airplane landing, the interview with Sullenberger was seasoned with Stewart’s brand of wacky fun. Pick a situation and Stewart can find the absurd.

For example, the spot on the Hudson where the plane landed is close to where The Daily Show is filmed. Also being filmed that day at a close by location was an episode of Law and Order. When folks at The Daily Show saw the commotion caused by the plane, they thought it had to do with Law and Order and were impressed with how much effort was being put into making the episode look realistic.

Stewart also wondered if when Sullengberger landed the plane he thought about how Jon Stewart was just a block away.

Stewart also joked about passengers who might have complained that the plane hadn’t landed closer to the section of New York where they lived–as in why didn’t Sullenberger land it in a more convenient location for them to get home more easily.

During Stewart’s banter, Sullenberger mostly smiled, made a few comments, and seemed generally unsure about how to josh along with Jon. A kidder he is not. Not being a kidding type did come in handy back in January.

Stewart and Sullenberger also talked about how the plane’s manual used to be published with tab markers for the various sections which made it easier to use. As a cost cutting measure, the manuals aren’t published with the tab markers anymore.

That meant that Skiles had to rapidly leaf through the book looking for the pages that had the details about making a water landing. Sullenberger’s years of training kicked in to help him land the plane, but checking the manual was a double check.

As the interview’s last point, before Stewart gave Highest Duty one more plug, both Sullengerger and Stewart agreed that those tabs need to be put back on the manuals.

To watch last night’s full episode, click here.