Books

Some travel and history books I have enjoyed in no particular order.  A work in progress...

Asia

1. When China Ruled the Sea by Louise Levathes

2. Nathaniel's Nutmeg: Or the True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History by Giles Milton

3. Far Eastern Stories by Somerset Maugham

4. City of Djinns By William Dalrimple

5. Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

6. Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory by Peter Hessler

7. Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Times in China by Peter Hessler

8. Burmese Days by George Orwell

9. Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux

10. The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia by Paul Theroux

11. The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed by Michael Meyer

12. The Last Chinese Chef: A Novel By Nicole Mones

13. River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler

Africa and Middle East

1. Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger

2. A Winter in Arabia: A Journey through Yemen by Freya Stark

3. King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild

4. The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912 by Thomas Pakenham

5. The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

6. Madagascar: The Eighth Continent: Life, Death and Discovery in a Lost World  by Peter Tyson

7. The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper

North America

1. Old Glory: An American Voyage by Jonathan Raban

2. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Europe

1. Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution by Caroline Weber

South America 

1. The General in His Labyrinth by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 

Australia and New Zealand

1. The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding by Robert Hughes