India 6.5 Richard Halliburton Does it make sense to refer to this author as the godfather of travel writing?
USA 4 Fabian Sixtus Körner Do nice photos, a lot of visited countries, and slick design make for a good travel book?
Asia 4.5 Ding Haixiao What happens to a story when the writer gets caught up in old books and theories?
Asia 4.3 Stephen Spender Is this a coffee table book or a regular travelogue, and is it worth a read?
Asia 6 Evan Osnos If some of the superlatives and comparisons used in this book are lame, why is it still so good?
Asia 4 Stuart Stevens Does this book do anything right except expose someone's attitude toward China?
Asia 6.5 Edgar Snow Why is this book so tragic, and what is the author's role in the history he helped to create?
Asia 5.8 Ernst Cordes What happens when an interesting author tries too hard to get his point across?
China 6.5 Colette Modiano What happens when rich Europeans visit China at the height of the "Cultural Revolution"?
Asia 5.8 Helge Timmerberg Is it a good thing or a bad thing when a writer starts to write about writing?
Asia 2.8 Rewi Alley Did this guy just hate China or did he want to show how much can you brown nose a dictator?
Asia 4.5 Oliver Lutz Radtke Is China absurd, or does absurdity reside in those who are always looking for it?
China 4.8 Volker Häring Where exactly is the dividing line between the cultural expert and the ignorant visitor?
Asia 6 Graham Earnshaw If someone knows China so well, how can they fail to write a decent book about it?
Iran 7.3 Nicolas Bouvier Is this a great piece of poetic travel writing, or has it been overly polished?
China 7.3 William Lindesay Is this book just about a physical feat, or is there something more to it?
New Zealand 5.8 Gregor Sieböck Why is this book only for those who are really into environmentalism?
China 8 Vikram Seth Is this just an epic journey through China, or does this writer also have mad skills?
Himalayas 6.8 Alexandra David-Néel Has classic European explorer lingo turned this woman into a macho?
China 6 Odoric of Pordenone Was this a 14th-century fact finding mission or just another medieval mystery tale?
Himalayas 8 Reinhold Messner Did the best mountaineer ever write the best book about mountaineering ever?
Iraq 5.3 Jean de Mandeville Why is it so much fun to read Medieval travel stories that are at least partly untrue?
China 6.3 Sven Hedin Are we looking at a career-obsessed explorer or at a blueprint for Indiana Jones?
Asia 5.3 Rob Gifford Are the errors in this book due to poor editing or is this an expert who doesn't know his craft?
China 5 Stanley Stewart Is China really that quirky, or do we sometimes just want things to be a certain way?
Saudi Arabia 5.3 Ibn Battuta Did conservative ethics turn this great adventure story into such a slow read?
China 6.3 Mildred Cable Is this just a book about three ladies taking it slow, or is it an epic adventure?
India 6.3 FernĂŁo Mendes Pinto If this is one of the classics of Portuguese literature, why is it such a slow read?
Himalayas 7.5 Jon Krakauer Do we really care whose fault it was, or can we just accept that mountains are deadly sometimes?