A Study of Biography: Travelers and Their Stories

I go to an alternative higher education school - still federally accredited and academically sound.  I get asked every semester, regardless of how many times I explain my situation, which classes I am taking.  I don't take classes - I develop studies.  The program is much like creating a mini masters' thesis each semester.  This semester I decided to do a study in biography, specifically in travel biography and associated works.

The first book I read was The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann.  This book offers a biographical history of the late Colonel Percy Fawcett's explorations, specifically his last exploration, in which he was searching for the “city of Z”, or El Dorado. The author, David Grann, pulls from a variety of sources, including published letters and accounts from other explorations, private letters from Colonel Fawcett himself, his sons Brian and Jack, and his son Jack's friend Raleigh. Grann makes a point to follow Fawcett's path and concludes the book with an insightful ending into the history of a small tribe that was once much larger - as large as a small city, in fact.  

The second book I read was A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to be a Woman by Lisa J. Shannon.  This was a great book, clearly preaching a humanitarian itinerary but for good purpose.  While Shannon documents her travels through the Democratic Republic of the Congo, she also documents numerous stories of various individuals, from women who had been viciously raped, parents who had lost their children, to children who were forced to be soldiers and carry out acts of violence as well as some of the men who daily conceived and carried out these acts.  Shannon also documents her fund raising efforts, in a collaboration she has called "Run for Congo Women", and her subsequent removal from a long-term romantic relationship because of her intimate involvement in her focus to help women of the Congo rise from the ashes of their victimization.  

I have involved myself with reading other books and articles which were incredible in their own way.  One book, written by a notable author from the Middle East, struck me as rushed and halphazard, as if she were writing the book only to satisfy some contract.  The emotional investment was there, but the organization and written skill I've seen in her work before was not.  

I also read a small article titled "My Mother's Lover" by David Dobbs, a writer who lives in Vermont and London.  The article outlined a simple fact of life that was, and still is, frequently ignored or admonished; infidelity.  Dobbs tells the elusive tale of his mother's affair with a World War II ERS pilot, and the consequences of their engagement as well as the insecurity and mystery surrounding the pilot's death.

I try to develop studies that cultivate my interests, to help them grow outside of the feeble flower pots I've always planted them in, to jump outside of my comfort zone and push myself forward.  My primary reason for doing a study in biography was that I have simply never been interested in non-fiction literature.   I read to escape, not to face the troubles of the world.  At the last moment, I decided to specify the study further (knowing that I would need to anyway) to focus on various aspects of travel.  Not necessarily tourism or explorations, but travel of all kinds.  I have my coworker Mark to thank for this, upon his initial recommendation of The Lost City of Z, a book which I was drawn into so quickly I hardly realized it was over.

For those of you who enjoy reading on a Kindle (or other e-readers), I know that the books and articles I've specifically outlined here are all available through Amazon for the Kindle as that is what I use myself.

Happy reading!