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READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Get the featured set of Essential Reading, our top picks of what to read, and get free shipping on anything else you order.

Essential Reading

Item EXCAS55. Buy these 4 items as a set for $68 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
With free shipping on anything else you order.

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Odyssey Guide Kyrgyz Republic

Odyssey Guide Kyrgyz Republic

by Rowan Stewart | Susie Weldon

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 318 PAGES

A comprehensive, stunningly illustrated guide to Kyrgyzstan, its cities, traditional cultures, alpine meadows, lush valleys and rugged mountains. (CAS47, $24.95)

The Great Game

The Great Game

by Peter Hopkirk

  • HISTORY
  • 1994
  • PAPER
  • 565 PAGES
  • FAVORITE
  • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE

Hopkirk's spellbinding account of the great struggle for European supremacy in Central Asia takes us over the high mountain passes and through the scorching deserts and caravan towns of the Silk Road, capturing the glamour, intrigue, treachery and adventure of the time. (CAS09, $18.00)

The Lost Heart of Asia

The Lost Heart of Asia

by Colin Thubron

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 374 PAGES

In this classic account, Thubron recounts his travels to Samarkand, Bukhara and throughout Central Asia in the wake of the breakup of the Soviet Union. A fine writer, intrepid traveler and insightful observer, he's an outstanding guide to the history, people and culture of the region. (CAS07, $15.99)

Central Asia Map

Central Asia Map

by Nelles

  • 2011
  • MAP

An up-to-date, double-sided shaded relief map at a scale of 1:1,750,000. (CAS37, $13.95)

 
Silk Road Countries Map, Central Asia

Silk Road Countries Map, Central Asia


by Gizi Map

  • 2003
  • MAP

A map covering the Silk Roads and surrounding territories from Western China and India across Asia to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the Black Sea at a scale of 1:3,000,000. (CAS100, $14.95)

Bradt Guide Kyrgyzstan

Bradt Guide Kyrgyzstan


by Laurence Mitchell

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

An outstanding guide to the country, its people, history and allure in the pioneering British series. With a strong focus on adventure activities and a section of suggested overland routes to China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. (CAS154, $26.99)

Kyrgyzstan, A Climbers Map & Guide

Kyrgyzstan, A Climbers Map & Guide


by Alpine Mapping Guild

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • PAPER

With satellite-based shaded-relief maps of the Karavshin Valley ( 1:200,000), Western Kokshaal-Too in the Tien Shan (1:150,000) and a topo map of the Ala-Archa National Park (1:50,000), along with trekking information. (CAS174, $12.95)

Lonely Planet Central Asia

Lonely Planet Central Asia


by Lonely Planet

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 528 PAGES

A comprehensive, detailed guide to travel in the region, including Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. (CAS42, $32.99)

Lonely Planet Central Asia Phrasebook

Lonely Planet Central Asia Phrasebook


by Justin Jon Rudelson

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 239 PAGES

A handy pocket phrasebook, which focuses on pronunciation, basic grammar and essential vocabulary for the traveler on the Silk Road. (CAS38, $8.99)

A History of Inner Asia

A History of Inner Asia


by Svat Soucek

  • HISTORY
  • 2000
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES

A dense, informative survey of the changing fortunes of people in the region, with chapters on Arab conquest and Chinese expansion, Mongols, Samanids, Timurids, Uzbeks, and other kingdoms and people in the region, including the 17th-19th century development of the trading cities. With 13 maps and dynastic charts. (CAS51, $42.00)

Empires of the Silk Road

Empires of the Silk Road


by Christopher I. Beckwith

  • HISTORY
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 504 PAGES
  • NEW

Beckwith rescues Central Asia from the periphery of world affairs with flair and scholarship, showing the sweep of empire, trade and cultural life over the millennia. (CAS171, $16.95)

Sons of the Conquerors, The Rise of the Turkic World

Sons of the Conquerors, The Rise of the Turkic World


by Hugh Pope

  • HISTORY
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 416 PAGES

A lively, illuminating report on the Turkic speaking lands across Inner Asia from westernmost China to the Black Sea. (TKY104, $19.95)

The New Great Game, Blood and Oil in Central Asia

The New Great Game, Blood and Oil in Central Asia


by Lutz Kleveman

  • HISTORY
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 291 PAGES

An eyewitness account of current policies and conflicts in Caucasus and Central Asia, full of interviews, anecdote, history and polemic. (CAS112, $15.00)

Eric Shipton, The Six Mountain Travel Books

Eric Shipton, The Six Mountain Travel Books


by Eric Shipton

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 800 PAGES

Shipton's extraordinary adventures in the mountains of the Himalayas, East Africa, Central Asia and Patagonia, now in paper. (EXP12, $34.95)

Islamic Arts

Islamic Arts


by Jonathan Bloom | Sheila Blair

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 445 PAGES

With color photographs, maps and site plans, throughout this survey of 1,000 years of Islamic architecture, design and decoration is a wonderfully illuminating, stimulating introduction tot he subject for anyone with an interest in art. (ISL01, $29.95)

Fly-Fishing the 41st, From Connecticut to Mongolia and Home Again

Fly-Fishing the 41st, From Connecticut to Mongolia and Home Again


by James Prosek

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

Certainly the fisherman in your house has heard of the multi-talented James Prosek (Trout, An Illustrated History), whose finely detailed paintings are as breathtaking as they are accurate. In this travelogue, Prosek sets out East from Easton, Connecticut on a clockwise trip around the world, stopping en route to see friends, visit monuments (the Alhambra) and, not incidentally, to fish, taking in Spain, Greece, Turkey, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, China and Japan. (FSH09, $14.99)

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World


by Jack Weatherford

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 352 PAGES

Weatherford, who has lived and studied in Mongolia, interweaves his own travels and field work on the Central Asian steppes, much of it on horseback, with a lively portrait of Genghis Khan and the world of the medieval Mongols. The Mongols introduced not only mayhem, but also paper, printing, gunpowder, the compass and trousers to their far-flung empire. (CAS106, $15.00)

Hunted Through Central Asia, On the Run from Lenin's Secret Police

Hunted Through Central Asia, On the Run from Lenin's Secret Police


by Paul Nazaroff | Peter Hopkirk

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

A Russian geologist turned anti-Bolshevik, Nazaroff writes of thrilling adventure, living among ordinary Muslims and dodging authorities across Kyrgyzstan in 1918. (CAS08, $29.95)

Shadow of the Silk Road

Shadow of the Silk Road


by Colin Thubron

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 363 PAGES

Thubron returns to Central Asia in this lyrical, erudite account of a 7,000-mile trek across Asia, visiting archaeological sites, people and cities from Xi'an and Dunhuang to Samarkand, Bukhara, Afghanistan and Iran. (CAS133, $15.99)

The Golden Horde, From the Himalaya to the Mediterranean

The Golden Horde, From the Himalaya to the Mediterranean


by Sheila Paine

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 320 PAGES

Paine travels in the footsteps of merchants and armies through the lands of Genghis Khan's Golden Horde and into Soviet Central Asia -- Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and into the wild Tien Shan in this thrilling tale of adventure. (CAS163, $21.00)

The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years

The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years


by Chingiz Aitmatov

  • LITERATURE
  • 1988
  • PAPER
  • 368 PAGES

First published in 1980 under the Soviet regime, this novel by a famous Kyrgyz writer mixes the story of a man traveling through the steppes to bury a friend and the tale of two cosmonauts aboard a space station. (CAS139, $24.00)

Glacier Ice

Glacier Ice


by Austin Post | Edward R. LaChapelle

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2000
  • PAPER
  • 145 PAGES

A classic book of extraordinary black-and-white aerial photographs of mountains and glaciers by two devoted men of ice. Ed LaChapelle's text is paired with Austin Post's stunning aerial photographs of glaciers from Alaska and Chile to Switzerland and the Himalayas. (SCI07, $27.95)

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Longitude provides recommended reading for travelers in partnership with the leading tour operators and travel programs for hundreds of destinations worldwide. We've got the classic, new and hard-to-find books and maps to help you get the most out of your adventures.