To a mountain in Tibet

To a mountain in Tibet
By Colin Thubron

Book review by Richard L. Weaver II

I have read no previous books by Colin Thubron; thus, this was my introduction to the author and his writing.  I was thoroughly impressed.

There are a number of caveats in my assessment of this book.  First, I am an active traveler.  Second, I love being out in nature.  Third, I have traveled in many foreign countries, and I’ve experienced isolated villages and desperately poor people. Thus, it is easy for me to identify with Thubron’s ideas, feelings, and insights.  Fourth, I love to read beautiful language (spectacular imagery) — especially when words create visual images that can easily be perceived.  In this book, it is as if you, the reader, are part of the author’s traveling party.  

There is another reason, too, that prejudices my assessment of this book.  Fifth, I truly enjoy entry into thinking-people’s thought processes.  This book is a thinking person’s spiritual journey, and the way he weighs and develops his ideas is not just remarkable and riveting but outstanding. The way this author transitions smoothly between descriptions about the people he encounters, the natural environment he experiences about him, his own thoughts and ideas about his history and his family, and even the history, religion, and background of the places he happens to be are wonderful in their richness and  vividness.  Again, just allowing his words to immerse you, bathe you, even soak you in their radiance and intensity is a warm, deep, penetrating experience.

I easily, comfortably, and accurately award this book five stars out of five for its dramatic, colorful, fascinating, intensity.  If you want to read about what the book covers or even the passages that stand out in others’ minds, read the reviews at Amazon.com.