My Life as an Explorer

Having read this book for the third time, in preparation for a return to Central Asia this autumn, I am struck this time by the wanton loss of life incurred in traversing all those snowy passes and sterile deserts and have to wonder if it was worth it. Hedin's reply would have been "Absolutely!" Here was a man motivated by filling in those "white spaces" on maps and in being "the first white man to... [cross those mountains, record that lake's depths, uncover those 2,000-year-old tombs]". When younger, I was caught up by the excitement of the travel and the new discoveries, in learning new words for sand (kum) and river (daria) in a part of the world that is very special to me, and I do recommend this volume for those who want a taste show more of what it was like to be an explorer in Central Asia in the late 1800s and early 1900s. But Sven Hedin as a hero figure has lost some of his shine to me. I don't think I would have wanted to have met him or know him as a person. This reading, it wasn't the descriptions of the dunes that stays with me, but the casual mention "of the 20 horses we started with, only one returned" or watching his half-wild dogs attack wolves or be torn to shreds by a bear, and all those times his neglect of checking his supplies himself caused starvation and almost unendurable suffering to his men while he was "tucked into my warm bed of sand [by one of his men]" or rode on a horse behind his stumbling men when all the other beasts of burden had died. Or how he bullies those Tibetans sent to stop him from entering their country, and brags of his success in fooling them about his intentions. Whose country was it anyway?

If there's a time and place to read a book, I guess I have passed that time for this book. Perhaps this review is more about me than the book, but don't we read to discover more about ourselves? show less

Hedin was a fanatical, egotistical maniac more interested in being the ‘first’ to Go to an undiscovered (by European) ______. It made no difference what it was or where it was, he had to be first. He would cheat and lie in order to do that very thing and then laugh it off. A pretty despicable character who was a very mediocre writer on top of it all. Why he seems to be revered by readers of his books is beyond me as there are plenty of books on exploration better than this. Shackleton, he was not. Finished 13.08.2020.

I had a love-hate relationship with Hedin's book detailing some of his travels in Asia, including many places where he was the first white man to set foot in. Especially at the beginning of the book, I found his narrative to be somewhat dry as it was more descriptive of the landscape than entertaining story. However, I really enjoyed the stories of the people he encountered and his survival stories about some epic adventures (particularly his first desert foray.) It took me a long time to wade through this book, but I found it overall an enjoyable read.