I’ve got a new book coming out in April 2007 to be titled Bad Lands and I’ll be talking more about it in forthcoming updates to this blog. My trips to Afghanistan, Albania and Iraq – all featured in the ‘Travel Blogs’ part of my site – contributed to that book. When it gets closer to reality I’ll put together a Bad Lands Reading List. Meanwhile here are 12 books with some sort of travel connection which I’ve read in 2006, starting with:

A Chameleon’s Tale – Mo Tejani – I met Mo in Bangkok in mid-2006 and his book is an engaging account of his nomadic life, living here, connected to there, nationality somewhere else. So where is home? Well originally Uganda until Idi Amin kicked all the African Asians out. Mo’s account of that forced departure is one of the most intriguing parts, along with a disillusioning spell with an aid agency although other periods as an aid-worker were much more constructive...