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Which books to take to Africa?
Niall writes me:
I have an optimization problem that I thought you and other loyal MR
readers, like myself, could help me with.The Question: How should I go about selecting books to bring with me for
a year of field research in rural Africa?Conditions:
1. I have a limited amount of weight I can carry on the flight
2. There is little or no access to additional books where I will be
3. I only expect to return to the US once during that yearThanks for continuing the to make MR the most educational blog on the web.
Sadly I do not know this fine gentleman. But I'll suggest the following five books: Moby Dick, The Bible (but it must be a serious translation), Plato's Dialogues, Homer's Odyssey, and a long, fun book of science fiction or fantasy that you haven't already read. LOTR would be a fine first choice if it fits that bill, otherwise ask around. The basic principles are that the works should be long, deep, divisible into smaller parts, capable of sustaining rereadings, culturally central in some way, and last of all you need one piece of pure fun. Readers, can you improve upon these tips?
I'll add that if you read some language other than English, and thus read more slowly in that language, pick a book or two there as well.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on July 1, 2008 at 07:34 AM in Books, Travels | Permalink
Comments
Sony eBook reader + solar charging. That should be a technological fix for the weight issue.
Posted by: cjc at Jul 1, 2008 7:41:54 AM
If Julian May's 'Saga of the Exiles' and 'Galactic Milieu' series was all in one package of literary fun, I'd probably take that for my sci-fi dose. That and a book with problem sets that I could work on and try to deal with in my spare time, but probably not MasCollel, Winston & Green.
Posted by: Simon Halliday at Jul 1, 2008 7:45:08 AM
iPod + Audio Books from Audible.com = 1 month worth of listening. Good for those long bus rides on river bed that used to be roads.
Posted by: Jamison at Jul 1, 2008 7:46:45 AM
I guess this is a "desert island" thought experiment? Because if it's a real-life issue, just load up a Kindle to the max and get it recharged the same place that Africans get their cell phones recharged (a local entrepreneur with a generator; you might need a 220 to 110 volt converter).
Posted by: at Jul 1, 2008 7:46:59 AM
I always find I get the most reading time and pleasure relative to cost and weight of the book from fairly technical books. Books such as Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers have given me many hours of enjoyment. If I have to ponder each sentence or paragraph, I am sure to get a good bang for my buck.
Posted by: Neil West at Jul 1, 2008 7:47:20 AM
"a long, fun book of science fiction or fantasy that you haven't already read" - problem for me is that I find far too many SF/fantasy books not so much fun once I do read them. Thus I would go for something I have already read, but with high rereadability. "Atlas Shrugged" or "Fountainhead" or "King Rat", "Shogun", "Tai-Pan", or "Noble House" by Clavell would fit the bill well, as all these are also available in cheap paperback (weighs little, and you don't mind so much if the book suffers under the conditions in rural Africa). Alternatively, I find "Wages of Destruction" by Adam Tooze very engrossing right now, very informative on the German economy 1933-1945, and well worth a second read.
Posted by: Gorgasal at Jul 1, 2008 7:53:04 AM
Admitting that I do not know where the questioner is going, I find it hard to believe that there is little or no access to additional books where he is going. I lived in rural Africa for two years and found books easy to find.
Will there not be a town there? They likely have a library at the school or someone in the market who sells used books.
Will there be Peace Corps/Missionaries/Other groups of westerners? People tend to bring many books with them, but take only one or two back. This results in impromptu libraries being set up. Also check the cultural centers at embassies.
Will there be people passing through? People travel with books. Book-swapping is how I got through Kenya and Tanzania and it resulted in me reading many books I wouldn't have otherwise. Warning: this is a skill. You want to bring and trade for only books that are easy to trade. Some books are dead ends (No one will swap for them). I found Patton's autobiography to be one such dead end. Better to bring and swap for best sellers and books by well known authors.
I went to a "town" (there were four homes and about 60 people) once, where the only way to get there was to take the beer truck that passed through once every eight days. I saw a child reading the Harry Potter book that had come out only 6 months earlier. You can find books anywhere.
Posted by: VC at Jul 1, 2008 7:55:08 AM
Let me add. My advice is to only bring what reading material you'll need for the flight. [In addition to any texts you might need for work]. If you can find food, you can find books.
Posted by: VC at Jul 1, 2008 7:58:05 AM
Why not buy a Kindle from Amazon and load it up with as many books as it can fit? Then either a solar charger or an occasional power boost should work fine. (Then add one paper book for emergencies.)
Posted by: Jed at Jul 1, 2008 7:58:54 AM
Field guides to the plants and wildlife, like the magnificent Trees of Southern Africa by Keith Coates Palgrave.
Posted by: jonm at Jul 1, 2008 8:12:47 AM
Atlas Shrugged?
Posted by: Chris Meisenzahl at Jul 1, 2008 8:15:58 AM
Since you'll be in Africa, I recommend taking one of Naipaul's books based on the continent. A Bend in the River is excellent.
Posted by: ed at Jul 1, 2008 8:21:26 AM
Pepys' Diary in a lightweight edition. You won't want to read it right through, you'll just dip into it, but you'd keep coming back to it.
The subject matter should give you courage for your year of research. It's one man undertaking a huge task (of reorganising the Navy), that no-one else seems to be prepared to undertake, because he can see that although it's hard work, it's very well worth doing. And lo and behold he is proved right.
Posted by: polly at Jul 1, 2008 8:22:52 AM
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
VS Naipul - Half Life (set in Mozambique)
Not sure which part of Africa but some of Wilbur Smith novels set in South Africa / Namibia may be nice
Posted by: Anannya Deb at Jul 1, 2008 8:27:33 AM
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, if you intend to destroy your life.
Posted by: isaiah at Jul 1, 2008 8:34:36 AM
Consider a Library of America volume--lots of content for little weight. Perhaps one of the poetry volumes or the speeches.
Posted by: Bill Harshaw at Jul 1, 2008 8:36:24 AM
I echo the comments above. A kindle or the like would be best (I remember loading down with CDs only to have people arrive after I'd been in country for a few years with a new fangled thing called an iPOD!).
Also, there usually are book swaps, etc, like mentioned above ... so don't bring anything so boring, others wouldn't want to read it.
Or, you could make Tyler Cowen happy and ditch everything and buy multiple copies of his books and load up the suitcase with those! Although, that may blow a constraint in your optimization problem.
Posted by: Ben at Jul 1, 2008 8:44:36 AM
Some tried-and-true foreign travel reads:
The Betrothed
Don Quixote
Middlemarch
Foucault's Pendulum
Austen, generally
I would suggested some classics along the Meditations line as well, Gene Wolfe for SF/F, Pepy's diary, Boswell's Life of Johnson, Tristam Shandy, or perhaps some extremely dense history of a time/place you are interested in. The Kindle + charger idea is good if it is workable.
Posted by: Amber at Jul 1, 2008 8:47:18 AM
So which Bible translations do you consider "serious?"
Posted by: subrosa at Jul 1, 2008 8:48:25 AM
The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. Long historical ficition, some of which concerns Africa, all of it about the birth of capitalism, science, markets and money.
Posted by: Mike at Jul 1, 2008 8:57:24 AM
I second VC's comments above - I don't where Neil is headed, but I haven't been to an African country which doesn't have at least one great bookshop in its capital. Yes, most bookshops in Africa are for schoolbooks, and yes, it is difficult to buy good books in rural Africa, but I wonder what sort of project Neil is working on which fails to allow him to head to the capital of whatever country he is working in every so often in order to buy books, meet officials, etc.
Having said all of this, the bookstores I know in Africa - like Aristoc in Kampala - tend to be better stocked on fiction and the classics and less so on good non-fiction, so I would concentrate on the latter if you are going to bring over some books.
Posted by: Elliott at Jul 1, 2008 8:57:31 AM
This might be repetitive, but ebooks are the way to go.
You don't necessarily have to use a Kindle; if you're very weight-sensitive, I'd suggest consolidating down to a couple of multifunction devices.
For the past several years, most of my recreational reading has been done on a PDA (first a Palm then my combination Windows Mobile / GPS unit).
I believe that I've heard about an ebook app for jailbroken iPod Touch's / iPhones, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if an official app is available when the 2.0 upgrades come out in the next few days.
You could, conceivably suffice with ebook software on a laptop you might be bringing with...but personally I find it difficult to curl up with a laptop when I want to read.
Posted by: MikeTheActuary at Jul 1, 2008 8:57:52 AM
Try "To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World" - 672 pages of high adventure.
As its subject revolves around the sea, it'll present a pleasant contrast to the scenery of rural Africa. The chapters themselves can be read independently, and it is an interesting and well written book, with a bold and arguable premise. It covers a broad sweep of history, and includes a number of memorable real life characters, some of whom display fearless courage and an incredible determination to succeed against enormous odds (just like the odds you could be facing in rural Africa - depending on where in rural Africa you find yourself ha,ha..). For SF, I suggest Frank Herbert's Dune, or maybe one of Robert Heinlein's classics - Stranger in a Strange land?
Posted by: Nick L. at Jul 1, 2008 8:59:07 AM
I second (or third) Atlas Shrugged. The material is very deep, and John Galt's radio monologue will keep you busy for a long while.
The other book that I'd consider is Shantaram which is about an Aussie conman living in India. Very interesting story, and is a long read.
Depending on the part of Africa that you're in, maybe a book about the history, politics, wildlife, or plants about that region.
If you are into history, "Band of Brothers" (the book, not the tv show) and "Team of Rivals" are both very satisfying and long reads.
Posted by: sharad at Jul 1, 2008 9:26:39 AM
For the fun and educational goals: Eat the Rich by P.J. O'Rourke. In my review of the book in Fortune, I called it "Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations with a laugh on every page." I've read it about 3 times and I plan many more.
Posted by: David R. Henderson at Jul 1, 2008 9:39:31 AM
