Himalaya: A Human History

I dont know why I have received a used book with marks and dirts on it. Actually I want to send it back, but too much work for that price.

A compelling read; vast in scope and interest. A book long in the making and studiously written. Perhaps best read as a series of chapters rather than as a full text. Some minor concerns, some chapter titles needed better signposting and accuracy e.g. Chapter on 'Everest diplomacy' is only occasionally about Everest. Re page 419, details on Maurice Wilson might need amended in light of Ed Caesar's recent book on Wilson, see page 66 of this text in particular.Minor points though - a towering achievement.

The book is absolutely fine but Amazon appears to have problems sourcing supply at the release date of the paperback, and consequently took several months after the scheduled date. Having said that, Amazon did keep me very well informed and did offer me the option to cancel several times.

The book is extremely well researched, well written, and readable. In terms of my expectations, there was far more detail, less modern history, and less mountaineering-related material.The book doesn't contain footnotes or endnotes, although the author explains why he didn't include them. To his credit, he takes the time to recommend important sources. The book also contains a bibliography.

Amazing topic, lots and lots of details, but can the author really write? What I mean is: the author is definitely immensely knowledgeable about the Himalaya and attempts to give a broad and detailed overview over everything: geology, religion, as well as political, religious and cultural history.What I find completely surprising and confusing is the lack of coherence in the writing. A paragraph starts, the sentences meander around and then the paragraph ends and it is often frustratingly difficult to see what binds the sentences in the paragraph or what the idea behind the content of the specific paragraph could be. There is a broader picture to be drawn from reading all details, but I think that good non fiction writing should really be more consise and clearer. It doesn't have to be as strict as having an introductory sentence at the beginning of the paragraph and a conclusion at the end. But it would be nice to be able to detect what holds the sentences within a paragraph together. In this form I find the book by far not as enjoyable as it should be given the topic and the author's undisputed knowledge.