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Immeasurable World
For all the desert's dreamlike beauty, to travel here was not just to pitch yourself into oblivion: it was to grind away at yourself until nothing was left. It was to aspire to the condition of sand.
One third of the earth's land surface is desert, much of it desolate and inhospitable. What is it about this harsh environment that has captivated humankind throughout history? From the prophets of the Bible to Marco Polo, Lawrence of Arabia to Gertrude Bell, travellers have often seen deserts as cursed places to be avoided, or crossed as quickly as possible. But for those whose call deserts home, the 'hideous blanks' described by explorers are rich in resources and significance.
Travelling to five continents over three years, visiting deserts both iconic and little-known, William Atkins discovers a realm that is as much internal as physical. His journey takes him to the Arabian Peninsula's Empty Quarter and Australia's nuclear-test grounds; the dry Aral Sea of Kazakhstan and 'sand seas' of China's volatile north-west; the contested borderlands of Arizona and the riotous Burning Man festival in Nevada's Black Rock Desert; and the ancient monasteries of Egypt's Eastern Desert. Along the way, Atkins illuminates the people, history, topography, and symbolism of these remarkable but often troubled places.
Reviving the illustrious British tradition of travel writing, The Immeasurable World is destined to become a classic of desert literature.
One third of the earth's land surface is desert, much of it desolate and inhospitable. What is it about this harsh environment that has captivated humankind throughout history? From the prophets of the Bible to Marco Polo, Lawrence of Arabia to Gertrude Bell, travellers have often seen deserts as cursed places to be avoided, or crossed as quickly as possible. But for those whose call deserts home, the 'hideous blanks' described by explorers are rich in resources and significance.
Travelling to five continents over three years, visiting deserts both iconic and little-known, William Atkins discovers a realm that is as much internal as physical. His journey takes him to the Arabian Peninsula's Empty Quarter and Australia's nuclear-test grounds; the dry Aral Sea of Kazakhstan and 'sand seas' of China's volatile north-west; the contested borderlands of Arizona and the riotous Burning Man festival in Nevada's Black Rock Desert; and the ancient monasteries of Egypt's Eastern Desert. Along the way, Atkins illuminates the people, history, topography, and symbolism of these remarkable but often troubled places.
Reviving the illustrious British tradition of travel writing, The Immeasurable World is destined to become a classic of desert literature.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published June 5, 2018
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July 4, 2021
As Atkins is drawn to spend time in deserts of the world, I was drawn to purchase this book (new, and at full price, which is rare for me (but I did have a voucher!)).
In this seven chapter book we accompany Atkins on his travels. He explains (to a varying degree in each chapter) the history of each place, about its pioneering explorers and native inhabitants, it geo-politics (to a small degree) and its current status. The possibilities for the future? - A little.
We commence in Oman, with the Empty Quarter , made famous by Thesiger and his adventures there described in Arabian Sands, although he didn't pioneer the crossing, there were others before him. Like all chapters, Atkins visits and makes a journey.
Australia's Great Victoria Desert is Atkins next stop. Here is located Emu Field Nuclear Test Site, and what must surely be an embarrassment to Australia (and Britain). As always seems to be the case, the test detonations didn't disburse as expected and radioactive contamination of the ground and everything on or in it occurred, including the Aboriginal settlement at Maralinga. It doesn't take much imagination to picture the long term effects for the people on whose tribal land the tests took place.
To China, and the Taklamakan Desert for the third chapter. Mildred Cable and Francesca French, Aurel Stein and Sven Hedin all feature in the history here. The story of the Mogao Caves (Cave of 1000 Buddhas) near Dunhuang is central here. Some of China's typical treatment of ethnic minorities is covered here, but not too in depth.
Kazakhstan's Aral Sea/Aralkum Desert is the location for the next chapter. An environmental disaster area now much more desert than sea, and how the people live with the loss of their livelihood. High intensity farming of cotton under soviet rule sucked the water from the land and the sea, leaving desert. Interestingly, construction of a dyke in 2005 has resulting in part of the sea collecting more water, and some of the fish species have reestablished. A quick google of "Aral Sea before and after" shows the scale here!
The next chapter takes us to the Sonoran Desert , between Mexico and the USA. This chapter largely examines the illegal immigrants chancing their lives to cross from Mexico to the USA - not only Mexicans, but a lot of people from Central America. Atkins interviews people from all sides of this issue. Surprisingly I found this one of the best chapters.
Again is the USA, chapter 6 takes us to Nevada and the Black Rock Desert , specifically for a visit to the Burning Man Festival. While this could have been an exploration into the crazy and debauched, it was more about the supervision and safety.
The final chapter examines Egypt's Eastern Desert , and his time at St Anthony's Coptic Orthodox Monastery. He shares the stories of some of the monks, his short time in the library, and various historical aspects and those who have written about it before. This chapter slowed the whole pace for me, and it crawled to an end.
Atkins writing is at its most interesting for me when he is describing those he meets and his interactions with them. I don't delight in his prose, or his descriptions of the desert as some other reviewers have, not sure why, as this book focuses on some really interesting places. I believe those he quotes or mentions do this better than in his own text.
This book didn't enthuse me the way I wanted it to. It somehow never built to a climax. I wanted a five star book, taking the best of each desert visited. For me it was at best a 3.5 star book, which I must round down to 3.
In this seven chapter book we accompany Atkins on his travels. He explains (to a varying degree in each chapter) the history of each place, about its pioneering explorers and native inhabitants, it geo-politics (to a small degree) and its current status. The possibilities for the future? - A little.
We commence in Oman, with the Empty Quarter , made famous by Thesiger and his adventures there described in Arabian Sands, although he didn't pioneer the crossing, there were others before him. Like all chapters, Atkins visits and makes a journey.
Australia's Great Victoria Desert is Atkins next stop. Here is located Emu Field Nuclear Test Site, and what must surely be an embarrassment to Australia (and Britain). As always seems to be the case, the test detonations didn't disburse as expected and radioactive contamination of the ground and everything on or in it occurred, including the Aboriginal settlement at Maralinga. It doesn't take much imagination to picture the long term effects for the people on whose tribal land the tests took place.
To China, and the Taklamakan Desert for the third chapter. Mildred Cable and Francesca French, Aurel Stein and Sven Hedin all feature in the history here. The story of the Mogao Caves (Cave of 1000 Buddhas) near Dunhuang is central here. Some of China's typical treatment of ethnic minorities is covered here, but not too in depth.
Kazakhstan's Aral Sea/Aralkum Desert is the location for the next chapter. An environmental disaster area now much more desert than sea, and how the people live with the loss of their livelihood. High intensity farming of cotton under soviet rule sucked the water from the land and the sea, leaving desert. Interestingly, construction of a dyke in 2005 has resulting in part of the sea collecting more water, and some of the fish species have reestablished. A quick google of "Aral Sea before and after" shows the scale here!
The next chapter takes us to the Sonoran Desert , between Mexico and the USA. This chapter largely examines the illegal immigrants chancing their lives to cross from Mexico to the USA - not only Mexicans, but a lot of people from Central America. Atkins interviews people from all sides of this issue. Surprisingly I found this one of the best chapters.
Again is the USA, chapter 6 takes us to Nevada and the Black Rock Desert , specifically for a visit to the Burning Man Festival. While this could have been an exploration into the crazy and debauched, it was more about the supervision and safety.
The final chapter examines Egypt's Eastern Desert , and his time at St Anthony's Coptic Orthodox Monastery. He shares the stories of some of the monks, his short time in the library, and various historical aspects and those who have written about it before. This chapter slowed the whole pace for me, and it crawled to an end.
Atkins writing is at its most interesting for me when he is describing those he meets and his interactions with them. I don't delight in his prose, or his descriptions of the desert as some other reviewers have, not sure why, as this book focuses on some really interesting places. I believe those he quotes or mentions do this better than in his own text.
This book didn't enthuse me the way I wanted it to. It somehow never built to a climax. I wanted a five star book, taking the best of each desert visited. For me it was at best a 3.5 star book, which I must round down to 3.
October 25, 2018
The heart stumbles.
She leaves, and his thoughts drift to the desert. His literary instincts lure him to the books, propel him to the studies, set for him a feast of symbolic attractions. Here are the records of emptiness and exile, isolation and ordeal - arduous days and nights of passage - the history, the art, the science of "the devil's domain." William Atkins reads. And then he packs a bag.
The Immeasurable World invites the restless among us to join in the journey through the deserts of modern time. We will travel to the Empty Quarter in Oman, the Great Victoria Desert in Australia, the Gobi and Taklamakan in China, the Aralkum in Kazakhstan, the Sonoran and Black Rock of the American West, and come to our end in Egypt. We will greet native inhabitants, encounter nomadic tribes, commune with monks and migrants; trip through the cultish rift of the festival of Burning Man. We will hear about the quest for oil, nuclear testing, border disputes, and the rigorous price exacted by some of the earth's most inhospitable terrain.
The writing is exemplary. The experience comes to life through a mind that is smart, sensitive, well-informed, and genuinely worth accompanying.
A small (and favorite) piece I came across, written during a period of respite:
One evening, sitting on the edge of a motel pool in Carmel, she told me a story, or a parable. "An anthropologist once asked a Hopi Indian why so many of his people's songs were about water," she said. In one hand, as she spoke, she was holding a lemon I'd picked, all rind, big as a grapefruit and hard as a nut. She continued: "'Simple," says the Indian, 'because water is so scarce...And why,' he asks the anthropologist, 'are so many of yours about love?'"
Such is a sense of this.
Recommended, of course.
She leaves, and his thoughts drift to the desert. His literary instincts lure him to the books, propel him to the studies, set for him a feast of symbolic attractions. Here are the records of emptiness and exile, isolation and ordeal - arduous days and nights of passage - the history, the art, the science of "the devil's domain." William Atkins reads. And then he packs a bag.
The Immeasurable World invites the restless among us to join in the journey through the deserts of modern time. We will travel to the Empty Quarter in Oman, the Great Victoria Desert in Australia, the Gobi and Taklamakan in China, the Aralkum in Kazakhstan, the Sonoran and Black Rock of the American West, and come to our end in Egypt. We will greet native inhabitants, encounter nomadic tribes, commune with monks and migrants; trip through the cultish rift of the festival of Burning Man. We will hear about the quest for oil, nuclear testing, border disputes, and the rigorous price exacted by some of the earth's most inhospitable terrain.
The writing is exemplary. The experience comes to life through a mind that is smart, sensitive, well-informed, and genuinely worth accompanying.
A small (and favorite) piece I came across, written during a period of respite:
One evening, sitting on the edge of a motel pool in Carmel, she told me a story, or a parable. "An anthropologist once asked a Hopi Indian why so many of his people's songs were about water," she said. In one hand, as she spoke, she was holding a lemon I'd picked, all rind, big as a grapefruit and hard as a nut. She continued: "'Simple," says the Indian, 'because water is so scarce...And why,' he asks the anthropologist, 'are so many of yours about love?'"
Such is a sense of this.
Recommended, of course.
August 16, 2018
Atkins is the latest one to be drawn to those impenetrable places, deserts. He joins an illustrious list of explorers and people who are seeking something amongst the arid sands. The geographer definition of a desert is somewhere that has less than 250mm of rain per year, but for those that know what to look for, they can be places of riches and places where life is right at the edge, but they are not lifeless if you know where to look. Atkins is not fully sure what he is seeking though, his partner of four years had accepted a job overseas and he was not going with her. Seeking some clarity of mind he heads out to the Empty Quarter on the Arabian peninsular a place made famous by the travel writer Wilfred Thesiger. In his book Arabian Sands, he went searching for those that still carried out the age-old Bedouin life and where others saw unforgiving wilderness, Thesiger found timeless peace. Standing in the mountainous pink dunes, he is humbled by the vastness of the place and by the people who know these places so intimately that they are never lost.
The Great Victorian Desert in Australia has been Aboriginal lands for millennia. The UK government with collusion from the Aussie PM used it for numerous nuclear tests. These were on ancient Aboriginal land and the fallout caused many health problems and displaced people who had no idea of what was really going on. Even though it echoed to the most powerful blasts that we humans can make it is still a place that has spiritual significance to the people that still choose to live there. The next two deserts are in Asia; the Gobi and what is left of the Aral Sea. These utterly different places have been used as a method of defence to protect China for people trying to enter the country and the other a site of a massive environmental disaster. Stepping once again in the footsteps of travellers before him, in this case in it is the Cable sisters, where he discovers a place that is tense and edgy. Standing in the desert that once was the Aral sea is quite a surreal experience and he learns how the waters that once contained sturgeon now hold no life and how the demands for irrigation drained this once great freshwater sea.
Next place to visit is the continent of America where Atkins visits two deserts are on the list. First up is the Sonoran Desert. It is a harsh and baked environment that borders Mexico and is a focus for those wanting to cross and realise their own American Dream. Very little of it is fenced to keep people out as the desert is pretty effective at doing that, and Atkins joins those that are trying to keep people out as well as those who are there to offer some humanity to those that have made the attempt to cross. The polarised views of each camp make this a tense place, very different to his next desert, which is the Black Rock Desert and the festival that is the Burning Man where he has offered to help out. The contrast between this place with its liberal perspective on sex, nudity and drugs and the previous location is stark. These places are both very different to his final location though, St Anthony's Monastery in the Eastern Desert of Egypt a place that revels in its isolation from the pressures of the modern world and brings Atkins full circle to the spiritual and intangible elements of the desert.
Even though deserts are some of the lest populated places in the world, this is still a series of stories about the people that inhabit them, however, scarce they might be. I particularly liked the chapter on the Australian Great Victoria Desert, a place that was taken from its rightful inhabitants and is slowly being returned having been contaminated. It makes for painful reading. It is as much about Atkins though, he is using the vastness of the desert to clarify his mind and as a support for the pain that he went through at the end of a relationship. Whilst this is a travel book, there is history, poetry and philosophy in amongst the drifting sands. His prose is lucid with hints of melancholy and this book contains some of the best maps I have seen in a travel book yet. Well worth reading for a modern take on deserts.
The Great Victorian Desert in Australia has been Aboriginal lands for millennia. The UK government with collusion from the Aussie PM used it for numerous nuclear tests. These were on ancient Aboriginal land and the fallout caused many health problems and displaced people who had no idea of what was really going on. Even though it echoed to the most powerful blasts that we humans can make it is still a place that has spiritual significance to the people that still choose to live there. The next two deserts are in Asia; the Gobi and what is left of the Aral Sea. These utterly different places have been used as a method of defence to protect China for people trying to enter the country and the other a site of a massive environmental disaster. Stepping once again in the footsteps of travellers before him, in this case in it is the Cable sisters, where he discovers a place that is tense and edgy. Standing in the desert that once was the Aral sea is quite a surreal experience and he learns how the waters that once contained sturgeon now hold no life and how the demands for irrigation drained this once great freshwater sea.
Next place to visit is the continent of America where Atkins visits two deserts are on the list. First up is the Sonoran Desert. It is a harsh and baked environment that borders Mexico and is a focus for those wanting to cross and realise their own American Dream. Very little of it is fenced to keep people out as the desert is pretty effective at doing that, and Atkins joins those that are trying to keep people out as well as those who are there to offer some humanity to those that have made the attempt to cross. The polarised views of each camp make this a tense place, very different to his next desert, which is the Black Rock Desert and the festival that is the Burning Man where he has offered to help out. The contrast between this place with its liberal perspective on sex, nudity and drugs and the previous location is stark. These places are both very different to his final location though, St Anthony's Monastery in the Eastern Desert of Egypt a place that revels in its isolation from the pressures of the modern world and brings Atkins full circle to the spiritual and intangible elements of the desert.
Even though deserts are some of the lest populated places in the world, this is still a series of stories about the people that inhabit them, however, scarce they might be. I particularly liked the chapter on the Australian Great Victoria Desert, a place that was taken from its rightful inhabitants and is slowly being returned having been contaminated. It makes for painful reading. It is as much about Atkins though, he is using the vastness of the desert to clarify his mind and as a support for the pain that he went through at the end of a relationship. Whilst this is a travel book, there is history, poetry and philosophy in amongst the drifting sands. His prose is lucid with hints of melancholy and this book contains some of the best maps I have seen in a travel book yet. Well worth reading for a modern take on deserts.
November 12, 2018
You might also enjoy:
✱ The Secret Knowledge of Water
✱ Soul of Nowhere
✱ Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert
✱ Arabian Sands
✱ News From Tartary
✱ Desert Solitaire
✱ Desert Notes: Reflections in the Eye of a Raven
✱ Crossing Open Ground
✱ The Man Who Walked Through Time
✱ Where the Water Goes: Life and Death Along the Colorado River
✱ Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
✱ Great Aridness: Climate Change and the American Southwest
✱ Savage Dreams
✱ Uncommon Ground
✱ The Hour of Land
✱ Water: A Natural History
✱ The Secret Knowledge of Water
✱ Soul of Nowhere
✱ Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert
✱ Arabian Sands
✱ News From Tartary
✱ Desert Solitaire
✱ Desert Notes: Reflections in the Eye of a Raven
✱ Crossing Open Ground
✱ The Man Who Walked Through Time
✱ Where the Water Goes: Life and Death Along the Colorado River
✱ Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
✱ Great Aridness: Climate Change and the American Southwest
✱ Savage Dreams
✱ Uncommon Ground
✱ The Hour of Land
✱ Water: A Natural History
October 7, 2018
I'm not quite sure what this book was meant to be. I’m not sure it knows either.
From the opening parts it looks like a history of the conquering of certain deserts, with the author kind of following in those pioneers footsteps. A bit.
But as it goes on it seems to spend less time on the history and more on what is happening in these deserts now. I’m quite surprised, because the most interesting parts were the two segments in the USA, closely followed by China and the Aral Sea, none of which explore the history of the desert (well they do, but in the chapter about the Burned Man festival these paragraphs in particular just get in the way of telling the story of what is happening now).
The books seemed to be building to a climax. The author looks at seven desert regions, the first two come across as a bit dry (pun absolutely intended) but the next four segments just get more and more interesting. Sadly, the seventh and final part, set in Egypt, loses that precious momentum. Thematically it works, the theme of the saints rounds the novel off in an appropriate way, linking in with the first segment, finishing where it started, but that final chapter is just dull, and whilst I was eagerly devouring the previous parts I had to force myself through the last forty pages. Shame, as without that loss of momentum at the end I think it would have been a four star book and not a three.
The bits that worked were great, it is certainly worth reading, but the end is unsatisfactory.
From the opening parts it looks like a history of the conquering of certain deserts, with the author kind of following in those pioneers footsteps. A bit.
But as it goes on it seems to spend less time on the history and more on what is happening in these deserts now. I’m quite surprised, because the most interesting parts were the two segments in the USA, closely followed by China and the Aral Sea, none of which explore the history of the desert (well they do, but in the chapter about the Burned Man festival these paragraphs in particular just get in the way of telling the story of what is happening now).
The books seemed to be building to a climax. The author looks at seven desert regions, the first two come across as a bit dry (pun absolutely intended) but the next four segments just get more and more interesting. Sadly, the seventh and final part, set in Egypt, loses that precious momentum. Thematically it works, the theme of the saints rounds the novel off in an appropriate way, linking in with the first segment, finishing where it started, but that final chapter is just dull, and whilst I was eagerly devouring the previous parts I had to force myself through the last forty pages. Shame, as without that loss of momentum at the end I think it would have been a four star book and not a three.
The bits that worked were great, it is certainly worth reading, but the end is unsatisfactory.
June 30, 2018
This is a book about tbe author's wanderings through the deserts of the world. We learn how each desert looks as well as a bit about the people that live in each. I found this book fascinating and if you think this book would be dry, well, I think you would be surprised at how the author describes the deserts and keeps you wanting to read more.
I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.
I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.
August 3, 2018
The content warrants a 4* rating but sadly the prose does not. If only the same material had been written by Paul Theroux or William Langenweische.
September 11, 2018
(3.5) Atkins has produced an appealing blend of vivid travel anecdotes, historical background and philosophical musings. He is always conscious that he is treading in the footsteps of earlier adventurers. He has no illusions about being a pioneer here; rather, he eagerly picks up the thematic threads others have spun out of desert experience and runs with them – things like solitude, asceticism, punishment for wrongdoing and environmental degradation. The book is composed of seven long chapters, each set in a different desert. In my favorite segment, the author rents a cabin in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona for $100 a week. My interest waxed and waned from chapter to chapter, but readers of travelogues should find plenty to enjoy. Few of us would have the physical or emotional fortitude to repeat Atkins’s journeys, but we get the joy of being armchair travelers instead.
See my full review at Shiny New Books.
See my full review at Shiny New Books.
January 11, 2019
Atkins travels to deserts around the world, and describes the different contexts they serve. Politically they have been used to separate people (US and China), but have brought them together socially (Burning Man) and religiously (Coptic monasteries). Their remoteness was used to test atomic bombs (US, USSR, Australia), and short sighted economic motivations reduced healthy lands into wastes (Soviet Central Asia). An interesting book wounded at times by Atkins' clumsy writing.
July 12, 2022
¿Hasta que punto un libro sobre un viaje por los ocho grandes desiertos del mundo puede dejar de ser psicogeográfico o naturalista y convertirse en un reportaje religioso?
William Atkins parte a la búsqueda del verdadero Arrakis en "El mundo inconmensurable":
«se mantiene relevante porque los lugares a los que fui solo han empeorado, su importancia aumentado, el tema de las fronteras tampoco dejará de estar a la orden del día porque una de las cosas que comprendí es que las migraciones son fundamentales en el tiempo y que por eso exigen respuestas colectivas porque en el desierto no hay jueces ni testigos»
https://theobjective.com/cultura/2022...
William Atkins parte a la búsqueda del verdadero Arrakis en "El mundo inconmensurable":
«se mantiene relevante porque los lugares a los que fui solo han empeorado, su importancia aumentado, el tema de las fronteras tampoco dejará de estar a la orden del día porque una de las cosas que comprendí es que las migraciones son fundamentales en el tiempo y que por eso exigen respuestas colectivas porque en el desierto no hay jueces ni testigos»
https://theobjective.com/cultura/2022...
September 2, 2018
Elfin-looking William Atkins treks across various deserts in search of what? That is the pervading question of this book. It wasn't immediately clear to me why he embarked on the journeys he did, other than finding books about deserts in a monastery library. Monasteries and monks are definitely his cup of tea. The journeys are interesting, the deserts and their histories are fascinating. It's been a long time since I saw shamals referenced anywhere. Shamals were an important part of the desert I spent five formative years living with or rather beside, perhaps both. I was closer to Oman than any of the other places he traversed. The book is lightweight, but a very good read.
March 1, 2019
Atkins explores four desert areas of the world and in addition to describing the environment, includes brief discussions of the region's human history, environmental importance and other contextual details. I felt rather disatisfied with the brevity of the historical and environmental background. While not really writing a travel adventure tale, Atkins also is not writing a real natural or human history. The desert places seem chosen somewhat at random, which seems okay, but makes the work feel a little fragmented to me. Worth reading but not going to go on my "absolutely amazing" shelf.
March 24, 2021
In this book, William Atkins explores seven desert environments in Asia, Australia, North America and Africa and themes that seem to be behind how people view desert environments. In Australia, he visits two former nuclear tests sites; in Africa, he spends times with desert fathers in a monastery; and in the US, he takes part in the Burning Man Reunion held annually in the Nevada desert. The trips aren't long but capture the themes and places well.
August 1, 2018
I almost gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 because I could not 'categorize' it. It combines history, theology, philosophy,politics, science, travelogue, literature, poetry ..... about 8 deserts around the world. Atkins starts the book in the Empty Quarter, Oman, with the Desert Fathers of early Christian monasticsm, then moves on to the Great Victoria Desert, Australia, The Gobi Desert and the Taklamakan Desert, China, and the Aralkum, Kazakhstan, providing descriptions and insights into the culture and history of this deserts. In the United States, Atkins considers the Sonoran Desert and the plight of refugees attempting to cross the border in Nogales as well as the Black Rock Desert and the cultural phenomenon of Burning Man. In the last chapter, Atkins comes full circle back to theology, at a monastery in the Eastern Desert, Egypt. I enjoyed the maps at the beginning of each chapter, so that I had a better understanding of where each desert was located, and the few black & white photos sprinkled throughout the book. I would have enjoyed more pictures of the desert landscapes, though I know I can Google them on my own.
This book was not an easy or fast read, but worth the effort.
I received this book as a giveaway (thank you Goodreads and Doubleday!).
This book was not an easy or fast read, but worth the effort.
I received this book as a giveaway (thank you Goodreads and Doubleday!).
October 2, 2018
Atkins is an excellent observer and can evoke a sense of place so well. In this book, he travels to several of the worlds deserts, describing the natural features therein, but also delving into a human aspect of the place.
He travels to the Empty Quarter on the border of Oman and Saudi Arabia retracing the steps of British explorers, then he's off to Australia's Great Victorian desert to explore it's legacy of nuclear testing. In the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts of China he retraces the steps of archaeologists and missionaries. He visits the former Aral Sea, now a desert, and then he's off to the US southwest, describing the plight of border-crossing migrants in the Sonoran Desrt and the excesses of Burning Man attendees at Black Rock. Finally, he circles back to the middle east and visits Coptic monasteries in the Egyptian desert and his introductory exploration of the desert as a place that focuses one's thoughts.
It's an excellent travelogue. While he's definitely a presence in the book, he doesn't make it all about him and focuses our attention on the people he meets.
He travels to the Empty Quarter on the border of Oman and Saudi Arabia retracing the steps of British explorers, then he's off to Australia's Great Victorian desert to explore it's legacy of nuclear testing. In the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts of China he retraces the steps of archaeologists and missionaries. He visits the former Aral Sea, now a desert, and then he's off to the US southwest, describing the plight of border-crossing migrants in the Sonoran Desrt and the excesses of Burning Man attendees at Black Rock. Finally, he circles back to the middle east and visits Coptic monasteries in the Egyptian desert and his introductory exploration of the desert as a place that focuses one's thoughts.
It's an excellent travelogue. While he's definitely a presence in the book, he doesn't make it all about him and focuses our attention on the people he meets.
October 15, 2018
Rather than satisfying me with a book similar to two of my favorites: Desert Solitaire and The Man Who Walked Through Time, which are both about solitary sojourns in desert national parks, British author Atkins challenges by exploring some of the world's great deserts with guides in search of human activity. The deserts he visits, from the Taklamakan in extreme western China to the Black Rock in Nevada, are not quite pristine, and several of them are scenes of conflict and tension. His stay at the ancient Coptic monastery of Desert Father St. Antony east of the Nile and the rituals and structured self-policing of the Burning Man festival are some of the most interesting chapters for me. Border Patrols and dehydrated immigrants, Aborigine homelands lost to nuclear testing, and a great inland sea with its valuable fisheries dried up for water diversion projects are among the sad stories. There are good maps which help with the geography and history along with meeting the deserts' current tough citizens.
January 26, 2020
The book covers the author's experiences on ventures into a select number of desert environments throughout the world. On the surface it attracted my interest because it seemed like an exotic topic. The way Atkins presented it though was not to me to deliver on that.
He seems to bypass much of the physical characteristics of the desert itself to delve into the people who for one reason or other dwell here or encounter it in either ritual or passing. So the book drones on and on abut the topics relating to these people and really is monotonous at times.
He starts in the Middle East, then covers Australia, Mongolia, Russia, the Sonoran desert along the US border, the Black Rock, and finally culminates in Egypt.
Each episode has a different theme and some of them are interesting but again much of the narrative has to do with his encounters with these people there and their conditions or struggles. In finality it made me want to escape the desert and not look back.
He seems to bypass much of the physical characteristics of the desert itself to delve into the people who for one reason or other dwell here or encounter it in either ritual or passing. So the book drones on and on abut the topics relating to these people and really is monotonous at times.
He starts in the Middle East, then covers Australia, Mongolia, Russia, the Sonoran desert along the US border, the Black Rock, and finally culminates in Egypt.
Each episode has a different theme and some of them are interesting but again much of the narrative has to do with his encounters with these people there and their conditions or struggles. In finality it made me want to escape the desert and not look back.
May 31, 2020
Not A Lot of Desert
I don't mind idiosyncratic. Especially not in a book that tackles a vast, romantic subject like this. But you do have to keep your eye on the ball. And randomly inserted quotes about "deserts" aren't enough.
This is pretty random and disjointed. The Sonoran chapter is a superficial text about border politics. Eastern Egypt leads us to a consideration of monastic life. The Black Rock desert is all about Burning Man. Somehow, Australia manages to become boring.
This is interesting enough, I guess, if you are interested in just hanging out with this author. But there's more personal history, and less desert, than I would have preferred.
(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
I don't mind idiosyncratic. Especially not in a book that tackles a vast, romantic subject like this. But you do have to keep your eye on the ball. And randomly inserted quotes about "deserts" aren't enough.
This is pretty random and disjointed. The Sonoran chapter is a superficial text about border politics. Eastern Egypt leads us to a consideration of monastic life. The Black Rock desert is all about Burning Man. Somehow, Australia manages to become boring.
This is interesting enough, I guess, if you are interested in just hanging out with this author. But there's more personal history, and less desert, than I would have preferred.
(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
May 2, 2018
(Note: I received an advanced electronic copy of this book from NetGalley)
When reading the book's summary,oneI admittedly may be a bit off-put by the prospect of reading about a man's wanderings through some of the most barren places on the planet. However, following Atkins as he travels from the empty quarter to the American southwest to the Taklamakan in Central Asia is anything but a slog. Far from it, one will encounter lands that are all quite similar, yet also unmistakably distinct with their physical characteristics, inhabitants, and their histories. "The Immeasurable World" will not only spark an interest in the deserts of the world, but feed it a little more with each passing chapter. By the time it's over, you'll definitely begin to see why the author couldn't help but keep venturing off into these sparse, quiet lands.
When reading the book's summary,oneI admittedly may be a bit off-put by the prospect of reading about a man's wanderings through some of the most barren places on the planet. However, following Atkins as he travels from the empty quarter to the American southwest to the Taklamakan in Central Asia is anything but a slog. Far from it, one will encounter lands that are all quite similar, yet also unmistakably distinct with their physical characteristics, inhabitants, and their histories. "The Immeasurable World" will not only spark an interest in the deserts of the world, but feed it a little more with each passing chapter. By the time it's over, you'll definitely begin to see why the author couldn't help but keep venturing off into these sparse, quiet lands.
Read
December 21, 2018My book of the year is The Immeasurable World by William Atkins—an erudite, often dark, witty exploration of the world’s deserts. Atkins writes sentences of great beauty that capture the isolation, dangers, attractions, and cultural importance of the desert, while always giving us a thoroughly immersive sense of what it’s like to be there. It will make you think of the world anew. —Stuart (excerpted from The Best of the Bunch: Bookish’s Favorite Books from 2018)
August 7, 2018
I love visiting deserts and love reading about them. William Atkins is a fantastic guide. A mix of the personal - including meetings with local people - plus historical and political context makes this an engrossing read. I was particularly moved by his account of Maralinga, site of the British nuclear tests in the 1950's.
Want to read
September 14, 2018A fascinating intriguing trip through the deserts of the world a tour of uninhabitable places unique people ,places.This book was intriguing perfect for me the arm chair traveler.Highly recommend.Thanks tonDoubleday #netgalley for advance readers copy
February 4, 2019
7/8 of this books were really good. Well written, moved along well in a series of essays set in various desert settings. Not a natural history, but not only a personal journey, a decent read overall.
May 26, 2018
An intriguing story of one mans travels through five continents and eight deserts. Thankyou Goodreads for this free book!!!!
June 1, 2018
I won this book in a Goodreads first-reads giveaway.
An interesting, eye-opening, thought provoking and immersive book about several of the worlds deserts, how they are different, yet the same.
An interesting, eye-opening, thought provoking and immersive book about several of the worlds deserts, how they are different, yet the same.
September 8, 2018
When I heard it was similar to Bruce Chatwin, I ordered it right away. Well, it is not. Of the 6 essays, I disliked 2, enjoyed 3 and the last so so. So...3 stars.
July 25, 2023
L’essere umano e il deserto. Un viaggio tra storia, filosofia, religione e ricerca scientifica alla ricerca dei confini e delle tracce che l’uomo ha lasciato su queste distese di sabbia e polvere. Un panorama deserto non è uno panorama desertificato. Il primo esiste da sempre, il secondo è una creazione dell’uomo. Dove inizia l’uno, dove l’altro? Esiste un limite al silenzio che possiamo sopportare? Quanti deserti esistono al mondo ma soprattutto l’aridità più grande non è forse quella che dimora proprio nell’essere umano? Un libro esemplare.
August 17, 2023
Reportage approfondito sui deserti, in cui ogni capitolo é dedicato ad un particolare deserto. Interessante per capire in che modo l'uomo si relaziona a questo ambiente a seconda dei contesti: spazio vuoto in cui eseguire test nucleari o svolgere feste senza freni, barriera naturale per impedire migrazioni, luogo ascetico per eccellenza.
December 30, 2018
Book by British writer William Atkins is about seven deserts in five continents, and about desert per se, divine and infernal.
“The Immeasurable World” is William Atkins’ second book. His debut, “The Moor” (also available in the library), was about the vast moorlands of Great Britain. Now he travels to Oman, Australia, China, Kazakhstan, United States and Egypt.
Author doesn’t visit the desert places on his own, he is accompanied by locals or those who have been here before. Voices from the collected “desert library” come along, too, as does a light sense of a heartache. There is one time when he wanders alone too far away and gets lost for a few panicky hours.
Atkins’ deserts are not empty. They are filled with people, traced with history. They are stained with present-day blood. Not that long ago nuclear bombs were tested in the Great Victoria Desert in Australia, poisoning the Aboriginal land and families. The Sonoran Desert in Arizona is a burning topic about the Mexico and United States border. Even if you manage to trespass into the States, it’s like walking from a frying pan into the fire: you still have to cross the desert. Some dead bodies are being found, covered in toothpaste, desperately trying to hide their skin from sun, when still alive.
There are oasis, too. In Black Rock Desert in Nevada, USA, a harsh place for any human soul, author spends a week in the Burning Man festival. Post apocalyptic fun, freedom, kindness, and a couple screwing in a sand storm. All these desert stories will stay like grit between your teeth for longer than you thought they will.
I love what William Atkins does with his sentences. He builds loaded lines and then blows them all away with an added “whatever”. His gaze is sharp, observations filled with humour. At one point he tries to guess the eye colour of a woman, always wearing sunglasses (“Red possibly.”). You laugh but the very next moment have to deal with such undiluted reality check, that you put three dots with your pencil right next to the paragraph, as if gasping for air.
It’s easy to be with the author, and often fun, too, but he will not let you forget, that you are in a desert. Desert is a front line, the devil’s domain, where early Christian hermits, the Desert Fathers, withdrew from society to face demons and seek Christ.
Desert is also beautiful. Silent. Infinite. Describing the vast landscape, it’s impossible not to compare it to the sea. “It was like nothing I had experienced save for being at sea.” But after the Burning Man festival when Atkins rests by the Pacific Ocean, he sees that water is alive. Desert is an ancient seabed, dead for thousands of years. In the chapter about the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan, it dries out in front of locals’ eyes.
And yet desert is home for animals that leave footprints at night, and plants that persist; a refined ecosystem, thriving in its own wonderful way. When spending a starry night in The Empty Quarter in Oman William Atkins dropped a date stone in the fire, his guide, propping on one elbow, reached into the flames, extracted it and threw into the dark desert. “No offer of life was to be wasted.”
“The Immeasurable World” is William Atkins’ second book. His debut, “The Moor” (also available in the library), was about the vast moorlands of Great Britain. Now he travels to Oman, Australia, China, Kazakhstan, United States and Egypt.
Author doesn’t visit the desert places on his own, he is accompanied by locals or those who have been here before. Voices from the collected “desert library” come along, too, as does a light sense of a heartache. There is one time when he wanders alone too far away and gets lost for a few panicky hours.
Atkins’ deserts are not empty. They are filled with people, traced with history. They are stained with present-day blood. Not that long ago nuclear bombs were tested in the Great Victoria Desert in Australia, poisoning the Aboriginal land and families. The Sonoran Desert in Arizona is a burning topic about the Mexico and United States border. Even if you manage to trespass into the States, it’s like walking from a frying pan into the fire: you still have to cross the desert. Some dead bodies are being found, covered in toothpaste, desperately trying to hide their skin from sun, when still alive.
There are oasis, too. In Black Rock Desert in Nevada, USA, a harsh place for any human soul, author spends a week in the Burning Man festival. Post apocalyptic fun, freedom, kindness, and a couple screwing in a sand storm. All these desert stories will stay like grit between your teeth for longer than you thought they will.
I love what William Atkins does with his sentences. He builds loaded lines and then blows them all away with an added “whatever”. His gaze is sharp, observations filled with humour. At one point he tries to guess the eye colour of a woman, always wearing sunglasses (“Red possibly.”). You laugh but the very next moment have to deal with such undiluted reality check, that you put three dots with your pencil right next to the paragraph, as if gasping for air.
It’s easy to be with the author, and often fun, too, but he will not let you forget, that you are in a desert. Desert is a front line, the devil’s domain, where early Christian hermits, the Desert Fathers, withdrew from society to face demons and seek Christ.
Desert is also beautiful. Silent. Infinite. Describing the vast landscape, it’s impossible not to compare it to the sea. “It was like nothing I had experienced save for being at sea.” But after the Burning Man festival when Atkins rests by the Pacific Ocean, he sees that water is alive. Desert is an ancient seabed, dead for thousands of years. In the chapter about the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan, it dries out in front of locals’ eyes.
And yet desert is home for animals that leave footprints at night, and plants that persist; a refined ecosystem, thriving in its own wonderful way. When spending a starry night in The Empty Quarter in Oman William Atkins dropped a date stone in the fire, his guide, propping on one elbow, reached into the flames, extracted it and threw into the dark desert. “No offer of life was to be wasted.”
July 8, 2021
William Atkins's capacious curiosity, thorough research, amiable outlook, and sharp observation combine to make his tales of arid places bloom in the reader's imagination. Deserts around the world have been sites of environmental degradation, lethal nuclear bomb tests, resource exploitation, and human suffering, from Australian aborigines to Uighurs in China to migrants and refugees attempting to enter the U.S.
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