The World without Borders

The book store that is. I've only found one decent English book store here. Unfortunately it's about an hour away in Zurich. Luckily my eyes tend to be a little more optimistic than my schedule permits so i don't have to make the journey too often. Case in point, on the way back from Geneva today i finished reading a 1200+ page “encyclopaedia” on the middle east. Although i bought the book at the end of last year, it took me about 3 months to read. To be fair, this isn't the kind of book you “just can't put down”. It was very good, don't get me wrong. At times i was mad at the author, at other times i laughed, at other times i had to put it down in sheer disgust. I just had to take this book in small doses...it took time to digest all the information.

Curious what it was?

It's called “The Great War for Civilisation”. I may have mentioned it before, but it truly is a good book. Anyone who is remotely interested in the middle east should read this book. It's written by Robert Fisk who has spent his entire career reporting on the middle east, most of it while in the midst of the various “conflicts” he discusses. The books is worth reading if for no other reason than Frisk has interviewed Osama Bin Laden face to face multiple times. It's impossible for authors to remove personal opinion from their work, but that doesn't take away from the book at all.

I've only read a handful of books that have stuck with me over the years. I can already tell that this book will be the newest addition to that short list.