What a great idea!

Thanks Sandra, for the invite and the opportunity to find book recommendations. Like Sandra I am from extremely far north, though only as far as Caithness and not Shetland by the North Pole. Like most of you guys, I have a few current existences including one in Perthshire, one near Windsor, and also one in Azerbaijan. Sometimes the thread between them is whichever book I am currently reading, as long as it's not too big to travel with because I like to travel light.

Like you I have tucked into various 'Asian' 'travel books' ( in separate quotes) and I am pleased to see a few more listed here which I will try.

My latest favourite - and I can't recommend it highly enough - is 'A Carpet Ride to Khiva (Seven Years on the Silk Road)' by Christopher Aslan Alexander. (Found it by accident on amazon, it's only just out.) The book begins as follows:

" 'The amazing thing about working in Khiva, or anywhere else in Uzbekistan, is what you might end up doing,' Lukas explained during a recruitment phone call. 'You'll find yourself doing things you're not qualified to do and would never have the opportunity to do elsewhere. You just do them because no one else is.' "

Any of you who follow any of my exploits in Azerbaijan (and indeed you all have your own exploits) will understand why I felt I might identify just a little with this tale.

I followed Christopher Aslan Alexander's carpet ride with admiration and maybe not a little envy (at least in parts), until the end, when OMG, the tears!

Take care all of you, happy reading, and I look forward to following up your book recomendations.