Arabia

This is a great travel book. A have visited most of these places and was not as brave as the autor but have come to the same conclusions. Well written and entertaining...

I bought the book eager to pick up some insights, through the writer's journey across the Middle East, about how the unrest in the region affects the lives and shapes the thoughts of the Arabs. But I was sorely disappointed because it turns out to be a mere travelogue where Wood is mostly interested in accomplishing his personal mission of having walked through a war-torn region and fulfilling his childhood fantasy of setting foot on the tracks of his hero, Lawrence of Arabia. It is irritating, for instance, to read his self-centered babbling about his excitement at the old Hejaz railway in Saudi Arabia where his hero fought a war while devoting little space to delve on his guide's apparent distaste for the man whom the Arabs regarded as a British spy. Readers want to read about what the Arabs think and not how he went about fulfilling many of his personal dreams!The book started promisingly enough when Wood wrote about his travel through Iraq. This is where I learned about the feared Iraqi's religious paramilitary group called the Hashd and the marshes in southern Iraq that was once drained and almost destroyed by Saddam. Wood also introduced some interesting dubious characters in the form of his guides (such as Mahrouqi in Oman and the testy Amar in Iraq). But beyond that, the book is largely made up of ramblings of his exploit that is neither interesting nor useful to know.I was reading what readers think of Levison Wood's other books, and in a review by "GroundhogMom" on another Wood's travelogue (Walking the Americas), she provided what I think is the most accurate summary of this book, "There was no storytelling, really, it was a little history, a little politics/current events, a little social commentary, a little travel journal, but nothing in any depth."Perhaps this statement found on p.128 which is about one-third way into his book reveals the greatest shortfall of the book, "I wanted to experience the Arabia of old, and to get a flavour of the reality of rural life in the Middle East. For the most part, I'd had little contact with Arabs in the Gulf, and apart from a few officials, I'd met only foreign expats." For interested readers out there, I hope the statement provides ample warning about the book.Finally, for readers who wish for a book about how the unrest in the region has affected the lives of Arabs, I recommend "A Rage for Order: The Middle East in Turmoil, from Tahrir Square to ISIS" by Robert Worth.