4 February 2016
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

The Desert Road to Turkestan

Last night, I dug out the only Owen Lattimore book I own – 1928 The Desert Road to Turkestan.
Of all the adventurers on the Silk Road I discovered during my researches, Lattimore is probably the one I have more dear.
Maybe it’s because he was subject to much injustice, or because he was a keen observer and a charming storyteller.

Owen Lattimore was born in the USA in 1900. He was raised in China and educated in Switzerland and England. Unable to afford a university education, he got back in China, studied Chinese and was employed by a British commercial firm as jack of all trades and troubleshooter.
A load of wool blocked somewhere in the wild at the whim of a warlord? Send in Lattimore.
He actually liked it. Continue reading →

4 February 2016
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Mother of Seth!

OK, this is getting too easy, but considering I was already horrified by the first trailer, I may as well give you the second too…

And don’t get me wrong – it looks just great.
But it has absolutely nothing to do with Egypt, and I keep waiting for Richard Dean Anderson and the guys of SG1 to step in and start giving these fake gods their due.

Interesting article from e-Books India

5 Benefits of Writing in Your Second Language

31 January 2016
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

The Prisoner

The Prisoner was one of my favorite TV shows when I was a kid, and remains one of my faves today: the mix of mystery, the weirdness, science fiction and paranoia, the colors, costumes and locations… cast!
Perfect.

prisoner

A few days back stumbled on this interesting documentary from 1984 (interesting year for doing a Prisoner revival, what?) and I thought I’d share.

Enjoy!

The Siege of Jerusalem, 1917

29 January 2016 by Davide Mana Leave a comment

siege of jerusalem 1917

28 January 2016
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

One day inside a book?

I was looking for a good idea for a post, today after lunch, and then my friend Claire came to the rescue.

“Imagine you can spend a day inside a book,” was the prompt – one of those things going around on Facebook, you know, that a friend passed on to me. “What would you choose?”

Aha!
Now that looks like the sort of easy thing that could land me a post in ten minutes!

But then I started thinking – if not along the same lines tha Claire follows in her own post, along pretty similar tracks.
One day inside a book? Continue reading →

27 January 2016
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Karavansara.live

As some might have noticed, Karavansara is now running with a new URL – we now go by karavansara.live.
Old bookmarks will still work – you will be redirected to the new address.