Looking for Some Books about the Desert

[iamdanthemansta]

I'm moving out toward a huge desert pretty soon in Xinjiang China and I was looking for some recommendations for books about the desert. The books can be fiction or non-fiction of any genre, though I'm looking for either newer or more famous stuff so I can get it on my Kindle. It can be about pretty much any desert to boot I'm just looking for anything. Thanks.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

The definitive work of fiction dealing with deserts is Dune, by Frank Herbert. There are five other books in the series:

Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune
Chapterhouse: Dune

All of these deal with the social, religious, and political effects on a people whose lives are spent on a planet so arid that there is no open water anywhere. It never rains. Each bit of moisture is so precious that the people wear stillsuits to recycle their body's water (perspiration & wastes) and when somebody dies, their body is run through a deathstill to recapture the water for the use of the tribe.

 

[iamdanthemansta]

Ah, thanks I should have mentioned that I've already read Dune and one of it's squeals.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Okay, then how about a good nonfiction book? The best one I've read is Two Against the Sahara: On Camelback from Nouakchott to the Nile, by Michael Asher.

 

[Furiey]

Desmond Bagley - Flyaway was one I read when I crossed the Sahara. Interesting as I went to many of the places mentioned in the book, probably not so relevant to a desert in China though.

 

[ArneHD]

On the subject of Dune, is there a Dune fanclub on the forums?

 

[Hakim]

Wolf Totem.

 

[Birdjaguar]

"Wind Sand and Stars" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

 

[JollyRoger]

Try Exodus.

 

[holy king]

 

[Valka D'Ur]

On the subject of Dune, is there a Dune fanclub on the forums?

There is now.

DuneFanatics

(great idea! )

 

[Shaihulud]

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, it is the first in a trilogy and the best one.

 

[Till]

Seven Pillars of Wisdom. It's even in the public domain.