Some how...some way...I'm going to read that book

Almost a decade ago I became utterly obsessed, for a time, with a book by the estimable John Keay, a two-volume masterpiece on central Asia called Explorers of the Western Himalayas.  If you're ever going on a long train ride, or must spend a months at a research station in the Antarctic, you ought to toss that one into your rucksack.  If you're gainfully employed and productive, however, think twice.  It devours days like bonbons.

Now I see that while I was busy saving the world (or at least my clients) from economic disaster, he was writing a fine popular history of China, focusing especially on the early dynasties.

Need to find a week or three...somewhere...