To Timbuktu for a Haircut: A Journey Through West Africa
by admin on July 18, 2010
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Historically rich, remote, and once unimaginably dangerous for travellers, Timbuktu still teases with "Find me if you can." Rick Antonson's encounters with entertaining train companions Ebou and Ussegnou, a mysterious cook called Nema, and intrepid guide Zak all make you want to pack up and leave for Timbuktu tomorrow. As Antonson travels in Senegal and Mali by train, four-wheel drive, river pinasse, camel, and foot, he tells of fourteenth-century legends, eighte... Click Here for Detials 
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Even Monsters Need Haircuts
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Product Description Just before midnight, on the night of a full moon, a young barber stays out past his bedtime to go to work. Although his customers are mostly regulars, they are anything but normal—after all, even monsters need haircuts...
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Bad Haircut: Stories of the Seventies
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Tom Perrotta made his literary debut with his short story collection Bad Haircut, earning critical praise and comparisons to Salinger, Carver, and Roth by taking readers to New Jersey in the 1970s as a boy named Buddy struggles with the timeless mysteries of sex, death, parents-and of course, bad haircuts.
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To Timbuktu for a Haircut: A Journey Through West Africa
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Haircut,
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Reading Rick Antonson’s book on Mali took be back to 2006 and my quick trip through Mali. Having visited many of the places that Rick featured it was a great experience to witness someone who had been there before me.
As a travel book I believe it to be superb and a great way to feel Mali.
And lo and behold he loved the same things about the places – Mopti, Dogon, Timbuktu and Essakane – that I came to treasure. He writes very well, he experiences the real feel of the Niger River area, he captures you into his journey. And the two things that he loved most about Mali, that is Timbuktu and its manuscripts and Le Pays Dogon; his time in both locations will send me on a return trip to Mali to further experience that remarkable country. This book on Africa is as close to a real guide as anything written by Paul Theroux or investigated by Lonely Planet. I so enjoyed this book.
Rating: 5 / 5
He’s not a great writer, and the writing is sometimes clumsy and confusing. Some of his information is inaccurate. He was surprisingly naive about many things (given his background in the travel industry), including hiring Muhammed and thinking he needed to pack everything but the kitchen sink. I lived in West Africa 20 years ago and traveled to many of the places he mentions. It was interesting to read about some of the things that have changed in twenty years. His perspective as a brief visitor is very different than the perspective of living there for a while.
Rating: 3 / 5
I really enjoy travel writing, particularly when a book is written with humour (i.e., Bill Bryson). This book was terrific! The author goes on such an incredible journey and meets such unique characters. He is so descriptive that I could truly conjur up what he saw, ate, etc. There were laugh out loud moments. All in all, a wonderful journey, written beautifully by a great writer.
Rating: 5 / 5
To Timbuktu for a Haircut is a great read. It’s easy to imagine the author’s journey and experience what he experienced…and want to pursue similar experiences. This is really about more than a journey across West Africa. It may sound a bit trite, but this book can help motivate you to pursue that journey you have always wanted to pursue — whether it is a trip to Timbuktu or Antarctica or a “journey” of a different sort. Thanks for writing this book!
Rating: 5 / 5
To Timbuktu for a Haircut is one of the most beautifully written books I have read in years. It’s the story of Rick’s month-long solo expedition to Mali, from planning to completion. A story about the people he meets, travels with and on whom he comes to depend. A history of explorers who preceded him to Timbuktu, many of whom never returned home. And, a description of the untamed (and, sadly, often garbage-strewn) countryside.
There are pearls of wisdom from Ebou, his compartment-mate aboard a train who suggests to Rick that “No one is promised another journey. Enjoy the one you’re on.” And, the fact that the Tuareg Tribe so lives in the moment that there is no word for “tomorrow” in their language.
And, then, there is Rick’s luxurious turn of a phrase, as in one of my favorite passages in the book:
“Timbuktu does not long to be loved; it shrugged at my arrival. It did not judge my entry; it would as soon have let me pass. My coming meant nothing; it never would. Timbuktu is of consequence to me; not me to it.”
Rating: 5 / 5