Why am I passionate about this?

I was lucky to always know what I wanted to do–namely, to travel and observe. Picking up a camera early in my travels allowed me to justify these aimless wanderings under the guise of "photographer." Making any money at it took a while longer! The books in my list have been faithful companions along the way, offering inspiration and comfort at such times–and they were many–those qualities were in short supply. Over the years, I have visited many of the places mentioned in their pages and experienced the ups and downs faced by their authors and characters. And their message deepens every time I re-read them.


I wrote...

Shoot, Ask...and Run!

By Chris Stowers,

Book cover of Shoot, Ask...and Run!

What is my book about?

Shoot. Ask. Run. Three abrupt verbs–and the advice given at the start of the author’s career in photography, namely, to…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of News from Tartary

Chris Stowers Why did I love this book?

I have read and re-read News from Tartary countless times, and the pages of my paperback copy are no longer attached to its spine. Its author, Peter Fleming, was the elder brother of writer Ian Fleming, who, it is said, modeled his fictional hero, James Bond, upon the exploits of his elder sibling.

The book is a rip-roaring, real-life adventure set in the mid-1930s (the best time for exploration). Peter, a special correspondent for The Times newspaper, sets off on a six-month trek overland, by horse and camel, from Peking, China, to Kashmir, in British India. It is superbly written—travel literature at its finest—and an evocative record of a lost era in history, just before WW2 and the Chinese Civil War. 

By Peter Fleming,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked News from Tartary as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Peter Fleming's account of his 1935 bid to travel the ancient trade route from China to India known as the 'Silk Road'.


Book cover of Slightly Out of Focus: The Legendary Photojournalist's Illustrated Memoir of World War II

Chris Stowers Why did I love this book?

Robert Capa is the photographer I admire most. He died young, but he is forever remembered for his early work in the Spanish Civil War and later during the D-Day landings of WW2. His images and his character were, of course, much more nuanced, and I think he, of all the Magnum photographers, gets closest to capturing the human element of both war and its aftermath.

Whenever I begin to doubt why I continue in the thankless task of photojournalism, I read Capa’s Slightly Out of Focus again. Yes, the Hungarian emigre tells a tall tale, and his friend Ernest Hemingway helped him brush up the text—which was originally intended as a screenplay—but, my God, what a humorous and inspiring autobiographical record of Capa’s adventures in World War 2 this is! 

By Robert Capa,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Slightly Out of Focus as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1942, a dashing young man who liked nothing so much as a heated game of poker, a good bottle of scotch, and the company of a pretty girl hopped a merchant ship to England. He was Robert Capa, the brilliant and daring photojournalist, and Collier's magazine had put him on assignment to photograph the war raging in Europe. In these pages, Capa recounts his terrifying journey through the darkest battles of World War II and shares his memories of the men and women of the Allied forces who befriended, amused, and captivated him along the way. His photographs are…


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Book cover of Trans-Mongolian Express

Trans-Mongolian Express by David L. Robbins,

In the harrowing aftermath of Chornobyl's meltdown in 1986, the fate of Eastern Europe hangs by a thread.

From Beijing, American radiation scientist Lara, once a thorn in the Russian mob's side, is drawn back into the shadows of the Soviet Union on the Trans-Mongolian Express. She isn't alone. Anton,…

Book cover of The Way of the World

Chris Stowers Why did I love this book?

The Way of the World details a journey made in 1953 from Geneva to the Khyber Pass in an unreliable Fiat. The elements of adventure, reportage, whimsy and hope are gathered in this permanent resident of my bookshelf. I often re-read this book, penned from the diaries of then-24-year-old Nicholas Bouvier, and wish I had been born 40 years earlier so that I could have joined him and his artist friend Thierry Vernet on their epic road trip!

Bouvier, a Swiss national cited as a "traveler, writer, and photographer," transcends these rather workaday classifications in this seminal volume, becoming more philosopher and poet–the narrator of a timeless, haunting prose classic and one that echoes the escapades of Robert Byron in his book, The Road to Oxiana, a generation earlier. 

By Nicolas Bouvier, Thierry Vernet (illustrator), Robyn Marsack (translator)

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Way of the World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1953, twenty-four-year old Nicolas Bouvier and his artist friend Thierry Vernet set out to make their way overland from their native Geneva to the Khyber Pass. They had a rattletrap Fiat and a little money, but above all they were equipped with the certainty that by hook or by crook they would reach their destination, and that there would be unanticipated adventures, curious companionship, and sudden illumination along the way. The Way of the World, which Bouvier fashioned over the course of many years from his journals, is an entrancing story of adventure, an extraordinary work of art, and…


Book cover of The Quiet American

Chris Stowers Why did I love this book?

Graham Greene is my all-time favorite author, and I could easily have filled this review with five of his books alone. He is the king of style and written dialogue.

The Quiet American–which was made into a pretty reasonable 2002 film starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser–concerns the life of jaded foreign correspondent and opium addict Thomas Fowler, caught in a love-hate relationship with his estranged wife, from whom he is seeking a divorce, and his young Vietnamese lover, Phuong. The action takes place in French Indochina on the cusp of the Vietnam War.

It is a masterwork of rising dramatic tension and the exploration of themes of love, trust, and Greene’s specialty, betrayal. This is yet another dog-eared paperback I escape to read time and again. 

By Graham Greene,

Why should I read it?

12 authors picked The Quiet American as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Graham Greene's classic exploration of love, innocence, and morality in Vietnam

"I never knew a man who had better motives for all the trouble he caused," Graham Greene's narrator Fowler remarks of Alden Pyle, the eponymous "Quiet American" of what is perhaps the most controversial novel of his career. Pyle is the brash young idealist sent out by Washington on a mysterious mission to Saigon, where the French Army struggles against the Vietminh guerrillas.

As young Pyle's well-intentioned policies blunder into bloodshed, Fowler, a seasoned and cynical British reporter, finds it impossible to stand safely aside as an observer. But…


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Book cover of Need to Know: World War II and the Rise of American Intelligence

Need to Know by Nicholas Reynolds,

The authoritative but accessible history of the birth of modern American intelligence in World War II that treats not just one but all of the various disciplines: spies, codebreakers, saboteurs.

Told in a relatable style that focuses on actual people, it was a New Yorker "Best of 2022" selection and…

Book cover of Scoop

Chris Stowers Why did I love this book?

I first encountered Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel Scoop in a backpacker guesthouse in Kowloon in 1987. Some traveler had left it behind, and I read it insatiably, cover to cover, and then started again from the beginning. It was even more hilarious and bitingly satirical on the second read and is the one book I’d take along were I banished to a desert island where luggage allowance was severely restricted.

First published in 1938, Scoop delivers a timeless and elegant roasting of the profession of journalism and self-important foreign correspondents. I have to admit–up to a point–that the bumbling exploits of William Boot, the book’s reluctant protagonist, played more than a small role in my own decision to both pick up a camera and put pen to paper!

By Evelyn Waugh,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Scoop as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Evelyn Waugh's brilliantly irreverent satire of Fleet Street, now in a beautiful hardback edition with a new Introduction by Alexander Waugh

Lord Copper, newspaper magnate and proprietor of The Daily Beast, has always prided himself on his intuitive flair for spotting ace reporters. That is not to say he has not made the odd blunder, however, and may in a moment of weakness make another. Acting on a dinner party tip from Mrs Algernon Stitch, he feels convinced that he has hit on just the chap to cover a promising little war in the African Republic of Ishmaelia. But for,…


Explore my book 😀

Shoot, Ask...and Run!

By Chris Stowers,

Book cover of Shoot, Ask...and Run!

What is my book about?

Shoot. Ask. Run. Three abrupt verbs–and the advice given at the start of the author’s career in photography, namely, to shoot first, then ask permission, and when that fails, to run! This book recreates the life, travels, and close scrapes of an aspiring photographer in Asia–and beyond–during the boom years of the early 1990s.

It transports the reader to the dying days of film photography before mobile phones and the internet. Trek with the author through the jungles of Borneo, be tear-gassed by riot police in Manila, cross the imploding Soviet Union by train, and end up abducted by Serb militia in Bosnia-Herzegovina. After six years on the road, will he ever make it home?

Book cover of News from Tartary
Book cover of Slightly Out of Focus: The Legendary Photojournalist's Illustrated Memoir of World War II
Book cover of The Way of the World

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