There´s no doubt in my case that it was books which made me choose this odd life and I really need to be surrounded by books to feel really content with life. For this reason I have written two articles about books I recommend:
1. 10 best books about adventure and travel to read over Christmas
2. 5 most complete travel books ever
Lately I have been given a lot of opportunities to review other people´s books and I have said no, because the books were just not interesting enough. I don´t want to waste my time reading nonsense. However, this last month I have received two really good books, so I have decided to do just that, starting as of August 2011 to review interesting and challenging books. (So, please, if you have a book you want reviewed, please send it to me.)
The Yakut Horse
By
Jegor Makarov
(Muuskhaia)
Let me first say that the author and photographer of this extra ordinary coffee table book Jegor Makarov is a very good friend of mine. This fact could mean that the review is not objective, but I don´t worry about that. Because this book is in many ways unique. The fact is that globally very little is known about this unique horse that I personally met the first time during my Kolyma Expedition back in 2004-05. I wrote an article about the Yakuts and their horse and The Long Riders Guild thought the story was so unique so they made the world aware of its existence. Since this article I have been contacted by BBC and many others who have made films and written articles about the horse. But, the fact is, nobody knows them as good as my friend Jegor Makarov. I would also add that he is probably the explorer in this world which have explored Yakutia and the Russian far North more and better than anybody else. Luckily he is also a world class photographer, so we can all become aware of the greatness of this horse and its people, the Yakut.
As Jegor himself writes in the introduction;
“Disputes on the horse´s background are still going on, but that´s not the point. One way or the other, the whole history of our North exploration was associated with horses. Explorers, travelers, merchants, coachmen…All of them had to deal with the Yakut horse.”
The photos in the book is world class and Jegor is a great ambassador for his native Yakutia and its extra ordinary horse who lives in temperatures below minus 60 degrees Celsius in this Kingdom of Permafrost. It is one of the sturdiest, toughest and most beautiful horses on earth. Both wild and tame.
This is a book for everyone who loves horses, the extreme cold, horse people and the Russian far North. It is an insightful book about its existence, its handlers and its place on earth
It can be bought by mailing Jegor at muuskhaia@mail.ru
