Rating: 
Summary: A trip I would never take -- and that's the attraction.
Review: I've known people like Mark Jenkins and his buddy Mike Moe my whole life - so many in fact that I sometimes wondered what was wrong with me that kept me from "adventuring". For me, the beauty of the book was the ability of the author to articulate the basis for his choices, adventures, out-look on life. The conflict between the two sets of paddlers was the defining element of this book for me - many people ostensibly are headed in the same direction, but they do so with different goals in mind. If you have a friend that shares those goals, so much the better. Jenkins does a good job of explaining his motivations and goals and I never got the sense that he would second-guess mine. Hence, this is one adventure tale that I could read and not feel bad admitting to myself that it was something I would never do.
Rating:
Summary: A trip I would never take -- and that's the attraction.
Review: I've known people like Mark Jenkins and his buddy Mike Moe my whole life - so many in fact that I sometimes wondered what was wrong with me that kept me from "adventuring". For me, the beauty of the book was the ability of the author to articulate the basis for his choices, adventures, out-look on life. The conflict between the two sets of paddlers was the defining element of this book for me - many people ostensibly are headed in the same direction, but they do so with different goals in mind. If you have a friend that shares those goals, so much the better. Jenkins does a good job of explaining his motivations and goals and I never got the sense that he would second-guess mine. Hence, this is one adventure tale that I could read and not feel bad admitting to myself that it was something I would never do.
Rating: 
Summary: Man goes to Africa, Wastes our time
Review: Jenkins appears obsessed with a kind of American high school machismo. He delights in being tougher and more stoic than the average "tourist" even when it is clearly not true. He bails out his trip, for boredom, he carries a gun, that he doesn't need, and mocks anyone who disagrees with him in the most condescending tones. He is, in short, bad company on any trip. Mercifully, he had the good sense to give up on this one. I wish I had.
Rating:
Summary: A journey into true adventure
Review: Louis L Amour once wrote that "Adventure is where you find it". Mark Jenkins proves this theory in "To Timbuktu". Sharing the experiences of Mark and Mike through Africa gave me keen insight and changed my views on travel journals forever. He taught me that although adventure is usually synonymous with danger, it is truly about the unknown.
Rating: 
Summary: To Timbuktu has all that a travel book should
Review: To Timbuktu combines the three things necessary for a great travel book: adventure, history, and humor. The central theme of the book is Jenkins search for the source of the Niger River, but that is merely the rack from which Jenkins explores issues such as friendship, humanity, and cultural differences. That said this book is not dense or slow. In fact it is an extremely quick read. Jenkins writing is sometimes boastful and sometimes self-effacing, but always efficient and entertaining.Some people here have criticized the "machoism" in this book. Maybe I fail to understand, but if they have problems with him carrying a gun or dancing with "100 naked women", I submit that their criticisms are quibblesome. Carrying a gun may or may not be necessary, but it is beyond a minor part in the book. As for the naked women, my question is: Is it true? If so, why not write it. At heart though, these criticisms miss the greater part of the book which is the interaction between people (Jenkins w/ his fellow travelers, the travelers w/ their guide, previous explorers w/ the indigenous population). It is here where To Timbuktu shines. If their criticism goes deeper then I believe that they fail to understand what travel literature is all about. It is about the quest. The quest to do something you are not quite sure that you can accomplish. The quest to learn about those different than you. If this is "machoism" I hope it lives in us all. To criticize it is to deny the validity of all grasps for greater knowledge about ourself and others. Maybe these people would rather read about my travels from refrigerator to couch to restroom to bed, but I don't think that would make a very interesting travelogue and, while it may be revealing about me, I doubt that it would tell us much about the diverse peoples of the world. Getting off my soapbox, I can sum up, in short, by saying that this book turned me into a connoisseur of travel literature and I am thankful for the experience.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't disagree more with those in here
Review: who chastise Jenkins for his "machismo" and affix to him the "Ugly American" label. In a genre literally *filled* with unself-critical machismo, with authors who suffer from bloated senses of their missions and themselves and with ordinary wanderings striving unsuccessfully toward the Epic, this book stands apart. The author, while guilty of selfishness (which he criticizes himself for) and boyish stupidity (ditto) is hardly the testosterone-addled and unself-conscious dunderhead some have here made him out to be. He is, on the contrary, self-effacing, humorous, and humane (his praise for the people he meets and the people who aid him in his adventures is sincere, uncondescending). The book, moreover, is masterfully wrought: it is at once a chronicle of West Africa's colonizers (whose follies throw the author's own into relief), a first-person account of the explorer's lunacy in the late 20th century and an incredible portrait of a friendship (whose coda concludes the book and transforms an already successful travelogue into something altogether more moving than you expect upon opening its covers).
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't disagree more with those in here
Review: who chastise Jenkins for his "machismo" and affix to him the "Ugly American" label. In a genre literally *filled* with unself-critical machismo, with authors who suffer from bloated senses of their missions and themselves and with ordinary wanderings striving unsuccessfully toward the Epic, this book stands apart. The author, while guilty of selfishness (which he criticizes himself for) and boyish stupidity (ditto) is hardly the testosterone-addled and unself-conscious dunderhead some have here made him out to be. He is, on the contrary, self-effacing, humorous, and humane (his praise for the people he meets and the people who aid him in his adventures is sincere, uncondescending). The book, moreover, is masterfully wrought: it is at once a chronicle of West Africa's colonizers (whose follies throw the author's own into relief), a first-person account of the explorer's lunacy in the late 20th century and an incredible portrait of a friendship (whose coda concludes the book and transforms an already successful travelogue into something altogether more moving than you expect upon opening its covers).
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't disagree more with those in here
Review: who chastise Jenkins for his "machismo" and affix to him the "Ugly American" label. In a genre literally *filled* with unself-critical machismo, with authors who suffer from bloated senses of their missions and themselves and with ordinary wanderings striving unsuccessfully toward the Epic, this book stands apart. The author, while guilty of selfishness (which he criticizes himself for) and boyish stupidity (ditto) is hardly the testosterone-addled and unself-conscious dunderhead some have here made him out to be. He is, on the contrary, self-effacing, humorous, and humane (his praise for the people he meets and the people who aid him in his adventures is sincere, uncondescending). The book, moreover, is masterfully wrought: it is at once a chronicle of West Africa's colonizers (whose follies throw the author's own into relief), a first-person account of the explorer's lunacy in the late 20th century and an incredible portrait of a friendship (whose coda concludes the book and transforms an already successful travelogue into something altogether more moving than you expect upon opening its covers).
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