I bought this book while on a visit to Australia in 1990 and read it on the flight home! I was completely entranced by this woman's tenacity and determination to complete her often difficult but life expanding trek ALL ALONE! I had lost this book in a fire in 1993 and felt like I had lost a friend - I am soooo happy to see it is back in print! The incredible photos that accompany the journey are worth every penny!

I bougt this book in Italy and I knew a little part of Australia. Buy it, you will found marvellous photos in the book and cd-rom also! FANTASTIC.

Great photography, great interactivity... check it out

I spent 2 years in India in the late 90s and this book began making its' way around the ex-pat crowd in the middle of my stay there. The word of mouth reviews were universally positive. While most of us didn't go through the extreme day to day challenges Ms. Davidson put herself through, we went through enough to completely empathize with her plights. Her eloquent descriptions of the often unending and unyielding discomforts imposed by India while, at the same time, it also offered the visitor delights and experiences you can't find anywhere else was simply spot-on. I recommend this book to anyone who truly enjoys travels and the self-reflection afforded through trips that take them out of their comfort zones.

'Nuff said. Ms. Davidson is a terrific adventurer and an astonishingly good writer.

THIS BOOK IS A SPELLBINDING ACCOUNT OF THE ADVETURES OF ROBYN OF HER THAR DESERT SOJOURN. HER OBSERVATIONS ARE CHARACTERISED BY AN AMAZING CANDOUR AND DEPTH. SHE HAS ALSO EXPLORED DEEPLY THE PSYCHE OF THE PEOPLE OF THAR WHO ARE LIVING BY THE MYTH OF BEING CREATED BY SHIVA. THERE ARE STORIES ALSO TO THE ORIGINATION OF THIS NOMADIC RABARI TRIBE.

With American History X, I fully expected yet another bombastic Hollywood race epic; but the film works on a somewhat more sophisticated level. Edward Norton stars as good kid turned homicidal neo-nazi, Derek Vinyard. Vinyard is sent up after capping some Crips he catches trying to jack his car, but he returns to his old hood three years later on a mission from God. This odd metamorphosis is effected through his friendship with a mysterious prisoner of color; and by his loathsome skinhead cellmates, who bum him in the shower for being friendly with a black man. Although the story has holes in it big enough to drive a panzer through the movie held my interest. Special mention should be made about the excellent acting of all those involved, especially Edward Norton, who somehow makes Vinyard's transformation from psycho killer to penitent believable. In my opinion, Norton's presence in any movie is enough to raise it a star or two. Less satisfying were the somewhat lifeless cinematography and the sometimes hammy dialogue. There were times I was taken back to those propagandistic short subjects they used to make us watch in junior high. All in all though, a worthwhile way to spend 119 minutes.

Movies given to excesses of almost any kind can be forgiven, provided they adopt an ideological position - even an unpopular one. Unfortunately, movies can also simply be given to excess. That is more or less the case with American History X, a bloated, gratuitously violent film about home-grown racial bigotry.

Derrick Vineyard (Edward Norton) starts out as a shy, bookish boy whose father peppers his dinner-time conversation with mild racial epithets. Dad's ignorant extemporizations, along with the circumstances of his death, are supposed to then help explain Vineyard's transformation from a Wally Cleaver-like character to Ward and June's worst nightmare - the leader and eloquent spokesman of a group of Venice Beach skinheads. But, you ask, what about the Beaver?

Well, he is here too, in the person of Derrick's younger brother Danny (Edward Furlong)-- a vulnerable, ideologically labile teenager whose hero worship of his older sibling is painful to watch. Then however, after Derrick commits an especially brutal crime and is given 3 years in the gray-bar hotel, Danny is suddenly left on his own. Predictably, he becomes a skinhead himself and falls under noxious influences like Cameron (Stacy Keach at his unctuous best). Meanwhile older brother Derrick becomes a reluctant prison bride (watch for a particularly harrowing "bridal shower scene."). Danny's sole champion during this his older brother's sojourn is the school principal (Avery Brooks), who still believes the kid is salvageable.

Prepare yourself at the outset for non-linear, trendy filmmaking -- flashbacks, black and white sequences and slow motion cinematography. In contrast, the real-time action takes place over roughly a 24-hour period, during which time a born-again Derrick (released from prison and transformed back into a good guy) must deprogram younger brother Danny before it is too late. Meanwhile, Danny has to complete an essay assignment given to him by the principle, which the latter hopes will provide an epiphany for the boy and make him see that racism is a bad thing. (Duh?)

But also prepare for some admittedly powerful, gut-wrenching scenes, highlighted by Norton's inspired performance, Furlong's poignant naiveté and Keach's subliminally homoerotic portrayal of an aging neo-Nazi messiah. Elliot Gould also appears in flashback and does a nice turn as a prissy ideologue who supposedly further fuels Derrick's hatred (though, like everything else, hardly accounts for it).

Finally, you will probably arrive at the ending before the film does -- because it is essentially given away at the beginning -- but you won't be bored. Nor, for that matter, will you be particularly inspired. You will simply remember some of the scenes. Perhaps we all should.

Very few movies have ever left me completely speechless....This, however, was one of them. It's very easy sometimes to forget how harsh and troubled life in America really can be. Too many of us are lost in the repetitive, mindless, false-sense-of-security world of American suburbia. We see the violent images on TV, but never truly believe that hate and racial warfare could possibly still be rampant in America. This movie will snap you back to reality. Edward Norton was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of young white-supremicist Derek Vinyard. Equally excellent is Edward Furlong, who portrays Derek's younger brother. The interplay between the actors is impressive and moving, and this brotherly connection is what ultimately makes this movie work as well as it does.

The American media today is saturated with (mostly international, anti-american) images and rhetoric about fundamentalism, extremism, intolerance, and hate. Too few of these images, however, have an immediate and personal impact on a sheltered American audience. This film provides a realistic portrayal of what extremism and bigotry can do when set loose on the streets of America.

I won't dwell on the inspiring story of a woman finding a new path in life, etc., as that has been well covered by other reviewers. This book was enjoyable, but not purely of the life-changing sort many other reviews note.

Robyn Davidson records the events of her journey with painful honesty. You will want to give her a hard slap and tell her to start acting like an adult. You will read of her many foolish actions and shake your head in disbelief. In most cases, she does not suffer greatly for her immaturity, but in the end, she pays dearly for one careless moment. It is that moment, towards the end of her adventure, which redeems this book from the genre of self-obsessed introspection.

You will not finish "Tracks" with any desire to relive her trip for yourself, but you will be glad she was took on the challenge.

I first read of Robyn Davidson's solo trek across the Outback in the May 1978 edition of National Geographic in which it first appeared. As a new college graduate, I was about to embark upon my own solo journey towards responsibility and adulthood, and I found this young woman's courage and sense of adventure to be truly awe inspiring. Nearly twenty years later I happened upon Tracks in the bookstore, and reading Robyn's complete behind the scenes story was like rediscovering an old friend. It's a stunningly beautiful tale that I look forward to reading again and again. I was also able to "track" down From Alice to Ocean, the photographic companion journal, and it contains some of the most beautiful photography I've seen.

Subtitled, "A Woman's Solo Trek Across 1,700 Miles of Australian Outback," this 1980 book by Robyn Davidson, then 30 years old, is now considered a classic. She did it alone, with four camels, a loyal dog, and all the self-doubt and introspection that make her very human. Ms. Davidson grew up in Adelaide, a city in Southern Australia, but she traveled to the Central Australian town of Alice Springs, arriving with just $6 in her pocket and a desire to learn about camels. She worked in a bar and apprenticed herself to a camel owner, performing menial jobs and learning all she could. It took two years and half the book, but finally she was ready to pursue her dream.

She never was able to accumulate the funds needed to outfit her camels and so she applied for and received a grant from National Geographic. Throughout the book she questions that decision because this meant she had to meet with a photographer on several parts of her journey as well as an onslaught of unwanted publicity. In her mind, the trip became less the pure expedition she had envisioned and there is much soul searching about this. This is not the only thing she constantly reflects about though. Throughout her 7-month trip, she questions everything, even at times, her own sanity. I learned not only about the harsh Australian Outback, the pleasures and problems of living with camels, and the plight of the Aboriginal people she met along the way. I also shared every nuance of her fears and inner journey, which was as complex and richly landscaped as the harsh and beautiful land around her and found myself laughing out loud at times at her offbeat sense of humor. And I watched her change from self-conscious timidity to a woman who gives up so many trappings of civilization that towards the end of the book she walks naked next to her camels, her skin browned and thickened to a leather-like consistency, heavy calluses on sandaled feet from walking 20 or 30 miles a day, and so far from the former civilized accouterments, that she doesn't care that menstrual blood is dripping down her legs.

There's little background information that explains why Ms. Davison undertook her journey and I never really understood her reasons for doing it. That didn't matter though. What did matter, however, is that she is a living example of someone who made choices to follow her own personal dream. And for that, she is an inspiration. Upon finishing the book I was left with the thought that if she could do this, anything is possible and I applaud this her for reminding me of this. Recommended.