12 books of Christmas: ‘India: People, Place, Culture, History’

With “Slumdog Millionaire” knocking at Oscar’s door, India may have climbed higher on your radar.

If a trip there now is out of reach, you can get a lovely armchair view with “India: People, Place, Culture, History” (DK Publishing, $40).

It is a visual feast, which you should be able to say about any coffee table book as a cumulative effect, but this reaches feast status with the table of contents.

Especially striking: The people section (ayurvedic masseur, notably, and the lovely picture of the patient in the herbal bath) and the architecture chapter (seeing the details of the Taj, instead of just that standard shot we always see) are especially intriguing.

Like India itself, it can all be a little overwhelming, but I emerged from the book with a profound respect for the culture and the country — and a renewed desire to find a way to put this on my personal travel itinerary.

Click here for “12 books” posts.

— Catharine Hamm, Times Travel editor

[Image: DK.com]

Permalink | E-mail | Print | Add to My Trips

This entry was posted on Monday, December 22, 2008 at 6:00 am by Catharine Hamm and is filed under Asia, India. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.