Mark Jenkins is a youngish writer who includes just interesting insights of where he travels. Mark worked for Outside Mag where he went on an adv per month so he is a busy guy with fascinating stories. He is a good writer.

As someone who travels, I found this to be one of the best books I've read in a while. I could picture the places described in vibrant color, almost smelling the same air. Sure, the author took risks. Sure some were a bit much. But, without risk there is not reward. Clearly he's telling a story of the things he had done and lived through. No one wants to read a story about the things one thinks of doing and never does because they're too risky!
If you've ever wanted to travel, to really travel, not just take a tour, read this book to get an idea of what it's really like to meet the people along the way.

It's a fun read, though Mr. Jenkins takes a lot of pride in offering the tales of his ability to plot out travel adventures.

Good detail and adventure.

four men kayak (that's right, kayak) from the head waters of the niger river to the fabled city and describe what they see. certainly better than actually doing it.

I loved it. Great true life adventure when the author was young.

A true adventure story, replete with scary moments and the inevitable contention among participants with different goals. I very much enjoyed the stories of past explorers to the region, which added a heartrending historical prospective to the search for Timbuktu. I admit that I will never understand the psyche of people who make these arduous adventures, especially given the odds of making it out alive.

Just couldn’t do it. After finishing The Badass Librarians of Timbuktu was excited to stay in this region of the world with a book off my shelves but just couldn’t do it. The author comes across as a pompous, entitled white guy who sees the world and its people as his own private playground to exploit as he sees fit. I usually like adventure travel stories but something about this guy and his tone grated me the wrong way. Maybe reading it aloud to my own daughter, who is too young to understand any of it, made me think more about the undertones and exploitation of this type of travel/book. Learned nothing of the land or it’s people other than some snippets from a long dead European’s journal about his ‘discovery’ of the region and far too much about how cool the author and his friend were in high school. Shelved under did not finish. Going in the donate pile.

The author had some decent observations about rustic travel in general, but I couldn't help but dislike him. His accounts seemed a little far fetched, his personal judgment was overly reckless and the story's bouncing timeline was often jarring.

I love Mark Jenkins shorter writings, but this book is by far my favorite of his that I have read so far. To use a cliche quote to describe this book..."It's about the journey, not the destination."

I finally finished this book, My turn came up from the Library with The Host, and Inkdeath, so I had to put it on hold twice. It was a great story of friends traveling in Africa on the Niger and going to Timbuktu. Also so great history of previous attempts lead by explorers of old.

An oddly disjointed book... Jenkins calls this "To Timbuktu", but after a book spent kayaking the Niger, he actually gets to Timbuktu by motorbike, and only for a couple of pages.

In the end, not a bad book about kayaking and about the sensations of travel, but while Jenkins is sympathetic to the Africans he encounters, he has no real grasp of culture or history. He's "going to Timbuktu" only as an excuse to kayak the Niger; the city and its setting are irrelevant.

A bit too much "Outside" hipster-travel macho, but an interesting read, and (yes, a back-handed compliment) very good on river kayaking in scary terrain.