WAmong the Believers: An Islamic Journey is a book by the Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul. Published in 1981, the book describes a six-month journey across the Asian continent after the Iranian Revolution. V.S. Naipaul explores the culture and the explosive situation in countries where Islamic fundamentalism was growing. His travels start with Iran, on to Pakistan, Malaysia and end in Indonesia, with a short stop in Pakistan and Iran on the return to the UK.
WThe Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia is a book-length anthropological and historical study of the Zomia highlands of Southeast Asia written by James C. Scott published in 2009. Zomia, as defined by Scott, includes all the lands at elevations above 300 meters stretching from the Central Highlands of Vietnam to Northeastern India. That encompasses parts of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar, as well as four provinces of China. Zomia's 100 million residents are minority peoples "of truly bewildering ethnic and linguistic variety", he writes. Among them are the Akha, Hmong, Karen, Lahu, Mien, and Wa peoples.
WThe Sacred Books of the East is a monumental 50-volume set of English translations of Asian religious texts, edited by Max Müller and published by the Oxford University Press between 1879 and 1910. It incorporates the essential sacred texts of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, and Islam.
WTraveling in Sin is a memoir by American authors Lisa Ellen Niver and George Rajna of We Said Go Travel that is written in the voices of the story's two leading protagonists who met on-line in January 2007.
WBook of the Marvels of the World, in English commonly called The Travels of Marco Polo, is a 13th-century travelogue written down by Rustichello da Pisa from stories told by Italian explorer Marco Polo, describing Polo's travels through Asia between 1271 and 1295, and his experiences at the court of Kublai Khan.
WThe Voice of Asia (1951) is a work of non-fiction published by American author James A. Michener. The book chronicles his travels throughout Asia, detailing the cultures and lives of locals in areas such as Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Pakistan, Burma, India, Thailand, etc. "Today Asia is of utmost importance to Americans. What happens there may make or mar us as a nation. We need to know what makes Asia tick. I had the good luck to travel to many towns and villages in Asia and to talk with the people about what worried them. I met rickshaw boys and millionaires, peasant farmers and heads of state. They told me about the religious problems, the economic questions and the social revolutions that disturb them today. I talked of America and of Russia; and, like people everywhere, they told me some very funny stories about their politicians. In 'The Voice of Asia' I have tried to share with you what the people of Asia told me." --James A. Michener
WThe Wonders of the East is an Old English prose text, probably written around AD 1000. It is accompanied by many illustrations and appears also in two other manuscripts, in both Latin and Old English. It describes a variety of odd, magical and barbaric creatures that inhabit Eastern regions, such as Babylonia, Persia, Egypt, and India. The Wonders can be found in three extant manuscripts from the 11th and 12th centuries, the earliest of these being the famous Nowell Codex, which is also the only manuscript containing Beowulf. The Old English text was originally translated from a Latin text now referred to as De rebus in Oriente mirabilibus, and remains mostly faithful to the Latin original.