The Carpet Wars

This is a great book - It covers a lot of ground, and it does so slowly. This is not a high octane read, or a read that I would undertake as a primary read. It is a drop in, read a chapter, drop out type of book, and it appeals so much that I have read it twice - something I can seldom justify.

Chris Kremmer is an Australian journalist, and over a ten year period, he spend time based in, and travelling around Central Asia. This book chronicles his love of Carpets, and throws in the culture, the politics, tribalism, religion, and the people of Central Asia.
He does well in getting the mix right – the right amount of history, personal anecdote and carpet buying to keep the interest. It certainly steps outside the mainsteam media in its content, and approaches Islam with balance.

It is pre-911, taking place 1990-2000, so it avoids the reactionary journalism, but hits on some main characters in the politics and wars of Afghanistan – Ahmad Shah Massoud, Abdul Rashid Dostrum, Taliban Leaders, and a hunt for Osama Bin Laden.
Well worth seeking out.