Seriously. On the one hand, they’re a great place to start. I know next to nothing about India, and after spending some time with google and getting an idea of what I’m looking for, I immediately reach for a travel guide. And then hate it because I’m sorry, Tibetan Buddhism isn’t a place on any map.
How the hell do you capture any place in a book? Even calling it ‘a place’ isn’t right. San Francisco now is totally different than Yerba Buena was then. It’s the people, the practice, life that makes it what it is.