@Tedi: what a treat to be reading Shipping News for the first time. My kids added bad jokes about fried bologna sandwiches and seal cheek pie to their repertoire.
I am in the middle of Sahara, by MIchael Palin, who is not only still a funny guy, but a really good clear and terse writer who ends each chapter with a line that makes me laugh, and a trained, beautiful reader.
He and a film crew from the BBC did a 3 month trek from Gibralter to Morocco, WesternSahara, Mauritania, Mali (where I am now). If you love armchair travel and want to know some fascinating data about the complicated lives people lead in the desert, and what happens when you eat too much camel, this is a book for you.
I learned that Timbuktu is in Mali. Fancy that.