Eagle Dreams: Searching for Legends in Wild Mongolia

Bodio did an amazing job with this book. He starts by walking the reader through his journey to make it to Mongolia and learn about the Eagle hunters. As Bodio is a falconer himself, this has been a dream of his, as eagle hunting is seen as the pinnacle of the sport. Bodio begins his story by coming across as someone who is listless with some personal turmoil in his life, and making it to Mongolia could turn that all around. He sort of fast forwards through the next few years of him being persistent in this dream, and takes us to his first trip to Mongolia.Frankly, if you can read this book and not want to go to Mongolia I'd be shocked. On his first visit Bodio makes the country seem somewhat primitive, but amazingly inviting with great people, fascinating culture, and interesting food and drink. He makes the high country sound almost mythical, and his descriptions of the country's beauty make it sound like paradise. Additionally, as he talks about the harsh climate you can almost feel the cold, and imagine some of the cultural idiosyncrasies he learns about along the way.His second visit to the country is what the book spends the bulk of its time on, and by this point I was basically looking up how expensive it was to get there, and the various touring companies available. His time with the eagle hunters sounded amazing, and even transformative for him, and you start to see him perk up as an author and person through his story telling. He introduces you to various characters he meets along the way, all of whom are interesting to get to know.Finally, on his last visit, he meets an aging eagle hunter and its clear Bodio and this man share a great deal of reverence for one another, but that Bodio also shares a great deal of reverence for the country of Mongolia. I'll leave out the details but his long rides on horse back, on camels, and in cars, the way he describes the landscape, the people, and the food, and even his endearing description of the medical support he needs while in the country, all make it apparent that Mongolia is a special place to Bodio. Overall, it's an awesome book if you like travel writing, have any interest in falconry, or are interested in Mongolia. Really just a fun all around read.

I purchased this book to educate myself and to help me get excited for an upcoming trip to western Mongolia/ Kazakh eagle land. This book was the only title in english I could find on the topic and the book had great reviews here so the choice to purchase it was easy. While I mostly enjoyed the book I would have appreciated more unbiased information about eagles and the Kazakhs if Bodio had any more to share. With a very few notable exceptions (super-intelligent, emotional mammals with a predilection towards kindness for humans) I have absolutely no issues with people hunting for food or sport as long as the hunted animal belongs to a stable, abundant population and no unnecessary cruelty is involved. That being said, I did not enjoy Bodio's constant Cliven Bundy/Nevada Tea-Party/Fox News flavored political commentary that ran throughout the book. From denigrating liberals, environmentalists, wildlife conservationists and even fisherman who practice catch and release I just didn't see the point including so many of his very American and personal political prejudices in what I thought should have been a fairly non-political book about Mongolian Kazakhs and their remarkable eagles. At one point in the book Bodio berates a fellow American traveller for having the poor taste and judgement to gift the Mongolians - "oversized T-shirts emblazoned with various NFL logos, looking like the ones gang bangers wore back home." NFL logo equals "gang-banger"? I saw lots of Mongolians wearing American sports jerseys, I seriously doubt gifting one is any kind of cultural faux pas but rather a reflection of Bodio's distaste of fashion he equates with American black culture. This is just one example out of many, but remarks like this didn't add anything to the book while making me feel icky and lowering my opinion of Bodio as a person. Perhaps I misunderstand him, but the effect was the same regardless.Having visited the western Mongolian Kazakhs Bodio writes about I found them every bit as warm, generous, gracious and as good-humored as he describes them. I found their imbalanced diet consisting solely of meat and dairy pitiable and contrary to Bodio's depiction, very hard on their health. Nobody living the traditional Kazakh nomad lifestyle that we met in Western Mongolia seemed to live much past sixty. All of the eagle hunters that were in their forties and fifties when Bodio's book was published in 2003 were already dead of natural causes according to the locals who knew and recognized them from the photos in the book. My twenty-four year old guide confessed a bad case of hemorrhoids and the 34 year old son of our host family inside Altai Tavan Bogd was being treated for cancer. He was one of the many cancer stories we heard while in western Mongolia. While I am not even close to being a doctor I have read enough and know enough about basic nutrition to have no doubts concerning the root cause of the Kazakh's health ailments: A diet consisting solely of meat and dairy devoid of any source of fiber or vegetables. The Mongolian Kazakh's freedom, close family units and their ancient yet intact cultural traditions were enviable, their diet while perhaps a product of necessity as well as culture was another matter altogether and undeserving of being romanticized by anyone in the 21st century. I found the Kazakh's food situation in the remote western corner of the country sad and depressing, but I suppose an endless meat and cheese buffet beats the hell out of going hungry in a very cold, hard land. Definitely visit the western Mongolian Kazakhs if you ever get the chance, they are incredible, but bring some Metamucil and dehydrated vegan chili. Your gut will thank you. Bodio's advice concerning vodka and other practical topics is solid however. Bring a good bit with you and use it to wash down the horse meat and rock hard bland cheese, it was the only thing that helped my stomach cope with the Kazakh meals. The Kazakh hunting eagles are just as majestic and awe-inspiring as Bodio writes. Nothing you read can prepare you for your first encounter.

This book came in with others on Mongolia I had ordered a month ago and so I thought it was just another aspect of this fascinating country I am presently dedicating my attention to. Instead, as usual, generalization is not for human sprit. Opening the book I found out this naturalist grew up in New England as I did, he has italian chromosomes and is a novel Federick II. Immediate simpathy arised. So I dived into this unknown ornitological world (by the way I am scared of birds and I live with terror of an annoying pidgeon that once in a while comes into my kitchen).First, a notation on the language which is fantastic. I am amazed that such a talented writer writes only about nature and birds and is not better known, but I will surely get my hands on some other books of his.Second, the cultural milieu that brings the reader to the opening scene (of the eagle actually killing its prey) builds up during the narration and is one of the main subjects of the book. We get an excursus through Marco Polo's travels, Vadim Gorbatov's art work, Andrew's dinosaur discoveries, David Edwards beautiful fotographic images (by the way visit his site and enjoy the eagle and horseman pictures), practically into the author's mind. His references become our references and his dreams ours. One of the fascinanting aspects of this book is the closeness even layman can achieve to the eagle hunting subject.Third, the book is travelogue or explornography (as the author puts it) and so a get along tale, that as always has the power of getting you to the last page with the curiousity of what is coming up next.This work is enjoyable, mind and heart raising, didactic and cultural. Truely it can be offered as a gift to curious and encyclopedic friends.

very fast delivery, bought this for my husband and he is very happy with it, thank you

I wish I could get this in hard copy. I read it on kindle . If I could get this book I would give it to my friends to read, it's that good.