Book recommendations come from some fun places. In the 1999 movie the “Mummy”, our heroine was carrying a book by Sir Wallace Budge that I had avoided. I think it was an arrogant presumption on my part that the book was too elementary; but as a primer — I would learn — it was fantastic. “The Dwellers of the Nile” is not a particularly long or expensive book as rare books go, so it was fun to pick up a first edition (1885). In the movie “Mummy”, Evelyn ‘Evy’ Carnahan can read and write heiratic, demonic and heiroglyphics and this book is a bit out of place as it addresses none of this; however, it does discuss how ancient Egyptian was finally decifered. Part of the fun was Sir Wallis’s amusement that the reason it took so long to decifer the language is that so many academics were approaching the subject with much bias and superstition.
However, if Evy was indeed joining the many British travelors of the time, she might actually have ‘The Nile” by Sir Wallis Budge for those taking ‘the Cooks Tour” with Thomas Cook and Company.
“The Nile” is a wonderful and virtually complete little book that reminds even the most steadfast travelors to bring their ‘block and tackle’ before venturing to some of the more remote locations!
One can find history, travel and adventure …. in a book!
