Mark Adams Books in Order: Complete Reading Guide

Mark Adams writes the kind of adventure non-fiction that treats historical mysteries as opportunities for personal investigation: he goes there, follows the route, interviews the scholars, and brings the reader along for the journey. His books are witty, well-researched, and written for curious general readers rather than specialists.

Start with Turn Right at Machu Picchu — his most celebrated book and the best demonstration of his method.

All Books in Order

The Books

Turn Right at Machu Picchu ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — Start here

Adams retraces the route of Hiram Bingham — the American explorer who brought Machu Picchu to the world’s attention in 1911 — through the Peruvian Andes, with a local guide and no prior hiking experience. A delightful combination of travel writing, historical investigation, and self-deprecating comedy. Read the full review →

Meet Me in Atlantis ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Adams travels the world interviewing everyone who thinks they’ve found Atlantis — scholars, crackpots, archaeologists, and believers — in a witty investigation of one of history’s most persistent myths. Read the full review →

The Adventure of Curiosity

Mark Adams has built a distinctive body of work in the tradition of literary travel and adventure writing, a sequence of books united by a characteristic approach: the pursuit of a fascinating subject through actual journey, combining genuine adventure with deep research and an engaging, often humorous narrative voice. Adams is a writer who follows his curiosity into the world, taking some intriguing historical or geographical question and pursuing it not only through research but through travel, retracing routes, visiting sites, and immersing himself in the places and subjects that fascinate him. This combination of armchair scholarship and genuine adventure gives his books their distinctive character, for Adams is at once a diligent researcher who masters his subjects and an intrepid traveler who pursues them into the field, undertaking real journeys and adventures in the service of his curiosity. His narrative voice, engaging and frequently humorous, makes him an appealing companion, rendering his journeys and discoveries with a wit and accessibility that lift his books above dry scholarship or mere travelogue. The result is a body of work that combines the pleasures of travel writing, adventure narrative, and popular history, following the author’s curiosity into the world and sharing both the journey and the discoveries with an engaging and humorous voice. For readers who enjoy literary travel and adventure writing in which a fascinating subject is pursued through actual journey, Adams offers a consistently appealing body of work.

From Machu Picchu to Atlantis

Adams’s books range across a variety of fascinating subjects, each pursued through the characteristic combination of research and journey, and the range of his curiosity is part of his appeal. Turn Right at Machu Picchu, his best-known book and the ideal starting point, follows the author as he retraces the route of Hiram Bingham, the explorer who brought Machu Picchu to world attention, undertaking a genuine and arduous journey through the Peruvian Andes in pursuit of the history and reality of the famous site. The book combines adventure, history, and humor in the characteristic Adams manner, and it stands as the best introduction to his work. Meet Me in Atlantis turns to a very different subject, the enduring mystery of the lost city of Atlantis, which Adams pursues across the Mediterranean and beyond, investigating the many theories and locations proposed for the legendary place. Here again the characteristic approach is evident, the fascinating subject pursued through actual travel, the combination of research and journey, the engaging and humorous voice. Across his books, Adams applies this consistent method to a range of intriguing subjects, from the reality behind a famous archaeological site to the mystery of a legendary lost city, following his curiosity wherever it leads and sharing the journey with his readers. This range of fascinating subjects, each pursued through genuine journey and rendered with research and humor, is characteristic of Adams’s appeal.

A Reliable Companion for the Curious

What unites Mark Adams’s books, and what makes him a writer worth following, is the reliable pleasure of his company, the consistent appeal of his characteristic approach to a series of fascinating subjects. Adams is a dependable companion for the curious reader, a writer who can be relied upon to take an intriguing subject, pursue it through genuine adventure and diligent research, and share the journey and the discoveries with an engaging, humorous, and accessible voice. His books offer a consistent and reliable pleasure, the satisfaction of learning about a fascinating subject while being entertained by a genuine adventure and an appealing narrative voice, and the reader who enjoys one of his books is likely to enjoy the others, for they share the characteristic approach and the reliable appeal. This consistency makes Adams a writer worth following for those who enjoy literary travel and adventure writing, a dependable source of the particular pleasure his books provide. For readers new to his work, Turn Right at Machu Picchu is the ideal starting point, the best introduction to his characteristic combination of adventure, history, and humor, and a fine example of his reliable appeal. From there, the reader who has enjoyed his company can range across his other books, confident of finding the same characteristic approach applied to a new and fascinating subject. Mark Adams is a reliable companion for the curious, a writer whose books offer the consistent pleasure of a fascinating subject pursued through genuine adventure and rendered with research, wit, and an engaging voice, and his body of work rewards the reader who enjoys following a curious and adventurous writer into the world.

Also see

• Where to Start with Mark Adams

For the full Mark Adams bibliography, reviews, and biography, visit the Mark Adams author page on Editors Reads.

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