Where to Start with Mark Adams: The Best First Book
New to Mark Adams? Turn Right at Machu Picchu is the right starting point — here's what to expect from his adventure non-fiction and which book suits you.
By Natalie Osei
Start with Turn Right at Machu Picchu.
It is his most celebrated book, his most entertaining, and the fullest expression of his method: personal investigation of a historical mystery, carried out with genuine curiosity, considerable discomfort, and a self-deprecating wit that makes the adventure accessible to readers who would never hike the Andes themselves.
Start here: Turn Right at Machu Picchu
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. He has no hiking experience, hires a local guide, and discovers that the story of Machu Picchu’s “discovery” is considerably more complicated and interesting than the popular account suggests.
Then: Meet Me in Atlantis
The same method applied to a bigger myth: Adams travels the world interviewing everyone with a theory about where Atlantis actually was. The scholarly debates turn out to be surprisingly interesting, and his guide to the crackpot and the credible is consistently entertaining.
Why Turn Right at Machu Picchu Is the Ideal First Read
For a reader new to Mark Adams, Turn Right at Machu Picchu is the ideal first read because it offers the purest and most appealing distillation of everything that makes him worth reading. It is the book in which his characteristic method, the personal investigation of a historical or geographical mystery carried out through genuine journey, appears in its most engaging and accessible form. The subject, the famous and instantly recognizable Machu Picchu, is one that needs no introduction and immediately draws the reader in, while Adams’s approach, retracing the route of the explorer who brought the site to world attention, gives the book a clear and compelling narrative spine. As an entry point, it asks nothing of the reader except curiosity, explaining everything as it goes and welcoming the newcomer with warmth and wit. It is also his most celebrated and most entertaining book, the fullest and most successful expression of his gifts, so that the new reader encounters Adams at his best rather than at his most uneven. For all these reasons, Turn Right at Machu Picchu is the natural and ideal starting point, the book that will most quickly and surely reveal whether Adams is a writer for you, and that offers the best first taste of his distinctive blend of adventure, history, curiosity, and self-deprecating humor.
What to Expect as a New Reader
As a new reader, you can expect from Turn Right at Machu Picchu an experience that is at once an adventure, a history lesson, and a comedy of personal discomfort, all delivered with a self-deprecating wit that makes even the most arduous journey a pleasure to follow. Adams is not a seasoned adventurer but an ordinary person with no hiking experience, and much of the book’s charm lies in his honest, funny account of the discomforts and absurdities of the journey, which makes the adventure accessible and relatable to readers who would never dream of hiking the Andes themselves. You can expect to learn a great deal, painlessly and entertainingly, for Adams weaves genuine history and scholarship into his narrative, revealing that the popular story of Machu Picchu’s discovery is considerably more complicated and interesting than you imagined. And you can expect to be entertained throughout, for Adams’s curiosity is infectious and his humor constant, making the book a thoroughly enjoyable read rather than a dry work of history or travel. No prior knowledge is required, and the newcomer will find the book welcoming, accessible, and consistently engaging, an ideal introduction to a writer who makes learning and adventure equally delightful.
Going Deeper After Your First Book
Once Turn Right at Machu Picchu has won you over, the natural next step is Meet Me in Atlantis, which applies the same winning method to a larger and more elusive mystery, the question of where the legendary Atlantis actually was. Here Adams travels the world interviewing everyone with a theory, and his guide to the credible and the crackpot is consistently entertaining, while the scholarly debates prove surprisingly fascinating. Reading it after Turn Right at Machu Picchu deepens your appreciation of Adams’s characteristic approach, the personal investigation of a mystery through genuine journey and curiosity, now applied to a subject even larger and stranger than the first. From there, the reader who has enjoyed these two can range across the rest of Adams’s work with confidence, for they share the same reliable pleasures, a fascinating subject pursued through adventure and rendered with research, wit, and an engaging voice. Building your reading journey is simply a matter of following your curiosity from one fascinating subject to the next, confident that Adams will make each one an entertaining adventure. He is a dependable companion for the curious, and the reader who begins with Turn Right at Machu Picchu and continues with Meet Me in Atlantis will have found a writer worth following wherever his curiosity leads. Each of his books takes a single fascinating subject and pursues it through genuine journey and diligent research, rendered with the same self-deprecating wit and infectious curiosity, so that the reader who enjoys one is almost certain to enjoy the rest. There is no wrong order beyond the first, and the pleasure lies in following Adams wherever his next question takes him.
See the complete works
For the full Mark Adams bibliography, reviews, and biography, visit the Mark Adams author page on Editors Reads.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need to know about Machu Picchu to enjoy Turn Right at Machu Picchu?
No prior knowledge is required — Adams explains everything as he goes. In fact, one of the book's pleasures is discovering that Hiram Bingham's 1911 'discovery' of Machu Picchu was considerably more complicated than the popular story suggests.
