Back near the end of 2020, I read Beasts, Men, and Gods. After finishing the last chapter, I wrote up what was to be the first of what I’m calling a “book jot” (a simple little reaction after reading a book). In an effort to include these book jots on The Vulgar Eclectic, here it is:

Last night, I finished reading Beasts, Men, And Gods by Ferdynand Ossendowski. It’s a memoir by a Polish man who finds himself a target of the Bolsheviks when the Russian Revolution begins. He escapes on foot into the wilds of Siberia and eventually into Tibet and Mongolia. He travels with an assortment of people and has numerous adventures. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and learned some interesting history and geography along the way. The last bit of the book is considerably different from the rest…it becomes much less a narrative and more an exploration of a particular branch of Buddhism he learns about through meeting various influential religious leaders.