紅海：サウジアラビアの海岸

I picked this up before a trip and ended up reading the history chapters twice—the sections on the eight countries bordering the coast tie the region together in a way a guidebook never did. The coral reef pages made me rethink my whole itinerary.

The chapters on the eight bordering countries gave me a much better sense of how trade and faith shaped the region. I didn't expect the writing to be this engaging for what could have been a dry geography book.

The section on the coral reefs totally pulled me in, I had no idea how much underwater life was actually thriving along that stretch. It reads more like a travelogue than a dry guide, which kept me going through the chapters on the different coastal cultures.