Tuva or Bust! Richard Feynman's Last Journey by Ralph Leighton. Richard Feynman was a Nobel Prize winning physicist, widely recognized as one of the great original thinkers of physics, in this century, and perhaps in all time. He apparently never actually wrote a book, but there are numerous books with his name on them. Supposedly, all were lectures transcribed by some of his students, or stories he told to Ralph Leighton. He was one of the members of the committee investigating the disaster of the Space Shuttle Challenger.  Tuva Or Bust is about Feynman's efforts, late in his life, to visit Tuva, or Tuvinskaya, ASSR, a mountainous country adjacent to Mongolia. And, its capital is Kyzyl. Feynman wanted to visit Kyzyl, "because it's spelled K-Y-Z-Y-L." And "A place that's spelled K-Y-Z-Y-L has just got to be interesting."  Feynman noticed Tuva when he collected stamps as a child. There are triangular and diamond-shaped stamps of Tuvans, doing what Tuvans do (stand by your camel, for example). Feynman's attempts to get to Tuva give insight into the way he approached a theoretical physics problem. He explores, and attacks here and there, and makes some progress, and explores some more, and interests others in the problem, and they attack as well. It's inspirational, in an amusing way. Feynman and Leighton were on the verge of flying to Tuva when Feynman died of cancer. The hardcover comes with a flexible plastic phonograph record of Tuvan throat singing -- where a single performer can produce up to six notes at the same time. 

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Lonely Planet Russia, Ukraine & Belarus (Travel Guides) by Richard Nebesky, John Noble, George Wesley, Nick Selby.  1000 pages and 100 maps guide you through Russia -- with all information updated as of April 2000.  Includes a section on Tuva.

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