PEAKS AND LAMASMarco PallisKnopf ($5).
When Marco Pallis first went to India in 1933 he was mainly interested in climbing mountains. He climbed some. He also debunked the notion that Europeans can scale the great Indian peaks only with the help of platoons of native porters. In his spare time he drank buttered tea and, with a companion, played Bach's Two-part Inventions on viols.
As a traveler, Pallis is almost a total-recaller. As a travel-writer, he is far too liable to such desperate yawns as "I must not take leave of Leh without mentioning yet another kind friend. . . ." Indeed, Peaks...