NONFICTION

The Way of the World, by Nicolas Bouvier, translated from the French by Robyn Marsack, $16.95

In 1953 — that "On the Road" era — two young Swiss friends, writer Nicolas Bouvier and artist Thierry Vernet, set out on a journey through Asia Minor and eastward, ending up in Afghanistan.

A few years later, this book — now republished in a "classics" edition — was the result. The text by Bouvier is larded with drawings by Vernet, and both travelers contribute an infectious exuberance.

Here, for example, is Bouvier's reaction when he overhears Kurdish camel drivers clowning around on the road: "I felt my heart melt with pleasure, just like the viziers in Arab tales. That was the Kurds for you! Such defiance, such gaiety, a kind of heavenly yeast working away all the time."

Not everything, however, proved to be figs and yogurt. Earlier, in Prilep, Macedonia, Bouvier had noted a sharp difference between the vivacious setting and its downtrodden inhabitants: "Nature renews itself with such vigor . . . that man, by comparison, seems to have been born old. Faces harden and alter suddenly, like coins flattened on a railroad track: tanned, scarred, worked on by stubble, smallpox, weariness or anxiety. The most striking, the most handsome, even the boys' faces, look as though an army of boots has trampled over them. You never see, as at home, soft, thoughtful, healthily unformed faces, whose future is yet to be written on them."

Bouvier, who died in 1998, went on to write other travel books and a novel; Vernet, who died in 1993, designed productions for the stage throughout Europe.

NONFICTION

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande, $24

Sometimes a deeply complex problem has a deceptively simple answer. That is the underlying message of Atul Gawande's "The Checklist Manifesto," which explains how a short, straightforward medical

checklist can greatly reduce the chances of failure in life-or-death situations (and some less serious ones, for that matter).

Himself a surgeon, Gawande argues that the medical field has, in some ways, become too sophisticated for its own good. "The volume and complexity of what we know has exceeded our individual ability to deliver its benefits correctly, safely, or reliably," he writes. "Knowledge has both saved us and burdened us."

To see how clinicians might do better, Gawande turned to experts in other fields. He studied aviators, chatted with high-stakes investors and visited with an architect working on a skyscraper.

A common thread emerged: All of them used some sort of checklist. Curious whether this approach could work in medicine, Gawande hunted for situations where checklists were used in his own field.

Even skeptical readers will find the evidence staggering. Gawande found a host of studies that show dramatic drops in death or infection from a certain procedure once a hospital implemented a checklist for doing it right.

Marshaling anecdotes and analysis, he implores the medical community to use checklists more widely. He also makes the case for rethinking teamwork and leadership in hospitals. While many surgeons are autonomous rulers of the operating room, he argues that decentralizing power among nurses, anesthesiologists and other physicians increases communication and reduces error.

Thoughtfully written and soundly defended, this book calls for medical professionals to improve patient care by adopting a basic, common-sense approach.