Thesiger's account of crossing the Empty Quarter of Arabia in the late 1940s is not set in Wadi Rum specifically, but it captures the essence of desert travel better than almost any book ever written. The privation, the beauty, the deep bonds between travellers who depend on each other for survival — all of it resonates when you are sitting around a Bedouin campfire in Rum.
Reading Thesiger before visiting Wadi Rum gives you a sense of what this landscape meant to the people who lived in it year-round, not just as a backdrop for adventure tourism. His respect for Bedouin culture and his unflinching honesty about the harshness of desert life make this essential reading for anyone heading into the sand.