I read once about a pilot who loved the desert. Flying over it at night, looking up from his cockpit, he saw meteors streaking across a moonless sky, like fiery sparks swept along in a gust of wind.

Works:

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars

William Langewiesche, Sahara Unveiled: A Journey Across the Desert

Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping

Herman Melville, Moby Dick