No comments about 2007 Country Profile and Guide to the Central African Republic - National Travel Guidebook and Handbook - Economic Reports, USAID, Commercial Guides, African Business (Two CD-ROM Set).

No comments about A Passage to Congo: Photographs by Doctor Emile Muller 1923-1938.

1 comments about ISANDLWANA (Battleground South Africa).

1. The book is small, and covers only the lead up to this epic battle and the battle itself. No real mention of the subsequent Rorke's Drift battle or who escaped from the one only to fight in the other. I suspect this was saved for another book. Lots of low-qual pictures but they do convey the story fairly well. Not a bad book but a bit pricey for what you get.

No comments about Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor: With Comparative Remarks on the Ancient and Modern Geography of That Country.

No comments about Syria and Egypt: From the Tell el Amarna Letters.

No comments about Life and Travels of Mungo Park in Central Africa.

5 comments about Lonely Planet Africa on a Shoestring.

1. I bought this book for my trip to Kenya Uganda and Tanzania. I thought that I might want to travel to Ethiopia or down to Zambia and Zimbabwe....this guide is much too condensed to be helpful, and most travelers I met hated this guide and would borrow or end up buying the LP East Africa guide. You would be much better off buying a regional guide rather then this monster. Just the weight of the book alone isn't worth carrying around with you. I actually ended up ripping this book to shreads and keeping only about ten pages of it then buying the more in depth East Africa Guide.

   Don't get me wrong, I love the lonely planet guides. Just not this one. I can whole heartedly recomment the East Africa guide and the Trekking East Africa guide.




2. This book, "Africa on a Shoestring, 9th Ed" has a broad coverage; although its chapters are not as detailed as many tourists would expect them to be.
   Again, this book would have been of better psychic value, had its authors showed confidence in the sections they dealt with. Its 'information' became a wet blanket for me. Many readers who intend to visit African countries are likey to be discouraged by its relentless pessimistic approach. Its outlook is more critical than 'touristical'. The general impression is this: "something good may not come out of Africa". That is shameful! The term "bush-taxi", which was used over and over again, in lieu of a more cordial 'local-taxi' sounds offensive.
   I think that if written (or revised) without assumptive bias, this book would be of better quality and value to its users.



3. I traveled through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, South Africa, and Lesotho with this book. The book is excellent for major urban centers, but once you get beyond the city lights the text just stops and you are left on your own. If you plan on spending more than a week in a country, I recommend getting a regional guide at the very least and a country guide if you can get it (the Rough Guide in Kenya was superb).



4. This book is great for those who are thinking about taking a trip to Africa or for those who have a general interest in the continent.
   For those who would like to go to Arica(which I encourage people to do).This book will help you decide where you would like to go because of the many short chapters on each of the countries. After you decide where you want to go, I would recommend getting more up to date and detailed information because this book could use some more detail on individual countries.
   I also liked this book for the brief histories on each of the countries. Much of this information is difficult to find and would require much time reading obscure books on the subject. These countries have facinating histories and the book does help to shed a little light on that subject.



5. 
   As others note, the continent is too large to contain in one book for travel purposes. What this book does is give an EXCELLENT intro to history, culture, people, cities, regions,
   and tourist attractions/locales/interests. Gives the mind a framework for Africa and potentially to guide decisions about vacation options. For actual travel, more specific literature is needed, but this book is an excellent opening to understanding and contemplating Africa. I was enthralled!

1 comments about Shack Chic: Art and Innovation In South African Shack-Lands.

1. I bought Shack Chic as a "souvenier" after spending a summer working in the Cape Town townships with the youth there - I cannot think of a better object to take home and represent to my friends and family Cape Town's townships and South Africa as a nation. This photo-essay book, with brilliant colors and spectacular images, is a testament to the strength of South Africans and their innovation and resourcefulness even in the most destitute of living conditions. Portrays poverty in the post-Apartheid era not as the romanticized victimization of people but the hopeful and perservering will of humankind to live with digity.

1 comments about Dive Red Sea: The Ultimate Guide.

1. At first sight, this is a visually stunning book. On closer examination, however, it soon becomes a great disappointment. In a product which attempts to be all things to all divers, we find the following pages devoted to each country covered; Aqaba 18, Eilat 10, Egypt 128, Eritrea 10, Djibouti 10, Yemen 8 and finally 18 pages on Saudi Arabia added as though they were an afterthought. These are followed by a limited attempt at marine life identification, courses in underwater photography and underwater videography, lessons in buoyancy control (which have no place here!) and finally a section on surface attractions such as the Valley of the Kings, the Sphinx and so forth. In short, a little bit of everything and nothing of substance.
   
   The entire product is well padded-out with images of a reasonable standard - most of which are fish. Some are stunning, others blurred and many are disappointing. The double spread picture of a Lionfish across pages 98/99, for example, is spoiled by the book's central crease obliterating most of the subject.
   
   The coverage of those shipwrecks which are included is basic and almost amounts to the vessel's name and "sank in whatever year." Much of the artwork is hopelessly inaccurate. The actual wrecks of the Carnatic, Chrisoula K and Kimon M (to name but three) are very different from the images portrayed and the overturned decking on the Thistlegorm is described as a "sheet metal roof" - something which reveals the authors' overall lack of knowledge of ships. Whilst the artwork itself is of the lowest quality, each shipwreck is portrayed in dark grey with the adjacent seabed being light grey. Not the colours I have ever encountered and something which leaves each wreck looking very dark and foreboding instead of welcoming and exciting. Elsewhere, the Numidia and Aïda are shown right alongside each other, wrecks which are "out-of-bounds" to divers are promoted with false information and the death toll of the Salem Express is unforgivably exaggerated by almost another 1,000. I was looking forward to seeing what shipwrecks the authors had covered outside Egypt. Incredibly there were hardly any at all. After more than 60 years on her side, the Umbria is suddenly upright, but that is almost all.
   
   Overall, the text relating to countries other than Egypt, is as brief as possible and, almost exclusively padded out with photographs of fish which could have been taken anywhere in the Red Sea. This gives the clear impression that neither author bothered to venture very far from Egypt at all. With 128 pages devoted to Egypt and only 74 to the remaining 6 countries combined, I was left with the clear impression that this book was cobbled together from existing published material and that neither author had actually visited most of the countries described.
   
   Finally, when we look at a map, we automatically expect to find "North" at the top of the page. In this book, however, the map of the Red Sea reproduced across pages 10/11 has been rotated left through 90 degrees to show the Gulf of Suez as being in the southwest and Aden in the northeast. Just about as muddled as the entire product.
   
   With the very minimum of useful information interspersed with several instances of full page advertisements (including a two page spread about a dive bag!), some might describe this product as not so much a book, more an extended diving magazine.
   
   NM

No comments about Zimbabwe the Beautiful (... the Beautiful).