4 comments about 30 Days in Sydney: A Wildly Distorted Account.

1. This is a good read for Aussie expats, not least because the author is one of Australiaýs more prominent contemporary literary figures, staging a return visit to Sydney from his current home in New York. Aussies living in America will probably be tuned into the way observations of one country are used to shed light on the other, the extra explanations he is obliged to include for either culture, as well was the exercise of reacquainting oneself with oneýs place of origin and trying to come to grips with its history and character. On occasion the authorýs own brand of cronyism (men relive their exploits or otherwise act out their mid life crises) is a bit irksome, but then he is well aware of such potential gripes and fends them off within the book (ýMate, youýre making a big mistake talking to all these men. Youýre ignoring the womenýý). In all, he spins a good yarn, and the final pages will have you heaving on the open seas at the mouth of the Hawkesbury River.



2. Peter Carey spent 30 days in Sydney in 2000 and we readers are the lucky recipients of his account. He clearly loves Sydney and demonstrates this love in every page of this little volume. His love is contagious. For example, on viewing what he calls "the great Pacific Ocean," he writes: "It is one of a hundred places you will find in Sydney which take your breath away, and I, familiar but disoriented, was in a state of constant amazement that any metropolis could be so blesssed." He also obviously cares deeply for his friends who still live there. About his friend Jack Ledoux he says: "I have lived in more than one house Jack has designed and would be a happy man if I could wake up in one tomorrow morning and live in it all my life. Every time I walk into one of his constructions, it makes me happy." What an extraordinary way to describe a friend!

   Mr. Carey sets out to describe this great city in terms of earth, air, fire and water. He does this by having several zany friends of his-- some of them friends of thirty years-- tell their stories. Any one of these characters ought to be found in a novel, at least one of Mr. Carey's. In his hands they become flesh and blood and as interesting as the city they describe. Good stuff jumps out on every page. Mr. Carey admits that he cannot drive over Sydney's famous bridge without having a panic attack, a fact that is particularly significant to me since I suffer from the same problem with high bridges. Then there is the delicious account of the word "Eternity" and the little man responsible for writing the word everywhere or anywhere he felt his God called him to write it. Carey's handling of the "Aborigine problem" is particularly poignant in his discussion of Vicki, who was taken from her parents and raised by a white family.

   Carey, now living in New York, did not move to Sydney, the city his mother said was just like Liberace, until he was almost forty-- ". . . even then I carried in my baggage a typical Melbournian distrust of that vulgar crooked convict town." I for one would love to see him write similar books about both Melbourne and New York.

   So much good writing-- so many marvelous stories in 248 pages. A great read!




3. Any attempt to girdle a city within literature is doomed by the complexity and expanse of the topic. Carey delays this admission until the end, although by then his feelings are clear. Living and writing in New York City, only a deep inland residence could give him greater setting for contrast. His comparison with his current home is limited to the cramped quarters he endures there. Yet this limited contrast imparts the theme and import of this personal summary. Little of this book is about Australia's key city. Instead, the majority of Carey's essays here describe the Harbour, the Blue Mountains, the Pacific Coast, the Bridge and rivers. The characters are a melange of his personal friends and historical figures. There is a mystical episode on the Harbour Bridge and a passing critique of the CBD [Central Business District] and the values of those working there. The theme remains that the City is but one location in a region of contrasts. No other city is placed so uniquely. Perhaps no-one is better suited to attempt this unique task.

   Many cities rejoice in their history, but in this, too, Sydney is special. Founded as a convict colony, it grew into a major Pacific port. Survival was a struggle with poor soil, vagaries of rain and wind and the presence of the Aborigine population - issues that urbanisation hides but cannot eliminate. Sensing its importance early, Sydney girted the Harbour with forts, something Carey lightly applauds when old forts become new parks. Carey conveys the sense of struggle, but time has transformed equal starving of convicts and guards to ideals of social equality - so long as that society is white, he reminds us. His "distorted view" imparts his dissenting view on relations with displaced Aborigines, among other topics.

   However booksellers classify this work, it's not a travel advisory. Tourists will be unlikely to join the Sydney to Hobart race. Even more unlikely when they read Carey's account of the disaster of 1998. Nor will the casual visitor find themselves in a capsized racing skiff in the teeth of ten metre waves and forty knot winds. If you do visit, be careful hiking in mountains. If your visit occurs in the Southern Hemispheric summer, be extra cautious with matches or campfires. What can happen if you aren't Carey imparts with stunning clarity. Having lost his own house to fire, a telephone dialogue with a friend fighting to save one is a gripping read.

   Carey's many awards are well deserved. His descriptive writing skills and characterisation are well demonstrated in this book. It's no matter if these are real people, mixtures of many into one or wholly invented. Their own stories are from real life and deserve attention. Carey snags your attention from the first page and you give it willingly to the rest of the book. An essay string that may be enjoyed by anyone, this book provides entertainment, education and excitement. Try it and see. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]




4. Congratulations, Mr Carey, on producing the only boring book on Sydney I have ever read. The stories you relate are, apart from the climbers dying in the Blue Mountains, mainly boring. You do not capture, in my opinion, the essence of Sydney. Your book is essentially about a group of your closest friends, who, frankly, could be living in any city in the world. I am not interested in what your mate thinks of Parramatta bleedin road? It may have had some historical significance in the 19th Century, but its just a road now, which leads through some pretty decrepit suburbs. I expected some really penetrating anecdotes about Sydney and Sydneysiders (I was one of them, having grown up on the North Shore). As for your politics - why oh why oh why do you liberals think that ordinary folk in the street should apologise for atrocities committed against the Aborigines? You are just another one of the `sorry' brigade, which gets a kick out of seeing young white children paint the word `sorry' on their foreheads. Disgusting. Mr Carey (and please stay in New York), there is no such thing as Inherited Guilt. You should never apologise, or force other people to apologise, for something you haven't done. If you want Inherited Guilt then I suggest you go live in North Korea.
   
   I will, however, give you plaudits for reciting the story of Mr Eternity. But Mr Eternity was a quintessentially Australian character, Mr Carey; you are not.
   
   Enjoy the Big Apple!

No comments about New Zealand: Snowy Peaks to Ocean Deep, Sixth Edition (Odyssey Illustrated Guides).

1 comments about Australia: Journey Through A Timeless Land.

1. "Australia -journey of a timeless land" is a great book about a surely great land. The texts by roff smith present all the territories of the continent, góing from the north to the west coast, the southern vineyards to the eastcoast. Smith writes about the historical development, the social and political status quo, every time in a interesting way, often using a personal point of view, areporters point of view. The aborigines-tragedy has room as has the cruels of Tasmanias prisons of the 18th Century Really marvellous and overwhelming are the photographs of national-geographic stuff-member sam abell. Great landscapes, the special light of morning or evening gives the land a structure. Abell is able to bring the feeling of space on a simple sheet. And he captures with his mostley wide-angle optics decessif moments, where time and space meet at an certain point. And I think, time and space, open space are specific for Australia, that i have not ever visited. Sam Abell is a great artist, more than a photojournalist. You should read his "stay this moment"-book also. This australia-book is worth every dolllar.

1 comments about Lonely Planet Western Australia.

1. As an expatriate Sandgroper, this narrative was quite entrancing. The authors have clearly spent much time traipsing through the vast areas of Western Australia. Arguably, they have seen more of it than many of its locals, who tend to be congegated in the Perth metropolitan area. Thus, somewhat ironically, a ready audience for this book might be people in Perth that wish to get out and see more of Australia's largest state.
   
   Overseas visitors should be cautioned about the book. Even though it does give the size of WA, the sheer immensity and dearth of people may still be surprising. Twice the size of Alaska, and with scarcely 2 million people. Well over half of which are in Perth. The book strives to convey the feeling of desolation once you leave Perth, and you should do well to keep that in mind.

5 comments about Greater Nowheres: Wanderings Across the Outback.

1. Anyone with the least bit of wanderlust in them will find this book thoroughly enjoyable. And even those who have never wanted to travel to far distant places also will find this an excellent read. The Outback of Australia is intriguing by itself and the alternating sections written by the authors is a clever way to get separate views of their experiences across to the reader. The history of each area blends in smoothly with their living experiences and their sense of humor adds immensely to the enjoyment of the book.



2. I could not put the book down once I started. It read much like the great classics Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer. In fact, Dave Finkelstein's writing resembles Mark Twain's, with his colorful and vivid sense of humor. The book is must reading for those planning to visit Australia, and for adventurers in general. It is easy reading, too, and clearly defines mateship and the meaning of friendship.
   
   Leon Day, New York City



3. Here's what newspaper and magazine critics have said about GREATER NOWHERES:
   
   "Delightful... Finkelstein and London write well. Their account is filled with engaging descriptions of beautiful, forbidding landscapes, the tough bush boys they meet and the lore of the Godforsaken town...[Their] trip is not for every traveler. But their book is."
   -Chicago Tribune
   
   "The reason to read this book is the myriad brief encounters, many of which are hilarious."
   -Los Angeles Times Book Review
   
   "...a fine volume in the literature of unpleasant but enlightened travel."
   -Outside Magazine
   
   "Always exciting, sometimes hilarious... The perfect gift for the armchair traveler."
   --Travel & Leisure
   
   "The book is laugh-out-loud funny. [The authors] have a good ear for looney pub chatter...and a deft touch for characterization."
   --San Francisco Chronicle
   
   "Authors Finkelstein and London earn a resounding wow! 'Greater Nowheres [is written] with such engaging observation, detail, style, humor and occasional salty language that readers can experience the Outback without leaving home, while laughing out loud."
   --Ridgecrest (CA) News Review
   
   "Most of this entertaining and well-written book consists of conversations with vivid characters: stockmen, aborigines, 'roo' hunters, bushrangers, pioneers, escapists, and lunatics. The humor, the resilience and 'mateship' of these free-spirited frontiersmen is evident throughout the book: unforgettable people in an unforgiving land.''
   --Library Journal
   
   "A vivid book...bound to attract attention."
   --Toronto Globe and Mail
   
   "... gives us a rare view of the bush and its extremes of weather, of distance, and of character. You'll enjoy it even if you don't get there yourself."
   -New York Post
   
   "A pleasure."
   --The New York Times Book Review
   
   And here's how a press release described it:
   
   Talk about classic returns. Dave Finkelstein and Jack London's immensely popular, wildly funny, and critically acclaimed book GREATER NOWHERES: WANDERINGS ACROSS THE OUTBACK, which was first published almost two decades ago, is back-this time in paperback and with a new introduction by Dave Finkelstein-to give delight to a new generation of readers.
   
   The book is a must for those with a penchant for exciting adventure tales, as well as for armchair travelers and lovers of humorous "on-the-road" stories--in this case, off-the-road, "bush-bashing" stories--here brilliantly and poignantly told by two oddly compatible traveling companions, one the Irish romantic, the other the Talmudic rationalist.
   
   Driving a Toyota 4-wheel-drive truck and armed with snake boots, an "esky" full of beer, and an insatiable appetite for adventure, intrepid journalists Dave Finkelstein and Jack London set out into the Australian bush in pursuit of the fearsome saltwater crocodile, a huge, notoriously dangerous reptile with an equally insatiable appetite for humans.
   
   Though the "salties" prove elusive, in their travels the authors stumble upon a diverse and outrageously entertaining cast of dinki-di Australian characters-sun-hardened men and strong-willed women--eking out an existence in the croc's hardscrabble, primordial habitat: stockmen, aborigines, "roo" hunters, bushrangers, latter-day pioneers, escapists, and outright lunatics.
   
   In ramshackle pubs along desolate stretches of dusty track, shantytown settlements in the middle of nowhere, and million-acre cattle stations hundreds of miles from their nearest neighbors, they experience an Australia rarely seen by the average traveler: dwarf-throwing contests, cold spaghetti sandwiches, even a regional rash called "Karumba rot"-the inevitable souvenir of a visit to the forbidding Gulf of Carpentaria, with its swelteringly oppressive tropical climate.
   
   Yet, like no other observers before them, in their celebration of the Outback and its inhabitants, the authors (described by one reviewer as "at least as amusing as the extravagant characters they meet") get to the heart and fiber of the Australian soul, to the very essence of what makes Australia the unique and marvelous country it is.
   
   As author Jim Harrison says, "GREATER NOWHERES is an absolutely wonderful book... a classic of travel literature. It's unthinkable that anyone would go to Australia without first reading this book."
   
   Rich in the history and geography of a vast, fascinating continent, GREATER NOWHERES is also an exploration of solitude, mateship, contemplation, and adventure.
   
   As for bio-data on the co-authors:
   
   DAVE FINKELSTEIN, a graduate of Harvard Law School, had a legal career distinguished only by its brevity--one month. Fluent in Mandarin, he went on to become a Chinese interpreter for the U.S.Department of State--the first language student of his generation to qualify for that position--then the Ford Foundation's first China specialist. Now a freelance writer, he has written about political and wildlife issues throughout the world. His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including The New Yorker, New York Times, and Washington Post. A flamenco guitarist and avid fisherman, he also holds an 8th degree in Okinawan karate. He lives in New York City.
   
   Until his death in November '06, JACK LONDON lived in Key West, Florida. His work appeared in Audubon, Sports Afield, the Miami Herald, and The London Observer.



4. Greater Nowheres is truly a remarkably entertaining travel book, informative and extremely pleasurable, a wonderful way to escape your own mundane life and travel to one of the most desolate yet beautiful places in the world that few have seen. David Finklestein and Jack London,, long time friends and travel companions take us into deep inside the Austrlian Outback where they had originally planned to study the deadly "Salties", the crocodiles that had recently regained its reputation as a man-eating reptile. But the two intrepid explorers soon found the inhabitants of the Outback infinitely more interesting, strange and exciting than the crocs. Leaving the comforts of the modern world, these very different individuals who had originally immigrated to the Outback to seek, wealth, fame, or leave behind family ties, found instead a simple life that most came to prefer. A life, that without its luxuries, or even basic necessities, suited them better. For a journey through an Australia thaat few have seen, I enjoyed this trip with a pair of guides who became my own friends and companians as they made their way through the hazardous yet beautiful land befriending Outback people who obtained peace of mind and a unique way of life in one of the most exotic terrains in the world.



5. I don't get time to read books. I'm one of those people that takes years to finish them. However I finished this one in a week. Has some hilarious moments, and provides a great insight to outback Australia. As an expat West Australian, the book made me homesick for the desolation and space that I've only found in Australia. The authors' wit and sense of humour enhanced the description of the experiences they "endured".

1 comments about Lonely Planet South Pacific (Travel Survival Kit).

1. As all of Lonely Planet's guidebooks, this is of course an excellent travel tool, and truly "sets the standard". Any traveler is surely better off to the South Pacific with, rather than without, this densely written and wonderfully filled book (even though, for this particular destination, the Moon Handbook for the South Pacific would also be a very good choice). However, two things should be said about this particular LP guidebook. First, its coverage is hampered by the region's magnitude and diversity. The effort to cover so many different islands, with their own realities, their own peoples and cultures, is surely a noble endeavour. Yet, it resulted in lack of clarity, and data which is vague or uncomplete, especially on some countries (such as those of Micronesia) more than others. Getting separate LP guidebooks for individual countries or sub-regions (Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Rarotonga & Cook Islands, Tahiti & French Polynesia, etc) would be a much better choice for the discerning traveler - even though it may involve carrying a bit of extra weight around the beautiful seas and skyes of the South Pacific. Second, this guidebook suffers from an evident's "author's bias" in favour of the region. It is quite natural and inevitable, and also very positive, for authors to feel that their region is the best and nicest on our planet, home to the finest wonders of this world (to have the opposite, namely authors who are biased against their own regions, would be horrible). Yet, not all regions of the world can be great and perfect, and their peoples the finest and most friendly. Unknowing travelers should not be led to believe this. The South Pacific can indeed be a very tough place: not all islands and places are as great and beautiful as they may appear from this guidebook, getting around and having a nice time is not always easy (in fact, the region can be horribly frustrating), and the people are not always as pleasant as one might wish. By following indications for visa requirements for the Republic of Kiribati ("British citizens do not require visas"), I found myself pushed back on the aircraft, having to force my way in order to remain on the ground, and avoiding one nigt in a cell only thanks to the intervention of HM High Commissioner. Likewise, in Nauru it is not true that "you'll get a visa on arrival, provided the hotels have rooms". The Otintaai Hotel in Kiribati (allegedly the best in the country) does not have hot water as is claimed in the guidebook, and the Waterfront Villa Hotel in Palau (allegedly "the best deal around") is apparently so simply because the owners are extremely rude and prone to cheating, able to make your stay in beautiful Palau a real hell. Altogether, many countries which may sound like earthly paradises, are simply not so. The people, who are made seem friendly almost without exception, can be extremely obnoxious and difficult, not always happy to receive foreigners - especially in Micronesia and to a lesser extent in Melanesia, yet not so much in Polynesia. The advice contained in this guidebook should be taken with great care. Yet, in the end this remains a truly valuable tool, in a region so hard to get to know, where getting around and finally managing to enjoying one's trip - for those who do decide to go - can be truly hard. The sections on culture, wildlife, etc., despite their being rather summary, are extremely valuable and provide enjoyable reading. This book may not be up to the Lonely Planet standard (we should also consider that this is only the guidebook's first edition); but, considered LP's already high standards, it is not bad at all.

No comments about Alpine Tasmania: An illustrated guide to the flora and vegetation.

No comments about Australia's Best Spas: The Ultimate Guide To Luxury And Relaxation.

1 comments about The Australian Bed & Breakfast Book 2008 (Australian Bed and Breakfast Book).

1. Originally published in 1989, this newly revised and updated edition of "The Australian Bed & Breakfast Book 2008" marks the twentieth anniversary of what has come to be commonly regarded as the premier travel guide to B&B resources throughout Australia for vacationers and business travelers alike. Regionally organized, "The Australian Bed & Breakfast Book 2008" offers updated prices, general travel guidelines, and invaluable tips to finding just the right location for the traveler's needs. Enhanced with colorful photographs of each showcased B&B, each recommended site comes with a complete and detailed description written by the hosts and even includes occasional guest comments. The B&Bs themselves range from homestays and farmstays, to guesthouses and boutique hotels. Practical, informative, and thoroughly 'user friendly', "The Australian Bed & Breakfast Book 2008" is the perfect trip planning guide for anyone desiring the best B&B experience as they travel or vacation in Australia. Also very highly recommended for personal and community library Travel Guide reference collections from the Pelican Publishing Company is "The New Zealand Bed & Breakfast Guide 2008" (9781589805248, $19.95).

3 comments about Lonely Planet Samoa : Independent & American Samoa (3rd Ed).

1. This book is PACKED with information! It is also a really great size (smallish) to tuck in my travel bag and take along to be sure not to miss anything on my first trip to Samoa. :o)



2. This book has everything you need to know when travelling to Samoa. Nothing is missed and you should be able to plan a long or short stay in Samoa. Everything is as described in the book and nothing is really out of date. The only problem is that some of the maps lack detail to be useful, however quality maps are available in Apia.



3. This travel book on Samoa is full of information to help one maximize a trip to Somoa. It has some great descriptions of Samoan history and places of interest. I am worried though. I am worried that if ever go to Samoa I will not know how to properly act. The author of this travelogue time and time again warns the reader about Samoan cultural mores which should be followed. But I am afraid I will forget some of them and be a shameful traveler.