2 comments about Waterway Guide Northern 2007: Jersey Shore, New York, Hudson- Erie, Long Island Sound and New England Waters to Canada (Waterway Guide Northern Edition) ... Edition) (Waterway Guide Northern Edition).

1. Dozier's has done a great job compiling extensive data about harbors and presenting it in an easy-to-read format with pictures and charts. This Guide provides an overall perspective on a harbor's surroundings before delving into navigation, dockage and anchoring specifics. At the top of the page, nearby marinas are listed detailing phone numbers, slip and floating dock accommodations, which VHF channels are monitored, approach/dockside depths, fuel, repairs, electrical service, lifts and cranes, laundry/pool/showers, pump-out stations, and whether or not there are nearby grocery stores, motels, and restaurants. All this information about the marinas is presented in a chart-like form, taking up very little room on the page yet making it easily readable at a glance. This, in turn, leaves the rest of the page to be filled with helpful hints including a history of the area and what you can find if you go ashore.
   
   Aerial photographs are in abundance with digitally-added dashed lines to show the channel routes. There are, of course, numerous advertisements throughout the Guide, and they only add to the helpful information already presented. I am very impressed by the details on dockage and anchoring - it tells you where you can and cannot anchor and what to expect once you are there.
   
   An often-overlooked yet extremely handy feature is that this 492-page book is spiral-bound, making it easy to read on a flat table. There is still much, much more to this Guide, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to plan some overnight cruises to area harbors.



2. My wife and I live on the Chesapeake Bay and cruise the ICW (north and south) so we purchased both editions the waterway guide. The information they contain is accurate and up-to-date. The airial pictures of the harbors which accompany the charts are useful visuals to orient people (such as my wife) who are relatively new to maritime navigation. The "going ashore" sections provide a wealth of information on things to do for planning a trip (we enjoy playing golf and nearby courses are listed).
   
   I highly reccomend this guide to anyone who is interested in "exploring" the ICW and it's tributaries.

5 comments about National Parks of the West: A Complete Vacation in Every Chapter (Fodor's National Parks of the West).

1. This book totally rocks! This is my National Parks bible. I use the National Geographic book for maps and pictures and this one for the trails, lodging and other details. The hike recommendations are the best of any national park book I've seen.



2. This manual may not suit the requirements of the most ardent of backpackers and thrill seekers, but for an average Joe Camper like myself, it really came in handy through Washington State, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and on up into Banff and Jasper. A most resourceful guide that lists National Park Service information, directions to the Parks, campsites, hiking trails, info on backwoods camping...even tells you where you can shower after the fourth day! My only criticism is that my copy is as beat up as my hiking boots. A great resource to have, whether you're only there for a day, a drive-in camper, day hiker, or backpacker. I highly recommend it. Great job, Fodors!



3. The amazon.com review and book description are absolutely correct. This book contains the perfect amount of information for visiting the parks--we used it to visit 18 national parks in the sumer of '99, and found the itineraries and best-ofs to be wonderful. Research was solid and presented in extremely easy to read format. Look no further for a national park guide!



4. I am beginning my research for a vacation to the South West. This is a good starting place. It touches on most of the parks with pretty decent descriptions and pictures. You can't go wrong with this book.



5. Fodor's has put together a solid collection of facts and information for visiting the National Parks in the West, but the avid hiker and outdoorsperson would do well to add other pieces of literature to their collection before setting out. This book provides essential information such as phone numbers, addresses, and directions to the parks. It details options for camping in and out of the parks, as well as lodging in cities. However, I found a number of the prices they listed to be out of date, and some of the phone numbers were inaccurate. These were minor inconveniences, however, and did not overshadow the overall effectiveness of the guide.

   As far as activities, the book offers some brief guidelines for hikes and drives around the parks. I found these descriptions to be very impersonal and vague. For example, it lists trails as being "moderately difficult" without explaining what types of difficulties one might encounter. For a hiker, there is a big difference between a steep climb and precipitous footing, but this book does little to detail what one might expect on a given trail. I found the "America's National Parks for Dummies" guide to be much more informative as far as specific trail conditions and wildlife concerns (e.g. grizzly and black bear areas, mountain lions, etc.) Fodor's guide does not address these issues, which are also of utmost concern for most backcountry hikers. Additionally, the editors seem to abide by a policy of "Just the Facts" - they offer little to nothing in the way of ratings or opinions regarding which campsites and facilities may be better maintained within the parks. Most avid campers I know value a firsthand opinion when trying to decide where to pitch their tents - and reading that a campsite is quiet and primarily tents, versus noisy and popular with RVs is extremely helpful information to have in hand.

   We used both the Fodor's and Dummies guides on a six-week cross-country trip and found them to be nice complements to one another. The Dummies guide covers fewer parks but in greater detail, and offers candid opinions; the Fodor's guide gives you all the essentials you need for planning a visit to the park. If you don't plan on doing much hiking, this book could be all you need, but I recommend supplementing it with a more descriptive guide.

No comments about Insight City Guide Montreal (Insight City Guides (Book & Restaruant Guide)).

1 comments about Stikine River (Alaska Geographic).

1. The Stikene River careens through northern British Columbia past magnificent mountains, cutting canyons deeper, carrying salmon to the Pacific and tossing adventurous kayakers high over its rapids. In years past, it was a primary trade route for the natives of the area, and was instrumental transporting miners during the Yukon Gold Rush. However, all of these facts, so well detailed in this volume, are nothing in comparison to the photographs of a harsh and stunningly beautiful land. The brute strength of the enormous quantity of water, the utter isolation of the still largely unexplored costal mountains and the breathtaking vistas are the images that you will be left with. With those images will be a nostalgia of a life you may have had 20,000 years ago and the desire to sell all your belongings to finance your next exploration.

2 comments about Biking Colorado's Front Range Superguide (Altitude Superguides).

1. This is a must-have book for anyone who enjoys biking in Colorado! The maps are very well laid out, removable, with a plastic pouch included to store them in on your bike, and every great trail and road for biking is in there.



2. This was such a great addition to "The Best Hikes of Colorado" that I had previously purchased. These "superguides" are my favorite, by far. Everything is spelled out for you, the difficulty, the length of the ride, what you will see along the way and directions on how to get there. They even put maps of each area so you could go off on a different path and change your ride. I LOVE the removable pages and the plastic sleeve so you can take the page with you!

No comments about A Paddler's Guide to the Rivers of Ontario and Quebec (Paddler's Guide).

5 comments about City of Glass: Doug Coupland's Vancouver.

1. This is my homesick book, my security blanket, my Postcards from Home.

   For Vancouverites, it's a source of boosterist pride, a good chuckle at some in-jokes, and perhaps enlightenment on why things are as they are. For people who have moved away, it's a book of memories, recollections of a city of glass and the people who make it. For people who have never been there, it's the tourist guide that talks about things the Lonely Planet won't. It's like having Mr Coupland sitting next to you as you make your way through our city. It's probably as close to an autobiography as he's ever written. The mark of Vancouver is on him as it's on me, and on everyone else who was raised there.

   Yeah, I love my hometown.




2. Sure, it's only one person's view of Vancouver. But at least it's Douglas Coupland's view. In "City of Glass," the author of "All Families Are Psychotic" and "Generation X" strays from fiction to write about his home city. The result is a subdued love ode to Vancouver, peppered with photographs.
   
   Coupland describes Vancouver with many page-long vignettes, sort of like a patchwork quilt: he describes feng shui in Vancouver, Japanese teenagers, a harbour full of sulfur piles, American couples on "love boats," monstrous houses, and the quiet detachment that Vancouver feels from the Rest of Canada. (Which has its own entry -- really!)
   
   Coupland's fiction is generally distinguishable for its contemplative, cynically witty tones. But he drops all that for "City of Glass." Okay, there is a chunk of "Life After God" in the middle, blurry text and pics. And occasionally the transcripts of Coupland's memories remind one of his fiction, seeming sadder and darker.
   
   Most of the time, he sounds fond and reminiscent, as if reliving the memories that come with salmon and fleece. Not to mention funny, such as when describing the confusing disagreements about feng shui (" this space should flowwwwww" or "flow is to be avoided at all costs"). And the photographs are quite good as well, with Coupland taking pictures of the prosaic subjects of his book -- a sleepy-looking Japanese teen, a fleece vest, a boat floating out on a light-filled harbor, a skiier in mid-twist on a sunlit hillside.
   
   "City of Glass" isn't exactly going to make you race to Vancouver, but it will make you appreciate the little hidden facets of the city -- and perhaps make you notice the ones in your own.



3. I've lived in Vancouver for two years and visited it regularly for several years previously. I bought this book when I was still new to the city, hoping for a companion to the city with at least a little bit of content. I was attracted by the title and cover art, as I like the glassy Vancouver skyline and thought maybe the author appreciates the same things about the atmosphere of Vancouver that I do.
   
   Unfortunately, this is one of those books where the amount of content fit for an article in, say, the Georgia Straight or the Seattle Weekly, is blown up to the size (and price) of a book. The pages are mostly white space, with one or two paragraphs of large text in the middle that touch very briefly and vaguely upon some random topic, as if the author jotted this all down one night and didn't put much thought into it.
   
   The book also contains photographs which, rather than being an insider's look at Vancouver, could be photographs of any city out of any tourist magazine--the typical closeups of food on a plate at a nameless restaurant, or a house that could exist anywhere in North America.
   
   Because the text of this book is the length of an article, only blown up to look like a book, you could walk into a bookstore or library and read it pretty quickly (five or ten minutes). The only reason to purchase it would be if you absolutely must own every single book by Douglas Coupland, or every single book about Vancouver.
   
   I learned nothing from this book that I didn't already know about Vancouver after visiting it a few times, and it left me wanting to read a book about Vancouver that might tell me something I don't know.



4. Vancouver is great city (at least for a few dry months) and deserve a good book for the visitors. This book meets my needs and is not the typical guide book with maps and names and addresses. But for those who try to get a sense of the pulse of the city, it's character and quirks, I would recommend.
   
   After reading others', suspect that my copy (recently bought) has the insert that others don't. "My Hotel Year" was a wonderful read, and for those who remember the 60's bohemian Haight Ashbury, there is an echo DC evoked at the human level here that still resonates. "Van" is "San Fran" was, with more flowers and no jobs, at least the kinds you can build wealth. Ob-La-Di! Ob-La-Da!



5. A humorous, personal portrait of a gorgeous and quirky city. Coupland's narration is funny and dead on. The photos are generally quite good and go a long way toward capturing the mood of the place. He also plugs a lot of little known facts -- like about Greenpeace -- that Yankies like myself were not aware of.
   
   I hope he does a follow up book.

No comments about Time Out Toronto (Time Out Guides).

No comments about Glacier National Park Pocket Guide (A Falcon Guide; Pocket Guide).

No comments about Ottawa: The Unknown City.