No comments about Forgotten Highways: Wilderness Journeys Down the Historic Trails of the Canadian Rockies.

5 comments about Lonely Planet Banff, Jasper & Glacier National Parks (Lonely Planet Travel Guides).

1. Just the kind of book I'd want wandering these Parks for the first time. Along with lodging and eating ideas, this book includes maps of the parks, hiking routes and descriptions, and my particular favorite, the section near the end which gave background of the geological, flora and fauna aspects of this region. It was well organized and easily utilized. I carried it my bag and referred to it often, and was able to astound (or annoy) my companions with countless facts.



2. I own and use several Lonely Planet Guides. I have come to trust these books as thorough, authoritative and helpful in planning and implementing trips. The Banff, Jasper & Glacier National Parks book is an exception and meets none of these criteria unless you sole focus is hiking. This book is for hikers and has little information for others. Furthermore, of the 280 pages of actual information, only 57 pages are devoted to Glacier National Park. Information concerning lodging, restaurants and other activities such as cycling is sparse. The few maps that are included detail mainly hiking trails. If this book had been titled A Hikers Guide, I would highly recommended it.



3. maybe b/c we're hikers, we wish there was even more info on hiking in these parks! but the hiking info in the bks we thought very helpful. we thought the bk did a great job hitting all different tourists' needs. we especially appreciated all the little charts of "must see's," the basic info (post offices, laundry, etc.), the many well-laid out maps, etc.
   our only complaint is that it seems the authors put more passionate energy into the canadian parks. the descriptions in Glacier were a little more blah. in all, a great help though! well worn on our trip.



4. I have used Lonely Planet travel guides for years. Yet, I am sorry to say that this one is a real let down. The lay out is not user friendly. The print styles are very difficult to read. The book is not directed to the outdoors person as was the hallmark of the series. I was throughly dissappointed in this guide. The Moon guide is a vastly superior guide to this area.



5. This book is a great way to plan the trip ahead.
   Pretty much all the information is present in Canada's great
   topographical maps, but those are available only when you're there...

2 comments about Backroad Adventuring in Your Sport Utility Vehicle.

1. This is the first book published in the US that shows a 4WD can be used for more than trashing the backcountry. If you want to start expedition style driving this is the place to start.



2. J.Hopkins states in a previous review that "This is the first book published in the US that shows a 4WD can be used for more than trashing the backcountry."
   
   Clearly Mr. Hopkins is unfamiliar with the excellent back roads guides by authors like F.A. Barnes and Charles A. Wells, which are guides for responsible use of SUVs and jeeps to provide people with access to remote areas, especially for people who are not in the excellent health and physical condition to be able to hike long distances while carrying a heavy backpack.

No comments about Down the Wild River North(Condensed Selections).

1 comments about Moon Metro Toronto.

1. This book is incredible! I got a job in Toronto and had to go look for a place to live - I relied on this book to find my way around. I highly recommend it! The book is great for big cities, because you can sit on a subway, or bus, and discreetly fold out the map to get your bearings, and then fold it back into the page. It has all the major neighborhoods in downtown Toronto well mapped out and described. The book itself is small and can easily fit into a small carry on bag. Thank-you moon metro - you made my life much easier

1 comments about Zagat Best of Vancouver 2007/08: Including Victoria, Vancouver Island & Whistler (Zagat Survey).

1. This book has restaurants that are not listed in Fodor's or other guides to the area. It picks out the best of the best. There's even a bonus of activities to do in the area. Great book to have when visiting the area and you are interested in fine dining.

1 comments about Unmarked: Landscapes Along Highway 16.

1. On the Acknowledgements page of Sarah de Leeuw's "Unmarked: Landscapes Along Highway 16" she writes that her book is "an effort to articulate the landscapes of northwestern British Columbia, the landscapes I know as home." While one does not often think of landscapes as amenable to articulation per se, by the end of her slim (118 pages) volume, one has accumulated such a deep impression and immersion in her subject matter that one does feel fully articulated. If you can afford the luxury of devoting an entire evening, or morning, or whatever time-slot is available to you, to read it from cover-to-cover, as I did, in one fell swoop, that can only enhance the near dream-like atmosphere that her stellar prose conveys. Run-on sentences, jargon that one can easily imagine is itself tied to the landscapes that she clearly is ever to be bound by, an occasional aphorism belying her age, and sheer poetry in prose are the earmarks of this gifted, extremely intelligent, and gentle writer.
   She also tells us that "this book started many years ago." Knowing that helps to explain the high quality distillations of her ruminations and even the often repeated words that initially annoyed this reader until seduced, as by waves, into the rhythm of her perspective. A completely unique perspective I quickly add and an original voice that more people need to hear.
   A nearly randomly selected excerpt: "Where did it start? You have tried for years to identify the elements of the disaster. You have never been successful, but through the process of re-visitation the incidents have become endlessly possible, each occurrence a possible starting point. Everyone in Kitwanga has a woodpile, cords carefully stacked along the sidewall, against the garage. Every house has a woodstove, and men lift heavy awls to split great rounds of hemlock or aspen. You are not sure if it was the first time, but you remember rounding the house and seeing your neighbour there, your mother's best friend, hand on your father's forearm."
   Sarah, we need more from you: tell us more fully the stories of the people who inhabit your world and with the same close focus and erudition that you used to describe the land they live upon. De Leeuw could easily move on to other pursuits (the flyleaf biography of her young life's experiences is of the type that gives pause and envy) but this reader hopes that she never abandons her pen. Highly recommended, much admired, and even though a paperbound, a keeper!

5 comments about Vancouver (City Guide).

1. The book contains a lot of information for sure. The thing is for a first time visitor it does not really provide a big help. Which things are a must to see? The book does not say. Instead the reader is forced to read each every section of the book because the book is divided into sections, each covering a part of the city.

   All in all it is a bit disappointing.




2. I read reviews of the last version and the Lonely Planet people have really taken on board the feedback people gave. Its easy to read, VERY up to date and has some great additions. A great top 10 things to do in Vancouver, it details the top restaurants, good summaries of local areas etc. Its a brilliant overview and now we have our trip all maped out! Its well laid out and the use of color is helpful too. One of the best city guides I've seen.



3. Whether you are planning to visit Vancouver as a tourist, or you are doing preliminary research about it as a potential permanent destination later in your life, Lonely Planet Vancouver sums it all up nicely for you. The first few pages do a great job of giving the newcomer a birdseye view of the city's composition, lifestyle, culture, etc. The book moves on to cover other aspects from dining to outdoors activities and much more in a detailed yet not overwhelming way.
   
   The only shortcoming this guide (as well as other Lonely Planet books) has is a lack of more pictures, which other series such as DK's Eyewitness Travel Guides excel at. However the competing book about Vancouver in that series is nowhere near as comprehensive as this one.



4. I tend to buy a small guide to carry around and a bigger one such as lonely planet that has more indepth information, but this trip I didn't use the lonely planet that much and stuck with the Top 10 travel guide most of the time, although I suppose it helped that I was visiting someone who lives in Vancouver. I highly recommend the top 10 guide (much better to carry around for quick access of info.) The benefit of the Lonely planet guide I think is to use it ahead of time when planning things out and using the book info to supplement internet research.



5. Perhaps erroneously, I expect Lonely Planet guides to cater to the smart and budget-conscious traveler. Far too many of the hotels and especially the restaurants in this guide were waaay out of my price range. Further, the writer recommends Granville Island as a must-see of artists studios and a farmer's market, when it was actually a Disneyland version of such. Lastly, her chipper enthusiasm for diversity-as-consumer-product chafed. Better to get Douglas Coupland's City of Glass; it's not a guidebook per se, but it's a better guide.

No comments about Berlitz Hide This Phrase Book French (Berlitz Hide This Book).

1 comments about The Company of Adventurers: A Narrative of Seven Years in the Service of the Hudson's Bay Company during 1867-1874.

1. Isaac Cowie sailed to Canada from the Shetland Islands in 1867 with prospects of joining the Hudson's Bay Company. After arriving at York Factory via Hudson Bay, he was assigned to Fort Qu'Appelle, where he remained until 1874, the last two years as manager. Cowie kept a journal (now lost) during these years from which he wrote a series of articles for a Manitoba newspaper that was published in 1912; a year later the series was issued in book form, a reprint of which is presented here.
   
   The first hundred some-odd pages include a brief history of the HBC and Cowie's voyage to Canada. Once at Fort Qu'Appelle in southern Saskatchewan the book's focus on the life of an HBC official and western frontiersman begins in earnest. Cowie relates fur trading activities, frequent trips to outlying posts (one in the middle of a blizzard), and relations with the Indians, especially the Metis - mixed-bloods who began to see themselves as a separate tribe. Chapters are divided into numerous subsections, often each one relating a separate vignette or impression. Cowie is content with describing routine business, occasionally mentioning an interesting character here and there. No one will accuse him of exaggeration or embellishing incidents to make them more dramatic - that's just not in his character. The most valuable information in the book has to do with the Indians and the growing unrest that was occurring across the plains after 1869, especially with some of the tribes (Sioux, Cree) who had ventured across the border from the US hoping for better treatment, which was wishful thinking only. The book ends in 1874 when Cowie was relieved of his duties and, as he says, "the Mounted Police took effective possession of the plains." Not the most exciting first-hand account of one's experiences in the western regions, it's still a valuable account of life on the Canadian plains and in the employ of the HBC.