2 comments about Kosovo (Bradt Travel Guide).

1. I bought this book because I will start to work in Kosovo in the next few months.
   I already read this book and it is full of precious information you really need while being there.
   I already have experience with Bradt Travel guide for Macedonia while I was there also for my job.
   The books are very usefull and contain a lot of information about almost everything.
   This is at this point the only tourist guide existing about Kosovo.
   Buy it !!



2. This is the best travel book about Kosovo - highly informative, balanced approach to the diverse ethnicities, easy to read, and properly presents Kosovo as welcoming to visitors with fantastic natural beauty and travel costs significantly below most of Europe. Although I have been to Kosovo several times during the last few years, this book has opened my eyes to what I have missed.

1 comments about Driving in Europe 101.

1. Great book---I have not even left for Europe but feel confident I can now handle driving there.

1 comments about Hostels European Cities, 4th: The Only Comprehensive, Unofficial, Opinionated Guide (Hostels Series).

1. Did not have as many places as various internet sites had avaliable to choose from but had more details about the ones that were reviewed. A great reference guide but not a complete source of informaion.

1 comments about Henry James : Collected Travel Writings : The Continent : A Little Tour in France / Italian Hours / Other Travels (Library of America).

1. Henry James' travel writings on France and Italy are a case study in fine arts perception, understanding and interpretation. He treats each new locale as a new horizon to be engaged, absorbed, and internalized through a hermeneutic of analogical interiority. Roaming within the halls and chambers of French and Italian architecture opens, through the text, new conduits for an understanding of the vast interiority that exists within the self-examining-self. James is a master at relating the space of each location with the thoughts, instincts, relational perceptions and education of the observer. Reading these texts is like engaging each site oneself and discussing with a learned and trusted friend about what one is experiencing, not just what one is seeing. The art work of Joseph Pennell is an amazing addition to these works and masterpieces on their own. Do yourself a favor and buy this book. It will be a cherished addition to your collection and a book you will pick-up time and again to walk with the "Master" through France and Italy as you discuss, reflect and remember literary events that where home to these marvels. If you happen to be planning a trip to either France or Italy, take this along to add a level of historical and cultural depth to your experience. Some of what you will read has disappeared into history, but what remains is a beautiful historical and cultural continuity with Henry James as your guide.

4 comments about The Hill Towns of Italy.

1. This book is mostly a picture book (and the pictures aren't that great) with little information. Having spent time in all of these towns, the pictures do not do justice. Also, the author concentrates on towns that are full of tour buses and very unpleasant - especially during season. There are so many more hill towns in Umbria and Tuscany that are more out of the way and charming. I guess I should be greatful that they weren't disclosed so that they stay less touristy!



2. OK, my grandfather, Richard Kauffman (now deceased), spent 12 years photographing the eternal beauty of the hill towns of italy and all of the photographs in this book, now in its second reprint, were lovingly color-separated personally by him in his garage. He wouldn't even trust another printer with the quality of his images, being a printer by trade himself. Family bias aside, having since travelled to the towns, he captures Sienna as if you were there. Enjoy it as we do...



3. The book is in good condition, and provides the information I need. It came very quickly. BUT -- it was supposed to be a paperback book and it is hardback. I wanted paperback so that I could take it with me when I travel!



4. While the information in this book is very interesting, we had hoped for a few more pictures of the Tuscan countryside.

No comments about Berlin: Restaurants & More.

5 comments about Seamanship : A Voyage Along the Wild Coasts of the British Isles.

1. The text recounts a voyage that the author undertakes from the southwest of England, to the Atlantic coast of Ireland, northward to the Hebrides and the Orkneys, and finally to the Faroe Islands.
   This is a genuinely annoying book. As others have noted, there is, with a few exceptions, very little description of the lands and coasts traveled to. Mostly the author waxes philosophical about this or that aspect of our relationship with nature, embodied here by the sea. But that's not the problem. The problem is that, ultimately, the author proves to be a very un-admirable individual - someone that you would NOT want to sail with, much less depend on, in challenging circumstances. The real hero of the voyage (in my opnion) is George Fairhurst, an experienced professional sailor whom the author employs to skipper his boat, the Auk. By the end you come to sympathize with Fairhurst's assessment that the author is merely a "plucker": the sort of individual who floats from experience to experience, depending entirely on others to keep the boat sailing (Fairhurst), or the home and family going (the author's wife Sarah), while assuming none of the risk. You may consider it brave of Nicolson to reveal enough about what happened on Auk to allow the reader to form such a negative judgment of him. Personally I find this simply a species of the same instinct that causes him to climb three miles barefoot over sharp rocks to a hilltop holy place, despite being an avowed agnostic. It's self-indulgence masquerading as self-revelation. It's solely about the personal experience, and not about the truth.



2. an excellent book for anyone who is fascinated by the outer hebrides as i am.



3. I picked this book up before leaving on a cruise and sat on my balcony deck to read much of it.
   
   When I got home, I read in it each night before bed.
   
   It's a beautifully written book, has much adventure and describes the landscapes and ocean well. These men had to reach down deep to do the things they did and I admire them.
   
   I enjoyed the book and am glad I got to read it.
   
   Now I'm going to read Capt. Joshua Slocum's book..."Sailing Alone Around the World."



4. The book starts off in a promising fashion: a desire to sail to some of the wildest coasts in the British Isles leads to finding someone who knows what will be needed (George) and then finding a suitable boat for the voyage (the Auk). The Auk requires considerable refitting and off they go. There's a very nice description of the Skelligs off the southwestern coast of Ireland--a magnificent rocky pinnacle. Photographs would have been a useful addition here, but you can always visit Google.
   
   Unfortunately, what starts happening makes it seem as if the author started spending his time below deck (which was not the case). There's more about himself and how things are going with George. The culminating disappointment is the side trip to St Kilda. St Kilda and its stupendous sea stacs certainly rank very high among the most dramatic places in the world, yet they get just a scant couple of pages here. There are some fine books about this Hebridean Outlier. The remoteness, grandeur, and history should make it worth a more prominent place in the book that the Skelligs, but the feeling you get is rather like a tourist at, say, the Grand Canyon who stops, takes a hurried picture, jumps back in his car and speeds away. So, for me, after the Skelligs, the author seems to start losing his way.
   
   There are some excellent books out there on sailing that combine drama and introspection and nature. Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World is one of the classic examples of this; Nansen's Arctic voyages in the Fram provides another classic. Both Slocum and Nansen designed their own craft. Those two books perhaps point to what Seamanship could have been.



5. Remember the scene in Saving Private Ryan where the literate but naive tech sargeant quotes Emerson to the Tom Hanks character about the romance of war? Well, here we have an amateur sailor showing his well-read background off while breaking every rule of the sea. George, the friend and hired hand, must have had his hands full with this sea pup, heading out into gales, riding dinghies into heavy surf. Really, why read this book? George has some interesting comments about managing anxiety, they meet some interesting characters, but what you learn is what not to do on a coastwise passage and never to sail with an English major with a great memory for quotes. Oh Boy!

No comments about AUTHENTIK / Chic London (Authentik).

5 comments about The Amateur Historian's Guide to Medieval and Tudor London (Capital Travels).

1. I've never known a lot about medieval and Tudor history, but a friend gave this book to me to help me plan a trip to England. Now I can't wait to see the places described in the book. These authors have a fan in me.



2. I've never known a lot about medieval and Tudor history, but a friend gave this book to me to help me plan a trip to England. Now I can't wait to see the places described in the book. These authors have a fan in me.



3. For anybody who wants to know more about the history of places they want to see in England, this is the guide book for them. I learned alot of interesting things and had alot of fun reading this book. I like the authors' style very much. They make the history easy to read and understand.



4. Travellers on the trail of history in London know how frustrating it can be to locate Tudor and medieval places still in existence in that busy, crowded, vibrant, thoroughly modern city. Last year we spent a week with this guide in hand, feeling a bit Sherlockian in our quest. Even with the detailed directions provided by the authors, finding most of these hidden, nearly forgotten sites was a challenge. But with persistence and patience, our efforts were rewarded. What fun! Couldn't have done it without this guide. But if you aren't particularly interested in the places, the era, and the difficult pursuit, better not bother.



5. I very much enjoyed this book for many reasons, not just that it provides information you will never find anywhere else. The book covers many sites that I was familiar with and many that I have heard of and didn't know were accessible and many that I have never heard of. I will definitely take it with me on my upcoming trip, my 18th to London.
   
   I like the style of the book, just casual enough to let you know the authors are real people (and have really been to the sites), but not overdone, which can get annoying with other authors. In fact, I skimmed through the entire book at one sitting, reading many parts entirely, as I found it interesting.
   
   I have a few minor criticisms. (I'm still giving a five-star rating, especially since there is no other book quite like this, so invaluable.)
   
   A few things people should know in advance: there is one general map at the beginning -- the authors state you need to pick up a map in London as this is not an easy city to navigate (I use London A-Z) -- and there are no floor plans of the sites. This is good (smaller size and price) and bad (toting and flipping from book to book or purchasing high-priced on-site guides). I'm sure it would be impossible to locate a floor plan for some of the more obscure buildings, so really can't blame the authors.
   
   My main complaint (not major) is there is not a rating system, formal or informal, for sites. I know a lot of what is "worth seeing" depends on a person's individual interest, but, well, just because a site exists doesn't mean it's worth taking time out for if you just have a week or so in London. There's a big difference between "don't miss this hidden treasure" and "seek this out if you are in the neighborhood" or "best for those with a special interest in Edward IV, or stained glass windows, or gothic arches, or whatever."
   
   Once again let me state that a major plus is the feeling that the authors have really been there and know what they are talking about.
   
   By comparison, many years ago I bought a guide to London by a very well known guidebook publisher. I made a bed-and-breakfast booking on their recommendation of a charming hotel with a bright, cheery breakfast room. I won't tell you the full horrors of the place, other than to mention the tiny rooms with plywood walls and door, and the very dark basement breakfast room done up like a dungeon, complete with instruments of torture on the walls. And one shared toilet per floor, which sometimes actually flushed. I didn't just check out -- I escaped. It was very obvious that the authors of that other book had never set foot in the place, and I have more or less ignored mass-produced guidebooks ever since.

No comments about Streetwise Amsterdam Map - Laminated Center City Street Map of Amsterdam, Netherlands - Folding pocket size travel map with tram lines, metro lines, water bus.