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1 comments about The Companion Guide to the Greek Islands (Companion Guides).

1. Travel guides generally should not deserve a review.
   They are a tool and, more than other books, are exposed to the damage of time.
   
   This book (first published 1963) is no exception, but it got my attention because the author, Ernle Bradford, was also an excellent writer and a passionate lover of the Mediterranean Sea.
   His "Mediterranean. Portrait of a Sea" is probably the best homage ever paid to the "Mare Nostrum": passionate, informed and attentive to the many colors of its shores. Also his "The Great Siege: Malta1565" reveals this same passion.
   
   Unfortunately this book is just the average list of islands arranged in roughly geographical order and enlivened here and there with a colorful touch.
   Nothing more - nothing less.
   
   As a traveler, I have toured extensively in the Mediterranean and enjoy as well reading about its history and traditions.
   
   If you are reading this review, there may be a chance you're looking at this book because of my same reasons and could be interested in similar travel-related books I had the chance to read (and enjoy) about this argument:
   - Predrag Matvejevic - "Mediterranean. A Cultural Landscape". Nostalgia over the shores of the dark wine sea (if interested, I have written a review on it).
   - Ernle Bradford - "Mediterranean. Portrait of a Sea". Possibly the best book I read on history, culture and traditions of the Mare Nostrum.
   - John Ash - "A Byzantine Journey". A poetic, fragile and luminous evocation of the Byzantine past.
   - Stephen Minta - "On a Voiceless Shore". A travel on the footsteps of lord Byron: passionate, poetic and hugely learned.
   - James G. Frazer - "Pausanias and Other Greek Sketches" (1900). Yes, this is the author of the famous "Golden Bough". It is a collection on short sketches about archeological walks and visit on mainland Greece. Today everything is changed, but you still can catch some of the fascination described in this book.
   - Patrick Leigh Fermor - "Mani. Travels in the Southern Peloponnese" (1958). Deservedly praised for his sensibility in describing a vanishing Greece, this is one of the most touching homage ever paid to Greece. The remoteness of the Mani region is nowadays gone, but still you can enjoy the unique landscape and imagine how it must be at the beginning of the XX century.
   - Robert Byron - "The Station. Athos: treasures and Men" (1928) - by the same author of "The Road to Oxiana", it is a report of a trip to Mount Athos, written by a lover of Byzantine civilization. It cast a glance on some of the less known traits of modern Greek culture, the Byzantine heritage and the orthodox faith.
   - Henry Miller - "The Colossus of Maroussi". Listed here only because I read it, this is a book I greatly disliked: at least this is not the Greece I know and like... read at your own risk.
   - J.B.S. Morrit - "A Grand Tour. Letters and Journeys (1794-96)". Letters posted during the author's travels through the Aegean Sea. Very colourful and passionate, it is a testimony on how Greece was before the War of Independence.
   
   I do appreciate feedback.
   You are truly welcome if you can suggest other readings or just share ideas and comments!
   Thanks for reading.

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