4 comments about Art/Shop/Eat Los Angeles.

1. I'd been so pleased with the Art/Shop/Eat London book that, when I planned a "getaway weekend" to the Los Angeles area, I chose this book without a second thought. Unfortunately, it only serves to demonstrate that these books are written by individuals who know the area, and whose text reflects that person's interests. Art/Shop/Eat Los Angeles is okay... but for my next trip, I'll probably choose another guide.
   
   If you're unfamiliar with the series, here's the scoop. The emphasis is on art, and on the set of most-famous museums in the area. Each of the "big" museums (here, that's the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Getty Center, the UCLA Hammer Museum, LACMA, and the Norton Simon Museum) get several pages devoted to them, complete with the open hours and highlights of the collection. The book also lists additional artsy stuff in the area, from the Disney Concert Hall to the Chinese American Museum. Plus, you get a list of interesting shops and restaurants, most of which are close by the highlighted museum. And it all fits in a book small enough to stuff in a pocket.
   
   Plus, you aren't laden with a guidebook meant for the people who are interested primarily in Univeral Studios or Disneyland. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I'd rather pick a book that caters to my interests.)
   
   It's a decent premise, and in the case of the London book it succeeds quite well. This one, however, is... okay. Only okay.
   
   On the plus side, some of the "alternative" museums and recommended spots are delightful, the sort of destinations that you'd expect to learn about from a native. In addition to the Japanese American Museum, it lists a Museum of Neon Art and the Olvera Street marketplace. (Not that I had time to visit any of them, but it got me interested.) The maps of each area are small but they manage to be clear; on the other hand, for a city the size of LA, you'll still need a separate map.
   
   The small size of the book makes many of the listings TOO brief, however. My getaway weekend started with a desire to see the Gamble House, which earned all of 3 sentences. I'm not sure I'd have "discovered" it with that little information. And its listing for the Huntington Library and Gardens certainly didn't do the place justice; we went there because of a friend's recommendation, not because this guide sold us on it.
   
   The listings for lodgings is essentially useless. I can't judge its shopping recommendations as I didn't try them. But for restaurants... I'm a bit irritated. In two trips to LA, I managed to eat at three of the recommended restaurants (primarily because of suggestions made by people in the egullet.com forums). When I read the listings afterwards, they're accurate enough; but beforehand, I didn't have a sense of what the place would be like. At least it gave me SOME idea about places to eat.
   
   Maybe that's a side effect of the book's enforced brevity. I'm not sure what the problem is; the London book is the same size, but I didn't feel as though the information was as "thin."
   
   One really dumb omission: no index. If I was sure that I'd seen a listing for the Water Grill, but I didn't know where it was... I had to flip through the entire book to look for it.
   
   The book is an okay guidebook, especially if you only expect to spend a few days in the area and you don't want to invest in a heavy tome. But before my next trip to LA, I'm going to shop for another guide, to see if someone else can do a better job.



2. Thorough, witty, and well-written - this guide book covers all you need to know to get around L.A. and enjoy the best museums and restaurants the city has to offer. The premise of the book is it is a guide to museums and what you can do in the areas surrounding them. In that sense, it is a success!



3. The information on when the Huntington is closed is incorrect....it is closed on Monday. Wasted almost a whole day on this. The organization is bad, one has to look in the index for everything. The restaurant reviews are useless, because they don't tell you much, and are mostly pr. Really good places are absent....



4. I found this guide to be incredibly helpful when I first moved to Los Angeles. The places (especially the restaurants) are the real deal and the reviewer did an excellent job with her descriptions - I found them on target.
   A great guide to LA and small - so easy to carry around with you where ever you go.
   
   BTW: the person who said the author put in wrong info about the huntington library is WRONG - author has correct info - I know this b/c the Huntington was one of the first places WITH the guide in hand - and if you're in LA you should visit as well - one of my favorite spots.

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