1 comments about Maryland and Delaware Off the Beaten Path: A Guide to Unique Places.

1. There are a few things wrong with this book and title. First, a two hundred page book on Maryland and Delaware only has 29 pages on Delaware. There are 32 pages on Greater Washington (like there is much off the beaten path here). Next is some of the Off the Beaten Path palces covered are such unheard of places as - BWI Airport, US Naval Academy, Camden Yards, Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Delaware Art Museum and Dover Air Force Base. That last one is where you can see the C5A cargo planes that according to the book each plane "is big enough to hold several football fields". Now that is a unique plane!
   Much of this book seems little more then the author collected those flyiers from the card racks found at most hotels. While there are some unique places in the book most of it is little more than press release quotes from the local Chambers of Commerce. It is not "A Guide to Unique Places" that it claims to be.

1 comments about Earthquake Country: Traveling California's Fault Lines (California Traveler).

1. The California Traveler Series are an excellent group of small books that give you whatever you want to know about various aspects of California in a quick and painless way. The book on Earthquakes will let you know which part of the State is prone to rock and roll and which areas are immune from constantly changing landscape. The text and diagrams are excellent in clarifying the problem of earthquakes.

1 comments about New York City: A Photograghic Tour (Photographic Tour).

1. I'm a native New Yorker and found much, within this book, to jog the memory. The photographs show the different neighborhoods, of which there are many, within the 5 boroughs as they were then and as they are today. One photo of particular interest, to me, is of the cottage, in Brooklyn, where I lived as a child.

No comments about The Difinitive Journals of Lewis & Clark, Vol. 2: From the Ohio to the Vermillion.

No comments about An Outdoor Guide to Bartram's Travels.

No comments about Hammond International South America: North (International Series).

No comments about A Visitor's Guide to Colonial & Revolutionary Mid-Atlantic America: Interesting Sites to Visit, Lodging, Dining, Things to Do, Includes New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.

5 comments about Moon Handbooks: Dominican Republic 2 Ed.

1. I really enjoyed this book. It has lots of valuable cultural information and great research. While there are not snow capped mountains in the DR, it is a great book. Anyone looking at going to the DR to visit or live consider reading this book.



2. I'm sorry to say that after a month-long travel through the Dominican Republic, I have to agree with the previous negative reviewer, in that the book is full of inaccuracies and it seems obvious that the author didn't travel to many of the places he writes about. Also, the book seems to derive an awful lot of its material from another book on the Dominican Republic called Adventure Guide. Also, the author seemed overly scared of remote areas, especially around Haiti. It's more a book for older folk who are into golf courses and cigars, not for someone who wants to experience the country and really wander around and meet people. I usually do like the Moon series, though. Don't let this book dissuade you from the usually very competent Moon books.



3. I
   drove a car around three-quarters of the DR, using this book every
   step of the way for nearly the entire trip. But many times the author
   just wrote a lot of nonsense. Places he describes aren't anything like
   they really are, like he just asked other people to describe them and
   wrote what he heard from people who forgot a lot and gave him bad
   information. This book is no good.



4. Thank you for a great guidebook. I have traveled to the Dominican Republic a few times and am now planning another trip for next year, so I just bought the new version of this book. When I was in the Dominican before, this was the best guide I used--it's more than just basic information plugged into a guidebook format. It's kind of like reading a novel. I really liked his essay on "The Essence of the Dominican Republic" before the introduction--it gives you a real sense of what you will experience when you get there. Gaylord Dold obviously knows a great deal about the Dominican--he spends a lot of time on things like history and people, which is good if you have never been there and are interested in getting familiar with the culture instead of just traveling around. And he's really thorough with the practical stuff too and there are tons of choices of places to eat and sleep. I always use this book when deciding where to stay on my trips and have found the hotel info to be dependable. That said, I've used other books from the Moon series (Costa Rica, Ecuador) and I really like them. They're all really big on background info but also they give you a good variety of choices--not just backpacker stuff or places that are too expensive.



5. I wrote the first and second editions of Lonely Planet's guidebook to the Dominican Republic. While working on them, I traveled all over the DR. I adhered very closely to this rule: If I didn't visit a place, I didn't write about it. Period. No ifs, ands or buts. As any good guidebook writer would, I traveled with competing guidebooks to make certain I didn't overlook anything the competition reported on. If, for example, the competition mentioned a terrific restaurant on the outskirts of a remote town, I'd be sure to check it out; I simply didn't want my readers to miss out on anything, especially not something appearing in another guidebook. It was mostly an issue of pride, but I also felt people who bought my guidebook deserved the best work I could do. So I left no stone unturned. As a result, many business owners (particularly hotel owners) often told me, "You're the first guidebook writer that's ever been here." Sometimes I'd point to a "review" appearing in another guidebook. More times than not, I'd be told, "No, that person has never been here. I'd know it." I didn't doubt them then and I don't doubt them now, because it was usually in small, hard-to-reach or out-of-the-way places where this dialog occurred. Like many guidebook writers, I left the guidebook business soon after 9/11 -- when people weren't traveling and guidebook sales plummeted. In the years that followed, I moved on to bigger and better things, but I'd always meant to comment upon this book (the first edition, anyway) in a public forum. It was, quite simply, a piece of garbage. And if the first edition stank to high Heaven, why would the second edition be any better? Either you do good work, or you don't. If I got a dollar every time I read an inaccuracy in the Moon book, I'd be driving a Porsche today. I'm sure my book is off bookshelves these days. More than likely someone is working on the fifth edition of Lonely Planet's DR & Haiti. I'm not trying to boost the sales of my book; Lonely Planet doesn't pay royalties, anyway. I just thought anyone looking to purchase a good guidebook to the Dominican Republic ought to know my thoughts about this one. It did, and likely does, guidebook writers the world over a profound disservice. For legal reasons, I prefer using "Moving On" instead of my real name. But I am the real deal.

4 comments about Haiku Journey: Basho's the Narrow Road to the Far North and Selected Haiku.

1. This is the worst translation of Basho that I have ever seen. She makes all the haiku rhyme!!! Ugh! I suppose in Lady Bouchier's idle mind that's how poetry should appear.

   Here's a quote: "Life itself is a journey; and as for those who spend their days upon the waters in ships and those who grow old leading horses, their very home is the open road."

   Now compare that to Sam Hamill's translation: "A lifetime adrift in a boat, or in old age leading a tired horse into the years, every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home."

   This book is embarrassing. Don't buy it.




2. There are several different translations of Basho's Narrow Road extant and without doubt this is the worst generally available. Dorothy Britten's translations of both the text and verse cloy terribly, and betray her shallow understanding of the form. Her translations of some of Basho's best haiku rhyme, which should be enough to put anyone off.

   If you want to buy a translation of this wonderful work, I recommend a different Kodansha publication -- the edition featuring Masayuki Miyata's breathtaking illustrations and Donald Keene's somewhat academic but still vastly superior translations. Don't buy this one!




3. We can find Basho almost everywhere in Japan. My hometown is close to the Tokaido-highway and easy to find stone monuments with Basho's haiku inscribed in it.
   
   Dorothy Britton did fine job in the mission-impossible task of
   translating Basho haiku into palpable English. I am not well versed in poetry so I do not know how great her translation is with respect to literal viewpoint. She created the method by which peculiarly styled Japanese poem is converted into that of rhyme based western poem. Her English translation is easy to understand so it could be enjoyed by huge number of people not limited to those highly educated. As a Japanese who usually reads this essay in archaic Japanese of 17th century, her translation is instrumental in understanding what difficult Japanese words mean.
   
   As far as Haiku translation goes English language has huge disadvantages.
   1: Deletion of subject is difficult while in old Japanese it is really common.
   2: Phonetically Japanese and English is so different. For example, in Japanese, common English words such as STRIKE is
   pronounced SU-TO-RIE-KU. In Englsih one syllabled but in Japanese phonetics it requires four syllables.
   
   So as syllable based translation. Basho's haiku will be translated rather explanatory than its original Japanese form.
   
   In conclusion, I think she did a great job as a translator and her translation quite natural. No wonder Kodansha International adopted her translation for Japanese English learners.
   
   Recommended for wide range of Japanese culture appreciators.



4. Although Ms. Bitton's translations of Basho's prose are not far off from other versions of this title, many have complained of the rhyming scheme she employs when translating the haiku verses of the author's most famous work. I do agree, that these translations are somewhat jarring and just a little cumbersome (especially if one has knowledge of other translations of this haibun). But Bitton's effort was devoted to making the verses more accessible to Western readers accustomed to the perceived elegance of the rhyme in popular Western poetry. This, one may argue, is the job of a translator, and thus is not an all too terrible introduction to "The Narrow Road," especially for younger readers. However, if one truly wishes to enjoy this, one of Japan greatest literary volumes, please seek other versions as well. The difficult art of translation is in itself a fascinating study.

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