No comments about Florence Spiral Guide (Aaa Spiral Guides).

No comments about Guide to Frank Lloyd Wright's California.

5 comments about Barren Lands: An Epic Search for Diamonds in the North American Arctic.

1. Barren Lands is one of the great adventure reads. A bit slower and less gripping than Krakauer, but a great read.



2. A really well crafted book with some flowing prose but... there is an element of 'faction' about this book. The author takes literary license to the extreme by describing in detail events he never witnessed and although it might make for great fiction, it made me wonder just how much of the book's narrative is at best exaggeration, at worse pure fabrication.
   
   But I thought the geological details in the book were well explained and the one lasting impression that I was left with was just how boringly methodical, time consuming and repetitive prospecting for diamonds really is, no matter how colorful and larger than life you make the people doing it.



3. It has been a number of years since I bought and read Barren Lands. Although I greatly enjoyed the book while I read it, I appreciate it even more now because it has left me with many vivid memories of tales told in the book and with knowledge about diamonds and geology that I would not have known otherwise. The book is more multi-dimensional, and works on more levels than almost any other book touching on Geology that I have read. In this multi-dim respect, I think it actually exceeds John McPhee's Rising from the Plains - which is quite a feat. What do I mean by multi-dimensional? Here are some examples that are still bouncing around in my mind years after reading Barren Lands:
   1.) The impression that is left of the Australian Mining Company BHP Billiton: I am left impressed by the way they kept their feelers out in this fringe community of explorers, and nutured a relationship with Fipke and Blusson until they found the first paydirt. (Way to go Hugo!) If one bought stock in BHP soon after this book came out, one would have probably recovered hundreds of times the books price in appreciation.
   2.) Fipke: I suspect that if he were growing up today in USA public schools, he would be first diagnosed with some kind of attention-deficit disorder, pumped full of Ritalin and then finally jailed when he would inevitably fail to be successfully hammered into servile, abject mediocrity. I think there is a huge lesson here for academia: STOP measuring people with standardized tests, and figure out a way to help each person find his or her own, particular intellectual fire the way Fipke did.
   3.) The endgame just before the discovery of the first pipe under the frozen lake. The cash is gone, winter is closing in, competitors with megabucks are catching on, and Canadian laws require you to divulge your secret the moment you make your discovery.... Such unlikely reality and so wonderfully told.
   4.) Death in the wilderness: lightning bolts and helo crashes. If it were fiction, people would criticise it for being unbelievable.
   5.) Black flies.
   6.) Shooting stars and prophecies.
   
   Much more. What a great and memorable book.



4. Very well written and informative. I learned alot about both the diamond business and the great Canadian North by reading this book. Very entertaning.



5. This is a true story, but reads like a novel. It is about the search for diamonds in northern Canada on a low budget. They follow one lead, that doesn't work, they follow another lead. They spy on the competition, the competition spies on them. They play tricks to mislead the competition, and eventually succeed in their quest. Parts of the book are hilarious.

1 comments about Cape May: Informed Traveler's Guide.

1. There are so many factual errors in this book, it's almost laughable. Almost. If I hadn't paid good money for it maybe I'd find it a little funnier.
   
   One of the most glaring mistakes is the map, which shows the Washington Street outdoor mall about 4 blocks away from where it actually is. Come on! That's one of Cape May's big tourist areas and if they don't even know where that is then why should I trust their judgement on anything else?
   
   It's kind of ironic that this book is called the Informed Traveler's Guide, because it is anything but. Don't waste your money! The Cape May Chamber of Commerce will send you a free guidebook, all you have to do is go to their website or call them.

No comments about Fodor's The Lewis and Clark Trail, 1st Edition (Travel Historic America).

5 comments about A Viking Voyage: In Which an Unlikely Crew of Adventurers Attempts an Epic Journey to the New World.

1. Hodding Carter's tale of his adventures in building and sailing an "authentic" replica of a viking knarr is a wonderful story of how all one needs for adventure is passion and friends. The very best part of this book is that it truly makes you believe that you could have done it yourself or at least that you can make your own crazy dream come true. Too often, the travel adventure stories we read are written by men with more means or skills than the average man can muster. Hodding Carter had no significant sailing skills or money yet he raised over $500,000 and with his passion and research put together a rag-tag group of viking wannabes and assembled a team committed to building their boat and reliving as best possible a true viking voyage.

   Carter's writing style is quite funny and he in fact makes fun of himself at pretty much every opportunity. His dedication to making the knarr, the voyage, and even his attire as historically accurate is truly admirable and makes for a wonderful read.




2. meant to bring attention to the author, who previously had placed second in the Louisiana Oyster Eating Contest. (I'm not kidding. The author says so.) He realized he needed to come up with something better than that if he was to gain wide public recognition and managed to talk Land's End into putting up a million or so to back him. The account's not very well written, and the author admits he knows little about the sea or sailing or the Norse. Not surprisingly, many of his "facts" are wrong. It's not completely worthless, just not very good. Such a voyage should have made wonderful adventure reading.



3. To some, Americans are best examplified as a people "blundering into success". This book is certain to reinforce that view. Carter relates the assembling of an "unlikely crew" to duplicate a "Viking" voyage from Greenland to North America. The voyage required two attempts [as you learn from the map preceding the text], and succeeded only after hilarious and desperate adventures. But it did succeed.

   Carter's account is intensely personal as he explains his motives to duplicate the "Viking" [apparently Carter was never taught the word "Norse"] voyages leading to the "Vinland" landings. Long debated, "Vinland" became a real place with the revelation of a Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland-Labrador in the 1960s. With Norse voyages to "Vinland" recorded in 1000 CE, Carter's target date of exactly one millenium later seemed appropriate.

   The only hitches were that Carter didn't know how to sail, didn't know anything about the Norse, their history, their boatbuilding techniques or their navigation methods. A shaky start compounded by a crew of similar qualifications. During the voyages, personality clashes make their inevitable appearance. Although discussions about the route to follow are understandable, the debate over toilet paper use seems almost a diversion. The primary issue of discussion is the rudder - it's shape, use and mounting. That question remains fundamental since the rudder determines as much as the winds which track is best.

   By the time you close the final page of this book, it's difficult to avoid feeling emotionally soiled. Carter reaches his thirty-sixth birthday on this voyage. The writing, however, is more in line with that of a sixteen-year old. Carter spends so much time at whingeing about missing his family, self-abasement over his inadequacies as a "leader", recounting the losses of wives and girlfriends by his mates, that reaching the Newfoundland coast seems anticlimatic. That this inept and mismatched team survived a journey that once took countless lives is hardly reassuring. If ever the gods were arbitrary in their machinations, they seemed to have proved it here. That an amatuer crew survived an expedition against all odds is a mildly entertaining read, but hardly an inspirational one. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]




4. Carter is the man. The priggish "extreme sports" types and those who fancy themselves "authentic" risk takers will no doubt miss the boat on this one. WIth the world fully wired and mapped, the notions of conquest and exploration must be experienced through a different lens. Carter provides a comical contemporary description of his journey- part historical reenactment. part adventure (with rational modern back up), and part philosophical investigation of modern life. A terrific read.



5. Hodding Carters boyish enthusiasm and matched only by his ignorance of all things nautical, lays the ground work for this humorous tale of reenacting a Viking oddysey. Carter relentlesly pursues Viking history to gain knowledge for building a recreation of Leif Erikssons square rigged knarr. Dogged determination coupled with old world craftmanship, brings the boat to life and Carter assembles his crew for the voyage to Greenland. Carter candidly re-counts the personal difficulties experienced with his fellow 'vikings' but tended to bore the reader with his introspection and worries (particularly towards the end of the trip). Nevertheless, a great adventure that takes you to the most unspoiled territory on earth and a pretty good read.

5 comments about American Notes for General Circulation.

1. Especially when you realize that some things haven't changed about America. Nevertheless, true or not, is a great book by Dickens. Reading it you get a great sense of the author as well as how he observed the world. His humor really shines through, as does his familiararity. No matter if you agree with the book or not (and sometimes I do, other times I don't) this book is nevertheless a great read for any Dickens fan.



2. I must regretfully confess that this book, so promising in its circumstances, amounts to a profound bore. The opportunity to see a distinct American epoch through the eyes of a Charles Dickens is one that I lusted after. Yet, as Goldman and Whitley's introduction to the Penguin edition rightly observes, the book is "extremely disappointing in its omissions and pervasive flatness." That "flatness" ought to have concerned me upon first reading the title. "American Notes for General Circulation" is hardly an inviting description of what's inside. Not one to judge a book by its cover, though, I dismissed this minor oversight and dove in. However, while Whitley and Goldman go on to suggest that "American Notes" is somehow "fascinating as a record of the ways in which the foremost creative writer of his day responded to the most exciting social experiment of his time," that "fascination" is merely superficial and fails to last beyond the book's mildly humorous opening scenes of a sea journey to Boston.
   
   The book's problems are its redundancy and timidity. Dickens seems to be exclusively interested in reporting on every hospital and prison in America, which he does for at least the first third of the book. While some of his descriptions and observations in this portion of the narrative reveal the character of one of literary history's most compassionate figures, this too grows stale as Dickens fails to overcome his peculiar infatuation and look beyond. Even when he does move on, in DC, Cincinatti and elsewhere, some of the most controversial issues of his day -- slavery, Native American negotiations with the US government -- are mentioned only fleetingly as Dickens turns increasingly inward and elaborates for many pages on the most forgettable and mundane experiences common to any journey or vacation, whether it be a cruise through the Caribbean in 2004 or a trip on a riverboat up the Mississippi in 19th-century America, a river that meets with Dickens's intense disdain.
   
   Some of Dickens's observations on the functions and implications of the American democratic system as well as generalizations on the mannerisms of Americans go far to show how little has changed since Dickens came to Boston in 1842, but rarely rise to the lyrical intensity or vivid portraits one would expect from a powerhouse such as Charles Dickens. The letters included in this edition demonstrate just how much Dickens held back in the writing of the book, which leads me to wonder just why people like Washington Irving found it so objectionable as to never speak to Dickens again. Surely the book offers some less-than-flattering ruminations on the people and corruption surrounding him, but had Dickens's book reflected the more aggressive tone of his letters, "American Notes" may have been as much of a classic today as it might have been an unconscionable offence to Irving or the American journalists who panned it at the time.
   
   Unfortunately, the book is incapable of engenering much more than the relatively tame emotional response it received upon its release, and if its sales were impressive (which they were), this was due chiefly to the author's name and not to anything that is said between the front and back cover. Whitley and Goldman make the excellent point that some of Dickens's high-profile American friends -- Longfellow, for one -- may have influenced his impressions to such an extent that they diluted the final product. This is a case in which Dickens's fame hindered the sincerity of his work. For a more entertaining and memorable reading experience, try Parkman's "Oregon Trail," Steinbeck's "Travels With Charley" or Least-Heat Moon's "Blue Highways". For a great travel-read from a time and place far beyond 19th or 20th-century America, try Marco Polo's truly "fascinating" "Travels".



3. Perhaps because I have read so much of Dickens' fiction and enjoyed it so thoroughly, I had certain expectations that simply cannot be met in a work of non fiction.
   To be sure, Dickens' account of America in the 1800s is interesting and his penultimate chapter railing against the institution of slavery is fantastic, but the book seemed a bit verbose (not a surprise, I suppose) and contradictory at times. He makes many observations worth knowing about in relation to Transatlantic studies, but truth be told, certain ideas begin to become repititious fairly early on.
   While I feel Dickens' observations are/were valid, I think Fanny Trollope's "Domestic Manners of the Americans" is a much more enthralling read-- an account imbued with wicked humor and wit. In fact, Dickens was very much influenced by Trollope's account of America.
   Without question, Dickens is the King of Victorian literature and I am a HUGE fan, but if you want his best...go for broke with "Dombey and Son," "Bleak House," or "David Copperfield."



4. I had eagerly looked forward to reading this work. I had expected that Dickens would provide a rich Pickwick Papers-like cast of American characters. Instead Dickens writes of conditions, of scenery, of things but not really of people, not in the way anyway he writes about them in his novels. This made the book disappointing on the 'experiential level'.
   In terms of American vs.British conditions he does have interesting things to say. He strongly opposes Slavery and so will not travel to the slave - states. He notes a uniformity in American social opinion and condemns this, and a certain lack of manners. But he also see that in terms of democratic principles the United States is ahead of Britain.This is surprisingly a quite humorless work, again lacking one of Dickens defining virtues as a writer.



5. Charles Dickens left London for America in the cold January of 1842. He left behind several children and such bestsellers as "Pickwick Papers"; "Oliver Twist:, "The Old Curiosity Shop" and "Nicholas Nickleby."
   He and his wife Catherine Hogarth Dickens would journey to the land of their Yankee cousins for six months. This long journey resulted in a short account of the famed novelist's time in the United States.
   The passage from Liverpool took 18 days with storms and heavy rain to propel the Britishers forward to the land of the free and home of the brave! Dickens visited several cities. He had good and bad things to say about America. Dickens:
   a. Visited Boston and New York insane asylums and homes for the indigent.
   He also visited prisons. Dickens was a liberal social reformer and thought the treatment of the insane could be improved. He did not think much of American penology believing the prisoners should be worked harder.
   b. From the East the Dickens party traveled West. They passed through Louisville, Cincinnati and Sandusky. Dickens complained about pigs in the streets of these burgeoning cities. He thought Americans bold and brassy with an inordinate patriotism manifestly condescending to foreigners.
   c. Dickens traveled to St.Louis complaining of the isolated life found in log cabins and the hot temperatures of North America.
   d. Dickens disliked the partisan American press; he thought Americans were ruled by mobocracy and often used guns and fisticuffs when they were not necessary!
   e. The travel in stage and by train was difficult in this era in the new American nation. Dickens often comments on how miserable he was!
   f. Dickens saves his greatest wrath for the abominable practice of chattel slavery in the American South. In his journey to Virginia he comments on how run down the farms and homes were. Like the earlier English visiotr Fanny Trollope he is to be commended for his hatred of slavery which was the curse of American life in the antebellum period.
   g. Dickens also hated the American propensity to spit tobacco juice everwhere in sight including the floor of the US House of Representatives and in the Senate Chamber!
   Dickens also toured Canada which at that time was ruled by Great Britain. He is much less critical of Canadians!
   Dickens is critical in many pages of the book. The book was not liked in America and little read in England. Dickens also was appalled at the lack of copyright law protecting him and English authors from the pirating of their literary efforts. Dickens would write his next novel "Martin Chuzzlewit" in which the hero travels to America only to be greatly disillusioned by this experience.
   Dickens returned to America late in life amending some of his earlier harsh views about the 1842 visit. Slavery had been then been abolished.
   It should not be forgotten that Dickens was also very critical of society in Great Britain! This greatest of Victorian novelists was a man who believed society needed to improve in education, care for the poor giving people more equitable justice and a higher standard of living. Dickens failed to realize on his 1842 tour that America would take time to grow as a nation and society. Some of his pointed observations, though, such as our love for elections, guns and military titles still stand!
   American Notes is dry reading in many places. It is valuable for how a famous author saw America when he and the United States were both young.

2 comments about Adventures to Imagine, 1st Edition: Thrilling Escapes in North America (Fodor's Adventures to Imagine).

1. Fodor's Travel Publications commissioned photojournalist Peter Guttman to document some 28 different escapist experiences in North America, and the result is truly delightful. Guttman's photography is brilliant, his essays crisply capture the essence of each adventure, and the appendix lists the names of specific organizations that one can contact (and contract) to engage in each of the documented experiences.

   I gained an added insight from Guttman's chapter titles (Houseboating - Portaging - Mountain Biking - Cattle Driving Roundups - Olympic Bobsledding - Tall Ship Sailing - Tornado Chasing - Canyoneering - Wagon Trail Pioneering - Harp Seal Viewing - Iceberg Tracking - Puffin Birding - Race Car Driving - Hot Air Balooing - Climbing - Spelunking - White-Water Rafting - Canoing Swamp Trails - Heli-Hiking - Hiking Hut to Hut - Whale Kissing - Llama Trekking - Open Cockpit Barnstorming - Land Yachting - Reenacting Historic Battles - Iceboating - Encountering Polar Bears - Dogsledding): Words used to describe experiences end in "ing." It is the use-ing of a good that is the experience! I've been using that heuristic ever since, encouraging experience stagers to "Ing the Thing."




2. This book is amazing. It includes the most gorgeous photographs, information on every place, the price, and the length of each activity. The author experienced it all himself. He chose very good places you've only imagined. He also helps you plan a trip with the directory at the back. It's incredible.

4 comments about Hooked on Baja: Where & How to Fish Mexico's Legendary Waters.

1. I pre-ordered this book months before it was published; the title sounded too good to pass up for a fisherman like me that travels to the baja to fish. HA! I returned the book a day after receiving it. It is insipid, written to "cover" all subjects in the table of contents in the minimum of pages. Unfortunately, it does not cover anything usefully. It is so simple it reads as if it was published by a government agency to drum up tourism.
   
   The author may (or may not) know fishing, but he did not display fishing knowledge in this book. Pages 30-80 are a reference, a list of descriptions of the fish in the waters around Baja; this should have been an appendix or deleted. It is not until page 80 that you come across a chapter with a title that sounds like it will be of use, "Terminal tackle and Fishing Suggestions", but this chapter is brief compared to the pedantic ramblings about each of the fish species along the baja and it does not deliver on its title. After that it just continues downhill. It includes fishing maps, marginally useful and less detailed than free ones on line. Follow this up with fish recipes, that is correct, fish recipes from the book with the subtitle, "Where and How to Fish Mexico's Legendary Waters". Then the author has the gaul to describe the personalities of Baja fishing--let me see did the title indicate I would get to read about the people? Let's recap, recipes, fish descriptions, resorts descriptions, descriptions of the fishermen of the baja, and 5 pages on suggested tackle that don't deliver. Thank goodness, Amazon allows returns.



2. Author Tom Gatch's insights into fishing have been published in columns and articles for issues of "The Log, Southern California's #1 Boating & Fishing Newspaper" and "Baja Times". Hooked on Baja: Where & How To Fish Mexico's Legendary Waters distills Gatch's lifetime of experience into a handy and readily accessible guide for would-be Baja fishermen of all backgrounds. Chapters extend beyond the limits of a typical fishing handbook, discussing tips on how to purchase and legally secure real estate property on the Baja California peninsula, authentic south-of-the-border recipes, and true-life tales from Baja's well-known outdoors personalities as well as the basics about a wide variety of Baja fish species, Baja fishing maps, terminal tackle and fishing suggestions, and more. Black-and-white illustrations plus a handful of color photographs enhance this premier "must-have" for anyone seeking to enjoy catching fish south of the Mexican border.



3. I am so glad to have found this book. I love to travel in Baja and this is a great resource. I actually don't fish but the descriptions of the area are very useful to me.



4. Tom loves fishing and Baja! His passion about the area shows in this informative book about Mexico's abundant Baja fisheries.
   
   With a folksy style that everyone can enjoy he shares his knowledge freely about the Baja its fish to great recipes for their preparation.
   
   Worth the read! Irene
   
   Hooked on Baja: Where & How to Fish Mexico's Legendary Waters

No comments about The Smithsonian Guides to Natural America: The Heartland.