5 comments about The Story of Spain.

1. Is there substance? Yes, not a lot, but there is a brief overview of history here.
   
   Is there fluff? Oh hell yes and way too much of it. There are just way too many asides and way too much focus on kings rather than conditions. For example, he explains that Caesar may have had a homosexual escapade in Spain. NOT PERTINENT and a little offensive to boot. Remove such things and you have about 50 pages of worthy reading and I have to question some of his findings in those 50.
   
   He goes to great lengths to brush over Spanish atrocities in the New World and at Home, claiming they are basically English racism towards the Spanish designed as a PR campaign against. I have no doubt that such existed as the two countries have long had problems, but that doesn't mean the Spanish Conquistadors weren't brutal (and downright evil at times). And the Inquisition should never have detractors. The most telling moment of the book happens, after detailing this "racism", he then goes on another aside to tell how the Irish sold out the Spanish for a bottle of whisky. Holy crap is that the pot calling the kettle black and how any editor would let that slip through, calls into question the entire book. So I learned a little from it, but it's not worth your effort. Seek other books.



2. While visiting Spain with my wife we bought this book in Seville. I enjoyed every part of it especially the end of each chapter which holds a list of the monuments relevant to the history of that chapter. I took it on a trip to Spain with my wife and it made the trip magical.
   
   This book reviews the history of Spain from the Romans to nowadays. In his witty account, the author goes on to reveal the love, and bed affairs of kings that you wouldn't see in your censored Spanish history textbook.
   For once I discovered that the world Spain comes from the Phoenician world Hispalis, 'the land of the rabbits' and that the soccer fervor that lives through Spain has its origins in the likes of Franco.
   I am Spanish and learned from this book more than from all my Spanish history classes. I finally got to read about the Spanish Civil war, which was always in the last chapter of the history book and, mysteriously we never had time to cover during class (I went to a catholic school)
   
   Many ides on this book reminded me of the 'Da Vince Code', I wonder if Dan Brown also bought the book in the cathedral of Seville while visiting there?



3. This book is a very interesting general history of Spain and its history. The book traces chronologically the development of Spain from its prehistoric origins to the present day. The most fascinating section is when the author deals with the Recoquista, the 800 year long struggle by Christians to win Spain back from Moorish occupation. In addition, the book deals with the peaceful co-existance of three cultures, Jewish, Moorish and Christian, that existed in Spain for some two hundred years. This culture cooperation was one of the high points of Spanish culture and civilization. With the unity of Catholic Spain, this cultural tolerance disappeared. The author deals with the cruelty of the Spanish Civil War in a very objective and clear fashion. This book is an excellent introduction for any student or tourist who wants to visit this amazingly diverse country.



4. This book is a shocking fabrication of the authors fantasy. Sweeping statements presented as fact. Enourmous errors of history. A very badly written paper, giving no explanation of the sources of information. Huge chunks of fabricated ideas and story, the authors opinion of circumstance is vastly personal and reveals what I can only discribe as an ignorant inward looking racist american, with no true grip on the affairs of spain! How did this book get published? "Golden Era Books" clearly is not a seat of academic acclaim. I am genuinely shocked. This book reads more like a tabloid newspaper scandal than a factual history of Spain. Dont buy this book.



5. I am of Spanish descent and I have read many books on Spain, but none as comprehensive as this one. It is easy to read, easy to follow and concise. I would highly recommend it to those who wish a very good short version of Spain's history. It informs the reader with all he needs to know about the history of this fascinating country and its people.
   Lillian Mejia Martin

No comments about Everything but the Squeal: Eating the Whole Hog in Northern Spain.

No comments about Wallpaper City Guide: Palma De Mallorca ("Wallpaper*" City Guides) (Wallpaper City Guides (Phaidon Press)).

1 comments about Global Access Spanish: Deluxe Language Course (Global Access).

1. I am an advanced Spanish student who has a library of books, a Rosetta membership, etc. with regard to learning Spanish. I have also traveled to Central America to practice the language and my husband is fluent.
   
   My biggest problem is that I feel a little intimidated to interact in spanish because my listening skills are not perfect and my brain takes longer than I am comfortable with to come up with the Spanish I would like to speak. I just got this course yesterday and listened to it for an hour in the car. I was pleasantly surprised at the breadth of topics covered. I guess for a traditional spanish student, you tend to learn grammar, vocab, etc. and you don't focus on one-shot spanish courses like "travel spanish."
   
   This course actually starts with travel spanish in mind, and even though I started on the basic lessons it is more advanced than I expected in that many different verb tenses are used right from the get-go. What a great way to hear those tenses used with many things the advanced learner would already be familiar with - so you can really focus on the tenses and at the same time get a great review of words you may not have completely committed to memory. The only parts I have skipped so far were those covering numbers, and skipping is easy to do because each short lesson is a track on your CD.
   
   Also the kit comes with vocab flashcards. They are not as basic as you might expect. Sure, the majority is made up of words like train, tree and yesterday, but also you will find ones for ankle, gloomy, crowd, etc.
   
   Since I just got this yesterday, I will come back and add more if my opinion changes. I am very pleased so far and I look forward to my next 1 hour in the car tonight!

4 comments about The Alhambra.

1. I don't always like to read classics, but when a friend of mine suggested that I read this book, I decided to try it, and I am very glad that I did. Irving's words, though written so many years before now, still paint eloquent pictures of the Spain of his time. I could almost see what he was seeing. The stories and legends are also wonderful and fascinating. An antique copy of this book is one of my most treasured gifts.



2. Irving's book on the Alhambra and the surrounding territory of Granada remains one of the best guidebooks to the region--and one of the most entertaining travelogues ever written. Anyone who has visited (or plans to visit) southern Spain will be thrilled by the account of Irving's trip, but I'll go further: you need not ever go there to enjoy this classic work of history and humor.
   
   Irving stayed at the Alhambra for three months in 1829 and jotted down notes concerning its history and legends. Early in his visit, Irving was accosted by Mateo Ximenes, a credulous and indigent "son of the Alhambra" who soon proves a worthy and endearing companion, a guide to secret chambers, and a conveyor of whimsical traditions. A couple of years later, while in London, Irving wrote "The Alhambra," describing his idiosyncratic hosts, recounting the millennium-old history of the Moorish occupation, and transcribing fresh versions of the palace's medieval legends and myths, many of which resemble stories from the "Arabian Nights." The first edition appeared in 1832, a second American edition was published four years later, but Irving extensively revised and enlarged the book in 1851, incorporating material unavailable or unknown to him in the 1830s. This last edition is the one most commonly available today.
   
   The result is easily Irving's most accessible book, filled with wit and anecdote. Alongside the history of the Moorish kingdom of Granada, Irving intersperses tales (both historical and mythical) of enchanted caves, imprisoned princesses, and buried treasure. His admiration for Islamic heritage is obvious throughout: "The Arab invasion and conquest brought a higher civilization and a nobler style of thinking, into Gothic Spain." And he regularly denounces the prejudices (both medieval and contemporary) "so strongly characteristic of the bigot zeal, which sometimes inflamed the Christian enterprises" and which have prevented his fellow Europeans from studying a rich and justifiably proud tradition.
   
   As Irving accurately summarizes, Moslem Spain was "a region of light amid Christian, yet benighted Europe; externally a warrior power fighting for existence; internally a realm devoted to literature, science, and the arts; where philosophy was cultivated with a passion . . . and where the luxuries of sense were transcended by those of thought and imagination." Plus, the Islamic "occupiers" and Christian warriors certainly knew how to tell a good story. This book will delight both history and literature buffs.



3. Many Americans know Washington Irving as the author of "the Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle". Few realize that he was also a world traveler, scholarly fluent in Arabic and Spanish and something of an Hispanophile, to the say least.
   Irving's book is largely responsible for the widespread romantic image of Spain. It is a collection of observation, history, fairy tale, written in Irving's unique blend of romanticism and healthy skepticism. It is roughly framed by his journey to the Alhambra and his departure from it, an in between we are given a tour of the grounds and hear a few tales (including tales of Moorish ghosts on headless horses) which are roughly intertwined as in the Arabian Nights. Indeed, this little book is the 'Arabian Nights' of the west.
   Before visit the Alhambra read this book. If you are not planning on going, read it and you'll probably change your mind.



4. I ordered this as a gift for my Ma.
   
   When I visited her a few weeks later I saw something that looked like
   
   a high schooler had copied at kinkos.
   
   The type is blurry and smudged.
   
   Some paragraphs are unreadable.
   
   Will Amazon take it back?
   
   No, it been more than 30 days....40 days to be exact.
   
   I will not purchase gift books from Amazon again...better off going to Borders....get a
   
   clean copy and ship it yourself.

1 comments about Camino de Santiago Map.

1. this super light weight book showing the path to Santiago is an excellent alternative to taking a guide book with you if you are planning to walk the Camino Frances. It lists the albergues and hotels in all the villages along the way, along with other services offered - cash points, supermarkets, churches, etc. Spiral bound, well layed out, good town maps of the 5 biggest towns along the way. Highly recommended.

1 comments about Top 10 Andalusia (EYEWITNESS TOP 10 TRAVEL GUIDE).

1. Contains some good information, but the format makes it difficult to use when you're actually in a particular place. Sights, restaurants, markets, etc. for any one location are scattered through the book. Few helpful maps or walking tours. The straightforward Eyewitness Travel Guides are much more useful and comprehensive.

No comments about Casa Battlo: Gaudi.

5 comments about Journey to Portugal: In Pursuit of Portugal's History and Culture.

1. I am sure Saramago's tales are more lively than they come across in this book. Although I'm certain it was translated with care, the third-person narrative doesn't quite do it in English. I wish I had bought the Portuguese book and worked my way through, it is surely more lyrical and less clunky than this version.



2. I am reading this book and am laboring through it hoping it will get to something interesting or useful because I am planning on traveling through Portugal later this year. So far it has been very boring. I don't get a great insight of Portugal's history or culture. It is mostly a travelogue of his town by town personal encounter with little to relate. So far its been very disappointing and I feel like its a waste of time.



3. Understandably, this book will be difficult reading for many American readers. It is not filled with action, sex, violence, or touristic visions. It is neither efficient nor pragmatic. Nevertheless, Jose Saramago is a Nobel Prize Winner for good reason. He writes with a depth of feeling and intense love that cannot be missed. The translation loses, as most translations do, the poetic passions of the author. However, if one can accept a very different style of writing, one that is decidedly not British nor American, this work will indeed be a journey.



4. I eventually struggled through to the end of "Journey to Portugal", more as a duty than a pleasure. After the first third, the sameness of the descriptions of churches, buildings and art works became a bit boring.
   
   Sarmago certainly writes with insights that would resonate with readers who are familiar with the history, culture and art works of Portugal. I am not, so many of Saramago's allusions and comments on the churches and buildings he saw were opaque to me.
   
   Having read (and reviewed) "Seeing", "Blindness" and "The Cave" by Saramago, I was a little disappointed at first with "Journey to Portugal". However, my disappointment was relieved by beautiful passages sprinkled through the text.
   
   Saramago was born in Portugal and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998. "Journey to Portugal" is nominally a travel book, but of a special kind: it describes spiritual as well as spatial journeys.
   
   The book is written in the third person, with Saramago referring to himself throughout as "the traveller".
   
   Reflective travellers will understand when Sarmago says "...when the street descends once more to the old cathedral so does the rain; it overflows the gutters and, as one idea follows another, the traveller remembers how the waters of the Minho ran down the hard shoulders beside the street, how small the world is, all its memories jumbled together in the minimal space inside the traveller's head."
   
   He also gives beautiful little word pictures of the lives and people he encountered on his journey. These are the real gems in this book, and why it is worth reading.
   
   In one especially memorable story ("The Man Who Could Not Forget") Saramago gets into conversation with the waiter at dinner about his travel plans and learns that the waiter was born in Cidadelhe, one of the small, remote villages Saramago plans to visit.
   
   Many years ago, when the waiter was a child, his sick young sister died on the way to get medical help, because none was available in their impoverished village. The waiter has never forgotten this family tragedy. His emotions are still raw as he talks to Saramago, who asks the waiter to come with him to the village and show him where he lived.
   
   Saramago concludes thus: "The traveller returns to his room. He spreads out his big map on the bed and looks for Pinhel. There it is, and the road which heads off into the hills. At some point in this space a seven-year-old girl died; then the traveller finds Cidadelhe, on the heights, between the Rivers Coa and Massueime, it really is at the ends of the earth, the end of life. If there is no one to remember."
   
   The book resonated with me for another reason. To quote Saramago: "The traveller preferred to admire the late afternoon gazing down towards the River Torto . . . . and then spent a long while leaning back against a wall . . . because from behind it there wafted the most exquisite perfume of flowers . . ."
   
   Far too often in our travels we are driven onwards by an inexorable schedule that allows little time to stop and actually enjoy moments such as Saramago describes.



5. This is Jose Saramago's spiritual journey through (primarily rural) Portugal. It's not a light-reading travel narrative. The feeling of this book is something of a cross between Henry Adams and James Michener. It's a book to read slowly and savor, in order to appreciate Saramago's tremendous metaphorical skill. He paints the picture slowly, with deliberate brush-strokes that reveal the masterpiece when viewed from a distance.
   
   Yes, his descriptions of churches, winding roads, rain and his seemingly unconscious cultural insecurity (his came from a poor family and was not a university graduate) can become tedious, but that's only if you don't grasp the larger picture: Portugal is a settled land with hundreds of years of historic layers. Saramago wants to peel those layers back for you to expose the core. Only the reader can decide if he's been successful.

1 comments about The Rough Guides' Tenerife Directions 2 (Rough Guide Directions).

1. This book gives good descriptions of the various towns, areas and sights on Tenerife. However, there are not as many hotel & restaurant reviews as I would like. Also, a map indicating the locations of hotels & restaurants would be much more helpful than just addresses.