No comments about Rand Mcnally Seattle, Washington (Rand McNally Easy to Fold!).

1 comments about Fodor's Seattle, 4th Edition (Fodor's Gold Guides).

1. FODOR'S SEATTLE, 4TH EDITION is a great travel guide to Seattle and its surrounding suburbs, with loads of great ideas for dining, shopping, sightseeing, and recreation. It also features some great day trips out of the immediate area, including Olympic and Mount Rainier National Parks. This is a great book for travelers, but even people who are not travelling anytime soon can enjoy it as well.

1 comments about Seattle Survival Guide: The Essential Handbook for Seattle and Eastside Living.

1. I bought this book to gain a bit of knowledge about Seattle other than the usual "best hotels, restaurants, and other tourist-y things" you find in so many travel books. Couldn't have found a better book! It is precisely what I was hoping to find. Loads of info (and map/diagrams) on every major neighborhood and several surrounding areas! Chapters on things one would need to know if (like myself) they're planning on actually moving to (not just visiting) the city, like information on schools, housing, and jobs. Not to say there isn't plenty of handy information for visitors as well, though. Furthermore, with a book so full of information, it's nice to know that the writing style of the author is very low-key; reading it makes you feel like you're having a good conversation with the author, not just a lecture on the topic at hand. And the book itself is a very handy size. I actually have it tucked in my purse for continual reading!
   
   Bottom line: If you're looking for a great book on Seattle, I say your search is over! Click "Add to Cart" with confidence, my friend!

4 comments about Take a Hike Seattle: Hikes Within Two Hours of the City.

1. We're new to Seattle, and find the outdoor options almost overwhelming. Cascades? Olympics? Mount Ranier? Something else? This book lists plenty of hikes for all experience levels, nearly all of which you can do in a day. There's a great variety, and almost every one of them sounds appealing. We like it a lot!



2. We bought this book for our family trip to Seattle. This was an excellent guide to our outdoor adventure. This is a must buy for outdoor travel lovers.



3. Take a Hike Seattle was a labor of love for me. I included many of my favorite hikes in the Seattle area. I hiked every trail and ensured that all descriptions and directions are spot-on accurate. All hike listings are day hikes within 2 hours of Seattle. Listings range from kid-friendly walks to amazing wilderness hikes. With maps, directions, and short summaries, Take a Hike Seattle is a guide geared to help you easily pick a hike and get on the trail
   
   Cheers, Scott



4. I've been using this book for a couple of years. I really like how it is organized and cross referenced. Also, the trip descriptions are very clear and easy to read. The reason I'm only giving it 3 stars is because of the large amount of typos spread through the driving directions. For example, in several places he tells the reader to "drive I-90 north to Everett" (I-90 doesn't GO to Everett) or he'll refer to the wrong exit or will describe the exit incorrectly. If you buy this book, just be sure to double check the driving directions elsewhere! And it would be nice if the author could provide errata for the book on his web site.

5 comments about Seattle Adventures, Seattle memoirs inspired by my stint at Amazon.com.

1. The book is a fun read and reminds me of the things that many men of author's age tend to go through around career, job, family, realization of their children growing to be adults, and how deftly he handled those issues. I wish men in my life could have handled them as bravely and with as much fun as author was able to.
   
   He seems to be a guy who is self-assured, and determined to live his life to the fullest. I keep reflecting back on so many of the points he made and things that he learned and trying to apply them to my own life.
   
   I am convinced that his literary talent is likely to keep his work in print for a very long time. This book is destined to be a best seller, to rise to the top of the list!



2. The book is a fun read and reminds me of the things that many men of author's age tend to go through around career, job, family, realization of their children growing to be adults, and how deftly he handled those issues. I wish men in my life could have handled them as bravely and with as much fun as author was able to.
   
   He seems to be a guy who is self-assured, and determined to live his life to the fullest. I keep reflecting back on so many of the points he made about Seattle and his life and things that he learned and trying to apply them to my own life. His vivid description of Seattle, specially in summers made me plan spending my next vacation in Seattle!



3. Man, this is a great story! Funny, cute, descriptive and illustrated, with pictures adding a thousand words. I got glued to the story once I started reading it, enjoying every detail and only got up once I finished this short book.
   
   Cherubs don't come out of the heavens, but author's happiness at finding peace and acceptance in Seattle comes out pretty clear. So I will say that he was very effective as any other at describing his story of transitioning to yet another land, while also transitioning across midlife.
   
   Highly recommended.



4. Man, this is a great story! Funny, cute, descriptive and illustrated, with pictures adding a thousand words. I got glued to the story once I started reading it, enjoying every detail and only got up once I finished this short book.
   
   Cherubs don't come out of the heavens, but author's happiness at finding peace and acceptance in Seattle comes out pretty clear. So I will say that he was very effective as any other at describing his story of transitioning to yet another land, while also transitioning across midlife.
   
   Highly recommended.



5. This is a memoir of a successful foreign born technology executive who moved to Seattle to work for Amazon.com after spending more than a decade in Silicon Valley. Apprehensive and unsure of what he'd find, he is nevertheless a risk taker, admirable and somewhat naive.
   
   What I found most endearing about "Seattle Adventures" was Kalpanik's sense of humor--it's simple and yet complex, silly and yet sophisticated all at the same time! From page 1, I was drawn into his writing style. He is clear, mysterious, funny and the occasionally poetic and creates a diverse writing style.
   
   I recommend this book, it's wonderful.

5 comments about Seattle Then and Now (Then & Now).

1. This book could not have been written by a Seattle native - it simply contains too many errors and ommissions. Several items are mislabeled and the dialog for each picture is vapid.

   Additionally, it would not have been that difficult to match the "now" to the "then" photos. Many of the "now" pictures were taken at different angles and with the wrong lens.

   A good concept but poorly executed.




2. Casually thumbing through this book at a book store one glaring error exploded off page 87. Although it is captioned as being a photo of Third Avenue, it is obviously a photo of First Avenue (note the Alexis Hotel).

   Look through this book while in your dentist's waiting room, but don't use it as a resource for your junior high school history project. Instead, you should use "Seattle Now and Then" by Paul Dorpat, which is a compilation of articles written and published over many years by the Seattle Times (AISN 0961435704).




3. This is a really interesting coffee table book with great historical photographs. This book illustrates how ambitious the city & urban planners were remaking the difficult hilly terrain often interrupted with water into what is today the Seattle & the "Eastside." I disagree with the other negative reviews of this book who claim to speak from a native Seattle-ite point of view. Lets face it, the only native Seattle-ites are Norwegians & native americans. The dark nostalgic genre of illustration aptly captures Seattle's "dark" historic cultural spirit comprising "skid-road," logging, & prostitution. Today Seattle enjoys that same spirit as manifested in its rich modern culture of "depression", "non-traditional life styles", grunge and the birth place of more serial killers per capita than anywhere else. Viva Seattle !



4. This book is a nice idea, but does a pretty bad job of execution. I don't know if it's just this one in the series or the whole of them, but I wouldn't buy them. In fact I'm glad I picked it up from the library to see if it was worth getting. There problems range from outright errors, a picture of 1st avenue labeled as 3rd which is almost exactly the same as one used of first avenue. Did the book even have an editor? Other issues are less erroneous, but overall more objectionable, including 90% of the modern photos being of poor quality, bad angles not matching the originals, or just uninteresting subjects. The only good point so far as I'm concerned are the old photos themselves, which is what I'm really looking for and have to imagine exists out there somewhere.



5. Like many of the other reviewers, I found it frustrating that the descriptions lacked depth and that the "now" photos were taken from different angles entirely.
   Interesting coffee table book to flip through casually.

2 comments about Hidden Washington: Including Seattle, Puget Sound, San Juan Islands, Olympic Peninsula, Cascades and Columbia River Gorge (Hidden Travel).

1. [...] One of my computer-side companions has been Hidden Pacific NW and now Hidden Washington. I've seen a lot of the state and know Eric Lucas knows Washington, so his book is a great reference when needed. What I really like is his "hidden" finds at different places. If you want a book that portrays a true picture of what you might find in Washington and is easy to use, Lucas's book fits the bill. I would recommend it for all visitors and newcomers to the state.



2. The guide was a great reference for our recent vacation. We used it successfully to locate interesting sites as well as lodging and food by area. I recommend it to anyone as a guide to pick out how to spend limited vacation time.

5 comments about 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Seattle: Including Bellevue, Everett, and Tacoma (60 Hikes - Menasha Ridge).

1. This is one of the best books I have found for the newbie hiker in seattle. If you have a GPS it is even better as you can just the coordinates in the book to find the starting point for each hike. The Maps are great! The descriptions are great!



2. The other day I found myself in the passenger seat of my own car for an extended trip. Miles from nowhere with not much left to talk about and nothing but scratchy country music on the radio I noticed the guidebook I had received as a gift, stashed in the sidepocket and promptly forgotten. Raised on the Mountainers "100 Hikes" series, I knew guidebooks to be invaluable on the trail, but as reading material dryer than Central Oregon scree in mid-August.
   
   As I thumbed the pages of "60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Seattle," I quickly moved from bored to engaged to engrossed. This book was good! In addition to finding dozens of previously overlooked trails within a short drive of my Seattle home, I learned many new and fascinating details about the places I've been hiking for years. The trail descriptions are accurate and appropriately detailed. The navigational instruction are clear and include useful visual landmarks in addition to the usual distance cues. What's best though, is that into the brief trail write-ups Weber and Stevens manage to weave bits of local history, trivia and entertaining lore that greatly enhance the hiking experience. I even found myself reading several sections aloud to my travelling companion. Finally, the authors also understand that sometimes the best hiking tip is not the trail itself, but the location of the local frosty mug or renowned double deluxe burger at trails end!
   
   Whether you are new in town, just visiting, or a soggy Seattle native like myself, "60 Hikes" makes a great addition to your recreation library.



3. An awesome book, very detailed descriptions, good maps, elevation profiles with every trip, GPS, driving instructions. This is far better than all the mountaineers books. Go get a copy today.



4. What I like:
   
   * I love how it features hikes *within* Seattle, Kirkland and Bellevue. Many guidebooks skip hikes within the city altogether. The one you can kayak to is pretty neat! I expect that these trails will be good for the colder months, when trails in the Cascades are snowed out. I'm looking forward to using this book more and more later in the year.
   
   * The descriptions are quite thorough. The details help me visualize the hike, and this can be motivating sometimes. This has some cons though -- see below.
   
   * It has a section for nearby activities. I find that useful when planning side trips/activities.
   
   * It provides the GPS coordinates of the trailhead.
   
   
   What I don't like:
   
   * Each page has a header that is a black area with white text. On the left page it says "{hike #} 60 hikes within 60 miles" and on the right side, "Seattle including Bellevue, Everett and Tacoma". I think this space could be used better if it displayed the name of the hike and the general area instead of the same text over and over.
   
   * Key at-a-glance information is shown in a black box with small white text. This information is quite important to me when deciding which hike to do, and I would rather have it in a more readable form. Better yet, have it in a form that I can actually digest "at a glance" (!) instead of having to read the small white-on-black text. Other guidebooks show some of this information graphically, with stars or hiker icons to indicate difficulty and/or rating. At the very least, I think the font should be the same size as the descriptive text.
   
   * Driving directions and GPS coordinates are printed as black text over a light/dark gray background. Bad contrast!
   
   * The descriptive text is loooong. I appreciate that sometimes, but I it's too verbose for my taste. The font size is rather small, which for me makes reading the description even less appealing.
   
   * Whether or not dogs are allowed is also in the description text. Since I have a dog, I'd like to know this immediately, so again, I think it should be displayed more prominently.
   
   * It would be nice if it had a topographical map for the longer trails. I find it hard to reconstruct the lie of the land from the map and the elevation graph, especially since the map doesn't have mile markers along the representation of the hike's trail. [Yes, I have my own topo map of the entire area, but a small one that I can carry with the trail description is convenient as a adjunct to a larger map.]
   
   
   All things considered, I have mixed feelings about this book. It has good content, but I think there are better ones out there. Call me superficial, but I'm a weekend hiker, and the difference between an engaging/beautiful versus so-so/mediocre presentation can have a big effect on my enthusiasm for a particular hike :)



5. The structure and organization of this books is really stunning and authors haven't left anything to complain about. This is one of very few books which has complete elevation profile for each hike instead of just elevation gain. The hiking maps are actually useful and well marked with all points of interests. Best of all, each hike contains GPS coordinates which I'm so pleased to have because wordy descriptions just doesn't cut it all the time. The descriptions long but actually useful instead like in other books where authors love to write them in painful and poor artistic styles. Each hike contains small B&W low quality photo which are usually OK and not always represents the best view from the trail. I also own 55 Hikes Around Snoqualmie Pass: Mountains to Sound Greenway (100 Hikes In...) and given choice between two I will prefer this one because of its superb structure and organization plus modern details such as GPS coordinates.
   
   I think this book should be template for all other hiking guidebooks out there.

2 comments about Seattle.

1. Most city photo books are for tourists, awards or perhaps libraries. They usually don't give you a sense of the people and emotions of the city just some photos of landmarks. Joel Roger's book is different because he knows Seattle so well and he is a great photojournalist. His book left me happy I live here and reminded me of many sweet and breathtaking moments. It is the perfect book to hand to my house guests when they arrive asking, "What should we do?"



2. Having lived for many years in Seattle and the Northwest, I was eager to read this book. I am pleased to say that this book truly captures the essence of Seattle and is filled with wonderful text and photography.
   Kudos to Mr. Rogers for a lovely and sensitively written book.

1 comments about Good Night Seattle (Good Night Our World series).

1. This series of books is great. When I learned they had different cities I bought a bunch, including the Seattle one for my best friend's two boys. I also got them the Good Night Philadelphia book since both mom and dad grew up in the Philly area. What a great way to introduce Geography to kids!