5 comments about Watch It Made in the U.S.A.: A Visitor's Guide to the Best Factory Tours and Company Museums (Watch It Made in the USA).

1. Great book, I did not know that a book like this existed. Will definitly come in handy when planning trips. Checked information on places we have already been and information was accurate.



2. This is my first review in Amazon.
   
   I am always curious about how things are made,
   and after watching many episodes of "How do they do it",
   and "How it's made" on discovery Channel.
   I started to look for extra resources for a better understanding on these "behind the scenes" mysteries.
   Then, I found this book.
   And this book is a real treasure!
   The book is well organized,
   It provides many detail information about the factory tours,
   and the brief background of the companies.
   
   Thanks to this book,
   now I have some itineraries in mind.
   I plan to visit KitchenAid's factory in the near future for my mom.
   (My family is in Taiwan)
   She is a big fan of KitchenAid mixer. ha.
   I will also visit Airstream company as well,
   Owning a travel trailer is my dream, and I want to know how it is made,
   And I will be more determined to realize this dream!
   Maybe one day I will write a similar book "Watch it made in Taiwan" in a mobile trailer office. Who knows?!



3. This is an excellent book for anyone who is interested in things made in the USA. It gives a nice description of the facilities, locations, tour times, cost and lengths, age appropriateness, and phone numbers.
   We like to travel the country and will use the information to plan our trips. The book is well organized and very helpful.



4. My wife and I love to go on factory tours and visit company museums when we travel. It's corny, I know, but fun. This book gives wonderful examples of some of the best tours and museums around. Whenever we're going on a road trip, we always consult Watch It Made in the U.S.A.: A Visitor's Guide to the Best Factory Tours and Company Museums (Watch It Made in the USA) to help us decide where we might like to go. I would very much recommend it for families with young kids who might enjoy such tours, and probably retirees who have the time and interest for them, as well.



5. I'm planning to take my two teenagers cross country this summer and this is a GREAT book for finding interesting places to show them. It has excellent maps, clear directions, and well-written descriptions of what you will (and won't) see so I can figure out what sites will best entertain the different family members. I only wish we had time to see more of the places they describe. It even tells you what other nearby attractions there are. Kudos to the authors!

5 comments about From Kitchen to Market: Selling Your Gourmet Food Specialty (Sell Your Specialty Food: Market, Distribute & Profit from Your Kitchen Creation).

1. This book was recommended in a class at the local community college on starting a food business. There are
   excellent examples of various business models and lots of referrals to other helpful web sites. If you have a
   specialty food product you're making in your kitchen and you dream of selling it, this book is perfect.



2. My biggest questions are: What are the laws about the sale of food from the kitchen? Is a health inspection of the kitchen necessary? Where would I find this information for the state in which I live?
   
   This book does not cover any of the information that I think is necessary. I enjoy preparing food and giving it away in pretty containers. I was hoping I could sell some of my gorgeous and delicious gifts with little overhead. According to the author, one should plan on laying out a rather large investment for this type of business.
   
   FROM KITCHEN TO MARKET contains many details but omits the basic information required to get started.



3. This is a good book, but not exactly what I was expecting. As a Small Business Consultant, I was asked to teach a class on marketing your food product for a local food incubator, which is beginning level. This is great if you want to have your mustard in a national chain, your tea or coffee on grocery store shelves, or the like. What I thought it would help with was entry level marketing to get your food into local stores, selling on the internet, and getting into a trade show. It did give guidance to higher levels of the same thing, and was very professionally done, just a bit above what I was expecting. If you already have an established product and do large scale production, this is a great book for you. For beginners, it doesn't really take it right out of the kitchen...its sort of a couple notches past that.
   
   Excellent author and wonderful expertise though. Definitely a keeper for my personal library.



4. Stephen Hall's book is a honest guide for aspiring food manufacturers who are new to the specialty food industry, and most importantly, who have limited funds to sustain a long-term marketing effort. Though he does discuss various important aspects of the industry as a whole, his emphasis is on marketing.
   
   He uses real-world examples of entrepreneurs that have either succeeded or failed in bringing their product(s) to market and in some cases due to being under-capitalised or not being prepared to handle the demand for their products once they had become successful. Make no mistake, Mr. Hall in no way sugarcoats the process. In fact, in the chapter where he discusses start-up costs, he stresses the importance of an independent source of income to successfully start your business, especially for the first 3-5 years. But this a positive rather than a negative point, because it encourages you to be realistic and to prepare for success rather than set yourself up for failure.
   
   His intention is to inform and he does so clearly by using flowcharts and explaining indepth the various aspects of the specialty food market. He covers important issues such as defining the best U.S. territories for your product; researching the markets; developing and positioning your product; government regulations (a list of the relevant agencies for each process of the business is provided); packaging, labeling, pricing, warehousing and shipping your product; principles for marketing success; promoting, publicizing and advertising; finding buyers; arranging deals; finding copackers, and much more.
   
   There is a lot of valuable information to process and I found myself reading the book a second time (and most likely will do so a third time as a refresher). I highly recommend this book as a good foundation and to get you started in the right direction.



5. I was looking for help getting my product sold locally, and this was no help. After all the money I have spent trying to get my product sold, I wish I had the money I spent on this book back.

4 comments about Appalachian Trail Data Book 2008 (Appalachian Trail Data Book).

1. The Appalachian Trail Data Book, updated annually, has proven time and time again to be the indispensable Guidebook for those contemplating spending any length of time hiking on the A.T. Among thru-hikers, (those attempting to hike the entire Trail in one continuous journey) the book's usage approaches 100%. This is excellent testament to the worth of this little volume, and it's easy to see why the book carries the imprint of the Appalachian Trail Conference, the organization charged with the care, protection, and maintenance of the Trail.

   In an easy-to-read format, the Data Book contains everything the hiker needs to know in order to plan their day's travels, and in order to know what lies ahead of them. It'll tell you where shelters and established campsites are located; where principal water sources can be found; where road crossings and towns are located; and where primary stores, re-supply sources, and lodging places are located. Other works, most notably the Applachian Trail Thru-Hikers' Companion, will provide more detailed information on these matters, but it is the Data Book that is the work used most frequently on a day-to-day basis by those actually hiking the Trail. Also, the fact that editor Daniel Chazin meticulously updates and fact-checks the book each year in order to take into account changes on the Trail, ensures the hiker that this is the most accurate work of its sort on the market.

   A key addition and improvement to this year's edition is keying and matching of sections of the Data Book to the official A.T. maps, i.e., the ones used by most hikers. This makes it much easier for the hiker to locate their actual position on the Trail; also, as always, the book's mileage tables are printed in order to facilitate simple reading by both Northbound AND Southbound hikers, so it can be used by everyone, regardless of the direction of their hike.

   In short, if you're going to spend any serious ammount of time on the Trail, this little book will prove to be incredibly useful to you, tho one may well wish to purchase other works with "expanded" information. One should, of course, also use the best maps available, regardless of the length of your intended trip. But if you bring ONE guidebook with you on your trip, bring this one.

   In a few weeks, I'll be leaving to hike, for the seventh time, the Trail in its entirety. I would not think of setting out without a copy of the 2002 A.T. Data Book, and neither should anyone else.




2. I've been collecting these books since I hiked the trail in 2000, and this edition is every bit as useful as the others. It's small and lightweight, which means you should carry it with you the whole way. When I went thru, I only carried the pages I needed ripped out of the book to save a little weight - and now I regret that I did. You should carry the whole book, mark your mileage in the margins and whitespace, where you meet people, etc. It'll be a great memento after you're done.
   
   The one suggestion I would have to the designers is to leave a little more margin room for writing.
   
   The picture on the cover of this 30th edition is also one of the best in recent years. It's a picture of Whitetop Mountain in Virgina - covered in snow.
   
   Good luck to anyone going thru this year!
   
   -Bullfrog GA-ME 2000



3. My daughter started hiking the Appalachian Trail on 3/16/08 and as a mother I was extremely worried about her hiking 2175 miles with just her dogs. But with this book, I realize what an amazing journey it will be for her. She has made an amazing number of friends along the way. I feel more secure in knowing that there are well-spaced shelters along the entire trail and help readily available if necessary.



4. On my 2008 thru-hike attempt of the Trail (I had to go home because of my knees) I bought both the Data Book and the Thru-Hikers' Companion. I wound up taking the Companion with me and leaving the Data Book at home. There wasn't much of anything in the Data Book that wasn't in the Companion, and the latter had much more detailed and useful information.
   
   When I do it again I'll take the Companion along with the extremely detailed section guidebooks for each section, which would have helped me out in a few circumstances this time around.

5 comments about Not for Tourists 2008 Guide to New York City (Not for Tourists: New York City).

1. I was just looking for something different than what this offers. The print is miniscule so you either have to have superman vision or be under 21 to easily read it. (Unless you carry a magnifying glass around NY with you...along with your umbrella, metro card, one dollar bills, cap, water bottle, room key, ID, garmin, cell phone, etc.) It has thousands of listings; mostly of places I wasn't looking for. It IS small and manageable. Something to read on the subway.



2. What I love about this book is the compact size and relatively comprehensive information provided, given the small size. What I don't like is the teeny little font that my middle-aged eyeballs cannot see, but I am perfectly willing to pull out the reading glasses and/or magnifier to compensate.



3. I just moved to the city and have found this book to be a life saver! Because it's so small, I can always keep it in my purse and with the small neighborhood maps, I can keep it in there and read it on the subway without anybody knowing (because really, who has Not for Tourists but tourists??). Like some reviews have said, the index is a littel lacking, but if you use it like I do, you get to know where things are pretty quickly in the handy little black book! I would recomment it to anybody!



4. I carry this book with me always - to know where to find a store, or restaurant or subway stop when I'm in an unfamiliar part of town - priceless.



5. I bought this book along with the Frommer's 2008 guide for my first visit to NYC. Although I loved the included subway map and the way the book is organized, I didn't find it as helpful as a stand-alone book. I relied more on the Frommer's as a first-time visitor. I would recommend getting this book, but not for a first-time visitor. I am using it to plan my next trip to the city, though!

5 comments about Hawaii The Big Island Trailblazer: Where to hike, snorkel, surf, bike, drive.

1. YOU WILL LOVE THIS BOOK. We have traveled to the big island many times, but still have not discovered or seen everything. This book reaches beyond of the general guide books and one of the other more popular reads about the island. Great for those who are into hiking and especailly for driving tours. Snorkelers will like some of the off the beaten path places to go.



2. Great book, I bought it after having figured out which islands to visit using the book by the same authors, no worries Hawaii, which is a must buy if you don't know where to go and what you want to do. Following input from the first book we picked 1 day Honlolu, 5 days big Island and 9 days Kauai.
   The big island trailblazer is unique in that the information on trailheads and how to find them is really really accurate, if you have to follow a dirt road for 2 miles and then stop next to a hidden bridge then that information is there. You rarely spend hours searching for stuff, the detail on where to look for something once you get to the end of the trail is less good, but that is because in the islands appear not to go in for signposts in a big way, so we were often looking at something and wondering whether or not this is it. Best ofs were generally good, didn't understand focus on Hilo, we went there on a Sunday and it felt like a run down sad little town, but maybe on a weekday there is a different vibe. The only negative is that restaurants mentioned a little more information on them to help you chose would help unless you like the sticky table-top ketchup bottle and drip coffee atmosphere and generic grub, this is fine if it is what you want, but you don't need a guidebook to discover such places, of course to be fair the book doesn't target the foodie population nevertheless a little more selectivity would help though or just a little more text on the restaurants. From personal experience if you are staying in Kapaa on Big Island try the restaurant Rapanui, a small hole in the wall joint run by a saturnine chef from New Zealand and his partner, its location is not attractive (in a mall when you enter Kapaa on the coastal road from the north on the left after the bend in the first mall), and it is BYOB but the food is really, really well cooked, from a European stand point, fresh, flavourful, beef melts in your mouth, rice/coconut nuttily satisfying, great, cooked but crunchy veggies, freshly made sauces, not a bottle or deep fryer in sight. Another great place to eat is Jays on the road towards southpoint, before the turn-off to Puuhoonuau (I forget the spelling) national park, two step snorkeling and the painted church from Kappaa, it is described in the guidebook, really spectacular and don't be put off by the appearance of the kitchen/living area. Oh and for sandwiches, a satisfying stop is Choicemart on the Highway 19 approximately in the area of the Manago Hotel, Choicemart is on the left, there is a great Vegan Cafe next to Choicemart and the sandwiches sold there and in Choicemart are spectacular. The locals recommend Choicemarts plate lunch especially on Lau Lau Friday. We tried to get it on Sat and it was all sold out. And the snorkeling at two step was the best we had on the island. Ok after all that digressing: if it is culture/food you are after then you need an additional book or to do some food research ahead of time online, for hiking, biking, walking and general reliable information then the trailblazer is a great book. Another option is to get the No worries Hawaii that has almost all information on all islands best ofs etc and then supplement that with a more foodie cultural guide for the islands depending on what you want. We did this for Kauai, although Fodors Kauai while better on culture etc really did badly for hiking and trails and was way less reliable than the Sprouts books.



3. Two years ago we took a cruise around the Hawaiian Islands. Unfortunately we were in port too short a time and only went on a few packaged bus tours. We returned to the island we liked the best (the Big Island) last month and fortunately had the Trailblazer along as our prime guide. We hiked to and swam in the Blue Lagoon which is on the cover: the highpoint of our vacation.
   
   In the back of the book are hotel and restaurant suggestions from which we made our reservations and were quite pleased. For accuracy and good practical advice it's right on target.



4. This guide gave our vacation itinerary a real boost. It has wonderful timeless images of places and people which simply exude calm, chill, beach culture latitude attitudes.
   
   Photography is top notch and the information is partioned into sections so you can chew off each piece to explore at your leisure depending on how much time you've allowed for your vacation. Trailblazers do it good.



5. A special hotel/flight deal came up on Expedia that we couldn't pass up. We saw all of the Big Island in 7 days with this Trailblazer guide leading us from amazing site, to awesome stretches of beach and way up to the top of Mauna Kea. We liked the good driving directions following the highway milepost markers. Their freebie tips and Best Of lists were also appreciated.
   
   I'd say if you're flying this far, adding a handy guide like this to show you around is a slamdunk.
   
   Amazon carries it for the lowest price and it only took 3 days to reach us.

5 comments about 101 Things You Never Knew About Walt Disney World: An Unauthorized Look at Tributes, Little Touches, And Inside Jokes.

1. I should have known from the cover of this book that there was trouble in River City. Trouble with a capital T that rhymes with B that stands for "bored now." There was literally not a single thing in this book that I hadn't heard/read/learned somewhere else. I suppose if you had absolutely positively never in your life been to Disney or read anything at all about the park, you might be interested... then again, probably not. It's positively insulting to Disney fans that the author tries to pass off what amounts to information readily available in a thousand other places as his own work.



2. This is a great book for any one who is interested in the details of Disney World. There is a lot of information is this book that is revealed to you on the "backstage" tours at the parks, but with the book, it's easier to remember all the stuff you learned!



3. Excellent book. It had lots of interesting facts. I would recommend it to anyone interested in Walt Disney World.



4. I found that I know about 95 of the 101 things in this book and the stuff I did not know was not that interesting. The book, in my opinion, is poorly written. Some sentences did not even make sense to me and they did not gel into a good paragraph. It was a jagged read and I would not recommend it for Disneyphiles that already know the "common" secrets of WDW. My family is part of the Disney Vacation Club, and we have visited WDW at least 2x every year for the past 20 years, just to give you my background!



5. Very superficial information, not useful for serious reading or research. It almost seems like the author spent more time finding out 101 things to write about just to justify the title, rather than concentrating on in-depth analysis of noteworthy curious.

5 comments about Alaska Atlas and Gazetteer (Alaska Atlas & Gazetteer).

1. Other than the fact that the scale is way to small at 1:250,000 this is a valuable resource that is very useful. I carry one of these for every location that I go.
   Go idea to tape the pages because the stable binding falls apart with use



2. We have used our first copy until it is ragged. Because we travel a lot within our state of Alaska, this is a perfect resource to have in the house. A must for tourists expecting to travel in our state.



3. This Atlas & Gazetteer is excellent. It is highly usable and the right scale for my use.
   
   I have used this product in two trips to Alaska. One was by cruise ship up the Inside Passage. It helped me understand the elevations and contours of the land we went through and explored.
   
   Our second trip was by road up the Alcan Highway. Again this product was helpful and educational. The retreat of glaciers are distinct compared to the date the map section dates. Combining this with our GPS made our trip much more interesting.
   
   Anyone driving to Alaska is well advised to buy this product.



4. the map has every detail that we need for planning a trip to Alasks. With this map, you don't need the 1x1 USGS map. However, this map book is kind of too big to carry on a light hiking.



5. If you need to locate a remote village or river anywhere in Alaska this will do it. Great detail, clear and well organized to find places quickly. To big for travel but great for the office.

5 comments about Frommer's Best RV and Tent Campgrounds in the U.S.A. (Frommer's Best Rv & Tent Campgrounds in the USA).

1. Haven't had a chance to use it to find any campground yet, but the information is very well organized, easy to navigate.



2. This is a very large book with tons of campsites listed. However, the list mostly consists of state and national parks. Anyone could find these parks without this book. I recommend that if you are looking for good camp spots look somewhere else as this book is not a very comprehensive list. Crap meant to put it as one star......sorry guys



3. This is a great book and well worth the money. It's bulky because it's the size of a telephone directory for a large city. It tells you everything you want to know about the parks and rates them.
   There is a downside. I noticed that a lot of state parks were missing. In the keys, the best parks were omitted, and some of the ones mentioned have been closed for years. For that reason, I couldn't give it a five start rating.



4. I have several books on camping; this by far is the most helpful.Detailed information on everything from bugs to how to get there. If you are going to have one book on camping site information I would highly recommend this one.



5. This manual is an informative manual as long as you don't live in Florida. As a Boy Scout I camped all over the state of Florida and now as a parent of a daughter I must find camping spots that are public such as State or National Parks, I purchase this book in hopes of finding the best places to go in my state. Unfortunately the information for Florida is severly lacking. The cool feature of telling you exactly which site in the campground is the best site... missing. Now if you live in other states they do seem to tell you where is the best site so the best advice I can give is get this book from the library look at a few sites in yoru state and if the details are there, buy it or if you happen to have lots of money and or time to travel get it anyway.

5 comments about Maui Trailblazer: Where to Hike, Snorkel, Paddle, Surf, Drive.

1. We decided to visit two islands because we had heard how different they were: Maui and the Big Island. We chose the trailblazer books to guide us since they were both crammed with incredibly helpful information. For hikers and snorkelers and sightseers they are a gold mine. They are written in clear language and the outings are well arranged with accompanying maps.
   
   The tips for getting out to Hana were treasure trove status and put us out in front of the chain of cars we saw heading out at 2pm. Leaving at 7:30 am before the tour buses made all the difference. We could have used another few days on Maui and regret taking only one hike down into the crater. We plan another visit in 2009 and our first order of business will be watching the sunrise on Haleakala and taking a helicopter tour.
   
   Thanks Trailblazers for sharing and demystifying wowie Maui.



2. Where this one shines: compact and to the point, definitely our style. It covers all of the island and the hikes they list inside Haleakala Crater and near Hana were terrific. Bring your binoculars for the whale and windsurfer action. We had several guides with us, but the most consistent useful information came from this one.
   
   Friends asked us how we saw and experienced so much in just a week and we attribute it to doing our homework first - mapping it all out with the Trailblazer.



3. The places we did get to check out were awesome. I know we wouldn't have found the "aquarium" without this book and that was our favorite snorkel spot. I wish we had more time in maui to explore.



4. The book scales the island down in a very nice way and is easy to follow. Heed their water safety and driving with "aloha" tips. Squirts out all the best things to do and made our daily itinerary decisions slamdunks.
   
   Take it with you on the road. I strongly recommend seeing the Hana Highway in a convertible. Our twisty ride out there in the early morning was awesome.



5. Two books that I'd like to recommend if you're headed Maui way for the first time: Maui Trailblazer and No Worries Hawaii. Both helped us scale down our vacation expenses. We arrived knowing exactly where we wanted to go and never had to resort to organized tours. Budget hotels and restaurants are listed.
   
   Guided around by following the highway milepost markers was brilliant and we never missed a turnoff. They also tipped us off to not leaving anything on our car seats and not parking where we saw broken windshield glass. The Keanae Arboretum (free) and Twin Falls (free) were two favorite stops. There's a nominal entrance fee at the Maui Swap Meet but it is also a must do.
   
   These are not your typical guidebooks. The graphics are clean and the information is easy to get to. There are tons of photos. If you like to travel independently, even if you're not on a budget, I recommend these popular books.

5 comments about More Readings From One Man's Wilderness: The Journals of Richard L. Proenneke, 1974-1980.

1. 
   
   Superb Book !!! I agree this book is one of the best books on Richard L. Proenneke life - A+



2. I stumbled across this amazing man (Dick Preonneke) by seeing 'One Man's Wilderness' on PBS. I immediately purchased the DVD (and The Frozen North and Alaska Silence and Solitude by Bob Swerer Productions). After a stressful day there is just something so relaxing about dreaming of simpler times. Yeah, it is hard work but you actually 'see' the results of your labor. That is much different than most jobs today. The only thing better than watching the DVD was reading Dick's personal journals. Wow, to be able to read how Dick overcame living at Twin Lakes is just a powerful story. My only disappointment is not knowing if the NPS will release his final journals. Do yourself a favor and read One Man's Wilderness and More Readings from One Man's Wilderness.



3. We are thrilled with this product! The service has also been wonderful. Thank you!!!!



4. I have not yet finished this book/journal but find myself trying to read a few pages daily. RLP (Richard L. Proenneke) took time from his daily chores to write thousands of pages, documenting his life in the Alaskan wilderness.I escape the daily grind of my 9 to 5 by living out in the wilderness with RLP. So far I have climbed mountains,made friends with various animals,hiked in sub zero temps,sewn buttons on and patched worn clothing,cleaned campsite liter left by hunters, and on and on I could go all done thanks to RLP sharing his life with me through his writings. I highly recommend this book to anyone who ever dreams of escaping into a less hectic life. Thanks RLP !!!



5. Richard Proenneke's journals from 1974 - 1980 detail everyday life at Twin Lakes Alaska. From the daily adventures of hiking and filming wildlife to the more mundane chores of chopping firewood, and making sourdough pancakes, Dick reveals his everyday life in the wilderness. Dick's prose is surprisingly easy to read for a daily journal, and entertaining. He easily transports the reader to the wilderness, and all its beauty, danger, and tranquility. A more sanguine aspect as the journal unfolds is the eventual encroachment by Man, stayed somewhat by the National Park status of the region. Dick's writings are unassuming, and yet very powerful in their simplicity, and the pictures they paint. A rare man, that I wish I could have met. I highly recommend this book for those that love the outdoors, and seek a captivating story of rugged, yet humble individualism.