5 comments about Lonely Planet Australia.

1. On my recent trip to Australia, I only visited the typical big American tourist spots: Sydney, Melbourne and Cairns (Great Barrier Reef). This book had great information about where to stay, what to do, and great places to eat.
   
   LP Australia provides lots of background and history for each city as well as information about what's been going on. It's almost like having your own personal tour guide. (Of course, when I was there this last December, they were having race riots at the beaches - so I avoided those.)
   
   The only draw back is I think that the maps could have been a bit more clear as sometimes it was difficult to see where a hotel, site or food establishment was.
   
   All on all, a great book. It came in very handy on my two week trip.



2. I started to use Lonely Planet 15 years ago. I can say that I am a witness of how much quality deteriorite it has been. I used to just buy it by default. It was a Bible for me. But, a BIG but, this Lonely Planet Australia set a new lowest standard for the series.
   
   First of all, it had so old information. The hostels listed in the book in Sydeny probably were closed more than 5 years ago. One hostel in bondi beach that I wanted to go that was listed in the book. When I showed up in the hotel address, there was a internet café and pub. No hostel at all.
   
   Second. The most unbelieveable of all, the book I have, which is 2004 version, has no mention at all about the Olympic Village in Sydeny. Oh my God! Sydney Olympic was in 2000. Can you believe that after 4 years, they still didn't update it? I was reading it again and again, before I throw this book away to trash can, I still didn't belive that they can omit all the information about Olympic, like the village, the boat to go there, like the stadium... they pretend that there is no such a thing!
   
   I know that Lonely Plante started many years ago in Australia, by some Australian backpackers. So it is a REAL shame that Lonely Planet Australia is so bad. If there is negative score, I will give that. As one star is minimum, I have to give that. But my true belief is that this book deserves negative 5 stars!!!



3. I started to use Lonely Planet 15 years ago. I can say that I am a witness of how much quality deteriorite it has been. I used to just buy it by default. It was a Bible for me. But, a BIG but, this Lonely Planet Australia set a new lowest standard for the series.
   
   First of all, it had so old information. The hostels listed in the book in Sydeny probably were closed more than 5 years ago. One hostel in bondi beach that I wanted to go that was listed in the book. When I showed up in the hotel address, there was a internet café and pub. No hostel at all.
   
   Second. The most unbelieveable of all, the book I have, which is 2004 version, has no mention at all about the Olympic Village in Sydeny. Oh my God! Sydney Olympic was in 2000. Can you believe that after 4 years, they still didn't update it? I was reading it again and again, before I throw this book away to trash can, I still didn't belive that they can omit all the information about Olympic, like the village, the boat to go there, like the stadium... they pretend that there is no such a thing!
   
   I know that Lonely Plante started many years ago in Australia, by some Australian backpackers. So it is a REAL shame that Lonely Planet Australia is so bad. If there is negative score, I will give that. As one star is minimum, I have to give that. But my true belief is that this book deserves negative 5 stars!!!



4. This was a gift and hoping it would arrive in time but no problems there.



5. I have lots of guidebooks - and lots of Lonely Planets, for that matter. But despite the fact that they say they are for "independent travellers", I keep finding ridiculous reviews on restaurants and hotels, to the point where I've stopped using them.
   
   The History, Snapshot, and similar sections are great, but if you have a brain of your own - use it. Forget their restaurant and hotel recommendations, as I'm not even sure they visit the places. Sometimes they have history or comments on places that is worthwhile to read, though. All tourbooks may have these drawbacks, to be fair.
   
   Finally, I think I'm going to stop buying Lonely Planet's, though. First, they always act like driving is so scary everywhere, when it's actually quite easy to anyone with a brain. They also forget to give worthwhile tips on getting a car, etc. I imagine that this is their way of "saving the Earth". To a person who does care about the Earth, but doesn't believe that being a dirty hippie is going to save anything, this - and all their other BS trying to coerce their opinions onto you as fact - gets really freakin' old. Yes, yes, I know, LP is founded by some hippie freak from AUS or something - whooptie doo. That doesn't mean I have to pay some jerk who's going to push his politics on me, whether I agree with them or not.

No comments about More than Petticoats: Remarkable Virginia Women (More than Petticoats Series).

1 comments about Watching Nature: A Mid-Atlantic Natural History.

1. This book really made the mid-Atlantic region come to life for me! I wanted to grab a day pack and head out for a day hike. I'm sure that any serious nature lover would really enjoy this book.

No comments about Visit to Small Universe (Masters of Modern Physics).

5 comments about The Voyage Out (Dover Value Editions).

1. Rachel Vinrace, a young woman not quite acquainted with the ways of the world, accompanies her aunt and uncle (the Ambroses) to South America, where she eventually falls in love with a young aspiring writer. Swirling around this tale of doomed love are the many other characters who all influence each other and are themselves influenced. Most of the novel is about Rachel, but Helen Ambrose is equally central to the story, as a comparison to her niece and in her own internal voyage. Chronicling the inner lives of her characters, Woolf, in her first novel, explores the awakening of first love, the influences of men (and the culture they have control over) upon women, the confusions we as human beings have in our daily communications with others. Originally entitled "Melymbrosia", "The Voyage Out" went through many revisions as Woolf claimed language for her own uses and effectively began a new literature (for her time), where the internal life and the interconnectedness of humanity are the central themes.



2. This novel is not necessarily the best overall story that I have read in terms of style and content. The plot follows a simplistic, sequential pattern and the supposed climax is not as surprising as it is portrayed to be. Luckily, this is not the reason to read this novel. The Voyage Out is in no way the greatest novel ever written, but the ideas that it represents and the thought that it provokes on topics ranging from imperialism to gender roles in society to love among intellectuals is more than worth the read.
   
   We first meet Rachel aboard her father's ship and from the first conversation we are privey to, it is obvious that she is not an ordinary woman. She in no way realistically approaches her proper place in London Society and of course it is through Woolf's feminist viewpoint that we discover how much more of a human being Rachel can become by not following those patterns. In fact, we are introduced to many women throughout the novel, all ranging in their places from aristocratic wife to single author to inexperienced flirt to old widow and all that is in between. Woolf never truly tells which she prefers, but the reader is given an in depth look into the advantages of each lifestyle.
   
   The men on the other hand are portrayed most basically as heartless, unpitying, logical beings, or in other words, the common man of that time, the common educated man of the time that is. Though each man has his own story, it is only Hewet, the one man who in hindsight acts as a woman, who is able to win the heart of Rachel and in fairness, fall madly in love with also. It is also shown in the end of the novel how there is a certain strength in men, a strength that can be both good and bad. The reader is surprised how some of the men handle disaster while they are dissapointed with how others could be so uncaring.
   
   The character sketches set forth in this book are nothing short of spectacular in everything they represent. I consider myself well read and it is this book that I would say most accurately portrays the idea of falling in love. It is not love at first sight, nor is it a burning passion that cannot be quenched. Instead, it is two ordinary, if not so unonrdianary, people who realize that their lives just might not be the same without each other in it. There are no fireworks, there need be none and as the book is being read, a strange joy begins to creep up inside of one. Then again, all joy is not meant to last forever and I must admit that the lasting impressions is one of depression, not joy. This is not necessarily a bad thing though. Somehow, Woolf is able to show us through a seemingly random cast of 19th century characters that the world today has perhaps not changed as much as we would like to believe and it is that timelessness that makes this novel more than worth the small time it takes to read it



3. I bought this book because I must own all by Woolf, as a matter of need rather than want--or so I feel. Although I'm able to recognize the shortcomings (far less than my own) that inevitably accompany experimental, modernist work, my opinion of her genius is curiously immune to these objective observations. She is like my literary mother, so I was chastised never to have known this novel existed until I began reading it.
   
   As far as form and structure go, I feel Woolf tries too hard to be conventional: she can't ever quite fit into it properly, and you realize why it took her so long to complete the book. As always, however, she is a master of the character, something I didn't realize until the end, where every character is felt so strongly that I almost cried. I know.
   
   However awkward the overall construction may be, and however much it may drag, you feel the beginnings of her future craft. The climax is it, where she finally catches the pace and throws you mercilessly against the ridiculously shallow aspect of everyday life. And the arbitrary but crushing beauty of love. I dreamt about it for days afterward.



4. For me, after having read Mrs. Dalloway, I quite loathed Virginia Woolf and her experimental style, which defied all styles. This novel was not easy to get through, though much more manageable than her later works because it mimics an actual novel style, rather than her signature, stream of conscious. Then again, I have yet to fully realize this first woeful tale.
   
   To be honest, the only reason I bothered with this first venture of Woolf's was by design rather than my choice. A friend and I decided to form our own book club, and her favorite, of course, was Woolf, and thus, I was committed.
   
   Meet Rachel Vinrace, a twenty-four year old young woman, adrift and impressionable, considered very 'unformed' and vague by those around her. Under the care of her aunt and uncle, Ridley and Helen Ambrose, she journeys across the ocean from England to a resort town in South America, and thrust into a world of humanity and emotion, nature and variegated personalities that are at once overwhelming and instructive. Her birth of understanding, both strange and exciting experiences, Rachel begins to conceive and formulate herself through a series of experimental interactions with her relatives, especially Helen, as well as through colorful, if not seemingly stolid characters from the nearby hotel. Unshaped perceptions leave her breathless yet wiser, and barely does she scrape the surface of life, before it and she are extinguished.
   
   This is a haunting, romantically tragic tale of something gained and then fleetingly, it is all lost, leaving everything, and everyone in turmoil and yet, continuing on. At first, the story is incoherent, boring, at times scattered and frustrating to read. Characters and events which seemed, at first, to have no purpose, at times appearing to be trivial, begin to take shape and form. All these intricately woven pieces which become the very basis in which Rachel can experience her world, the real world and herself. These descriptions of other British people in a remote exotic port is a contrast to Rachel's own growing sense of awareness and independence.
   
   A few chapters are painfully aware and poignant and wonderful, heady and traumatic in its sharp intuitive vocalization of human emotions and realization of defects in human nature itself. And all against the beautiful backdrop of a South America that I, as a reader, have never experienced. You will ask yourself for the first whole half, What Is The Point? And then, like a train wreck, it's there, hitting you in the face, as Woolf weaves people and experiences, emotions and underlying tones of social mores and scripted human behaviors, all of which presses upon every character like a net, and ensnares the reader. It is layer upon layer and easy to miss the subtle influence and connections that Woolf effortlessly weaves and throws right before your eyes. Call it genius or magic, you will be astounded, or numbed. And if you're careful enough, you'll glimpse what Woolf was trying to say.
   
   I for one am still reeling from the sensory onslaught, her words like water over rocks and I have to admit, I loved this book, and I was utterly perplexed by it. It is, like most rare and profound stories, an emotional voyage, filled with symbols and allusions, and something which leaves THAT something inside you, burrowing and forever embedded in your very thoughts. I want to read it again, mark the pages and remember those eerie descriptions of human frailty and human experiences rendered in such a way to leave me breathless and engrossed. It's safe to say, that I am quite taken and can't wait to read the next Woolf story. So read on, good reader, read on, if you dare.



5. First published in 1915, The Voyage Out is Virginia Woolf's first novel. It begins as Mr. and Mrs. Ambrose embark on a sea voyage for South America. Throughout their voyage and once they reach land there are many characters that float in and out of the text. Indeed, one is not sure who the main characters are until halfway through the novel. Clarissa and Richard Dalloway, the main characters of Woolf's later novel Mrs. Dalloway, even make an appearance.
   
   Once reaching land, Mrs. Ambrose along with her niece, Rachel, explore the environs and make friends with other tourists-notably with two young men, Hewet and Hirst. Here these four friends form several intertwining and interesting relationships that guide us through the rest of the story.
   
   Woolf's style is striking in the almost exclusive use of dialog interspersed with short, vivid descriptions of the characters' inner thoughts. Through this innovative style she is able to communicate, among many other things, a candid and realistic portrayal of the act of falling in love and all emotions that come along with it-heartbreak and loss, desire and contentment, longing and questioning, quiet happiness and quiet despair.
   
   Several interesting details in the novel will strike the modern reader, such as the almost total absence of interaction with the natives. Geographically, the location is supposed to be near the Amazon river system, but Woolf has imagined an Amazon where the natives speak a mix of Spanish and French, the mountains rise majestically out of the sea, and one lights the fire after dinner. While Woolf can easily be criticized for neglecting to research the technical details and for writing only about the upper classes and their manias, to dwell on these issues would be entirely beside the point. E. M. Forster put it best when he described The Voyage Out as "...a strange, tragic, inspired book whose scene is a South America not found on any map and reached by a boat which would not float on any sea, an America whose spiritual boundaries touch Xanadu and Atlantis." ('The Novels of Virginia Woolf', New Criterion, April 1926, 277.)
   
   On a personal note, I'd like to say that my only previous experience with Woolf was reading Mrs. Dalloway for a class in college. Perhaps one must grow into reading Woolf, because I admit I remember almost nothing of this book except that it was boring and depressing. I picked up The Voyage Out expecting much of the same, but how wrong I was! This book is beautiful, one that you will remember long after you read it. I recommend it highly-but not too highly, as making your own discovery of its worth is part of the charm.

No comments about Visitors to Monticello.

4 comments about Albemarle: A Story of Landscape and American Identity.

1. This is a fabulous book for anyone who lives in, has ever visited, or has ever even thought of visiting Albemarle County, V.A. The history is extremely well written, and the photographs are out-of-this-world beautiful! I highly recommend it!



2. Don't be deceived by the physical dimensions of Albemarle and beautiful photos it contains. This is more than just a coffee table book, thanks to Wingtips author Avery Chenoweth's elevating prose. The book will manage to trigger the sensory memories of anyone who has ever spent any time Charlottesville.



3. As a teenager, I spent years wandering around the Albemarle County countryside. Not literally wandering for the whole year, but a still lot of time in all seasons. More than 10 years later I've still yet to see everything, as Albemarle is rather like a small European country. Small but remarkably varied with pockets of unique 'kingdoms' hidden all around.
   
   Anyway, in all those days of wandering through fields of llamas, being chased by farmed buffalo and generally getting lost in the woods at all hours, Albemarle County never looked this good. It is remarkable how truly picturesque this place becomes through the lens and pen of the photographer and the author. Much better than the real thing.
   
   If you are interested in Albemarle, you don't need to come here and see it yourself. Stay at home and read this book instead.



4. Nothing wrong with the content of the book but for a coffee table book, this one from Amazon had several flaws. Yes the cost was less than buying at the bookstore but the bookstore copy probably wouldn't have wrinkled pages and pages still stuck together with the edges uncut. Really shoddy quality.

No comments about Blue Ridge Roadways: A Virginia Field Guide to Cultural Sites.

No comments about Appalachian Trail Guide to Maryland-Northern Virginia.

No comments about Appalachian Trail Guide to Central Virginia.