City Travel Guides > Books > Travel and Holiday

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.The Discovery of France
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel and Holiday
by: Graham Robb

July 04, 2008
This is a superbly written history-cum-travelogue. Robb is known for his books on French writers (Balzac, Hugo and Rimbaud) but here he ventures into peasant France, riding on his bicycle to make the time for the small details of life in rural France. He writes extremely well about landscape, an the book throughout is enjoyable to read. Drawing on travelogues of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Robb accentuates the backwardness of peasant France - mainly for effect, it seems. I found this increasingly annoying. It is an imbalance in the book. The French peasants come across as a nation of troglodytes. The second half of the book is more conventional history on the theme of nation-building in the nineteenth century. This is perhaps better ... Read More:
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.Australia (Lonely Planet Country Guide)
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel and Holiday
by: Justine Vaisutis

November 01, 2007
Previous editions of this book have been criticised for focusing too much on mid range and expensive places to sleep and eat whilst leaving out cheaper, more budget-orientated options. This edition (14th) is aimed at restoring the balance slightly, and from what I can see it appears to be an improvement. There are a lot of guidebooks for Australia on the market so it is just a matter of finding one that is to your taste, but this one is definitely full of comprehensive information for your trip.
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.Happyslapped by a Jellyfish: The Words of Karl Pilkington (Know Your)
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel and Holiday
by: Karl Pilkington

May 01, 2008
I guess what struck me first about this book is the weight and feel of the pages. It feels like an expensive book built to last. Fantastic!

It's Karl Pilkington's second book and, although I haven't read the first, I can say that this one is absolute gold. Pilkington's blinkered view on life makes for entertaining reading and his antics prove true to how you know him from podcast/radio shows. There are a few extracts from the diary that have already been read on the podcast but they are very few in number and still pack a punch the second time round. It's also a good light read and I'm trying to avoid reading it all at once.

If I had to gripe, I would have to say about the slang scattered around in this book ("cos", "me mam") but because ... Read More:
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.Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage: A Cultural Journey Through the Mediterranean from Venice to Istanbul
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel and Holiday
by: Francesco Da Mosto

July 10, 2008
The book's characteristics are the elegant, rich in historical and cultural content, insightful but witty and light in touch text and the beautiful photographs of landscape, seascape, buildings, monuments, ruins and works of art which are inextricably interwoven and mutually reinforcing;the impact on the reader is not merely additive but truly synergistic.

We travel with the author from the city of his birth, Venice aboard the Black Swan, a renovated 1899 yawl along trading routes of the Venetian Empire visiting the coastline and islands of the Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean seas with Istanbul (formerly Constantinople)the final destination. Some of these lands were former colonies of 'La Serenissima' and we witness its legacy in the form of medieval fortifications ... Read More:
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.The Good Food Guide 2009
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel and Holiday
from: Which? Books

September 08, 2008
As usual this guide makes compulsive reading, if you're interested in good food. For the last two years there's been a greater use of colour printing and the whole appearance of the book is more attractive. It's inevitably weighted towards more populated areas with very few entries for far-flung places, where in truth one needs guidance even more. The Guide is limited by he fact that it is alerted to good places by recommendations from the general public to which it then sends inspectors. So, for example, an excellent eating place in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland will have a lesser chance of inclusion if a volunteer inspector is unavailable to travel and stay there (at their own expense) to do the inspection--most inspectors only get the meal reimbursed. In recent years ... Read More:
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.Yes Man
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel and Holiday
by: Danny Wallace

April 06, 2006
Its very easy to say yes to everything when your backed up by an over inflated BBC salary, not funny, a couple of amusing situations, on the dance floor and waiting for the ferry in singapore. If id noticed that Davina Macall had said this man was a genius on the front cover I wouldn`t have purchased it(as she normally presents shows for those of an IQ lower than one). Its a poor read about an overpaid self pitying individual.

As much as I didnt like this book the underlying theme is really interesting and the Maitraya idea is genuinely thought inducing.

Wait for it to turn up at a car boot sale, dont buy it.
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.Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of 'The Great Railway Bazaar'
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel and Holiday
by: Paul Theroux

September 04, 2008
Theroux usually sticks to a formula that has worked well in the past, since he managed his first blockbuster with The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia (Penguin Modern Classics): go to someplace, look around, tread the untrodden path, do some witty observations, and carefully hide your own feelings, writing what looks like a intimate journal, but is really not.
Here, however, revisiting his 70's trip to Asia, also revisits his own feelings when he wrote about that trip and recounts how the physical trip as well as writing about it was an evasion from his own lost life.
Feeling much more comfortable in this trip, he reminisces continuously about his wife, misses home, but still feels comfortable going throuth Asia in a second-class berth surrounded by strangers. ... Read More:
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.Gomorrah: Italy's Other Mafia
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel and Holiday
by: Roberto Saviano

January 18, 2008
I read this book before retiring to bed over several nights. I found it hard to put down, yet each time I turned the page I thought the narrative might pick up, become more personal and lead me somewhere more satisfying. Is it me? Do I lack that bit of inside information that would help me digest and put more clarity to the situation? The information came at you wholesale, floods of it...names, places, so many names and places, complicated by my lack of knowledge of places and probably politics, background and pronunciation. So many killings...don't get me wrong, I loved it and recommend it ...yet it left me wanting just that little bit more explanation. All the while I was reading the book I was constantly nagged by the question...what was Saviano's perspective on all this whilst growing ... Read More:
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.Events Management
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel and Holiday
by: Glenn Bowdin, Johnny Allen, William O'Toole, Rob Harris, Ian McDonnell

January 11, 2006
I read this book before retiring to bed over several nights. I found it hard to put down, yet each time I turned the page I thought the narrative might pick up, become more personal and lead me somewhere more satisfying. Is it me? Do I lack that bit of inside information that would help me digest and put more clarity to the situation? The information came at you wholesale, floods of it...names, places, so many names and places, complicated by my lack of knowledge of places and probably politics, background and pronunciation. So many killings...don't get me wrong, I loved it and recommend it ...yet it left me wanting just that little bit more explanation. All the while I was reading the book I was constantly nagged by the question...what was Saviano's perspective on all this whilst growing ... Read More:
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Used Price: £67.86

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.By Any Means: His Brand New Adventure from Wicklow to Wollongong
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel and Holiday
by: Charley Boorman

September 25, 2008
there is definately a case to be made for the ratings of this series being boosted by friends and colleagues writing biased reviews. This book really is not a great read. You would have to ask how can it be? The TV series was muddled and acted as a self promotion for the 'director' - it really only work with Ewan - although Charlie is a VERY watchable chap he lacks the maturity to express himself on television and thus, in this book.
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