I already owned the Rough Guide to Paris but felt that it was too heavy to take with me on a short trip where I would be walking around the city a great deal. I went in search of a guide book that was lighter in weight and was delighted when I found the Everyman Mapguide for Paris 2010. Paris 2010 is a guidebook with fold-out maps – ten of districts of Paris, as well as one for the city of Paris as a whole and one for the Paris Metro. Fold-out pages at the start of the book give very brief information on history, architecture, ethnic Paris and excursions that can be made. These pages also provide details of emergency phone numbers, internet cafes, opening times and a diary of events among other topics.

Clemence Jacquinet, France, Paris, Shelley Wanger

Continue reading

The Rough Guide to Paris begins with a ‘Colour Section’ on glossy paper consisting of an introduction, information on what to see and when to go, and twenty things not to miss. There are plenty of colour photographs as well as inserts on the Metro, the River Seine, and Paris climate. The names of monuments and sights are in bold so they are easy to spot. The twenty things not to miss include the obvious ones such as the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame cathedral, but also point out several lesser-known attractions, for example the hammam at the Paris mosque and art-house cinemas. Page references are given for each so that it is easy to find more details in the guide.

France, James McConnachie, Paris, Ruth Blackmore

Continue reading

‘Top 10 Cairo & the Nile‘ opens with the ten unmissable highlights including the pyramids of Giza, the mosque of Al-Azhar, the temple of Philae and the Valley of the Kings. Carrying on from there, other top tens featured in the guide are temples, Islamic architecture, museums, souvenirs, restaurants and children’s attractions. There is something for everyone, whether the interest is Egyptology, mosques, or contemporary culture. You can find out about festivals, whether religious or secular, and discover the ten most typical Egyptian dishes, including koshari and molokhiya.

The next section of the book gives top tens according to area: central Cairo, old Cairo, beyond Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan and Lake Nasser.

Andrew Humphreys, Cairo, Egypt

Continue reading

Blood River tells the story of Tim Butcher’s journey along the length of the Congo River, recreating the journey undertaken in 1874-1877 by Sir Henry Morton Stanley, a journalist and explorer. Stanley’s journey helped open up the Congo, as much as the interior of the Congo ever has been open.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was for many years the Belgian Congo. It has also been known as Zaire and the Congo Free State. Many of its towns and cities were renamed after independence to shake off the colonial past.

Congo, Tim Butcher

Continue reading

This tiny guide to Brussels begins with a double-page spread of the top ten attractions, with a colour photograph and brief caption for each one. Included are the Grand-Place, Manneken-Pis and the Atonium, but Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp also feature here, so the attractions are not restricted to those of the capital of Belgium, Brussels.

Belgium, Brussels

Continue reading

Any traveller needing a guidebook to Paris is likely to be spoilt for choice. Anyone interested in walking the streets of France’s capital city and discovering less well-known sights, however, would find “History and Mystery: Paris” a delightful book. The guide gives details of twenty-four walking tours in various districts of Paris; the titles of these tours range from “Pyramids and Palaces” to “Down and Out in Paris” or “How the Other Half Live”.

France, Paris, Peter and Oriel Cain

Continue reading

I travel a lot and so it’s not surprising that my bookshelves are filled with guidebooks from all over the world. The guidebooks I choose have changed as I’ve got older (and better off) and as technology has opened up a whole world of additional information available for free. The guidebooks I needed as a student backpacker were very different from those I need today in the era of the internet with all the access it offers to hotel and transport booking and the myriad homepages of attractions all over the world. Twenty years ago I favoured Rough Guide or Lonely Planet with their back-packer insights and listings for cheap accommodation and cheap eats. Today I mostly want guidebooks that will inspire me rather than tell me everything I could ever want to know about a place. I don’t need detailed prices and opening times – if I am interested enough to want to visit a museum or aquarium, then I’ll go and look it up on the internet for absolute up to date info.

Sydney, Travel guides

Continue reading

“‘A Dante’s Inferno’ for the MTV generation” – Bono’s verdict on Bill Carter’s “Fools Rush In“. Not much of a recommendation for me; sounds like a load of pompous rubbish. For years my opinion of Bono has swayed from ‘short-arsed rock singer’ to ‘head up his own arse rock singer’ but for one positive interlude somewhere in the middle. This respite (for which Bono no doubt thanks me profusely!) is the subject of “Fools Rush In”.

When American Bill Carter found himself needing some excitement he managed to get himself a place on one of the volunteer aid convoys taking food and medical relief into the besieged town of Sarajevo during the bitter war in the former Yugoslavia.

Bill Carter, Sarajevo, Yugoslavia

Continue reading

Thanks heavens for Mrs Favell Lee Mortimer for, without the things that today make the world an easier place to know, she managed to tell the people of the mid nineteenth century all they needed to know about life as it is lived in all four corners of the world. Over three volumes, Mrs Mortimer provided a succinct, if blunt, guide to the peoples of Europe, Asia, Australia, the Americas and Africa. Those three volumes have been condensed into the single book reviewed here.

She starts with Europe asking first “What is the character of the English?”

“They are not very pleasant company because they do not like strangers, nor taking much trouble…They are often in low spirits, and are apt to grumble, and to wish they were richer than they are, and to speak against the rulers of the land. Yet they might be the happiest people in the world; for there is no country in which there are so many bibles.”

Mrs Favell Lee Mortimer, Todd Pruzan

Continue reading

The thought of taking a holiday, spending time away from work and home – the scenes we know well, fills most of us with excitement and pleasure. We look forward to visiting places we consider more beautiful or which offer a more appealing lifestyle than our everyday experiences. Television programmes, holiday brochures and guidebooks offer a wealth of recommendations on where to go and what to see when we get there. In “The Art of Travel“, Alain de Botton considers why we chose those destinations in the first place, why we are often disappointed by the reality of our travel experiences and what we can do to avoid this degree of disappointment.

As well as personal observations made on his own travels, de Botton uses examples from classical writers and thinkers such as Flaubert and Wordsworth as well as paintings by Van Gogh and Turner (amongst others) to illustrate his arguments.

Alain de Botton

Continue reading

I have to start by saying that I’m not altogether sure whether I enjoyed ‘Yes Man’ or not. I have loved Danny Wallace’s books and madcap ideas in the past, so I was hugely looking forward to it – but for some reason, it didn’t quite do it for me. Having said that, there were parts that I enjoyed a lot, but I did feel there were some problems with the book (for me) which I will attempt to explain.

Firstly, I will give a brief outline of the story. Danny talks at the beginning of the book about how he was becoming a bit of a recluse and turning down all his friends’ invitations for drinks, parties, etc. All this changes though when one night the tube train he is on is stopped and everyone has to take a bus.

Danny Wallace

Continue reading