Top 5 Books March 2008
London City Guide - Lonely Planet
I think a New Yorker said it best when he described London as: “A tricky city where you can spend days lost on the underground.” This massive urban sprawl is indeed easily confusing and the constant public transport renovations don't help – but, there's more good than bad. That message shines through in the sixth edition of Lonely Planet's guide to the British capital and the focus on the innovations of the east is very welcome. Personally I'm not sold on Shoreditch as the super cool suburb of London but the Spitalfields Market recommendation is spot on and the Olympics reference, this once run down area is given a new appeal. The Lonely Planet crew were even brave enough to throw in a fold out map, which reduces the huge city to the sum of its best parts – as much as this is possible. Check out this month's book extract to make up your own mind..
London City Guide by Lonely Planet is published by Lonely Planet (paperback; £12.99). It is also available through www.lonelyplanet.com and all good booksellers..
Rough Guides – Climate Change
Lonely Planet address climate change with traveller surveys and hard hitting suggestions. The Rough Guides answer this with a 374 page publication - short listed for the Royal Society Prizes for Science Books, 2007. It's a dream for fair, accurate and contemporaneous minds and it manages to break through the associated political firestorm without being invidious. Outdoor Ski competitions on artificial ice, Venice sinking into the sea and political scientists are but a snippet of what's contained within these pages, but the best bit is definitely part five – What you can do. Persuasive incentives are cleverly woven into the planet saving plans and an international myriad of energy saving labels are usefully displayed together, providing particular benefit for the jet setting, environmentally unfriendly backpacker.
Rough Guides – Climate Change is published by Rough Guides (paperback; £10.99). It is also available through www.roughguides.com and all good booksellers..
Persuasion by Jane Austen
A pleasant ramification of a recent trip to Bath was a desire to reacquaint myself with the schoolboy classics of Jane Austen, starting with Persuasion. Miss Austen spent many happy and many miserable years in the Georgian city and this, her final novel, looks back at the city society with a rueful gaze. The rose tinted visage of Northanger Abbey is obliterated in a timeless satire which is still relevant in today's ashtray deep world of first impressions, aimless dating, Goldfish bowl communities, heartache and missed chances. The lesson decreed is one where a happy ending can come about through re-consideration and pursuing what you, and you alone believe to be right. Ultimately our heroin - Anne Elliot poignantly gets the dream that Austen never did. In other words a great book for vicarious living.
Persuasion by Jane Austin is published by Penguin (paperback; £6.99). It is also available through www.penguin.co.uk and all good booksellers.
Rough Guides – Prague
You can't beat a jaunt to the Czech Republic and if during your time in Prague you happen to beat several drunken stag parties with a blunt shovel then that's just a bonus. This Rough Guide covers the well deserved Golden Lane, Petrin Tower, Charles Bridge, Astronomical Clock and the castle, but it also delves into the quirky and obscure, thereby securing my vote. The historiography in the context section isn't bad and the impact of the Habsburgs (outside of France) is interestingly included. The cold war aftermath is also accurately depicted and if you get the chance to take the coffee and cake cruise through the city on the river Vltava, then you'll no doubt see the imposing and empty statue stand, where Stalin's larger than life replica used to tower. That's a great snap shot and this book is a great abbreviation of Prague's past.
Rough Guides – Prague is published by Rough Guides (paperback; £12.99). It is also available through www.roughguides.com and all good booksellers.
The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller
Miller's style has been categorised as a blend of social criticism, philosophy, autobiography, surrealism and mysticism. This might sound like a Hunter S. Thompson acid trip but when the referees on Mr Miller's CV include George Orwell, you sit up and pay attention. His reputation as the father of the sexual revolution aside, this foray into travel writing is a corking account of simmering tensions before the outbreak of World War Two. Collossus is the name Miller gives to the influential story teller who shaped his journey around Athens, Crete and the Peloponnese, but this walking repository is no match for Miller's descriptive style. I personally love that in this book you get to share Miller's first experience in a plane and feel: “foolish sitting in the sky with hands folded.” They don't make them like this anymore.
The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller is published by Summersdale (paperback; £7.99). It is also available through Amazon and all good booksellers.
- Rob Savage
