Since the beginning of the year I’ve added a few books to my bookshelf, mainly for travel. Some have been useful and some I tried, unsuccessfully, to return. Here’s a quick rundown:
Wanderlust and Lipstick Traveling With Kids
Full disclosure – I have met one of the authors of this travel book, Michelle Duffy, and she’s even bought me a beer. Does that mean I’ll automatically give the book a good review? Heck no! If the book stank I’d let her know, in kind terms. But thankfully Michelle and her co-author Leslie Forsberg have done an excellent job with a subject I’m just now starting to explore more thoroughly. While I have traveled with my daughter to the East Coast on family trips many, many time, our recent trip to Africa was the first real big test of my parent traveling capabilities. I found their resource very useful in considering all my daughter’s needs during the trip and I love that they have ample web references throughout the book. I also like the “Hot Tips!” notes but sometimes they get a bit too numerous on the page, but only once in a while. Michelle is currently planning a trip around the world with her family so I know she’ll have some great updates for this book in the future.
Red Rock Canyon – A Climbing Guide
If you’re into rock climbing and plan on heading down to Red Rock Canyon in Nevada, this is a great guide. It’s thick (heavy) and packed with hundreds of routes as a good guide book should. I took this on a recent trip to the canyon and noticed there was obvious discrepancy with other guide books in the group, but all in all I was happy with the info. I do wish there were a few more diagrams of certain areas (like Hall Of Fame Wall) and the topo maps to some walls could use vast improvements. Take a look through the guide and compare for specific areas you may wish to climb as other guide books may have more detailed information if they concentrate on a smaller area. Black Corridor was also missing a number of newer route in this book. All in all, it’s a resource I’ll keep. While there is a Kindle version available for much less, I prefer to have the paper guide book to be able to make easy notes, especially in regards to new routes.
Before heading to Morocco I thought it’d be a good idea to get a bit more information on not making a complete ass of myself. If you already are in the know on the location you’re visiting, the Culture Smart series probably isn’t for you. But if you need a quick hit of how to respectfully travel through a location, they offer a good start to different cultures. In my case it helped me prepare my daughter for some of what we might expect and eat while in the country. It’s small enough to take with you and read on the plane on the way over.
A Rough Guide To Morocco & A Rough Guide To Tanzania
I wasn’t happy with the Rough Guide to Morocco or Tanzania as compared to the Lonely Planet versions. I was traveling to both of these countries with a friend who had purchased the LP versions and I found the information in them, especially the cost information, to be superior. I often looked over at her copies when trying to plan where to stay as cost was an issue on this trip. In the end I left the guide books at home and borrowed a copy of the Lonely Planet Tanzania book before leaving to help in planning. I had never tried out the Rough Guide books before and wasn’t happy with this first purchase (and even less happy that Borders has a 30 day return policy making it too late for me to return the book when I came home, my mistake).
This book is another quick overview of the mentioned locations. I liked it for the color photos and maps but it was a bit light on broad suggestions. It had good background information that was easily digestible and sharable with my daughter. It now sits on my bookshelf waiting for my next trip to the country as I’d like to visit Zanzibar in the future.
And those are the most recent additions. I will be selling the Rough Guides if you’re interested. Otherwise, I find good utility in the other books and they have found happy places on my bookshelf.