You have a wealth available to you that is truly priceless. The National Parks of America hold in trust for all Americans over 80.7 million acres of land. Over 50 times more that all of what Ted Turner owns and far beyond Bill Gates financial ability to buy. All of this, the best America has to offer, is yours for the taking, or visiting . To know what is yours is the purpose of the Guide to National Parks. Each of these eight guides have a smattering of color photos, a meager scattering of full-color trail maps and a brief, but good, highlight of each park's most impressive features. Guide to National Parks: Southeast Region covers 75 national parks in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina Tennessee, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

What this guide cries out for is maps, maps and more maps. What you get is one master map and eight color maps. That's it... that all you get to help you navigate 75 national parks - pathetic.

The key page is a two-page Southeast Region Map but there is nothing linking you from this map to where in the book the park is described. The master map doesn't have any numbers or references. To complicate matters more there is no index, so you can't reference the parks name and go to the page. Rather you return to the table of contents and search there for the park. Sixty eight parks have no map at all. For example; Cumberland Island National Seashore (36,415 acres) no map, or Biscayne National Park (172,924 acres) no map - you get the idea. This is a serious short coming that if corrected would truly enhance the value and usefulness of this book. Conditionally Recommend.

The author here tries to do too much in this volume. First of all, when is Iowa and Nebraska considered Northwest? And coverage per state is small - only 6 airports in 4 cities are considered in all of Washington state (there's got to be 100+ airports in Washington) The book gives a lot of frequency and runway information, but that is all redudant with the FAA Airport/Facilities Directory (A/FD) which any pilot should have with them. What it does have that is useful, however, is lodging and rental/loaner car information near the airports and local attractions. But none of this is anything you couldn't get from a AAA guide. The back cover advertises "DISCOUNTS JUST FOR PILOTS - more than enough to pay for this book!" I can't say I've read every word, but I sure couldn't find any discounts.

What I had hoped for was a book that would cover a lot more of the airports in a smaller geographic area -- perhaps Montana, Oregeon, Washington, Idaho, maybe Wyoming, and the western Canadian provinces. I could live without the information I can get from the A/FD, and would prefer more information on the local attractions and recreation.

Because of the geographic coverage and airports chosen (mostly those with long runways) a jet pilot might find this book a little more useful than I did.

There appears to be a trend in B&B review guides where no actual recommendations are provided -- they just compile information about the B&Bs (making one wonder how much first-hand research was involved.) This book has no recommendations for B&Bs, other than a list at the beginning that categorizes each B&B under something like "Most Romantic B&Bs" or "Best Seaside B&B".

While having all the data in one place is useful, you can find most of this information on-line, or from various B&B brochures. What I wanted to know was which B&B's the author recommended, and what were the best features (and significant problems) with each B&B.

The only book I've seen that seemed to have some actual recommendations (and research) done in it was the Fodor's book on Pacific NW B&Bs.

Last summer I read the excellent history of Seattle "Skid Road," by Murray Morgan, and I thought that I'd try William Spiedel's book for some pleasure reading this summer, and I'm so far extremely disappointed. It is nearly unreadable, and pales in comparison to Morgan's acclaimed history. Spiedel is not a gifted writer, and the book is chopped up into two and three sentence paragraphs that do not blend together smoothly. His attempt to write a humorous and somewhat subversive history of Seattle intrigued me, but he tries much too hard to amuse, and the book is marred by disorganization, flippant appraisals of such luminaries as Doc Maynard and Chief Sealth, and hints of racism. I doubt I will finish it.

A real disappointment. I have looked over the "Quadrant" series by Eckart and it was much better. I would recommend a book search for the "Gems and Minerals of America" by Jay Ellis Ransom, it has much more comprehensive information and a lot more than even the "Quadrant" series contains. But of course local "collecting guides" are even better. Contact the clubs in the area you are going to visit and see if they will let you go on one of their field trips or suggest a location. I'm VP of the Montgomery Gem and Mineral Society, we would love to take you on a trip.

This book is loaded with useless information. If your looking for someplace to mine gold or gems. This book will not tell you. It does however provide you with guide services contact information.So if your looking for a river or area in your state where you can pan some gold. Don't look in this book! I didn't see anything you can't see in the yellow pages of your local phone book.

Very few sites listed, and mostly out-of-date info. Of no use in planning a trip. Save your money.

I do not claim to have read this book in its entirety, but I have read far too much of it purely out of morbid fixation. This book is so terrible that you have to keep reading just to convince yourself that it is real. There are few truely good books on wine appreciation, however, this is the only one I know of that did not have a single thread of valuable information. I would recommend this book to any real wine expert for a good laugh. WARNING: Only attempt to do this if you have an excellent bottle of wine on hand. You will need it to stomach this!

it hardly had any information, i could have wrote a better book myself!

This book has little, if anything, helpful to say about fishing techniques for the sports fisherman, as stated. Rather, it is primarily a compilation of one man's autobiography as a troller and his many sea stories. I was very, very disappointed. Paid way too much for the book as it was on a "not-currently-avialable-status." I can see now why it is no longer in print!

Dr. Timothy Wittman

the book was bad. it was not a good book, so i thought it was bad. In one word, I would describe this book as bad. In two words I would describe this book as really bad. that about covers it.

This is a very disappointing book. It tries to cover a very broad and very disconnected area of the United States. There are nine states crammed into its pages and each state hardly gets any coverage. A lot of great attractions, restaurants and lodgings are missed as this book tries to cover from Oregon to Iowa! In order to be a helpful travel guide, it should be split into a least two volumes. As it is right now, it is not worth the money.