This was a great book. It was very fun to read and very easy to understand. The maps were detailed and that really helps when you don't know where you are going! It was a great book and I would really reccommed it!

I took out 5 other NYC books from my local library and of all the books, I found this one of the most helpful. Easy to find the information and informative ideas and suggestions. When you update it, change the title, please, as I think I'm going to be embarrassed walking around NYC w/it.

This book cleared up our confusion on what airport to fly into, where to stay, how to get around, and how to find out about and plan activities. It's great!

This book was great for a recent trip to NY. It is so compact, it fits right in your purse so you don't have to feel like the obvious tourista. The recommended sites were very helpful, but the map was invaluable, we used it constantly as we walked the city. The only thing you'll need to research on your own (the book is a couple of years old), is what's on Broadway and the "in" places to dine.

I found this book really helpful on my recent trip to NYC for a job interview. I had never been to the BIG APPLE and was really anxious and nervous about my trip. I didn't know where to stay, where to eat and how to see as much of the city as I could in a very limited amount of time. And, this book helped me out on all three on those concerns. I found it to be very well thought out, easy to follow and full of wonderful information. The lodging section was exceptional and I was able to find a great place to stay (The Wellington Hotel) that was in my price range and location all because of the helpful "Citypack." I think that any traveler would find it helpful and should really consider investing the money in a great resource book like this. I highly recommend it.

Found this a good quick reference to choose which of the "usual" tourist sites to see in New York. Found it to be very handy - it fit in my purse, and the maps were particularly useful. IT's tips and suggestions on what to see were also useful.

This book provides accurate technical information about many Maine trails -- distance, difficulty, altitude, location of water, etc. I successfully used the guide to plan several hikes in Baxter State Park. The fold-out maps provided in the pocket-part are worth the price of the book. My complaints are these: (1) the book needs to be updated more frequently, and (2) it really needs a few well-placed photographs of the more challenging trails. For example, although I inferred the Dudley Trail up Mt. Katahdin was steep (based on the altitude and distance information provided), the book does nothing to convey the visceral impact of the view from Pamola Peak down to Chimney Pond Lake. It's dizzying in a way that makes you want to use your entrails for rope. And, that's something you don't want to discover from the summit.

Like other AMC hiking guides in this series (AMC White Mountain Guide, for example), the book includes detailed trail descriptions and top-notch maps. However, be aware that although this guide claims to include "nearly 200 peaks," it does not include every little mountain in Maine (a very big state). Most notably, Acadia National Park is omitted from this book.

Finally, the maps, although excellent, are paper, not tyvek.

This book is an exellent guide to anyone hiking in Maine. It details many trails, from long backpacking trips to short nature walks. Included with the guide are maps that are a valuable resource when hiking in the Maine wilderness. The only downside to the bguide is that it is only published every few years, and trails on private land sometimes change over time. Other than that it is a very detailed, complete guide to hiking in Maine

Lately, I've come to really like the writings of Thoreau. It has taken me several years to return to this author...after being forced to read excerpts from Thoreau at a ridiculously fast pace during high school. Little time to read and less time for reflection left a bad impression of Thoreau in my mind that has, as I said, only recently been overcome.

But now, upon my return, I have found "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" by Henry David Thoreau to be a very invigorating book...one to be savored and not read too quickly. Taken at a good pace, it has been a joy.

While transcendentalism still strikes me as a rather facile and egotistical philosophy, I have really come to see and appreciate the mystical quality in Thoreau's works. Like most mystical authors, Thoreau is not always engrossing--he is actually rather tedious in points, but his work is punctuated by passages of sheer brilliance.

Seeing nature through Henry's eyes has been a wake up call to me personally. This book breathes excitement and lust for life upon the reader. Even his long winded discussions of different kinds of fish serve to alert me to my own lack of wonder. This world, even in its current subjection to futility , is still a wonderful creation. Nature (and Thoreau's picture of these rivers especially) echo the declaration of the Psalmist: "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands" (Psalm 19:1).

I highly recommend this wonderful book.

Thoreau sought the seclusion of the pond to write *this* book, not _Walden_. In 19th-century terms, this treatise is a modified travelogue based on a 13-day boat trip that Henry and his brother John took in 1839. By today's standards, contemporary editors and many an English teacher would decorate this manuscript with red ink and admonish the author that he strays too often and too far from the main subject. Bill Bryson's essays wander too, but he doesn't usually reach back and quote the Bhagavad-Gita, Homer, Chaucer, or Shakespeare. But whenever Henry takes in his surroundings, he is reminded of something else, and before you know it a serious discourse is off and running, and it has nothing to do with floating upstream or down. He expresses his opinions or offers his knowledge about fish, mythology, religion, poetry, reading, writing, history, government, traveling, waterfalls, friendship, love, life, nature, art, dreams, and science. He reminisces about a previous trip to the Berkshires and a sail down the Connecticut River. He breaks into poetry at whim -- sometimes his own words, more often someone else's. Along the way, the brothers paddle from Concord, Massachusetts, to the area around Concord, New Hampshire, and then turn around and go home. We meet some of the people they encounter along the way and get a glimpse of New England life during that time period. In some respects, the people and the land haven't changed much at all. We can see Thoreau's environmentalism when he talks about dams and their effects on the habits and habitats of fish -- concerns that are still with us today. We can laugh at his puns and enjoy his wordplay (i.e., "The shallowest still water is unfathomable" and Man needs "not only to be spiritualized, but *naturalized*, on the soil of earth.") Above all, we can explore these rivers and shorelines during a time period that we will never see personally, with the aid of a native naturalist who's in the habit of sharing his observations and thoughts.

Read _Walden_ first. And if you find you enjoy Henry's take on nature and civilization and life and living, pick up _A Week_. There are a few gems lurking in here that you might connect with.

[From Boating on the Catawba...in the
"Musketaquid"]

I will take the definite role of the
Nay-Sayer in the long line of aficianados
and idolators who insist that *Walden* is
Henry David Thoreau's masterpiece...
I will simply state that this work and
"Life Without Principle" are his great
contributions to literature, thought, and
value...

Take this quote from "Life Without Principle"
(before I get to 'A Week...'):
"To speak impartially, the best men that
I know are not serene, a world in themselves.
For the most part, they dwell in forms, and
flatter and study effect only more finely
than the rest. We select granite for the
underpinning of our houses and barns; we
build fences of stone; but we do not ourselves
rest on an underpinning of granite.
we do not teach one another the lessons of
honesty and sincerity that the brutes do, or
of steadiness and solidity that the rocks
do. The fault is commonly mutual, however;
for we do not habitually demand any more of
each other."

If that is not "preaching," but in the
sense of a prophet, not a mere sermonizer,
then there hasn't been any in a long time.
But Father Mapple's sermon in 'Moby-Dick' is
right up there with it.

If I had only known of Thoreau [and I had
not read much of him (and little then)except
at the University] and had to believe that
Thoreau was just what he seems to be in
'Walden,' then I would have given the man
short shrift...because there is not enough
of any sort of heart or soul in that work
to believe that he is even human. But
fortunately, a Thoreau worshipper (or rather,
*Walden* worshipper) forced me, by his own
imperious egotism, to try to understand this
man Thoreau and his views. It is fortunate
that I did, for I discovered 'A Week....'

This Penguin Classics edition is excellent
in a number of ways -- the two most important
being the notes in the back which explain the
allusions, and ancient Latin and Greek sources
and excerpts(for those who might not know them)
which Thoreau quotes and sometimes translates;
and the incredible "Introduction" by the editor,
H. Daniel Peck.
He can say his wondrous words himself:

"There is good reason for 'A Week's open
acknowledgment of the attritions of time
and loss. Conceived initially as a travel
book, 'A Week' was immeasurably deepened into
an elegiac account of experience by a tragic
event that occurrred in Thoreau's life in
the period following the 1839 voyage. In
1842, Thoreau's companion on that voyage,
his brother John, died suddenly, and in
agonizing pain, from lockjaw.
Without question this was the greatest loss
that Thoreau ever was to suffer. (He seems
to have undergone, in the aftermath of his
brother's death, a sympathetic case of the
illness that caused John's death, and the few
entries that appear in his journal in this
period are desperately mournful.) Interestingly,
though the pronoun 'we' characterizes the
narrator often in the book, the brother's
name is never mentioned -- an indication perhaps
of Thoreau's enduring need to distance himself
from this loss. there is nothing in 'A Week'
that directly refers to the death of John Thoreau.
Instead, his memory is evoked through various
symbolic strategies. For example, the long
digression on friendship in the chaper
'Wednesday' surely is intended to reflect the
intimacy Thoreau shared with his brother. Even
the ubiquitious 'we' of the narrator's voice
speaks to this intimacy. So intertwined are
the two brothers' identities in this pronoun
that it is often difficult to tell whether a
given action has been taken by Henry or John,
or both at once."

"To emphasize the elegiac aspects of 'A Week'
is to remind ourselves that throughout Western
history, rivers -- and voyages upon them --
have served as metaphors of transience and
mortality. Yet, as I indicated earlier,
'A Week' is not solely a mournful book. Its
rivers also support a spiritual buoyancy, and
provide the setting for exploration and adventure.
Most important, however, the book's larger
structure enables it to 'transcend and redeem'
the individual losses that it recounts."

[wonderful writing here!]
"In general, the outward-bound voyage of 'A Week'
dramatizes the writer's encounter with time and
its losses; on that voyage, he pays close
attention to the shore -- which, in its discreet
scenes of spoliation and historical change,
symbolizes the passage of time. The homeward
voyage, on the other hand, suggests assimilation,
resolution, and renewal. If the primary mode of
perception on the outward voyage had been
observation (of the shore), then the primary
mode of the return voyage is contemplation.
Now we are involved in an inward exploration,
and, symbolically, our vision leaves the shore
and returns to the river and the flow of
consciousness that it represents."
-- H. Daniel Peck; "Introduction."

I'm probably spoiled by the AMC guides for New England, but I found this book to be somewhat uninvting and lacking in some key areas. The maps weren't all that great they clearly aren't for a guy from the north east who's trying to find his way through the red dirt maze that is North Georgia. Directions to the trailheads could be markedly improved, as some (particularly the ones I used) use forest service roads that park rangers (let alone easily purchased maps) don't know well.

The copy and descriptions are good once I got to the trailhead, and organized linearly along the trail. I really enjoyed the plots of trail elevation over distance.

I used this book to plan my first trip to the AT with a group of Boy Scouts. It was extremely useful in selecting my route. Especially useful was the trail summary in the beginning of each chapter. Also equally useful was the hike itinerary, giving distances between significant points. I found, however, the linear trail profile to be slightly misleading on a few sections of the trail. (More useful was the profile found in The Appalachian Trail Official Map from the Appalachian Trail conference.) This day hike book was perfect for my 5 day trip because each hike begins where the other left off. This was vital in my planning and I would highly recommend it for anyone needing a detailed description of the trail. Oh, and don't forget your hand lens. :)

I checked this book out of my local library and found it to be the most informative book on the AT. The sections of the AT that I have personally hiked were very well covered in this book.It is very difficult to find accurate maps with tons of land marks and information the terrain. As well as a well thought out itinerary so you may better gauge your time and enjoy the trail, rather than worrying about where you are going to find water and shelter. So now I'm on amazon.com to buy this book to use on my next visit to the AT.

I would'nt recommend this book to anyone. They claim to have real restaurant critics write the reviews but have they ever been to the restaurant? Buyer beware! I'll stay with Zagat.

I have used the GaultMillau series of books for years. I have travelled all over the world and have always found them to be consistent and fair. Their new NYC guide which I own has been helpful and to the point.

Very useful indexes, love the ratings, great new find.

Eric J. Horst violated local land owners by publishing their private properties against their expressed wishes not to. In the climbing world access is always a big issue, and Mr. Horst is [messing]it up for us all. Help keep our area's open for business, and [skip] this bood. If you need help in virginia, try Virginia Climber's Guide. It is a good enough substitute, but please support our community by finding a substitute for this book.

This book provides accurate access and route information for over 25 climbing areas in the mid-atlantic region. And contrary to the previous review's comments (obviously "gabriel3493" has some personal issues), this book provides directions and route info only for OPEN climbing areas. In fact, the author spends a lot of time discussing access considerations and climber advocacy, and he definitely does not even encourage trespassing. Read the book, use the book, and you'll see it's "right on."

This book has all the crags I climb at. Only guide to several area with photos/topos. While you really need the PATC:MS Guides for Carderock and Great Falls if those are your primary climbinng areas, this guide is nevertheless very helpful.
While written guides for Annaplis Ricks and Sugarloaf are online, the visual clues make the difference.
Just too heavy to carry in whole book, but a quick editing with an Exacto knife gives you several smaller sections for easy carry.

This book does provide good trail descriptions for a reasonable number of hikes in Vermont. I've hiked about a dozen of the trails listed in here, of those 10 there were:

2 in which the directions to the trailhead listed the wrong forest service road to take.

3 in which I saw other trails at junctions that weren't mentioned in this book leading to nearby attractions (without giving full descriptions it would be nice to mention alternatives for longer hikes available).

1 in which the directions led to a difficult hike, but it turned out talking to people at the top that a much easier hike was available to reach the same destination from the same trailhead.

Having said that, this book does give the visitor an easy way to plan some hikes in Vermont. The Falcon guide looks to be similar, so it might be useful to read both before planning your hikes.

I liked this book - easy to read and informative. The only problem was it didn't have very specific information on things like shelters, camping, etc. - it's more of a day-hike book. I phoned the Green Mountain Club (the authors) to get more info, and it turns out that they have written a book of their own called "The Long Trail Guide")that is much more comprehensive and they recommend it more than this one. I would check that book out before you get this one. But if you just want a good book for day hikes, I like this one fine.

The fifth edition of this book, written by two members of the Green Mountain Club, covers hikes everywhere in the State. To no one's surprise, the majority are located along the Appalachian trail and the area with the least hikes covered is in the Northeast Kingdom.

The authors offer a very good "At A Glance" section in the beginning with hike name, location, and so forth-- many of the things also covered in the individual hikes, but what stands out in this secion is whether or not each hike has a view, good for kids, nearby camping, good for winter, and my personal fav, notes that state whether the hike is good for x-c skiing, snowshoeing, waterfalls, historical interest, etc. The book also contains a "hiker's" guide to trail map symbols, safety, what the pack and more.

There are no surprises in the write-up for each hike. The authors have not left anything out: distance, hiking time, vertical rise, difficulty rating, pictures and topographical maps.

You won't find a better book about hiking in Vermont for this reasonable price.

The author, a sociology professor at City University of New York, was raised in the Big Apple and has lived most of his life in the area. In 1979 he bought a 24-foot New England catboat, built on Cape Cod in 1910, and proceeded to fix it and sail it around the New York area.

With this book he presents a portrait -- and sketchy history -- of the city from an angle few people know it. Structuring the story as a fairly continuous though interrupted sail from his home in Long Beach, around the southern tip of Rockaway and into Jamaica Bay, then into Upper New York Bay and the East River, and ultimately to Long Island Sound, Kornblum offers both close-up looks at the water and shoreline, and their past history.

The approach is light and pleasant: Few stories -- whether of the freezing disaster of the privateer "Castel Del Rey" in New York harbor in 1704, knowledgeable black sailors impressed by the British Navy in the War of 1812 and jailed in England for refusing to serve against the US, various ferry disasters, or the vagaries of Robert Moses -- last more than a page or three. The only sections where Kornblum lingers are in Jamaica Bay (its environmental degradation and return), and the dockside concrete industry that built New York's towers and for which the author worked as a kid. Manhattan itself is quickly bypassed though given a loving nod, and there is no venturing into the Hudson side.

In the typo sweepstakes, the book does all right, although it says "mechanical break" on p. 156 when "brake" was meant, and I believe I saw an unintended sentence fragment on p. 143. Most egregious, the great A.J. Liebling is identified on p. 103 as "Libeling" (though the name is correct in the bibliography)! A pity there apparently are youthful editors (I don't suppose there is such a thing as a proofreader in publishing anymore) who do not know this great journalist's work backward and forward.

Another ominous development -- to this reader, anyway -- is that the lovely cover photograph is an unreal composite. Different photographers are credited for different portions of it. I find this vaguely disturbing.

The writing is definitely four-star quality or better. Here's my favorite passage: "Up another shadowy bend stood two snowy egrets, with their outrageous yellow boots and platinum punk haircuts. How chic, these mudbank sushi bars. The egrets were spearing for sand bugs, moving along the edge of the marsh with the herky giant steps of students at a party stepping over empty beer cans."

I give the book only three stars because it is slight. Probably an excellent gift for the average non-reader who happens to love sailing or New York City, or the casual reader who knows little about either, but I would have liked to know more.

This is the account of a sailboat cruise, but rather than crossing an ocean the author travels maybe 40 miles from home, into the maelstrom that is NY harbor. It's an interesting book, sort of, but I expected more history of the harbor, more about what the place is, and less of the author's personal experience.

I expected the former thanks to a review in the NY Times, I think -- some newspaper, anyway -- that suggested it was less an ecological than an historical journey. Without this preconception, I probably would have liked the book more. If you're from NYC, it's worth a read, but there are many better sailing accounts if you want hairy-chested adventure, or to learn something about sailing in general. There are also better books about ecology of the shoreline.

But the style is pleasant and the author seems like a man who would be an enjoyable sailing companion. That's worth three stars.

This is a delightful view of some of the Big Apple's waterfront. William Kornblum writes well, and I am pleased to meet the family, friends, and acquaintances of his journey. Having explored much of our city, and having studied many of the coasts from opposite shorelines, I nevertheless learned much from Kornblum's views from his catboat. I also enjoyed his flash-backs, particularly his days as a youth working at the Transit Mix dock. As another reader noted, the book has a few errors that should have been caught. The A train travels neither through The Bronx nor over Williamsburg Bridge (p. 91). In Red Hook, the parish school is within the Brooklyn diocese, not archdiocese (p. 122). When I find errors on topics I know well, I begin to worry that the publishing industry has a problem with fact-checking in non-fiction. Yet, I must say that this book is a thoroughly enjoyable meeting of humans, views, and story. I recommend this book as a gift.