Travel Books

I first received this book in first grade, and it is the first book I remember reading when I arrived to America at six years of age. It has stuck with me ten years later, and I still remember growing teary-eyed when reading about the young boy who dies in the snow.
Sadly, I lost the book during a move, and I thought I wouldn't be able to find it anywhere else, but Amazon is just good for everything. ;] So now I'll be able to reconnect with my childhood and hopefully let my younger brothers experience it with me.

George Washington's socks is a great book! In the story a boy named Matt go on an adventure with his frends and his little sister. They travel back in time to the Delawer River and go on an epic adventure full of tragedy, action, mystery and lots more! I highly recomend this book to any one who is a history fanatic or just wants to learn something and have fun at the same time.

HAPPY READINGS!!!

This was a great book with lots of heart and history. A perfect read aloud for families....

Hi, I'm here to warn the public that this load of crap woodruff calls a book is the worst thing in the entire world. GOD!!! she just had to kill gustav, what's your freaking problem lady!!?? Sheesh, rowboats don't go back in time, you'd be a moron to read a piece of crud like that!!! And she killed Israel! she's not an author, she's a murderer, I tell you! She's starting to make Olaf and Voldemort like merrily skipping church ladies.
Phil Oldants

George Washington's socks is a great book! In the story a boy named Matt go on an adventure with his frends and his little sister. They travel back in time to the Delawer River and go on an epic adventure full of tragedy, action, mystery and lots more! I highly recomend this book to any one who is a history fanatic or just wants to learn something and have fun at the same time.

HAPPY READINGS!!!

This is the new edition of the Morey/Winnett (sp?) book but it's much, much more than that. I've hiked the JMT a couple of times and done a fair amount of hiking in the Sierras. Basically tho I'm a city boy and can't tell one tree from another and know nothing about geology. This book will - I haven't had the chance to hike with it yet - fill in the ignorance and satisfy the curiosity about what I'm hiking past. The author knows her stuff. But, wait, there's a whole lot more. Aside from a large number of GPS coords, more than I've found anywhere on the Web, there's all kinds of info you need to orchestrate your hike - names, addresses, prices, policies, regulations, campsites, side-trip peak-bagging, Harrison maps, informed suggestions - it's all here. One more item - it's only occasionally you read a book that makes you feel the author really worked hard to make it "complete", didn't cut corners, "pushed" when the going got hard - this is one such book. If you're thinking of hiking the JMT or any part of it, buy the book. If you're not thinking of doing the hike, buy the book and discover what you're missing.

Haven't hiked it yet, but this book gives the most comprehensive look at the JMC, both North bound and South bound. The reason I bought this book was because it gave details on both directions. It doesn't give you a daily guide because it knows that each person will have his or her own pace. The only thing I didn't like is that it spends too much time describing fauna and not the trail.
It is also meant to be a trail companion and to be read on the trail. Why? If I'm on the trail why do I need to read about it? Some of the detail is useless unless you are right there looking at it. However, the description of the trail and the maps are valuable (I especially like the elevation maps given for each section)
It also gives very important information on how to get to the trail, permits and where and when to get them along with some great mileage charts.

Great book for on the trail, a good book for preparation.

Wilderness Press continues to update some of their classic guides regularly and this new version of their John Muir Trail Guide is well written with a new author, Elizabeth Wenk. At its heart, the guide is similar to previous editions in giving a mile for mile description of the trail. I found it very accurate for all portions of the JMT that I have hiked. It also includes new features: numerous GPS coordinates for landmarks, updated regulations, appendices listing campsites, mileages, and resupply points, and new topographical maps from Tom Harrison.

All these new features come at a small cost, however, in that the book is more than twice as large as the previous edition, by Kathy Morey and Thomas Winnett. And while you will need these new features in planning your hike, they are less important on the actual trail. Backpackers trying to save space and weight have a couple of options. One is to simply tear out the sections of the book you will be using. You hardly need the classic South to North directions if you are hiking the other way. Another is to use this edition for planning, but to get one of the older editions for the actual trip. These can be found here (1998) or here (1986). But this book is still worth purchasing. Having it will improve your odds of completing the trail and dramatically increase your enjoyment of it as well.

The previous version of this book was, I believe, considered to be the definitive JMT book, and this new version must be also. In it are all the details anyone attempting or thinking of attempting the John Muir Trail will need to know; what clothes to take, which food is appropriate, permits needed, bear information, a guide to the flowers of the area, history of the trail, geology, directions and even maps and a list of possible campsites. In fact, details are the thing about this book - it's ram-jam with them, and I couldn't think of any detail that I'd like to know that wasn't covered (I've hiked the trail once)!

This is a guidebook for those intending to hike the trail, not an account of someone's experiences, but even so it must get even the most couchy potato interested in getting out and walking! I did find the referencing of the sections and maps a little confusing, but it's a small point. And it might be a little large too, so I'd probably elect to photocopy parts of it, or rip out sections to take on the trail.

For exploring Northern California we depend on three books for guiding us around: Fodor's, because it includes the Napa and Sonoma wine country; Golden Gate Trailblazer for dayhiking the northern coastal areas around San Francisco and Alpine Sierra Trailblazer for the Yosemite-Lake Tahoe trails.

I have found this book to be full of great information! I look forward to utilizing it while we are in Vegas to do things that we normally wouldn't know about or would be less likely to find. Sometimes it's hard to remember where you read about something but I'm excited about checking out some of things I've found while reading the guide.

Despite having been to Vegas a dozen times over the past ten years, it had been three years since my last trip. Knowing how much changes, I bought this guide to help sort out what was different for better or worse.

For the most part, its packed with solid advice. The narration takes a very skeptical voice, which is exactly what a place like Vegas needs. Its great to see hyper-advertised shows and hotels laid bare, such as with the very balanced review of Danny Gans and the honest perceptions of The Palms. Its also good to see off strip non-gaming destinations get some print, even all the way out to an Area 51 guide! Everything that's worth seeing gets mentioned.

However, that same skeptical narration is also too self aware. Rather than accepting that a person who has paid money for a guide book of Vegas probably has some idea of what they're getting into, the narration belabors the obvious to the point of mocking the reader for drinking the Vegas Kool-Aid. Stating that the décor is "giggle inducing" or that certain shows are simply so overrated that they're unreviewable is about as cynical as reminding us that Mickey Mouse is really just a guy in a suit, so be sure to look with scorn on children lining up to see him. I don't think anyone is going to select a hotel because of a plaster sphinx, but that's part of why you pick Vegas over Atlantic City or Orlando. Above all, a guide book should respect the reader's decision to go to a destination and perhaps future editions will remember that.

The guide spends copious amounts of text describing how things used to be. While the reflections of a veteran casino dealer are interesting, the discourse continues in the hotel reviews. Many of the hotels seem to be judged relative to how they were in the past; not against comparable properties as they are today. Its useful when used to accentuate something that has changed recently, but extraneous when belaboring how things were decades ago. New properties raise the bar, older properties lose their luster. We got it.

Another frustration is the lack of relative comparison between hotels. While the star ratings are accurate, the reasons why you would stay at one property over another with the same rating aren't spelled out very well. Since a wide range of price and quality are available, the nuances are what make an informed decision. With a lot of that glossed over, it would be easy to select a hotel that you weren't happy with because of a detail you felt misinformed about, say pool size or the general demographics the hotel is trying to attract.

Its easy to get disillusioned with Vegas and focus on what's different today as opposed to what makes a trip to Vegas different than a trip anywhere else. If anything, that's what this guide suffers from. Its like that one member of your family that finds fault with everything while you're on vacation; you wish they would just appreciate the fact that you're there and not somewhere else.

Good book, although I felt some of the reviews were not accurate. Some things you just need to do to experience all that Vegas has to offer. Definitely recommended to find about about the places you have yet to discover.

I bought Frommer's Las Vegas 2008 even though last year I'd previously purchased and read the 2007 edition. This years is a good update that builds off of last years work. There is updated information- after all everything changes constantly in Vegas. Having never been there I wanted to make sure I was getting the absolute best deal for when I and my friends go.

The hotel I was interested in wasn't even worth mentioning, room wise, last year. but now it's considered one of the best rooms on the strip and I'm greedily content with the good deal I'm getting. Last years book covered the $$$$ hotels a little too much, glorifying them when most of us that are buying the book can't afford to spend $500 per night to stay in them a few days. This year's, I'm happy to say, covers the rooms the rest of us can temporarily call home.

It can't cover every single restaurant and bar, but it does give a decent break down from the ultra trendy and expensive to Crispy Kreme's. Also there is a little more mention of the various hotels spa's, though it's still pretty skimpy and that's one of the areas I wanted more on. But this really is a good over view. Now I just can't wait to go!

This book was difficult for me to rate, since it is really a compilation of three separate books into one volume. The first two books I would give 3/5 stars, while the third book (the one actually entitled "Coming Into the Country") is superb and deserves 5 stars. Thus, my averaged 4-star rating.

I found the first two books very interesting and readable, but they tended to delve off into a more philosophical orientation describing the history of Alaska, which I deemed long-winded at times. The third book, however, kept my attention perked and was just what I was hoping for when I purchased this book -- a look into the life of an Alaskan bushman -- since it was told through stories of people the author meets along the way during his long stint in the bush, which complimented his writing passion.

A good book and well worth the read.

My wife and I like to listen to a tape while we read the book. We are rereading this book that way. It is a classic and a good introduction to Alaska, where we have lived and worked and touristed.

Want to read about the realities of the 49th state????
Want to really learn something about this region???
Want to get good visuals????????
If NOT don't read this book!!!!!!!!!!!!

This book is a wonderful relic, the last plausible vision of a living American frontier. In the mid seventies, McPhee went to Alaska to do a few pieces for the New Yorker. He met a lot of trappers, prospectors, and "river people" who'd built moss-chinked cabins and whose individualism, gruff hospitality, and happiness he admired. McPhee made a plea for democratic access to Alaskan land. He argued that land far from roads should remain fair game for homesteaders in perpetuity.

It is odd to read an ode to Alaska's wild immensity at a time when islands are being evacuated in the Aleutians, polar bears are drowning, and the permafrost is melting. The question these days is not whether Americans can still choose to live in more or less untainted outback. The question is whether that outback will soon be transformed beyond recognition, not by oil drilling, but by climate change.

What Coming into the Country offers the twenty-first century is escapism and nostalgia. McPhee's account of the political squabbles over the location of Alaska's capital has lost its relevance, but the rest of the book still comes to life. We meet a mix of clannish Christians, proud native people, and prickly bootleggers in the small, dry town of Eagle. McPhee's tale of a man's survival in sub-zero weather after a plane crash constitutes a minor classic of its own.

The book reminds us how powerful the frontier fantasy remains in American psyches. Can it be harnessed as a metaphor? Can the dream of self-reliance on a private patch of woods help motivate us, indirectly, to cut carbon emissions? It has motivated us to go camping and conserve some wild lands even while ruining others. Still, I suspect that as the environmental movement shifts in response to global warming, we may have to jettison the frontier fantasy. It depends too much on a view of nature as more powerful than man. Whether or not we agree with Bill McKibben that we have arrived at the end of nature, we know that everything is responding to elevated temperatures. There is no untouched patch of land left in Alaska. The romance of a homestead sours when the flora and fauna are marching north past the log cabin, driven by coal and oil fires from all over the planet.

I traveled to Alaska in 2006 but lived there in the early 70's. Why I delayed so long in reading "Coming into the Country" I don't know, but John McPhee has taken me back to that earlier day. Both his character and place descriptions are wonderful and make me long for the cabins, the ice break-up, the dogs, the bush planes, and the 55 gallon drums. The Anchorage of today is much changed, but the bush is still there -- Thank God.

I have no questions and hesitations when it comes to Tom Strienstra. I regard his ratings highly and the information provided are very helpful.

I love this camping guide! I have purchased several (4+) editions of this book to have the most up-to-date info available. I refer to it often and highly recommend it to all campers as a great resource guide.

I just got back from a road trip that we pretty much had no plans for. All i had was a map and this book and it served us very well. Ratings were all pretty accurate and directions and prices in line as well.

Tom Steinstra is one of the most enjoyable outdoor writers California has produced. Reading his work is simply a treat. He is at once amusing, self deprecating, and, most important, thorough and accurate. This new edition of California Camping combines the best of his writing in one volume and should be your first resource when looking to camp throughout the state.

Besides a must read introduction covering such topics as how to avoid getting blisters and getting lost, strategies for keeping camping costs down, and how to limit bear access to your precious food supply, this book covers nearly every campground in the state from the Redwoods in Northern California to the Anza Borrego Desert in San Diego County. The book is divided into chapters, each of which covers a unique geographical province of the state. (These provinces match those found in Steinstra's popular book 'California Hiking' coauthored by Ann Marie Brown.) Each campground description includes a set of icons detailing nearby activities such as fishing, hiking, hunting, mountain biking, and swimming. The description also includes a list of scenic highlights near each camp. Finally, driving directions and the fees you can expect to pay are included. (Note: fees at state parks in particular go up regularly. Some prices listed will be outdated shortly after publication.)

Some people have had a few problems with previous editions of this book. There is, for example, considerable disagreement over the "scenic" ratings Stienstra assigns to each campground. I think these are for the most part accurate, though one could always quibble with the details. (In Humbolt Redwoods State Park, for example, I would rate Burlington an 8 and Albee Creek a 7: Steinstra reverses these ratings.) As a rule of thumb, the more urban the site is, the lower the scenic rating. A KOA near a city will not get as nice a rating as a state park. Readers should be aware that noise level is not included in the scenic rating, and this can detract from the experience. To his credit, Steinstra notes locations where readers of past editions have complained about noise level.

For me, the main benefit of this book is that it lists numerous free forest service and BLM campgrounds. Camping fees have gone up exponentially in the last few years (along with the cost of gas to get to the campgrounds.) I really appreciate Steinstra's careful listing of the obscure and remote campgrounds that are still available at no charge throughout the state. Although free, they are priceless, and readers looking for a nice base camp in California's many wilderness areas will find this book very useful. But then again, if you are looking for a place to park your RV or trailer, this book is also helpful. One of the great joys of comprehensive guides is that they contain something for everyone. Unlike most such books, this one is also very readable. Be sure to get it and have fun exploring this great state.

I have been a fan of Tom Stienstra's California Camping book for over 12 years. First purchased the 8th Edition from Foghorn Press. This particular edition from Moon is not nearly as well set up as the Foghorn Press editions.

The individuals maps are not as detailed, and much smaller print is used. The gridded "Chapter Reference Map" at the beginning of the Foghorn edition has now been replaced by a "California Regions" map not as useful. Foghorn edition also had a "Chapter Features" list of each numbered and named campground on each map, this is missing in the Moon edition. The foghorn edition also had a foldout California map in the back, quite useful if you forget to bring a map and this is also missing in the Moon edition.

As the previous reviewer took exception to the "Scenic ratings" this was not an issue for me personally as this is only a subjective classification. What might be a 5 for some, might be a 10 for someone else. Beauty after all IS in the eye of the beholder. Over the years I have seen many classify McArthur Burney Falls as a beautiful place. I was there once it was hot, dusty, not much of a falls and in my humble opinion not very pretty at all. Anyway, you get my point on that, I would never visit a place solely based on someones view of it.

All in all the Moon edition is useful if you have nothing else, but I for one am glad I retained my old Foghorn Press 11th edition, and oh Tom, if you happen to read this, please go back to Foghorn, and that format for the next edition

Based on the summary the book sounded amazing for someone like me, who aspires to travel everywhere! To me this book seems like a pre-cursor or more mature version of a 2006 (I think?) book entitle Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Parts of this book were a bit slow to me & while it is supposed to be a documentary of Steinbach's life with some advice worked in, I found certain parts hard to relate to. Specifically, Steinbach constantly refers to her childhood memories & imagines relatives of her past in her [then] present situations. I am 25 so am not @ the same point she is/was, which is why I'd say this book is more "mature". I just could not connect MY family/MY emotions with HER relatives & HER personal memories.

Nonetheless, there are some wonderful life lessons that anyone, of any age, can take away from this book. Likewise, Steinbach artfully mixes in traveling advice. Last, I liked that she covered typical, popular cities (i.e. Paris) for traveling but also undiscovered, off-the-beaten-path cities as well! I would recommend this and/or read again, just not a favorite.

This was one of those books that I did not want to end. I enjoyed hearing about the author's travels and her experiences. I found her to be interesting and curious about the places and the people she encountered. She shared her experiences and her feelings in an intimate and friendly way. I look forward to reading her other books.

Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach looked like a good book as I strolled through Barnes n Noble bookstore one afternoon. So I bought it and couldn't wait to get home and start reading it. I think I got maybe halfway through it before the sheer boredom nearly knocked me out. I have several issues with this book and I'm going to address all of them.

First, I am 30 years old. The writer of this book is potentially in her 40s or 50s and I wasn't too interested or excited by her lifestyle. Separated with kids is not appealing to me. There was not even a remote stitch of sensualness to her character - to me, it was reading the boring travels of a middle aged woman - and sometimes, it felt like she was already in her 70s.

Second, no one I know travels to Europe and just walks into cafe's and meets and makes friends that easily. As much as I'd like to talk to others, I'm also very careful when I'm in a foreign country. I found it hard to believe that she made all these perfect friendships everywhere she went.

Third, the Japanese man she had a "relationship" with. It was never outright stated whether they had sex and most of the time she spent describing scenery when they were together. A virtual sleep fest. Again, this made the author appear to be in her 70s.

Fourth, once she left Paris - I tried to continue reading on for the London and Italy journeys but I must admit the lack of dialogue and overall lack of interest kept me from doing this. She spent eight pages being ill and talking about that...and I was bored to tears.

I recently travelled for business and brought the book with me in the hopes I could finish it on the plane. I could barely read through it and had wished instead that I bought a glossy magazine. As I exited the airport, I threw the book away. $14.95 ill spent dollars and I refuse to tolerate that.

I will not buy anything further from this author.

There is a lot to say about Steinbach's travel memoir. Unfortunately, most of it isn't good. The author tries to use allusions (mostly of the literary kind) that stick out awkwardly in the prose and are usually inappropriate; her metaphors are forced and distract the reader from the storyline. Many of her observations are corny, and the conversations and people she meets seem contrived and unrealistic. I'm not sure it's possible to create that many close personal friendships without the use of exaggeration. Steinbach has a grating way of using colons (which, believe it or not, is actually something one begins to notice because it is so irritating). Furthermore, she continuously dumbs down the reader with constant repetition and explanations of siutations that are very easy to understand. Steinbach also has a knack for creating a problem or drama where there is none - for instance, this gem: "The problem was, the Amalfi Coast was almost too much of a good thing," which prompted two paragraphs filled with a dilemma that was neither valid nor interesting. Overall, this book is forgettable. The secondary characters (believabilty aside) are more interesting than the author, and some of the images (when not being overused) are worth seeking out. Otherwise, the consumer should feel free to find something else, and not waste one's time on a piece of repetitious claptrap.

I think the title is odd because Alice Steinbach definitely had reservations about going on the trip and she made most of her overnight reservations before she left.

A very pleasant book, but it really isn't about being alone--it's more about the people she met. Which is fine because that's what made the book interesting sometimes. Her dreams, earlier regrets, and postcards to herself are perfect for the nights when it's hard to get to sleep.

I enjoyed reading about her romance with the Japanese gentleman. Actually, I've been to Japan many times and was astonished by it. I also loved her story about the young woman she met in Italy who was to be married soon. That was excellent.

All-in-all, it's a pleasant and well written read and I felt as though the author could be a friend. Maybe because I'm about the age now that she was when she was on the trip. It might have been a wonderful adventure for her, but for me it was just a sweet travel memoir.

The book is wonderful and what is even more wonderful for me is that I LIVE in one of the dream destinations...beautiful Bucks County PA.

I got it and read it in less than a month over Mexico and US while traveling birding.... even big small-letters book, the history and stories of Sir. Darwin in South America are awesome... inspiring!!....
a must read book!!!...

saludos,
Diego
www.colombiabirding.com

One of the amazing things about the voyage of the Beagle is that Darwin survived it! On the voyage south along the eastern coast of South America and then later on the western coast he would frequently take to the land and meet the Beagle at its next port of call further south or north. He would travel the land hiring gauchos or other guides and horses and mules so that he could study the geology and the flora and fauna. The hardships and dangers he encountered and survived would in some ways put Indiana Jones to shame. In Patagonia amidst the constant gaucho and Indian wars, rife with wanton bloodshed and a kind of genocidal determinism, Darwin rode on horseback and slept on the ground and ate mostly animal flesh of all kinds, including mare's flesh. In Tierra del Fuego the cold and barren lands were enormously forbidding, the inhabitants savage and the dangers very real. One senses in the young Charles Darwin a determination to be the kind of naturalist who leaves no stone unturned, no ridge unclimbed and no species uncollected.

What most surprised me was how well and vibrantly he described the many people he met. Here he speaks of the governor of St. Fe: his "favourite occupation is hunting Indians: a short time since he slaughtered forty-eight, and sold the children at the rate of three or four pounds apiece" (from the entry of Oct 3 and 4, 1832). And here is his description of Queen Pomarre of Tahiti: "The queen is a large awkward woman, without any beauty, grace or dignity. She has only one royal attribute: a perfect immovability of expression under all circumstances" (entry of November 25, 1835). Darwin was quite taken with the Tahitians lauding their sobriety (thanks to the temperance movement of the missionaries) while at the same time bringing a flask of spirits on his travels there. He seemed unaware of any inconsistency.

I was also surprised by Darwin's vigor. I had thought that he was prone to being sickly, and indeed at times, he reports that he was confined to his quarters and that he suffered from seasickness and even homesickness; but when one considers all the miles he travelled on foot, on horseback, and all the mountain peaks he obtained, and the deserts he crossed, the many insects bites he endured, and the hard, cold and wet ground on which he often slept, one has to applaud his strength of body and character. Another surprise was the amount of time he devoted to geology and speculations about the how the land came to be the way he found it. When he spoke of how the land had risen and the mountains formed I had the sense of how thrilled he would have been to have had the modern understanding of plate tectonics.

At a couple of points in the narrative, Darwin speaks of how the most luxurious vegetation does not support the greatest number of animals, or the largest. He compares the plains of Africa and Patagonia with the Brazilian rainforest and speculates on why this should be. At no point does he use the term "grasslands," and so I think we can conclude that he didn't have the knowledge we have today about how fertile grasslands can be, nor did he realize that most of the nutrients in the rain forest are contained within the living plants and organisms above ground leaving the soil relatively poor compared to grassland soil. In the entry for September 15, 1832, he writes: "In grassy plains unoccupied by the larger ruminating quadrupeds, it seems necessary to remove the superfluous vegetation by fire, so as to render the new year's growth serviceable."

Another bit of modern knowledge that would have pleased him to know is that the marine iguanas of the Galapagos Islands cannot just jump into the very cold water that exists there but must warm themselves first, and even then can only stand the water for a limited period of time (an hour or two, I believe). Darwin kept tossing one of the lizards into the water only to watch it return inexplicably again and again to the land.

I was looking for hints that Darwin was already thinking about natural selection, but the text contains nothing that I could find that is directly specific although at one point he refers to the origin of species as that "mystery of mysteries."

The book was written (and obviously rewritten and polished many times over) after Darwin returned to England after comparing notes with other naturalists. The advantage of this approach is the scientific rigor with which he is able to describe and evaluate his experiences. As a professional scientist, Darwin wanted to get all the scientific names right and avoid errors. One would expect through this approach that some immediacy would be lost, but if anything I suspect his journal gained in vividness and was made all the more intriguing for the precision of expression. It is, after all these years, still a most engaging and readable account of a most remarkable adventure--one of the best I've ever read, and I am surprised that it took me so many years to get to it!

The Voyage of the Beagle is also a book that will stay in print for many decades if not centuries to come, partly because it is so well written, and partly because Darwin is Darwin, but also because he was so precise in his descriptions of the animals and the people and the lands that he visited. By reading this we and future generations can learn of the changes that have taken place.

In short I was thoroughly dazzled at Darwin's enormously wide range of knowledge. But I shouldn't have been. In just reading this journal, one can easily see that young Mr. Darwin was already a superb naturalist and a brilliant thinker and observer.

Forget the image of Darwin as an old white-beard scholar. In The Voyage of The Beagle, written in 1839, we have the discoverer of the theory of evolution as an energetic young man in his early twenties travelling aroung the world in a three-mast ship. After a brief stop in Cape Verde, he travels to then slaveholding Brazil (where he visits for the first time a tropical jungle), to the Plata region (he visits both Buenos Aires and Montevideo and travels on horseback on the surroundings), to the Patagonia (where he meets strongman Juan Manuel de Rosas as he launches a campaign against the pampa Indians), the Falkland Islands, Southern Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego (where they bring back three Fuegians previously kidnapped by an earlier expedition), Chile from south to north, the Galapagos Islands (whose findings would be crucial for the theory of evolution), Polynesia, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa. As he travels, he writes about both the natural history of the places as well as the people he meets. He does a lot of fearless things, travelling on horseback around the Pampas then under the dominion of hostile indians, crossing the Andes from Chile to Argentina through some of the world's highest mountains outside the Himalayas, witnessing the life of the now extinguished Fuegians (considered to be among the most primitive societies in the world), crossing the dense, cold forests of the island of Chiloe, witnessing the aboriginal australians as they cope with the massive arrival of white people to their land, seeing the gravestone of Napoleon Bonaparte in the island of Saint Helena. Darwin was no racist and he forcefully denounces the slavery he witnesses in Brazil (in this respect, he was much more thoughtful and liberal than some of his later disciples). In short, one of the greatest travel/adventure books by one of the greatest scientists of all time.

Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle is an interesting, but often tedious detail of his journey around the world. With this in mind, I would have to recommend this book to the Darwin enthusiast and to those who are just looking for a deeper grasp of Darwin, the man. It's not for anyone looking for a quick, easy, or particularly exciting or sensationalist read. If that's what you're looking for, I recommend Cyril Aydon's biography.

With this disclaimer, the book really does offer insight into Darwin and why this journey would be such a critical point in his life. Darwin is incredibly observant, and details flora and fauna throughout with sometimes discouraging detail. But this fact just gives us a clue as to what made this man different from all the other preeminent scientists of the day. Why did Darwin fully get evolution while the others didn't? Certainly this incredible power to really see things provided him with evidence that others might have missed.

My favorite parts would have to be Darwin's description of his time in the inside of South America and his interactions with the people living there. His reactions were varied. He often voices disgust at the barbarism of the settlers towards the Indians in the wars that occur there, while simultaneously describing the Indians as savages with terrible habits. Overall, however, he seems impressed with South America from the classical liberal point of view, saying "It is impossible to doubt that the extreme liberalism of these countries, must ultimately lead to good results." It would be interesting to see what Darwin would think of South America today. Throughout the book he adamately denounces the slavery sees with a keen insight, saying of an escaped slave woman who killed herself rather than be reenslaved, "In a Roman matron this would have been called the noble love of freedom: in a poor negress it is mere brutal obstinancy." Darwin was ahead of his time in this respect.

The part of the book covering his time in the Galapagos is surprisingly short, at least in respect to the emphasis Darwin later put on his time in the islands. It's also interesting to consider Darwin's reaction to them (he thought they were ugly and barren) when considering the impact the diversity of species on the islands played in his evidence for evolution.

All in all, the book has really good, insightful things to pick up, but other parts, such as Darwin's lengthy description of the masses of tiny floating sea creatures, I could have done without. Pick it up if you are really looking to put together a really complete picture of Darwin's life, with tedious details included.

Much as is the case with the Penguin edition of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species," this relatively inexpensive edition is packed with helpful features that add to the reader's understanding of what Darwin was about on his prolonged scientific voyage. First among these features is an excellent introduction by Janet Browne and Michael Neve, both of that wonderful Wellcome Institute in London. Dr. Browne is the author of what many consider to be the finest biography of Darwin ever written; Dr. Neve also has contributed to the Darwin literature. Although 26 pages in length, a bit shorter than that in the "Origin" edition by J.W. Burrow, this introduction nicely puts the "Journal of Researches" into context, while pointing out several areas that are of special interest to the reader. While the text is abridged about 1/3 in length, a Note carefully explains how and why the deletions were made. For example, nothing relating to the Galapagos has been cut. The editors have added a brief guide to the individuals and books mentioned in the text which is quite helpful. Also added as appendices are the Admiralty Instructions for the Beagle voyage and an essay by Captain Robert FitzRoy on "Remarks with reference to the Deluge," reflecting his reversion to traditional Christian thinking during the voyage. Several very helpful maps and a chronology are also included, which come in quite handy. Obviously, it is of immeasurable value to read the "Journal of Researches" in conjunction wit the "Origin." One comes away truly amazed at the dedication and professionalism of Darwin (who was only 22 when he commenced his five year excursion) as he collects his speciments and charts various geological dimensions. So, this book is to my way of thinking indispensable for getting a grasp on Darwin, and this skillfully edited edition makes the experience a most pleasing one.