These Cognoscenti things have done to maps what cooking did to food. They are highly palatable (readable) and edible (don't make me dizzy). I used to get into auto accidents using giant maps that would cover the whole windshield while I tried to drive, so you can imagine how skeptical I was when my friend told me about Cognoscenti "Map" Guides. Turns out these things are so clear ANYONE can use them. With my Cognoscenti Map Guide in hand I felt like I could help people around New York! It truly made New York accesible to people like me. Thanks Cognoscenti Map Guides.

After causing several car accidents due to large fold-out maps covering my windhsield as I attempted to roar down interstates I was a tad skeptical when my friend Joey told me Cognoscenti Map Guides were the best guides he'd seen. I was used to large guide books which would weigh me down and take up space in my pack I could have used for skotch. But this guide has it all. Tons of info AND a slim and sleak design. Thank you COgnscenti!

Who are the people of Cognoscenti and how have they suddenly come to be making such wonderful map guides? It is as if they have plummed the depths of every wayfarer's knowledge of the great city and are out to tell all. I am an old man, wary of travel, easily confused, hesitant of adventure. But this guide has taken care of everything - well-labeled maps, distinctive descriptions of sites, a concise history of the area, suggestions for a memorable evening. Well worth it.

If you are interested in Ethiopia, this book provides a pictured guide to the country, its history and its sites. The photography is amazing.

This is an incredibly lovely book that shows the various groups of people that make up Ethiopia. A must read, that's informative, educational and thoroughly enjoyable.

This work of art in nothing less than excellent!!

If you are a student of New York City or among the millions who love it, Kenneth Jackson's mammoth Encyclopedia is indispensible. I began using it as a reference book for my novel, The Five Points. Before I knew it, I was reading it from cover to cover. What a ride! What an achievement! While loaded with gorgeous illustrations, this is no coffee table book. This is a fact-filled guide to assist the serious student and amorous admirer through the intricacies of the greatest city on Earth. And unlike most books about New York City, this encyclopedia actually covers the other four boroughs, not just Manhattan! The enormous effort that went into this book will be gratefully acknowledged by anyone who reads it.

Just make sure you have plenty spare time when you pick this volume up. It is so addictive - you look something up, then something else catches your eye and before you know it two hours have passed.
I love New York and this book has definately increased my pleasure and knowledge of the city.

This is a great reference book to keep around. Great gift idea to New Yorkers who think they know everything about this great city.

I found the Eyewitness Guide to be unexpectedly detailed in listing the various sights of the city, though not nearly as much as a more textual guide, e.g., the Fodor's. I'm sure, however, the photography is an element which helps tourists orient themselves quite a bit more easily than the more cumbersome (but more informative) Fodor's. That said, quite a bit of history and explanation is woven into the Eyewitness as well, and it makes up for its relative conciseness with enticing design. The guide is a book which would actually make one want to visit New York, and one which makes navigation within it quite simplified. Furthermore, it seems more portable. Combining quite a bit of information with the visual beauty of a National Geographic guide made this a success.

The guide does seem to be tailored quite a bit toward non-American tourists, with descriptions of how payphones work and of American cuisine. Still, a bit of laughably obvious information to Americans is made up for with such features as two page spreads for relatively unvisited museums and attractions, with isometric diagrams and "must-see" exhibits.

I have been collecting DK's travel guides for a long time and the least I can say about them is that there are absolutely no such travel guides available in bookshops like these ones. They capture all the very best of the cities and countries and allow you to enjoy the most of your travel destination.

Concerning to New York City, DK again manages to do a great job. I doubt there is a better way to explore NY.

I've been in NY three times. At the end of June, I will be there again. How could I get in the plane without DK travel guide???

It's a must buy, believe me. Guarantee your copy right away!!!

I live outside of New York City and rarely visit the city. But after Sept 11th I wanted a guide that I could use to explore the places I've never been to (as well as ones I have been to). The DK Guides are great for the amount of information they provide and this guide is no exception. There is information in this book that even a native New Yorker may not know. The book talks about the history and architecture of buildings that you may otherwise walk by. There are museums that I've never heard of. There are street by street maps of some of Manhattan's great neighborhoods. I have used the book to plan a walking trip from Penn Station to Rockefeller Center and back via Time Square. I am planning many future walking trips with this book. If the book is two heavy to carry, buy two. One for permanent reference and the other to "rip out" the pages of the places you are planning to visit. This guide book is well worth the money.

If you're a dog parent, you tend to know the green spaces around where you live, but when you go afield, you need a guide. This book is invaluable for telling you where to take your dog in Boston and the surrounding towns. If you have a dog and you are looking for an apartment or for real estate in the Boston area, you absolutely need this book.

The only criticism I have is that the book is retriever-centric, meaning it favors parks with bodies of water and ball-throwing possibilities. Different types of dogs need different types of parks; some need good squirrel-chasing capabilities, some need a large fenced area so they can run, some need to be able to swim, some need puppy play-groups, and some need to go where other dogs don't go. The book's ratings favor swimming possibilities, but if you read the descriptions, you can get a sense of whether or not your dog will like a given park.

I will use this book many times. It will be a resource for me when I want to take Pluto to new places. I do think that Great Brook State Park should make it to the top dog list. And also would recommend that the MSPCA Mutts and Fluff and Stuff Annual walk and pet show be added to the list of doggy diversions. All in all a great book and fun resource. I envy George and Inu and owners for the research process:)

When we arrived in the Boston Metro area with our golden retriever, this was the first book we bought. It is a god-send! Immensely detailed and highly accurate, it lists hundreds of places to take your dog in Boston, the surrounding communities, the Cape, and even as far afield as New Hamsphire. The book is divided into 12 geographic areas. In turn, each broad region is sub-divided by town. Within each town, Downey and Lau first list Parks, Beaches, and Recreation Areas. These are subjectively rated from 1 to 4 paws. In our experience, one paw sites are only good for a quick pitstop. Four paw sites, however, are routinely wonderful. Usefully, a running dog symbol indicates off-leash parks. Directions, a map, and a reasonably detailed description of the facilities follow. Downey and Lau also list for each towndog-friendly restaurants, accomodations, festivals, pet sitters, and the like. So far their advice has been dead accurate--up-to-date and on the money. If you love dogs and live in the Boston area, you need this book. Highly recommended.

An extremely readable, well written account of Model-T's first thru-hike in 1990. I was surprised by the heft of the book (542 pages!), but I'm sailing through it. He maintains a good balance of philosophy, landmarks, side topics, and people. Some of his digressions become a little predictable and repetitive; some of the writing can prove overly flowery (kind of like my 12-year old doing Creative Writing assignments), but it is evocative. This book was recommended to me on several of the A.T. bulletin boards, and I can see why. Enjoy!

I've read a about 8-10 "AT thru-hiker" books since deciding to thru-hike the trail and this is, in my opinion, the best by far. Not just another "today I walked x miles and had x meals", but a wonderfully told story of a terrific adventure and the people who helped make it so. No forced "and then I had my epiphanic, sterling moment of truth", no mind-numbing whining. Model-T writes of beautiful vistas, interesting people and adventures, tossed with a realistic dose of the kind of exhaustion, grunginess, hunger and pain thru-hikers must surely endure. I made myself wait two weeks to start it again, and am reading it even more slowly this time, just to make it last. I hope to meet Model-T someday and thank him for the most excellent tale!

As a fellow Appalachian Trail Thru-hiker, I have to say that this book gave the most accurate description of what a thru-hike on the A.T. is really like. Model-T has a witty and often ofbeat sense of humor that I found hilarious. Before my thru-hike, I read close to 15 books about the Appalachian Trail and found this one to be by far the best. Enjoy!
D-con, class of 2002

If you've ever topped a drive off the first tee or missed a three-footer on 18 while trying record your career low round, you'll be able to identify with Charles Slack's golf game. When it comes to writing, though, he's scratch. One brief example will suffice. Describing the contrast between the front and back nines at the Ponce De Leon course in St. Augustine Florida, he says, "The back nine plunges into the jungle with the suddenness of a Disney ride, into a lush, dark, secretive world of mangrove swamps and ponds curving tantalizingly like lost lagoons. Moving from the ninght to the tenth holes is like putting down a volume of P.G. Wodehouse and picking up Heart of Darkness, all in one morning."

The book is filled with wonderful insights like that one and reminds us on nearly every page of the real reasons why golfers love this sometimes maddening, often magical, game. For those of us who never will have the pleasure of sharing a round with Charles Slack, this book is a delightful substitute.

Blue Fairways is thoroughly enjoyable. Slack's sense of humor, coupled with his self-deprecating writing style, make this a must read -- golfer or not. I laughed out loud and also cringed as he described some less-than-stellar golf moments. For those of us who do golf, who couldn't identify with The Look of Pity? Non-golfers will enjoy the way Slack captures what most of us will never have a chance to witness first hand -- the essence of what remains of small towns and hospitality as they teeter on the brink of chain restaurants and cynicism.

We should all be grateful to Barbara Slack for permitting her husband to take an extended leave from family to indulge in a golfing odyssey that starts at the top of Route 1 in northern Maine and finishes in the Florida keys. His gift for describing the pleasures and perils afforded by public courses and their denizens fills the pages with rich humor, colorful stories, and canny insights. Slack is the Everyman golfer, scattering too many 8's and an occasional birdie on scorecards wherever he goes, but never giving up on his hopeless quest to get one round below 80. His blackest throes and most transcendent exultations are so well expressed that they capture thoughtscapes that you will swear you have experienced after selected shots. His descriptions of the courses and the scenery that line Route 1 are vivid and engaging. In its modest way, this book is an apotheosis to the democratization of golf that marks the end of our century. Even as John Updike strides the luxurious fairways of his Myopia Hunt Club in relative seclusion, Slack introduces us to boisterous companions wandering among the dry divots of Dyker Beach, Cobb's Creek and Pohick Bay. A great holiday gift for the public golfer, and one that will make the country club member reconsider the humanity he may have forsaken when he entered Shangri-La.

A very nice read, with some memorable metaphors, such as the rowboat moving at the speed of a hand moving stealthily toward the swatting of a mosquito. Strangely, I found such throwaway lines the most diverting. Stone's experiences of the places and people he encounters generally fell a bit short of vivid or gripping or perceptive. And why wouldn't he include Laurent de Brunhoff's sketch of Babar plying the oars? Finally, the nitpicking editor in me asks: "plebian"? "miniscule"? Doesn't Broadway Books have a spellchecker?

Being a guy who loves messing around in boats and having traveled overland near many of these places I have been fascinated by his journey. It makes me want to get a canoe, load it with my tent, bag and go. It's a modern version of "The Walk across America" or "Caught on the inside". Part of the reason for only having sketches of the people he met is that on a journey like this one, you don't have time to fully know everyone you meet. Also the book would have been a tome that only the most dedicated would be able to plow through.

Stone presents a unique prospective of American people, values and geography. While the book is about a physical feat, the real story lies with the characters and e challenges. If you've seen America fro a bar, train and plane, you're in for a treat!

A different style of book with a unique approach to traveling in Massachusetts. The content is worth 4 or 5 stars. But this book does not allow printing! In the case of a travel ebook, this is unfortunate. Are we expected to take a PC with us on our travels? Until such tight restrictions are lifted, this book's value is limited.

"An interesting and charming book where Tougias writes free and poetic. He recounts his experiences in a concise and welcoming way." The Standard Times

"Different form other travel books in that it's a little bit travel, a little bit history, and a little bit personal diary." Dartmouth Chronicle

I liked the fact that this map covered Manhattan in its entirety, but found the printing on the map a bit too tiny, and you had to turn it over to see the continuation of the island. Other than that, it is a good basic map and handy fold up size. Also quite sturdy.

I lived in Manhattan for 10 years, and I lived by this map. It's essential.

This is the map to get - small enough to not make you look like a big dork if you need to do a quick "map check" while out on the streets and very easy to carry around, but with plenty of detail, and very easy to immediately read with important buildings marked. It's also laminated for durability.

This little map really increased our enjoyment of New York, and I can recommend it with confidence.