New Zealand Books

Desiring a travel map for the purpose of driving, I found this map inadequate. It was difficult to read because the towns were printed in very small print with little coordination of print size to size of town. Generally the city map inserts were good. The map legend or reference referred only to the city inserts so there was no description of roads, train routes, tunnels, hiking tracks etc. I prefer the Kiwi Pathfinder map series or the Wises maps.

It was a great extra to get sites from the lord of the rings marked. A little hard to follow while driving because of the size of map and so many locations mapped out, a little overwhelming. Not all city areas are shown in detail which makes it difficult to find hotels when smaller road names are not listed.

Lots of myths from different regions- all seem descriptive of things similarly/ repetitively and didn't take me anywhere deep or special enough. I was hoping for real accounts and medicine-wisdom; stories of the spirit world and dreamtime adventures, communicating with animals and creatures, adventuring/ questing/ saving/ healing, but its fables/legends are more just this is how the platypus got its beak sort but not even that interesting. There's a few legends and fables that I enjoyed and the immersion in some place so different and its peoples good spirituality but it didn't do much for me. It seems like the pretty jacket is bait and something a less interesting history course might have as its text. Immature-like, general, too comprehensive stuff an outsider without much initiation would receive and/or find through much time spent scanning archives and records- it makes closer to the Earth peoples sound dumb/ "childish"/ uneducated/ easily impressionable- lends itself to such false impressions. Funny in that- recalling the tricks natives play and distractions they give to those who have such an approach and level, at times, but really, not funny in that it was and is defense against wrongful invasion and similar behaviors and/or the wisdom of giving only what one is ready for. I've learned to understand what the title words meant better. As a whole, it's not something right to kill and process trees for.

Well, I'm always sorry when I need to write a negative review about the book - even more if the book is about the rail travel (perhaps books from Trailblazer spoiled me to much). Anyway, based on Amazon prediction that similar title "Australia by rail" from Trailblazer (by the same author, Colin Taylor) is soon to be published (January 2001) I postponed for awhile the decision to order this book. At the end I ordered this one because my deadline to departure was coming close and Trailblazer version was not published yet. Compared with Trailblazer rail guides this one was more or less useless during my preparation of itinerary for a trip from Perth to Cairns. There is way to much information on itineraries prepared by the author which are suitable only for those people willing to spend almost all vacation time on the train. Do you know anyone? I don't. Author included some very basic information and recommendation about the cities, sightseeing's, walks...but without some clear organization. You'll definitely need another, better organized guide to get some basic travel information about Australia or New Zealand.
I really hope that author will rewrite and most importantly reorganize the content for Trailblazer version of the guide because it would be pity not to share his vast travel experience with others.

This book is far too detailed (too much information) with facts not needed by a non-historian reader. It is very hard to read and boring. I donated it to the local library after struggling through 100 pages.

It was torture to get through this book. I had to read it for a class, and it was so boring.

Read about tthe book on forums and was exited to get it on amazon. Unfortunately book is completely outdated and useless our dates. You will find much better and practical advice on sites like bambi and thaivisa. Good luck!

I was not satisfied academically. It is like a PhD thesis with a strange theoretical argument. I was disappointed.

The word Gantsara, means alone in Mongolian. I found it odd that the author chose this word for the title of the book because although he traveled alone, he was never by himself more than a few hours at a time, the whole way. Ian Robinson sets out alone on horseback to travel the length of Mongolia but never does he fail to find Mongolian nomad families every day that welcome him in to their homes and hearts to keep him company on his journey. The only thing I found wonderful and interesting about this very dull story, was the Mongolian people themselves and their incredible generous natures and customs of unending hospitality. Other than that this book is one long boring read, just like the ride. Each day was the same, each week was nothing but riding, trying to buy horses and drinking tea with the locals. I found this book a lot like Krakauer's Into The Wild, a story I thought was pointless. The author is immature, unprepared, takes on dangerous adventures without a care to his safety or the safety of his horses. He has a bad temper and acts very childish most of the time. In a nutshell he did no planning and left this trip to whim and was just plain stupid, and lucky to have survived on so little knowledge and experience before he started. Without the unending hospitality and generosity of the Mongolian people, he would have been lost and would have died. That said, the book is just a boring read because frankly, not much happens that is interesting. His days were unbelievable repetitious, and each page you turn reads like the previous one and the entire book continues in this fashion. Also I found many words and lines used over and over again leaving me often thinking to myself, "didn't I just read that?". I have read many other adventure travel books, and have read two others of Mongolian adventures and Gobi Crossings. All much more engaging, exciting and page turning. I think this is the most boring of all the adventure travel books I've ever read and would not recommend this to anyone unless they wanted to sincerely know what the people of Mongolia were like and what they had to offer strangers. You wont miss a thing by skipping this book.

You get the idea in the foreword and on the back of the book that this is an all-encompassing book about Australian history. It is however nothing more than a summation of the policital leaders and what they did.

Aboriginals are being spoken about in what probably amounts to a few pages in total. There is nothing on sports, personal life, art etc. if there is it is tied into what some Prime Minister did.

It seems a little right-wing history to me, only focused on the leaders and their policy but I don't think you'll get a better understanding of Australia when you read this book.

Fair disclosure: I want to make it clear up front that I am featured in this book. That said, the book is a quasi-intelligent attempt to understand how and why companies undertake Public Affairs and Public Relations campaigns. At almost every turn the author attempts to allege devious meanings to corporate efforts to explain their positions and to interact with stakeholders. Perhaps worse, in my experience, the author, conducts an "Oliver Stonesque" cut and paste of snippets of company documents in an effort to manufacture conspiracies. I will give the author this: If more companies made a greater effort to be transparent about the their motives -- no matter how well-intentioned -- then it would be a lot harder for people like Bob Burton to create books that not only show his lack of understanding of the subject, but also mislead people into thinking that corporate PR is synonymous with espionage. I once had a corporate executive tell me that, "we are not going to be so transparent that our brains fall out our ears." I wonder how his employees, shareholders and other stakeholders would have responded to that kind of statement if it had been uttered in a public forum. Fortunately, like the dynosaurs, this gentleman retired and the latest generation of corporate thinkers do not think you are committing political/public suicide by staking a position and standing behind it. Regrettably, it's the Bob Burton's of this world who simply make their job harder. If you want to read a good spy yarn, read Robert Ludlum. If you want to read good science fiction, read Philip K. Dick. If you want to understand how and why corporations conduct PR, "Inside Spin," is not going to get you there.