Nevada Books

I am heading for Las Vegas again very soon and am going through this book very carefully to decide where I will do most of my playing. This is the 3rd time I am using this book as a reference to guide me to the best places to play slots and video poker. I had hoped a newer edition would be out by now, hence the 4 rating rather than a 5, but don't let that stop you from buying this book. The am't of info
contained in this book will guide the new and the veteran
Las Vegas gambler alike. I won't leave home without it!

This is the 1995 edition which, while useful in showing how Slot Clubs work, is hopelessly outdated in its particulars. I had understood that there would be a 1998 edition which would have been more useful. None of the newer casinos is listed here because of the book's age. I also know for fact that the club at MGM Grand has changed its modus operandi since this book was written. If you want an overview of how slot clubs work, this book could be for you. I cannot recommend it for current information.

I thought that this book was an excellent starter when planning a vacation to "Sin City" with the kids. My husband and I were worried that it would be a vacation where we stayed in the hotel for 5 days and swam by the pool. However, we were able to use this book to plan our days. We were able to find local parks, historical sites and some pretty good restaurants. In addition, the book gave us ideas to keep our 8 year old active by trying things that we would not normally have done (i.e., horseback riding, etc.) The book broke down which hotels were "kid friendly" and what amenities were available to us at the hotel. My son was so excited about this vacation that he still talks about it to everyone more than a year later. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who has children and wants to stay away from the casinos.

There is very little in this book that isn't covered elsewhere in more detail. I bought this book and "The Complete Idiot's Travel Guide to Las Vegas" before a trip to Las Vegas with my two sons. The Complete Idiot's Guide had lots more info including info about kid friendly hotels, things to see, etc. Neither book included information about which hotels let kids stay free which was info that I was looking for.
Las Vegas With Kids includes lots of what to me was worthless information - for example: 5 pages are used to list the airlines that fly into Las Vegas, another 6 pages of websites for hotels, packing lists that list only the obvious (and only for the summer season).
My advice would be to buy a general travel guide to Las Vegas and don't bother with this book.

Very highly recommended, Magpies And Mayflies: An Introduction To Plants And Animals Of The Central Valley And Sierra Foothills is knowledgeably co-authored by Derek Madden, Ken Charters and Cathy Snyder. An invaluable resource for ecological explorers of (and casual visitors to) the central valley and Sierra Foothills. Magpies And Mayflies is a perfectly "user friendly", informed and informative guide to flora and fauna of the fields and hills of the beautiful and endless Sierra area.

Magpies and Mayflies is written by three scientists which implies the writing is factual and trustworthy. I happen to be a bat specialist so naturally turned first to the chapter on bats and was amazed by the innaccuracies and plain heresey. The authors make the claim that "airborne droplets of urine loosed by bats inside of houses have infected humans with rabies". This is an absolute fairy tale unsupported by any evidence what-so-ever and perpetuates the myth that bats are dangerous and scary creatures.

The ONLY case where humans may have contracted rabies through areoslized virus was two spelunkers in prolonged and inimate contact with MILLIONS of bats in a New Mexico cave in the 1950's - and the validity of even these cases is seriously questioned by the CDC.

By chance I flipped to page 121 where the authors claim the red legged frog is "only found in the Coast Range and Golden Gate Park". In fact, colonies of red legged frogs have been under long term study across the Sierra foothills.

For a natural science book to be so laced with serious errors does a disservice to any reader who cannot separate the fact from the fiction. I would suggest spending the time reading a few field guides rather than Magpies and Mayflies.

I was really surprised that there was another Nevada book by Zane Grey. I had originally wanted another copy of the first book, Nevada, but when I saw this one I just had to buy it. Thanks!

Book was not written by Zane Grey, but by his son. He is nowhere near the author that his father was. There were numerous typos and mistakes all through the book. I bought the book beleiving it was written by Zane
Grey, but it was based on characters created by Zane Grey.
Very dissapointing.

I picked this book up while I was in a museum in Reno. The author is the brother of the former U.S. Senator from Nevada, Paul Laxalt. I took a few tours while I was in Reno (along with some gambling)and when I later read this book, I knew what book my guides had read, prior to doing their job with the tourists. I doubt if any state's history can be made interesting, but Laxalt does a good job. Nevada is an interesting state compared to the rest of the nation, and the author relates why: precious metals, prize fighting, easy divorce, legal hooking and gambling. All in a state that is at heart very conservative.
This is a short read, and for those who travel to Vegas or Reno often, a necessary read. Why did Nevada become the way it did? The book answers this question and details some of the interesting characters of Nevada (Mark Twain, Bugsy Seigal, along with a number of politicos). At a little over 130 pages, this is a great read to take on the plane to Vegas.

I wouldn't recommend this book for new residents. Too dry, facts are slanted toward the monetary rather than the "interesting" side of history.

This the most useless climbing guide I have ever seen.

There are 3 guidebooks available for Red Rocks. The best one one is the new eddition of Mountaineers guide edited by Roxanne Brock, which is a very comrehensive, and gives good route descriptions pitch by pitch. It is similar to 'Falcon' guide; in fact it is a copy of it with much improved topos and graphics. It is also somewhat better organized then 'Falcon' guide and provides stellar guide for each route; very helpful. I definitely recommend it.

The only good thing about supertopo guide are actually topos but unfortunately the number of routes described in this book is very limited. I can only guess that the author included only routes he has done, otherwise I cannot understandthe reason of producing the guidebook to a fenomenal climbing area including only 10% routes or so.

Second problem with the book is a lack of detailed route descriptions; instead the author decided to suggest strategy of doing the route consisting of a statement such as that the route is very popular and you should start early to be first in line to avoid waiting in the que; I guess this is really difficult to figure out yourself.

Third problem with the book is the lack of directions on how to get to the route. OK after few days and after talking to other climbers, who have climbed there for few days, you can get a good orientation but if you don't have anyone to ask for directions, you cannot work-out from this book.

The book looks impressive if you never climbed in Red Rocks, but if you did, it is absolutely useless, unless you really want to limit yourself to a small number of routes described in the book.

So do yourself a favor and don't waste your money for this particular book; go for Mountaineers guide, it is very good and useful. Besides it is cheaper. I bought this book because it was offered in the electronic form and I could print it out and reap easily pages with topos for the route.

And go climbing in Red Rocks, it is really a stellar climbing area.

I've got every Red Rocks guide ever published, which is about 10 books, including a really old one published in Rock and Ice around 1982. This guide is not comprehensive but contains a good selection of classic long routes. One thing I enjoyed was the historical information on each route. For example, Triassic Sands has a section on the history of this climb that can't be found anywhere else.

However, if you just want to get up these routes you may think all this history is unnecessary. Red Rocks is a difficult area for one guide book as there are such a wide variety of climbs, from single pitch sport routes to multi-pitch sport routes to full day trad affairs. This book does seem to emphasize the latter and if you are more into sport climbing you are probably better off buying one of the comprehensive guides.

The photos in this book are superb. The online version, in particular, has some really good shots. I guess they reproduce better on a monitor than on paper.

This is a facsimile of the 1859 Report presented by the Army, Corps of topographical engineers.

There wasn't anything to review...how do you see the preview to review?

This book was slanted to create confusion. The truth behind this incident was never fully disclosed to the public. Yes, Mr. Tarkanian is a great coach, but the picture that prompted the entire deal was never about him. The reason why the picture appeared in the public is a greater story than you could ever imagine, and no one thought of asking the right questions. Mr.Yaeger missed many of the facts with his own interpretation of reality, but that's what a scandel is all about? Some day the true story will be told!

I enjoyed this book, mainly because I am a fan of Jerry Tarkanian. I would read this again because I found it enjoyable. I did not live in Vegas while Tark was there, so I can't verify if it's truthful or not, but it is a good read.

Sierra and Desert Rails is a fun look at a bygone era with good photos and interesting text to put it all in context. Worth having.

The photos are excellend and of great interest and historical value. Unfortunately, the printing and reproduction is very poor.

Comprehensive is right, tells you things the others don't, user friendly, not a lot of coded abbreviations to look up. Pop the CD in the lap top, search the city and you are there. All you need now is a road map and a cell phone Book has lots of handy phone numbers and all the information you'll need about where you are going. Don't have a lap top, then get the book its a must have!

I just received Volume's 1 and 2 today (Washington/Oregon and California/Nevada today, and am returning them tomorrow. They are the worst camping resources I have ever seen. Literally they are nothing more than alpha lists of public campgrounds organized by state with a handful of low res JPEG images thrown in, all in a Word document. The two that I bought were two megabits and four megabits respectively in total size. They could have put all ten volumes on a single CD and had room left over for a listing of every retaurant, gas station, and parts store in America. Amazing that someone else rated this five stars; I can only assume it was the author or a friend of the author.

As a CD ROM, I naturally assumed that this would be an interactive version of a book. Not a chance, it's just text, and the pages scroll down the screen with two pages per screen, except that it's not even formatted to fit a normal screen, so you have to scroll down to finish a page, and then scroll back up to start the opposing page. The information contained therein is just publicly available facts that could be obtained from numerous government websites, all without editorial comment or useful descriptions. I don't know why Amazon would even carry this product, or if they feel they have to carry everything, they should at least give you a warning.