Prepare to be dazzled…and to give the biceps a nice workout at the same time. Lonely Planet has released a new book…a tome, really…that takes a quick and dirty and luscious view of many of the world’s great cities. And a couple of the crappy ones too. The book, called simply Lonely Planet The Cities Book ($31.50 on Amazon) is a monster, with the hardcover edition weighing in at almost five pounds. But that is five pounds of eye-savoring goodness. This is not a book you’re going to take with you; this is a book you’re going to keep on your coffee table and salivate on after a long day of work with dreams of long-term international escape flitting about your brain.
The book covers 200 of what the editors call “the most vibrant, diverse, hypnotic and chaotic cities in the world”, which have been given esteemed rank by the people who, presumably, know what they are talking about :namely, Lonely Planet’s staff, authors, and readers. The book contains factoids and information on each city that is enough to whet your whistle, but may also send you to Wikipedia to learn more. Several of the sample sections are: Vital statistics, which provides the city’s strengths (i.e. great views, beaches, interesting culture) and weaknesses (i.e. stodgy cuisine). There are also interesting bits like “Starring role in” which lists the various movies or poetry or books that the cities have been featured in (i.e. Auckland was the place where The Chronic (what?!) cles of Narnia was filmed).
They have obviously made ample use of the Lonely Planet Images stock photo library, because the book is sumptuously illustrated with photos that do a fine job giving you an immediate visual impression of a place. In all honesty, the biggest problem is that you want more. You want the pictures for each city to go on for pages and pages rather than just one or two.
Probably the best part about the book is learning a little bit about cities you’ve never heard of, or know only a little about. (Kyviv, Dhaka, Abuja).
This book would make not only a fine gift, but also a superb addition to your coffee table. It’s the kind of book that you can thumb through as you’re forced to endure some dreary TV show that your wife wants to watch (or was that just me?).