Book Description
An ingeniously simple drawing approach that joins traditional hand drawing techniques with modern technology
Start creating top-quality drawings faster and more effectively-with Drawing Shortcuts. This book presents practical techniques and applications that will improve your drawing skills and help you produce more accurate sketches by incorporating traditional hand drawing methods with today's technology. Easy-to-follow instructions cover every aspect from the basics of drawing-such as composition, color, shading, shadow, and perspective-up to the most current applications of cameras, copiers, and computers to create and reproduce your work.
This book's step-by-step approach will sharpen and streamline your techniques whether you draw for pleasure or for your profession. Generously enriched with detailed process drawings, examples, and more than 300 full-color images, it features:
- Detailed outlines of drawing methods, from "storyboarding" to the "overlay and trace" method
- Timesaving, end-of-chapter "QuickTips" for easy reference
- Guidelines for building a portfolio
- Pointers on selecting materials and maximizing color potential
Customer Reviews:
Excellant for all levels.......2005-08-09
I got this book after participating in a Web Seminar with Mr. Leggitt. I think this is a very good source for anyone that would like to hone their quick drawing skills or look for different approaches for doing presentation drawings from all levels of detail. It might even give you a few ideas about using technology to your advantage to produce quick drawings. I would definately recommend this book to a beginner or students in architecture school. I know that students are always looking for ways to product great looking drawings in a minimal amount of time.
This book was just painful !!!!!!!.......2004-07-15
Very dissapointed in this book...especially since he is an advocate of Sketchup (which is why I anxiously wanted this book). I think some of his shortcuts are ok, but I found the book very, very repetitive (almost painfully) and the authors rendering style is just simply BRUTAL! I mean, it seems as if every one of his renderings include happy,smiley 1980's rocky mountain-type scale figures and all of the scale children hold teddy bears! His library of projects lack any pizzazz and there's just no sophistication to his rendering style. The most tedious read of the year for me.
Why the hype?.......2002-12-17
I was left with the feeling from the other reviews that this book would be great for architects, which it is not. It is more for an art student. If you want a better book on architecture drawing get "Color Drawing: Design Drawing Skills and Techniques for Architects, Landscape Architects, and Interior Designers, 2nd Edition" by Michael E. Doyle
Great Book.......2002-11-25
I am an architecture student. The content of this book isn't by any means revolutionary, but it is smart. Basically the whole argument revolves around tracing as a basis for developing drawings, a concept I kind of thought of as cheating before reading this book. That sounds simple enough, but it is worth buying the book to find out all of the interesting ways he is able to develop a traced framework - ways I would never have thought of. He could have gotten everything he wanted to get across in half the pages, but then the book wouldn't look very serious.
Buy this book: the quality of your drawings may or may not increase from reading it, but you'll be able to produce twice as many in the same time.
Better than chocolate!.......2002-08-28
The only way Jim Leggitt could make this book better would be to package it with a quarter pound of really good chocolates. I've chosen to overlook that omission since this book is exactly what I wanted to use in my rendering classes at the Savannah College of Art & Design. This is a twenty-first century handbook for rendering in color.
Thirty-one students (two classes) proved to me this summer that Drawing Shortcuts works for learning how to make and render drawings in color quickly, effectively and relatively economically. The final projects reflect ten weeks of increasingly stronger skills and confidence in drawing/rendering abilities. Both graduate and undergraduate students with varied levels of computer expertise found value in the Drawing Shortcuts approach of "Let Technology Do Your Dirty Work".
Bottom line: a relaxed learning atmosphere in studio, fearless renderers willing to experiment with color media and striking final projects. The studio professors are commenting on the improvement in rendered drawings in their classes, too. Leggitt's methods are weaning students from a dependence on computer-generated images. The enhanced freehand drawing skills complement the computer drawing skills. Students now have many options for graphic expression which reflect their individual needs and desires.
I teach rendering classes for interior design students in the School of Building Arts at SCAD. We'll be using this book every quarter. Thanks, Jim Leggitt. But think about the chocolates with the second edition of the book!
Book Description
Acrylic is a growing medium, yet there are very few good instruction books on the market. The two most appealing things about Jacqueline Penney's acrylic paintings are first, their subject matter, which transports you of a wonderful, relaxing holiday spot, and second, the ease with which she paints. These two features are emphasized throughout this new book.
The techniques, described in both the body of instruction and special sidebars, highlight the shortcuts Jacqueline has developed to get great results. Aimed at watercolorists who might want to try acrylics as well as beginning to intermediate acrylic painters, Jacqueline's book offers ideas and instruction in a popular painting style while encouraging artists to have fun while they create.
* A great introduction to a medium whose popularity is soaring
* Presents gorgeous artwork mixed with friendly instruction
* Includes 13 mini-demos
Customer Reviews:
nice pictures but..........2002-03-12
I was expecting a little bit more detailed instruction. This book leaves a beginner(at least this one)a little bit at sea.
Good Book for Any Acrylic Painter's Bookshelf.......2001-12-05
If you've never done acrylic painting but would like to try pick up this book. The author does a good job of pointing out some advantages of acrylic over oil while making the important point that neither should be seen as superior to the other. Oil has certain advantages for certain techniques and acrylic has others. They should be treated as two separate mediums, not one as superior or inferior to the other.
Once she finishes showing some of the properties of acrylics there are discussions of preparing various surfaces and laying out a palette for the demonstrations that follow. Unlike most books this one doesn't provide a chapter covering color mixing, composition, values, etc. These things are discussed within the flow of the step-by-step demonstrations. The subject matter for each of the paintings range from still lifes to landscapes to seascapes to florals. You get lessons in painting moonlit skies, sand, pebbles and debris on beaches, oceans, waves, shadows, reflected light, trees, ferns, wildflowers, etc. It is interesting to see the variety of surfaces used for these demonstrations. Everything from canvas to hardboard to rice paper is used. Several chapters detail some beautiful textural techniques that add variety and interest to the background of the subjects.
If you are just beginning to learn how to paint I would recommend one of the Jerry Yarnell books first. Then, once you're comfortable with acrylics get this book (and other acrylic books) to see the wide variety of ways this unique paint can be used.
JUST ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL.......2001-12-03
I own approximately 40 painting books, and I'll have to say this is one of the best. The illustrated paintings are just beautiful. Penney seems to emphasize beach scenes, gardens, and flowers. There are demonstrations that actually give you the exact steps and process. With her "Still, Reflective Water" beach scene there are 13 illustratons, as she progresses to the finished painting. I paid full price through North Light, and I am very pleased with this book.
Product Description
Limited Edition, hard-back version of Erik Quisling's classic FABLES FROM THE MUD. This beautifully bound three-volume collection features THE ANGRY CLAM, GRANT'S TOMB and ADVENTURES OF GLEN IN MY STONE GARDEN.
Customer Reviews:
In Praise of The Tiny Giants Trilogy.......2006-07-25
The Tiny Giants Trilogy is a singular masterpiece. Erik Quisling, with his rich vocabulary and intricate sense of irony, captures the passion, romance, ecstasy, and angst of what it means to be human in this postmodern age through these three highly entertaining and emotionally gripping minimalist sagas. What is truly remarkable is that you will immediately identify with and love the invertebrate heroes of this trilogy because their stories are indeed yours. The Tiny Giants Trilogy is original through and through--from its conception to the mode of its expression. Each line of these beguilingly humorous tales is pregnant with layered meanings and subtle nuances that turn deep complexity into a precious simplicity. The Tiny Giants Trilogy will withstand the test of time and will remain a classic.
destined to be a classic.......2006-04-18
I was blown away by this hilarious, imaginative and wise trilogy. Quisling takes you on a mind-bending journey with three unlikely heroes who somehow manage to assume mythic greatness while remaining small enough to step on. This collection belongs on the mantle next to your favorite works of literary comedy.
Very original........2006-04-12
How would I describe them, let's see - think Shel Silverstein meets "Johnathan Livingston Seagull" meets "The Far Side". Very cool. I recommend reading them with a large glass of wine and a dictionary.
I loved them........2006-04-06
A friend had these sitting on her coffee table so I picked one up. Within 30 seconds I was laughing out loud. Quisling's insightfulness and clever use of language is so humorous and original that I've found myself re-reading them several times.
Average customer rating:
- David Lynch, Ray Bradburry, Denis Johnson, Zen, etc.
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Tiny Giants
Nate Powell
Manufacturer: Soft Skull Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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It Disappears
ASIN: 1887128565 |
Book Description
Only 23, Nate Powell has for years self-published his comics, including the popular Walkie Talkie series. Using a bold, stark graphic style and storylines that recall the moody world of a David Lynch movie, he fills traditional comic strip panels with outre characters and inexplicable happenings. Spanning 1998 to 2002, the stories in Tiny Giants are about awkward silences and miscommunication, growing up in the Midwest, and fighting to hold onto the sweetness of life by any means possible. These "true stories that never happened" build on vignettes into an otherworldly narrative of disturbing intensity in this debut collection of work from this talented underground comic artist.
Customer Reviews:
David Lynch, Ray Bradburry, Denis Johnson, Zen, etc........2004-05-18
I feel so overwelmed by this book right now. I admit that I know this author, and i'm sure that makes me more naturally open to Nate's work, but for God's sake do not overlook this book at any cost--I beg of you!!
This author hails from a band called Soophie Nun Squad, and anyone who comes in contact with this crew is given a gift of pure joy if they can open their eyes to see it as it lies before them in such simple form. The whole band is full of a very particular kind of magic that is extremely rare and should never be overlooked.
I tell people that David Lynch movies "make no sense" just so that I can feel normal and fit it--the truth is that they make perfect sense to me because life has no thesis statement and I see that man as a messiah of the highest high in filmaking. Nate has captured the open ended paranoia of Lynch perfectly with characters that seem to just sit there with such simple thoughts as the world emotionally sandblasts them.
Nate is 23, and I never doubted that any member of Soophie Nun Squad could walk on water if they willed themselves to--however, this book leaves me speachless and in awe in a way where I simply cannot fathom what the Soophie gang is going to bless me with next. Eli-monster and his wife Marilie (Two other Soophie alumni) are simply breathtakingly youth-filled multimedia artists from middle America who seem to have tapped into a dam of eternal youth. Nate apparently has been drinking from the same well. OK--enough is enough--I should describe this now, but where on earth do I begin:
This book is a tangled web of disjoined emotions like the films of David Lynch. It paints a picture through a million crystal clear images like Robert Rauchenburg. It uses the simplest language to describe the most puzzling complexities in life--like Ray Bradbury did in "the Illustrated Man" or "The Halloween Tree". The stories are so dark in their style of ambition that at times it brings to mind Ann Rice, and I could picture the new generation of goth kids falling head over heals for this. I could even picture the emo kids going crazy for this because it's every bit as poetic as the lyrics of groups like "Death Cab For Cutie" and "the Postal Service" (if you like those groups then you should buy book this ASAP). Also those neo-punks who love the lyrics of "Mars Volta" or "At the Drive In" could easily love this. Even fans who love the lyrics of Palumbo from the band "Glassjaw" (though this book is not violent at all) The beautifull emptyness and negative space contained here can even at times bring to mind the simple elegance and understanding tone of "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind."
See, what you might not understand (which I did not understand eaither until now)is that Nate Powell is not just an intensely eye catching visual artist, he is a writer and a thinker who is on the very cusp of something that is so critical to our culture right now. This is because he views the world with a gifted sense of carfull observation. Sure, you can go get a very bloody Todd McFarlane illustrated novel and say to yourself: "wow, i'm so cutting edge (that it takes intense gore to catch my attention and make me feel exclusive)," but Nate manages to rewind back to the heart of so many great movements in American culture. This is not a cutting edge take on super heros, this is a cutting edge take on humanity and sorrow. My all time favorite book (which became an adequate movie) is Denis Johnson's collection of short stories entitled "Jesus' Son" and although "Tiny Giants" is not a drug enduced tale, it still resonates with such an untainted and unashamed look at life, loss, and struggling to find our place in this confusing world. If you like "Jesus' Son" then you are wasting time by not buying "Tiny Giants" (and vica versa). I am so blessed for having stumbled upon this book, and having known Soophie Nun Squad, that I owe it to them to take their influence and build the most wonderfull things out of it that anyone has ever seen. Few people inspire me on a level like David Lynch, Robert Rauchenburg, and Denis Johnson--I certainly did not expect to find the next person on this list to be such a simple 23 year old guy from a band that has given me so much already that I could never fully repay them in five lifetimes.
When I first heard Bob Marley's "Catch a Fire" I was sure that it must have come through him from a higher power. It's clear to me now that Nate Powell has managed to pull off the same feat with his book "Tiny Giants." If you buy this book then you will be supporting one of the most independent/non-commercial artists I have ever met. I promise you this.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting background adds to story.......2006-12-31
When the book was published in 2002 in honor of the 50 years since Hebron won the state championship, I was familiar with the basic story: tiny Hebron the "giant killer" with its collection of farm boys and other kids, vs. the big time. A standard underdog story that Americans really love, especially when it can no longer be repeated, at least in Illinois.
The basic theme is of course true. After all, tiny Hebron did win. What the authors made clear, however, was that this was no fluke. David and Goliath, ok. Triumph of the underdog? Not really. I had not realized how solid a program Hebron had at the time nor that they were actually one of the favorites to win it all, sitting at 31-1 for the Sweet Sixteen and coming off a strong 1950-51 season. Thus, Hebron isn't exactly a "Hoosiers" equivalent, and the authors specifically compare the two stories in one section.
I appreciated the background material on the town, the families, the coaches, and the good teams of earlier years, such as when Howie Judson led them to the state tournament in 1940. Think back to the pre-WW II years when Elgin, Rockford, and other towns had only one high school, if they even existed. A certain sentimentality for the old days would only be re-enforced by a list of Coach Ahearn's "Instructions to the Basketball Team", reprinted. Who can argue with "3. If you can't be gentlemen around teachers, the school, students, and the community, do not go out for the team. We have plenty who will." With about 40 boys in the whole school? Well, maybe not, but you get the idea who was in charge and what was expected.
The authors move through the highlights and bumps of the Giants' 51-52 regular season, with the tournament starting at about the halfway point of the book. They found a good balance of sufficient detail about the games and the events, without too much play-by-play, considering we all know the outcome. The box scores in the back are a nice touch, as are copies of some press reports.
The final sections cover the newspaper stories about the win, the celebration, and the drop in Hebron's results the following years. The obligatory "where are they now" content updates the players, coaches, and other key people in the story.
No doubt this book has a small audience. I recommend it for any fan of Illinois HS basketball, especially those interested in some history. You don't have to be an old-timer, although perhaps that might help.
A Great Read.......2004-11-24
If you like the movie "Hoosiers," you'll love "Once there were Giants." I have seen the documentary and read the book and I am still in awe of what tiny Hebron accomplished, something that can never happen again because of division conferences nowadays. The personalities in this book are so sincere, it could only have come from the midwest.
Product Description
Two-staple, 3x5-inch booklet, about 8 sections, first and last two: "The Precious Promises; Claiming the Promises ... 'All ... Is Thine'; And Heaven Too."
Product Description
Two-staple, 3x5-inch booklet, about 4 sections, 1st and last: "Jesus Builds His Church ... Christ's Last Warning to His Church."
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Diminuto y Enorme / Tiny/Giant
Claire Llewellyn
Manufacturer: Lectorum Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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No ficción
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ASIN: 970656280X |
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Giant Jim and Tiny Tim (Book Bus - Early Phase)
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0003137511 |
Product Description
Two-staple, 3x5-inch booklet, about 6 sections, 1st and last two: "[Untitled Intro]; Give God a Chance by Believing ... Thoughts on Prayer; Give God a Chance by Yielding."
Product Description
Date and publisher are not stated and are estimated/assumed.
Book Description
l Martinez, popular Los Angeles Times columnist and author, pens memories of his family's travels around the world-and the zaniness and wonder that ensue. With his usual humor, warmth, and candor, Martinez takes us to Africa, Greece, Italy, China, and New York City (just to name a few), all the while sharing the trials and tribulations with his loving and patient wife Cinelli, his children, then grandchildren-and ultimately showing us how time, travel, and memories marry so nicely.
Customer Reviews:
Don't let the title fool you..........2005-05-13
He establishes early on that he doesn't hate Oakland and it proves a touchstone for him in many ways. Al has a way of writing a sentence with such vivid description that it makes you feel like you are part of the story. As a long-time fan I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book, and I laughed out loud many times, just as I often laugh at his bi-weekly columns in the LA-by god-Times.
Don't expect it to be a formal, Fodor-guide-type travel memoir. It's as much fun for the reader as many of those trips must have been for the Martinez family. Read it for the style and the interesting characters you'll meet along the way. You won't be disappointed.
A self-serving memoir and travelog.......2004-06-22
Don't buy this book... It contains delusional ramblings and resentments that insult the memory of the one who made Al Martinez a success.
The indefatigable Al Martinez!.......2004-01-16
This is the most unconventional, surprising, funny, and revealing travel(?) book I've ever put my hands on -- an account of the author's personal encounters with the world's historic, oft-chronicled and visited places-- yes, and people -- with a perspective that no one but Martinez has dared introduce. Instead of Steinbeck's, "Travels with Charlie," this is Martinez' "Travels with Cinelli," his patient and forgiving wife, his children,and ultimately his grandchildren. Be prepared to stay up late to read this one, because it's hard to put aside. My wife kept ME up late when she was reading it because women will sympathize with and relate to "Cinelli" just as much as men will appreciate Martinez.
TRAVELING WITH AL MARTINEZ - A CHARMING JOURNEY.......2004-01-14
What a delight! Al Martinez writes with an intimacy and clarity that allows the reader to share very personally in his adventures and misadventures. He combines a wry wit with a talent for painting word pictures that convey the sights and sounds of his travels. And not just his travels to foreign countries, but in a few touching vignettes, he invites the reader into scenes from his personal life journey. I fell in love with his intrepid wife, Cinelli, just from the marvelous conversations he records, where she zeroes in on him time after time with just the right words. What a sharp lady! "I'll Be Damned If I'll die in Oakland" is a memorable memoir. I thorougly enjoyed it, and I highly recommend it to the discriminating reader who savors language and words put to good use.
Stupid title, stupid book.......2004-01-02
A good travel writer should be perceptive enough to look beyond stereotypes. By maligning his birth city in his title, Mr. Martinez demonstrates his narrow mindedness.
Like its neighbor across the bay, San Francisco, Oakland has sad and ugly neighborhoods, but it also has great beauty, including a lake with a bird sanctuary, "Necklace of Lights", and romantic gondola rides in the center of the city. The residential neighborhoods of Rockridge, Montclair, Crocker Highlands, Lakeside, Jack London Square and Claremont and the thriving shopping districts adjoining them make Oakland a highly desireable place to live. I could say more, but the point is to review the book.
Gertrude Stein's famously misinterpreted "There is no there there" was said when she revisited the site of her family home, which had been razed.
I would have more respect for Mr. Martinez as a travel writer if he were capable of intellectual and emotional growth amd expanding his limited view of the world.
Average customer rating:
- Clueless on the Silk Road
- Quite a trip, awful story
- An Amateurish Effort
- Let's get real
- Fascinating Account of a Wildly Adventurous Bike Ride
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On The Trail of Marco Polo: Along the Silk Road By Bicycle
Brady Fotheringham
Manufacturer: McArthur & Company Publishing, Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1552782530 |
Book Description
In 1997, Brady Fotheringham set out to retrace part of this historic trail on a mountain bike. Three months, 3000 miles, and numerous arrests later, he arrived in New Delhi with a multitude of unforgettable experiences that travel readers and biking enthusiasts will delight in sharing.
Customer Reviews:
Clueless on the Silk Road.......2006-09-03
This is the worst book about Central Asia I've ever read. There are annoying factual errors on every other page. Even the title of the book is erroneous. The author travels north from China south into India and simply cuts across the east-west routes of Marco Polo/Silk Road. This is an annoying, useless book by a clueless author.
Quite a trip, awful story.......2005-06-30
This was a bad book. No one should read this book, I shouldn't even have bothered finishing it. I did in part because I wanted to bitch about it and in part because it should have been a good story. Journalist travels by mountain bike from Xinjiang, China to India, detouring into Afghanistan on the way. The problem was it was like hearing some boring, arrogant, idiot tell you about a life experience you can't imagine he's cool enough to have experienced. Plus, the book is riddled with factual errors. I noticed them in the area I had some knowledge about, China, but that made me wary of the rest of the text. For example, the author falls into the trap of identifying China as a stagnant country that's history was immobile until the West intervened, at which point it put up defensive barriers. Take this line that I had to read to everyone of my housemates: "The Chinese were convinced they lived in the hippest coolest, most riteous place on dear Mother Earth." Such bad writing. He also misnames the common term for a government job an "iron rice bowl" and calls it instead "iron rice." An iron rice bowl is a bowl you can use your entire life, "iron rice" is just hard to eat. Finally he is irritated when he is kicked out of a Chinese only hotel because he believes there is no such thing and that what he is facing is merely corruption. I don't know how one could visit China and miss the fact that you can only stay in half the hotels. I'd agree the policy is funky, but it is a policy.
He writes China off as a bureaucratic hellhole after only a few weeks there and much prefers Pakistan, in part because it is very cheap. Although he talks about the country's poverty he seems not to connect his financial good fortune of traveling in a cheap country with the country's economic woes.
In the end, even without the above faults, the book was boring in comparison to the trip's promise. He spends little time on any one subject and you really don't get a sense of his travels. He mostly seems to list off events and gloat about stupid deeds he got away with like photographing Afghan women in Taliban controlled Afghanistan, photographing military compounds and riding bikes through "lawless Kohistan," despite warnings from all sides.
An Amateurish Effort.......2004-08-06
I applaud the author's pluck but unfortunately that is the only thing this book has going for it.
First off, cycling the route taken by the author is not nearly an achievement or a rarity as the author makes it seem and his actual time on the bike is only a few weeks. I've met people who cycled all the way from Germany to Beijing. Also the author seems to be a rather unseasoned traveller, such as packing way too much and carrying around too much cash.
The writing in this books is truely awful, so bad it makes you wonder if there was even an editor, so bad that it gives me hope that I too can publish a travel book. My respect for Canada has been dented ever so slightly by the fact that some Toronto newspaper named this book as one of its "Notable Books".
It is obvious that the author knew very little about the history/culture of the areas he was visiting when he was visiting them. It seems that after the trip he read a few books to obtain this knowledge but the historical/cultural background in this book is just a weak cut and paste job.
In the short Afghanistan section the author crosses the tenuous line between adventurous and lunatic which is what made it the most interesting section.
The only reason I am giving this 2 stars instead of 1 is because I travelled the same route (minus Afghanistan) so the book's descriptions of the various places jogged some pleasant memories for me and it was mildly interesting for me to read another person's point of view.
Let's get real.......2004-04-11
This review I found on the web gets it about right:
Once it seemed that every arts graduate believed him- or herself pregnant with a great novel, only the need to make a living preventing it from coming to term. Most never found time to discover just how difficult even the first paragraph would be, luckily allowing them to keep intact their image of themselves as Hemingways manqu¨¦.
Then, extended trips around Asia were still alternative. Now it¡¯s those who haven¡¯t pogoed across the Gobi who are the unconventional ones, and the travelogue has replaced the novel as the daydream magnum opus-that-might-have-been. The banana pancake paradises of Asia are full of the footsore catching up with their diaries. Brady Fotheringham¡¯s On the Trail of Marco Polo seems to be one of these.
The title, at once populist and meaningless, sets the tone for the whole book. Polo has been dead since 1324 which makes him a little hard to pursue, and Fotheringham doesn¡¯t follow any route usually attributed to the merchant, although he travels by air, bus, and bicycle from Beijing to Islamabad, and briefly into Afghanistan.
The cover ill-prepares you for the contents. Fotheringham was ¡°determined to cycle the desolate Chinese desert¡±, but not determined enough, apparently¡ªhe skirted most of it by bus. He ¡°cycled over the world¡¯s highest pass.¡± The Khunjerab is in fact merely the world¡¯s highest paved-road border crossing.
But getting through the book is itself a dangerous journey, as it swerves from clich¨¦ (¡°The journey is the destination¡±) to tautology (¡°who navel-gaze at themselves¡±), and from freewheeling grammar (The Romans ¡°wondered where this ¡®wool of the forests¡¯ was arriving¡±) to the completely incomprehensible (The Silk Road¡¯s ¡°brutal history is an indelible stamp on the annals of Central Asia¡±). Much of the historical material is inaccurate filler between thin narrative, and even simple place names are misspelled.
Fotheringham knows no Mandarin, and can narrate little but his own bewilderment in China, even failing to record accurately what he sees, placing the Great Hall of the People inside the Forbidden City (built centuries earlier), and failing to notice that the common ¡°dog-lion¡± of his photo-caption is a completely different and rarer beast, the Chinese unicorn. He makes unwise detours into other foreign languages, getting both the German name of the Silk Road and the Kyrgyz word for their white hats wrong.
He plans to survive by using his ¡°street smarts¡±, but apparently has none. On arrival he is immediately cheated by a taxi driver, and then loses his credit card. He grossly overloads his bike but takes inadequate provisions, photographs border installations and has his film forcibly exposed, and suffers a series of thefts through his own carelessness. He spends anxious hours detained in police stations. Regrettably, they let him go.
In amongst sanctimonious pro-traveller, anti-tourist bleating (from a man who makes straight for McDonald¡¯s and the Hard Rock Caf¨¦, and plays rock music through handlebar-mounted speakers) there are enough howlers to confirm Fotheringham as the William McGonagall of travel writing.
The Chinese were ¡°no different from us than we were from them.¡± ¡°Canada is big, but you never get close enough to see it except from an airplane.¡± ¡°If you¡¯ve never seen a camel in person, you¡¯ll never forget one.¡± ¡°It would be about as inconceivable for Tibet and Xinjiang to secede...as it would be for Liechtenstein to successfully invade Europe.¡±
The book does raise one interesting question, however. How on earth did it get into print?
Fascinating Account of a Wildly Adventurous Bike Ride.......2003-07-04
Having always had a fascination with the Silk Road, this book immediatly caught my eye while wandering the bookshelves.
It was very much a travelogue in it's style - and was written very well. A clear chronological narrative combined with history and a snapshot of all that he was seeing and feeling. I could imagine myself sitting on the bike encountering one adventure after another.
He definately has high standards as to who constitutes a real traveller! He had a very condescending attitude towards the 'tourists' that were experiencing this harshly beautiful region via the luxury of air-conditioned buses.
Others may think he's absolutely mad for embarking on this adventure... He's lucky that he came back in one piece from this trip- especially through Afghanistan. Fate obviously on his side.
Highly recommend this to anyone desiring an introduction to the modern day Silk route.
Books:
- Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend
- Ecovillages: A Practical Guide to Sustainable Communities
- Elements of Design: Rowena Reed Kostellow and the Structure of Visual Relationships
- Enric Miralles: Works and Projects 1975-1995
- Event-Cities 3: Concept vs. Context vs. Content
- Everyday Fashions, 1909-1920, as Pictured in Sears Catalogs
- Executable UML: A Foundation for Model Driven Architecture
- Freedom: A Photographic History of the African American Struggle
- Freehand Sketching: An Introduction
- Fundamentals of Residential Construction
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- History: Fiction or Science
- Fear of the Dark
- Ecology and Natural History of Tropical Bees
- Functional Protein Microarrays in Drug Discovery
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- Hermit's Peak
- Great Goya Etchings: The Proverbs, The Tauromaquia and The Bulls of Bordeaux
- Eric Fischl : 1970 - 2000
- Irish Cream: A Nuala Anne McGrail Novel
Drawing and Designing with Confidence: A Step-by-Step Guide
Marker Magic: The Rendering Problem Solver for Designers
Color Drawing: Design Drawing Skills and Techniques for Architects, Landscape Architects, and Interior Designers, 2nd Edition
Enhancing CAD Drawings with Photoshop
Color Drawing: Design Drawing Skills and Techniques for Architects, Landscape Architects, and Interior Designers
