Customer Reviews

Arizona Landmarks

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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For years now I've owned this "coffee table" book, "Arizona Landmarks" by James E. Cook. By "coffee table" book, I mean those large oversized books that are mostly filled with beautiful pictures and perfect for thumbing through when you visit a friend's house. And they usually look good sitting there on the table. It is my guess that these are usually decorative books only and very few get read or even looked through. And that's a shame. "Arizona Landmarks" is just such a book and, in fact, when I looked at the inside of the front cover I noticed I had annotated it when we first purchased the book. It was during a trip to Arizona in June 1990. In 19 years I had not read that book and truth be told, we have quite a few more like them on the shelf although we generally don't buy them anymore.

This book is absolutely gorgeous. It was produced by the "Arizona Highways" magazine people and uses photos from their long history as well as current photos from all sources. The contrast is uniquely cool. There is also a fair amount of text in here as well, serving to tell some of the history of the various regions of the state as well as the geographic history of the land itself. The book is divided into several major sections including "deserts", "canyons", "mountains", and "plateaus." I have traveled in Arizona on quite a few occassions, especially when I was a boy. I remember seeing such natural beauty as the Painted Desert, Salt River Canyon, Petrified Forest, and of course the Grand Canyon. But most of my memories were of long ago and to tell the truth, were mostly views from the highway. This book, especially the pictures within that defy the written word serve only to increase my desire to return to Arizona. That's what a good "coffee table" book should do.

Book was as described, like new. It will be a nice coffee table book for my parents snow bird place.

Since I used to get Arizona Highways, this is wonderful. All the pictures I remember so well.