Customer Reviews

Beautiful Places: The Timeless Beauty of South Carolina State Parks

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

My fiance and I are using this book as the Guest Book for our upcoming wedding. We are both from South Carolina. This book is perfect because there is a lot of white space around the photographs (room for our guests to sign). It is the perfect coffee table book, and I'm sure will be left out for years to come. The title describes the content of the book perfectly; this book is only images from South Carolina State Parks.

This is a beautifully written and a gorgeously illustrated book. Informative and a great "coffee table" book.

The pictures are nice but if you are looking for an overall South Carolina view of things don't buy this. Pictures are pretty generic and frankly most of them could be taken any where. Close up shots of flowers, sun/tree reflections on water, woods pictures. As I said nice pictures but nothing unique from other flower/bird/tree/water picture books.

Some books are meant to be devoured quickly and without pause. Mysteries and sci-fi books are like that for me. Beautiful Places, however, should not be read quickly. It should be taken in sections and experienced.

Beautiful Places covers all 47 South Carolina state parks in the three distinct geographical regions of the state- the coast, the midlands, and the upstate. Each chapter gives us highlights from each park with lavish photography instead of line upon line of endless prose. Along with the photos are short blurbs about each park, such as a mention that many scenes in Forrest Gump were filmed at Hunting Island State Park or a poem that perfectly describes a particular photo.

All the photography is by jon o. Holloway, a photographer from upstate SC, and is superb. Most photos appear on a single page, although there are quite a few that spread centerfold style across several pages.

The goal of this book is to entice you to get out and visit our state parks. That was what I meant by telling you to experience this book. South Carolina is a small enough state that all her state parks are within a short driving distance and would make either excellent day trips or weekend activities. The state website at [...] is a great place to search and plan ahead for activities and lodging at each park. But this book should be the first step. Let the photos and blurbs entice you and motivate you to start making plans.

Beautiful Places can be purchased online from the above mentioned website or from your favorite bookseller. For a scrapbook and informational guide listing all 47 parks and providing a place to collect your own photographs and souvenirs, visit [...] and look in the South Carolina Trail Czar section. I promise you that both would make great additions not only to your bookshelf but to your life as well by encouraging you to get out there and see what South Carolina Parks have to offer.