Customer Reviews

The Islands Of Orkney

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Liv Kjorsvik Schei, The Islands of Orkney (Colin Baxter Photography, 2000)

It's hard to review travelogues. After all, what is there to say? Someone goes and tromps around somewhere and writes about it, hopefully with a bunch of neat pictures attached. If someone wants to read about the area, they will, and why would a review stop them (unless they're reading about an area with hundreds of travelogues to choose from)? If they don't want to read about an area, why would a good review encourage them? I don't know. But I do it anyway.

The Islands of Orkney is the perfect informational title-- one glance and you know what the book's about. Schei gives us the history and literature of Orkney, island by island in the bulk of the book (the first forty or so pages cover history from an all-islands perspective instead). Pictures, of which there are a good number, supplied by Gunnie Moberg, who is quite a good photographer, at least judging by this book. The writing is solid and informational, though Schei does have a slight tendency toward the overuse of exclamation points.

If you like, or are interested in, the Orkney Islands, this is certainly one to consider looking at before heading over for a trip, or just to play armchair traveler. If you're not, well, picking this up might spark your interest in the area. Hey, it's worth a try. *** ½