Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet The Europe Book (General Pictorial)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I saw this book at my local library I counldn't resist picking it up. I love travel books, and originally being from Europe myself, I'm always interested in how others view Europe these days.

"The Europe Book: A Journey Through Every Country on the Continent" (256 pages) is a coffee table-style book that emphasizes photography over text, and that's fine. The photography is outstanding throughout the book, and is truly eye-candy. Roughly speaking, each country gets 4 pages in this book, which does not leave room for a lot of text. But the scant commentaries are indeed spot-on. When looking at books like these, I immediately check out the chapters of Belgium (where I hail from) and the Netherlands, the two European countries I am most familiar with. The comments on these 2 countries give me confidence that the comments on the other, less-familiar countries (say Azerbaijan, Moldova or Montenegro) are equally worthwhile.

Interestingly, at the very end of the book there are 2 very interesting essays, "Europe's Unrecognised Nations" (which really is a contradiction in and of itself), and "The New Europe" (focusing on the role of the European Union as a political institution within Europe). In all, "The Europe Book" is an eye-pleaser from start to finish, and a great way to get a visual introduction to Europe's rich culture. Amazon smartly sells this at a strong discount, as the original sale value of this book is way overpriced in my opinion. If you are interested in more written commentary and travel trips, I'd recommend any of Rick Steven's travel books in a heartbeat.

Lonely Planet's newest hardbook travel book is ideal not only for travelers who dream of Europe's most famous sights but also those who seek more under-the-traveler-radar adventures beyond the typical tourist stomping grounds. In addition to a general overview of the geography, history, and "great journeys" of Europe, the book is organized into the following geographical chapters:

1. British Isles & The Low Countries

2. Western Mediterranean

3. Central Europe

4. Eastern Mediterranean & The Balkans

5. The Black Sea & Caucasus

6. Scandinavian & Baltic Europe

Jampacked with gorgeous photos, The Europe Book highlights each country's most memorable features including history, people, legends, landscape, and major traditions. As a travel consultant and tour guide, I found the "Essential Experiences" sidebars especially interesting. Put this book on your coffee table and your guests will enjoy the superb photography and feast on the cultural smorgasbord that is Europe.

This volume gives a good overview of the Continent by devoting at least 2 pages of info and pictures per country. The countries with larger populations and political power merit 6-8 pages. The photography is candid, giving glimpses of the places one would see if one visited them as a tourist. This can be invaluable regarding places that have been recently given negative press, to see the inhabitants of such places as being human above all else. The information given about each country is both informative and anecdotal, and can be considerably deep considering the concise nature of each country's coverage. Not meant to be used as a guidebook, it functions well as a coffee-table display book or as an introductory tool to European travel for adults of all ages.

The book's title does include the words a Journey Through Every Country on the Continent, and as a previous reviewer has pointed out there are some geographically or politically countries found in Europe missing from the book. Which countries make up Europe is always a point of heated discussion when you're anywhere on the continent so this book is simply Lonely Planet's opinion, it includes some such as Turkey and Russia (I've always thought of Russia as in Europe), which a lot of Europeans will tell you aren't in Europe geographically or politically.

Even with the misleading subtitle it's still a great book, ideal for anyone doing a school project or who just wants to see the different cultures of Europe without having to go there. There are some great visual wise photographs of the most visited city and regions attractions in each country. Granted they are all the ideal shot and not what you are likely to capture by camera yourself with great weather, no people if it's a building and if the photos of locals are people usually wearing traditional costumes or their stereotype clothing, which is unlikely to be the case when you actually go there yourself. So I guess staged romanticised photos would be the way to describe them. But they are nice.

There's a smidgen of information on the history, landscape and people, not much though, but similar in standard and length to what you would find in a junior non fiction book on each country, which makes this ideal for primary school children's school projects and the like. If you actually want to go to any of these countries you're going to need to get other books as well as there's a lot of great places to see in each country not mentioned. This book is also a lot taller and heavier than your typical Lonely Planet guidebook.

For anyone who enjoys the other related Lonely Planet books (The Countries Book, The Cities Book), you will love The Europe Book as well. Same format, except that it focuses directly on every country in Europe. Not only is the book very informative and easy to follow, but it makes a great conversation piece keeping it out on a coffee table, as guests seem to be drawn to picking up these type of books.

I originally purchased it to get my wife excited for an upcoming trip to Europe we were about to take, and the information in the book even helped us to discover information that we had missed in our previous research and planning. The book is big and colorful, and makes a great addition to an already superb collection of Lonely Planet books.

To someone who did not already own the other books, I would probably recommend starting with The Countries Book, but if you are specifically interested in Europe, you can't go wrong with this.

My son and daughter in law spent a summer semester in Europe for college credit hours. The book included many of the sites they toured during their stay. I purchased the book for them because they have collected books about Europe since their trip. It was a big hit!! Pictures were awesome!!

I was very surprised that the Faroe Islands are not included in the book at all despite being very much a part of Europe. Even Greenland, which is not a part of Europe either geographically or ethnically is included. So I do not understand why. Was it simply overlooked? Lonely Planet did not reply when I contacted them about it.