Customer Reviews

Roadside Geology of Vermont and New Hampshire (Roadside Geology Series)

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I purchased this book for my husband who has a lively if amateur interest in geology, so that we could consult it during a trip to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It is one of a series that seem to be very well done, especially because you can refer to the landscape as you are traveling according to the indexing in the book.

I have several of the books in this series and I love to understand the geology of the areas that I visit. Vermont/New Hampshire in particular had piqued my interest on past trips, due to the striking schist bands along the Connecticut river and of course the impressive White Mountains granite formation. So I was looking forward to getting a better insight into it by reading this book. I was disappointed. Perhaps it works better if you read the book while you're driving along the designated routes, but reading it at home, I could hardly find any of the features I remember. The pictures are poor and the maps are even worse. It's almost impossible to orient the maps relative to recognizable features and the legends are confusing. For example, it took me forever to figure out what was supposed to desiginate schist, granite etc. and then correlate it with actual features on a topographical map. I wish this book was more helpful, because I love the concept, but sadly, I don't think it will be.

I have a layperson's understanding of geology, from plate tectonics to glaciers and moraines. Yesteryear, I had found the Roadside volume on Idaho quite helpful in understanding the variety of geological formations in that state. I hoped that the guide to Vermont and New Hampshire would be equally helpful when I visit family in New Hampshire. The text, which I am reading in Georgia, may be helpful when I am there on the ground, but I am worried that it will not be. The geological detail is more than I am willing to spend time absorbing. The highways covered are too few to be useful to me, and I found the maps difficult to read, even with a magnifying glass.