Customer Reviews

Unforgettable Things to Do Before You Die

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This is a travel book in the form of coffeetable binding and photographs. It is the second in a series, a continuation of UNFORGETTABLE PLACES TO SEE BEFORE YOU DIE by Steve Davey. Published by a British firm, the U.S.A. is of nominal interest to their project.

In the first book, the Grand Canyon in Arizona represented America; in this one, it is Las Vegas and New Orleans (prior to Katrina's destruction), and driving down Route 1 on the California coast. There is the Wall of China, volcano in Guatemala, the rainforest in Belize, hiking the Himalayas and riding elephants in Nepal, and discovering a medieval city in Estonia.

For those of us who don't have the resources to travel to these far away places, we can do it vicariously by looking at these beautiful pictures. None of it is even one thing I will do before I die.

Rather than waffle on with some self-indulgent, up myself faux esoteric claptrap to try to make myself look and feel important, I will address the book in question. Its good, very good. There are some teriffic photos here and the authors have managed to convey the atmosphere of many of the places.

I love travel books. Descriptions in this one are about 3 pages of words per place, about 40 places in the book. I think I prefer about 1 page of words and 2 pages of pictures per place. Most of the things are in the category of 'that sounds like a very fun, but hard to arrange, vacation I will never take'. Nevertheless I enjoyed it. The focus is on things to do, not places to see. Pictures are so-so given the places that are being shown.

As the first person to review this book, I feel the responsibility weighing heavily upon me to address the fatal paradox lying at its core - and I don't mean fatal metaphorically. The book covers a lot of ground in its suggestions for things to do (and places to go) before you die, and on the whole these things do generally indeed fulfil an undeniably high level of unforgettableness. Surely, however, in the given circumstances, unforgettableness is largely an irrelevant concept? With death just around the corner, quite unmemorable, quickly forgotten activities serve just as well to fill in the time. If proximity to death offers anything positive at all, it's the fact that you no longer have to remember anything for very long...