Average customer rating:
- An inspired overview of the political cultural of California water politics
- Battling the Inland Sea
- Fascinating History of the Sacramento Valley
- Essentially the same book as "Gold v. Grain"
- Comprehensive but compelling
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Battling the Inland Sea: Floods, Public Policy, and the Sacramento Valley
Robert Kelley
Manufacturer: University of California Press
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ASIN: 0520214285 |
Book Description
In its natural condition the Sacramento Valley was a flood-ravaged region where an inland sea a hundred miles long regularly formed during the rainy season, to drain slowly away by the summer months. Today the Valley is marvelously productive, with a great capital city at its center, but only after a seventy-year struggle to devise and build an intricate thousand miles of levees and drains. Robert Kelley sets that battle within the encompassing national political culture, which produced, through the Republican and Democratic parties, widely diverging ideas about how best to reclaim the Valley from flood. He draws on approaches developed in the field of policy analysis to examine the relationship between American political culture and environmental policy-making. We find that the prolonged controversy over the Sacramento Valley illuminates American decision-making, then and now.
Customer Reviews:
An inspired overview of the political cultural of California water politics.......2007-07-22
I was deeply influenced by Kelley's early works on hydraulic mining in the 1950s (his book Gold vs. Grain and his papers such as the Forgotten Giant: ...Hydraulic Mining...). I also heard strong praise for this book from many water professionals in the Sacramento Valley. As I eagerly read this book, therefore, I expected more of the same: a study of the massive impact that hydraulic mining sedimentation had on California rivers, flooding, and politics in the late nineteenth century.
Fortunately - I was surprised to learn - Battling the Inland Sea (BIS) goes well beyond the physical and political effects of historical sedimentation in several important ways. This book is much broader in its geographic extent and substantive scope than Kelley's earlier works. Geographically, mining sediment primarily impacted the lowermost Sacramento River (below Fremont Weir) and its Sierra Nevada tributaries (especially the Feather, Yuba, Bear, and American Rivers). BIS is more broadly concerned with flood control in the Sacramento Valley up into and beyond the extensive Colusa and Butte Basins which had relatively little impact from mining sediment. Moreover, the emphasis of the discussion in BIS is on the history of flood control efforts in the Valley and the surrounding political culture of flood control. Although these topics are inseparable from the mining sediment issue in some areas, it is a much broader topic involving a set of deeper issues. In fact, Kelley makes it clear from the outset that the Sacramento Valley was prone to extensive flooding and that the natural river channel was incapable of conveying but a small fraction of the flow during large floods; long before mining sediment arrived. This emphasis is key to understanding the importance of BIS to educating both professional river managers and the lay public to the actual flood risks in the Valley. The long history of flood control in the Sacramento Valley represents a fight against nature. Mining sedimentation is a complication that exacerbates an already intractable flood-prone situation, but it is not the primary cause of flood risk. Extensive low-lying basins are the inherent cause for concern.
The common ground between BIS and Kelley's earlier work is that he, again, presents an inspired historical overview of the political culture underlying California water politics. The complex developments of the period are put into a context of shifting ideologies of resource management, perception of nature, and the vagaries of politics and economics.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in these broader topics. It is, of course, a must-read for students of California flood-management history.
Allan James
Geography Department
University South Carolina
Battling the Inland Sea.......2006-03-26
This book clarifies man's failure to accept what the Natural Environment offers and man's limited knowledge of his ability to live with nature. Man's ineptness is exemplified by politics dictating his actions.
Fascinating History of the Sacramento Valley.......2002-02-28
If you've ever taken a guided factory tour, you know the difference between someone reciting memorized facts and someone who can call upon a deep reservoir of knowledge, accumulated over a lifetime, for information that will illuminate a particular subject. Mr. Kelley clearly belongs in the latter class. Reading his book, it is apparent that we are only scratching the surface of what this remarkable historian knows about the complex interplay of history, politics, personality and nature that conspired to produce the water system northern California has today.
The story of California water is fascinating, although perhaps only of real interest to Californians. Nevertheless, even if only for that audience, Mr. Kelley has written an entirely readable, yet simultaneously scholarly volume. Anyone interested in an introduction to the state of northern California's water situation should begin with this book.
In a general sense, however, this book is also about changing political and sociological trends in America beginning around 1850. The focus is on flooding in the Sacramento Valley, and its battles between gold miners and valley farmers, or between Republican engineers and Democratic populists, but parallels are probably found elsewhere in our country during the same period of history. I enjoyed this book tremendously.
Essentially the same book as "Gold v. Grain".......2000-10-24
I am a big California rivers environmental history buff, and I found this book to be too similar to his publication "Gold v. Grain" which debuted over 40 years ago. This book is essentially an extension of "Gold v. Grain" that covers the 1960s-1980s. Much of the earlier chapters are virtually cut and pasted verbatim from his previous book. Despite these criticisms, it remains (to my knowledge) the most comprehensive book written about the Sacramento River to date. Until a better book on the Sac comes along, this is probably the one to read for factual information, and for more conceptual/abstract stimulation, I recommend "Organic Machine" by Richard White.
Comprehensive but compelling.......1999-12-13
For a native of the flood-prone Sacramento Valley, Battling The Inland Sea is the bible. Nowhere else is the history of a fitful battle against the annual floodwaters unleashed on the Sacramento Valley by the powerful Sierra Nevada watersheds captured so comprehensively. Kelley, however, informs us in a style that is relevant and entertaining. The valley resident treasures it for its history of the Big Fight. Political scientists enjoy it for its history and the lively way Kelley uses the fight over flooding in Northern California as a study in California and national politics.
Book Description
Your quick-access guide to international and U.S. boating rules
The U.S. Coast Guard requires every boat more than 39-feet long to carry a copy of the nautical rules of the road onboard. Here’s one that is convenient and handy enough for quick reference on the water. This bestselling guide includes the full text of the original rules, and Charlie Wing’s clear, rule-by-rule translations make them easy to follow. It also includes a "One-Minute Guide Decision Tree" and a brief overview of the rules’ intent to give you a good idea of what to do in any common situation.
Book Description
This is the most complete book ever written about the history, nature, and science of the remarkable Great Lakes. From the geological forces that formed them to the greatest environ-mental success stories of our time, Jerry Dennis portrays the lakes in all their complexity. This is the story of the lakes as told to the author by biologists, fishermen, and sailors. It is also a narrative of a six-week voyage through the lakes and beyond as a crewmember on a tallmasted schooner, and a memoir of a lifetime spent on and near the lakes. The result is a meditation on nature and our place in the world, a cautionary tale about the future of water resources, and a celebration of a place that is both fragile and robust, diverse, rich in history and wildlife, often misunderstood, and worthy of our attention.
Customer Reviews:
A superlative tale of the Great Lakes.......2007-09-18
As a displaced Michigander, I am often amazed that westerners are almost completely unfamiliar with the Great Lakes. This book would be best enjoyed by those familiar with the region. But even the less familiar will enjoy the gripping adventure found in the many anecdotes offered here. I am on my second read and can't believe how much I had forgotten from my first read. There are stories that will nearly bring you to tears (the near disaster on the day of the Edmund Fitz sinking) and some that will simply amaze. This should be required reading for all school children from this region. Those less fortunate who live elsewhere will still enjoy the enlightening read. And while it certainly encourages protection of the lakes, I didn't find it preachy. It is a very objective book and doesn't dwell too much on the environment.
If there is a better book on the great lakes I haven't found it.
"We are the earth-divers, and the world is made of stories.".......2006-02-13
An enthusiastic outdoorsman, Dennis has written a comprehensive book on the Great Lakes from the perspective of personal experience, scientific data and historical background. He describes the area in its early pristine beauty, from the Indian tribes to the first European settlers and the dawning of industrialization that almost destroyed this natural preserve of geology, flora, fauna and indigenous species. With attention to the tales of the past, Dennis writes of the gradual evolution of natural beauty into a vast resource for lumber, farm products, shipping and related industries, including the influx of a population that has grown around opportunity, all imbued with the awesome grandeur of these vast bodies of water.
On a four-week voyage through the Great Lakes, Dennis views the area from the water, as opposed to his many travels along the shorelines, the exhausting, but fulfilling days on board filled with the lore of the sea, new friendships make while sailing and the eccentric individuals met along the way. Couched in contemporary terms, the author speaks of the past with reverence, his love of history enhanced by regional details, tales of shipwrecks and the personal observations of a man with great reverence for the bounty of this immense body of water and those who live on the miles of coastline that make up the Great Lakes. History is tangible in Dennis's work, impossible to ignore as the men navigate from one lake to another, reminded daily of the pitfalls of ignoring nature and the pleasures of communing with the elements.
The comprehensive chapters cover: Lake Michigan, from land and water; the Straights of Mackinac; Lake Superior, canoeing, the early voyagers, surviving storms; Lake Huron, Georgian Bay and the wilderness; St. Claire River; Lake Ontario, the Erie Canal and the Hudson River. Each chapter addresses relevant information but is complemented by stories, for example, the "White City" constructed in Jackson Park for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, the disappearance of an entire fishing village on the shores of lake Michigan, victim of "walking dunes", Sault Ste. Marie and the rapids of the St. Mary's and The Soo Locks. His eye on an ever-changing environment, Dennis paints a fascinating portrait of nature's bounty in the Great Lakes, past and present, ever vigilant for the dangers of pollution, overuse and the avarice of industrialization: "Bracketed by mysteries, adrift, alone, despairing of our ignorance, we turn to the physical because there, at least, we can know a thing for certain." This is out legacy and the key to the future of a national treasure. Luan Gaines/ 2006.
Engrossing and Enlightening Book.......2005-10-19
I really enjoyed this book because it covers a wide range of topics from sailing to environmentalism to North American history to geology.
As a lifelong citizen of the Great Lakes in Rochester, NY and Chicago, IL, I was surprised at how much I didn't already know -- and that the book taught me.
Delightful.......2005-06-03
Purchased the book because I'm considering a retirement along Lake Ontario and am an avid sailor. The book is centered around the relocation of a Ferro cement schooner from Michigan through the lakes to Lake Ontario, onward down the Hudson and around New England. Along the journey, are many mini stories added for each lake taken from a combination of personal adventures, history and many interesting collection of facts coveraging a wide range of subjects from geology, their early exploration, later exploitation and related environmental problems. My only mild dissapointment is there was not more on Lake Ontario. The trip ends in along the coast of Maine where I was raised. It's a delightful book.
the best of the lakes!.......2004-06-17
I am (like many of those that have written reviews) a native Michigander. However, I am now living in upstate New York, which despite being part of the Great Lakes lacks the appreciation for the lakes that midwesterners have. This book is a must read for anyone who hasn't had the opportunity to grow up surrounded by the greatest natural wonder in the world. This book highlights not only the natural history of the lakes, but the social and environmental legacy of humankind in the lakes. For those who were lucky enough to spend time sailing, swimming, hiking, and otherwise enjoying the Great Lakes, this book will sweep you back in time to the lazy summers of youth (or retirement, as the case may be!) and remind you of why you love the Great Lakes.
Book Description
Revised and expanded guide to the best kayaking daytrips and overnighters in an area eminently suited to saltwater paddling, with completely updated information on the original routes from the first edition, plus five new ones. Also includes information on the Cascadia Marine Trail, the only Marine National Recreation Trail in the country3/4how to use it, how to support it.
The extensive inland waterways of the Pacific Northwest are considered among the best in the world for sea kayaking. Beautiful scenery, intricate and protected waterways, clean and clear water, and abundant marine life define the area. On shore are ample public parklands for camping and exploring.
These fifty trips in Puget Sound's myriad islands and fjordlike canals and inlets cover the area from Canada's Gulf Islands to the shores of Tacoma, including the fabulous San Juan islands and the unique Hood Canal. Each trip lists details including duration, potential hazard ratings, directions, an explanation of the area's tides and currents, and more. Also included are safety tips and guidelines for kayaking and camping with minimal impact on the environment.
Customer Reviews:
Good book about the waterways of Puget Sound........2003-03-04
Lots of good trips, lots of tips about timing your trip with the tides for a more enjoyable and safe trip. Good list of saftey tips. No book is a subsitute for experience but with this on you are less likely to get into trouble. The Puget Sound region has a lot of good open water kayaking and this book covers a lot of that ground.
Book Description
This is the clearest, most fully illustrated version of the navigation rules that every captain must have on board—in fact, boats 12 meters (or 39 feet) and longer are required to carry a copy. For years, the United States Coast Guard has produced a guide to operating vessels safely and lawfully in both international and inland waters. But its language is legalistic, complex, and not always very comprehensible. Chapman’s easy-to-read edition has exactly the same information, but with additional illuminating commentary by Editor-at-Large Dan Fales; an explanation of many of the rules in simple, lucid detail; and advice on real-world application. With eight more illustrations than the Coast Guard’s book, the manual looks better than ever, too. No matter whether you navigate a small sailboat, motorboat, or spacious yacht, you won’t want to head onto the water without it.
Customer Reviews:
MUST HAVE FOR ANY ONE ON THE WATER.......2007-01-14
Great book, really does a wonderful job of going into detail and sighting examples of the ROR. Though this is NOT a substitute for having the true COLREGS on your bridge, it is still a great learning tool and a must read for anyone spending time on the mighty (or not so mighty) seas.
Average customer rating:
- The Best Side by Side Comparison
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Nautical Rules of the Road: The International and Inland Rules
Steven D. Browne
Manufacturer: Cornell Maritime Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0870335782 |
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The fourth edition of the well-respected Rules of the Road contains the latest changes to the Rules as of the date of printing. The Rules are presented in a straightforward fashion designed to be useful for all who need to learn and apply the Rules, such as recreational boaters, maritime students, and professional mariners. To achieve this, the Rules are side by side on the left-hand page and the authors' comments are on the right. Differences appear in bold type. As an aid to those professionals who will be taking the Coast Guard examinations, the book includes practice questions as well as a suggested method of study.
Customer Reviews:
The Best Side by Side Comparison.......2007-04-02
If you've ever had to study the nautical rules of the road and tried to compare the differences between the international and inland rules by reading the actual rule text, you'll appreciate this book. This is the best side by side comparison I have seen. The differences in the rules themselves are printed in bold font for easy identification. Also, there is helpful, practical insight where clarification of a rule is needed. This insight is given from court case results (helping to define what the authorities deem acceptable actions in traffic situations) and practical experience. If you want to get into the nitty gritty and enjoy reading more legalistic text, Farwell's might suit your fancy, but this book I would recommend to all mariners who are just learning the Rules for the first time and for those who just need to brush up before going back out to sea.
Average customer rating:
- The best. These are the way stories should be.
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A Fisherman of the Inland Sea: Science Fiction Stories
Ursula K. Le Guin
Manufacturer: Harper Prism
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The Telling
ASIN: 0061052000 |
Customer Reviews:
The best. These are the way stories should be........2000-06-25
Le Guin's talent is diverse, but Science Fiction stories seem to be her best. And oh she is agile. This collection has everything. There's a small humorous story, a workshop story, an idea story, but finally there are the most important: the churten stories. Le Guin's Hainish universe has appeared in most of her other scifi novels, but these stories are probably the best. "The Shobies Story," "Dancing to Ganam" and "Another Story" (I think that's all) are all separate, but they all deal with 'churten,' Le Guin's brand of instantaneous travel. As usual, though, she doesn't focus on technology. She's a people writer, and the science is only there to bring out all of the psychological, emotional and spiritual questions with the characters. The title story, or "Another Story" is about a man who is caught in two places at once as a result of the churten. A delight to read. Each word is perfectly placed. Exquisite.
Book Description
The winner of the Pushcart Prize, the Kafka Award, and the National Book Award, Ursula K. Le Guin has created a profound and transformational literature. The award-winning stories in
A Fisherman of the Inland Sea range from the everyday to the outer limits of experience, where the quantum uncertainties of space and time are resolved only in the depths of the human heart. Astonishing in their diversity and power, they exhibit both the artistry of a major writer at the height of her powers and the humanity of a mature artist confronting the world with her gift of wonder still intact.
Customer Reviews:
the last story just stays with me.......2006-01-05
i like this whole anthology despite not generally being a fan of short stories. however, it is the last one (the title story) i find most haunting. i come back to it again and again.
Story, meaning, and community.......2005-04-17
This little book is what LeGuin calls a "story suite", a set of interconnected short stories with overlapping themes and characters. The connecting theme of Four Ways to Forgiveness is, no surprises here, forgiveness--specifically, forgiveness between men and women trapped in the evils of gender domination. The connecting theme of Fisherman is narrative--story as a way to organize reality, story as revelation, story as truth.
All of the stories in Four Ways are set in LeGuin's Hainish universe, or the Ekumen. This is not the case with Fisherman; the three longest stories are set in the Ekumenical universe, but there are other, shorter pieces, including several humorous ones. "The Ascent of the North Face" describes climbing a gigantic skyscraper as if it were Everest. "The First Contact with the Gorgonids" makes an unexpected heroine of a browbeaten wife. "The Kerastion" demonstrates what an inspired writer can do with a list of items generated at a workshop; it's a story about a musical instrument that makes no sound.
The three Ekumenical stories, include the title story, revolve around the invention of a new technology, churten theory. Hitherto LeGuin has obeyed Einstein in this universe; her spaceships travel Nearly As Fast As Light, but never faster. People who wish to travel between worlds must accept that a trip which seems to them to take four days may amount to four hundred years on their home planet. Now, however, the Cetian and Hainish physicists have come up with churten, which is instantaneous travel, transilience: from here to there in no interval, no time. LeGuin, as always, is interested in how people deal with the implications of such technology, rather than in how it works.
In "The Shobies' Story", the first group of people to travel by churten *as* a group deals with a chaotic experience of their trip by weaving a single coherent story. "Dancing to Ganam" is a classic story example of the unreliable narrator: What do you do when the hero you admire seems to be telling a story that makes no sense? Finally, my favorite story, "Another Story, or, A Fisherman of the Inland Sea", explores the problem of churten and the marriage arrangements of the people of the planet O, who marry by sedoretu, a bond between two men and two women.
"Another Story" is, I think, LeGuin's only time-travel story to date, and it is unlike any other time-travel story I've ever read. Hideo leaves the farmhold where he grew up, son of a Japanese woman who married into this ancient culture, to study churten theory on Hain and its neighboring planet of Ve. His one visit home makes him realize how much he has given up in order to do so; he is deeply shaken by seeing his germane Isidri, child of the other parents in the marriage, married but without children. After many years of study, he uses churten to travel from Hain to O and discovers he has gone back in time eighteen years; he has the opportunity to reclaim the life he gave up.
The title of the story is based on a traditional Japanese folktale which Hideo's mother used to tell, about a handsome young fisherman who spends a night with the Queen of the Sea and returns to his village four hundred years later. I read the same story as a child in one of my many fairy tale books, where it was called "Urashima and the Turtle". Urashima's magical experience of time dilation is the same as Hideo's mother's experience of it--the loss of all she held dear in her decision to work for the Ekumen. Churten is the overcoming of that loss, which requires the creation of a new story, another story, in order to understand the universe.
Once again, Le Guin offers new stories by which we can come to new understandings of our own universe.
Le Guin's imagination is always a pleasure.......2004-05-24
These eight stories run the gamut from whimsical to cautionary, most including elements of both.
The three last and longest deal with "churten" travel, which allows instantaneous space travel or "transilience." Le Guin makes no attempt to explain this in technological terms and all three stories explore the early, experimental phases of the churten.
The most interesting, "The Shobies' Story," concerns the pioneering churtenists. Initially, the experiment seems a success, if somewhat disorienting. But soon gaps in perception appear - events change according to who narrates them and in the face of this perceptual chaos the human psyche begins a panicky unraveling.
The most humorous story is "The First Contact With the Gorgonids" in which the ugly American meets the aliens and the grimmest is "The Kerastion," in which an artist's desire for permanence leads to tragedy. These are also the shortest.
Le Guin often deals with hubris. In "Newton's Sleep" a smugly rational man, driven to isolate his family from the pollution of Earth, is himself isolated by his inability to incorporate the irrational. In one of the churten stories, "Dancing to Ganam," a man's oversized vision of himself leads to a not entirely unexpected fate.
Le Guin's writing is, as always, fluid and evocative. While some stories are more predictable than others, each is a pleasure.
Read it if only for the last story.......2002-09-19
The final story in this book, "Another Story," is almost certainly my favorite short story ever, and I've read a lot of them. Her writing is wonderful, and a lot of the best elements of both her writing and usual themes come together wonderfully in the final story. The other ones are worth reading, too, but the final story stands on its own and is alone worth finding this book now that it is, sadly, out of print. (I found two copies in a bookstore's bargain stack 6 year ago, luckily for me!)
Find the book, and at least read the last story. It's truly wonderful.
Again and again.......2001-07-31
I finally bought this book after I checked it out from the library about once a month just to read the last story again. It is my favorite story of all time. The one story is worth the money. The others are OK and a few are fun. I would like to have just the last story in a smaller version.
Book Description
"Earns its place on the very short shelf of books on Japan that are of permanent value."-Times Literary Supplement.
"Richie is a stupendous travel writer; the book shines with bright witticisms, deft characterizations of fisherfolk, merchants, monks and wistful adolescents, and keen comparisons of Japanes and Western culture." -
San Francisco Chronicle
"A learned, beautifully paced elegy."-London Review of Books
Sheltered between Japan's major islands lies the Inland Sea, a place modernity passed by. In this classic travel memoir, Donald Richie embarks on a quest to find Japan's timeless heart among its mysterious waters and forgotten islands. This edition features an introduction by Pico Iyer, photographs from the award-winning PBS documentary, and a new afterword. First published in 1971, The Inland Sea is a lucid, tender voyage of discovery and self-revelation.
Donald Richie is the foremost authority on Japanese culture and cinema with 40+ books in print.
Customer Reviews:
Donald Richie is one of the best Japan Travelogue writer.......2007-09-23
Donald Richie wrote a journal in 1962 which formed the ground work for everything in the book. In the 9 years until he decided to publish his journal/book, he reprised the journal with additional insertions, in which he sometimes took pieces of his experiences within Japan, that although they did not occur in the Inland Sea of Japan and during the time the journal was written, he nevertheless recognized them as very much a part of what he considers to represent Japan before modernization. Although it is unknown what exactly didn't occur within Japan's Inland Sea, it is undeniable that the book is a masterpiece of a travelogue that very much captures the essence of everything he specifically mentions. He may well have written the journal with the expectation of it being published eventually, once he was ready.
In many ways it is hard to think of it as a travelogue due to the fact that Donald Richie has already experienced half of his life within Japan, and what appears to be an individual reflecting much of his personal life into the narration. It comes across more as an journal written by an individual whom by this point into the published version has become established within Japanese culture and integrated his life within Japan, and is so able to absorb himself into his encounter, that a deeper visual presence of this world and his psyche emerges integrated into this work, that not even a well developed visual experience within cinema could do it justice.
Donald Richie has written many books on Japanese Cinema, namely Kurosawa and Ozu. His visual thinking style is very evident in this book, and I must mention he has a gift for visualization. Compared to Alan Booth, he appears to be far better at writing, and is a far more reflective an individual. Able to decipher the meaning to things, he doesn't simply note down the illogical peculiarities of the individuals he encounters. A note of warning though is that Richie has some definite vices, namely he acts upon sexual gratification with young women, and almost gets taken away with a high-school girl. He doesn't do anything illegal in the story (at least, not that I'm totally familiar with, given the time and place, and nothing with which you couldn't do, and get away with, in the US.) Although he does so during a marriage, and his actions would well be chastised by many readers, he is who he is. The end notes of his book (in the first edition, published 1971) do tell the reader of his decision to keep much of the journal writings intact without any changes made to the events. By doing so, some may find his encounters reason enough to steer clear of the book; however I must let you know you will be missing out on a very memorable experience.
The man is a brilliant writer, and one you will not find too common-place. It is also an incredibly rare experience, even more so that time has passed since then. Not to mention, the book does not come across as a book written from memory, as the writing takes a very concerted effort to engage the reader as though the reader were Donald Richie, living scene by scene in real-time. And more importantly is that the book is even better with some of the hilarious aspects of his adventure, and is much more believable with accuracy than Alan Booth. Not to mention, is Donald Richies noticeable appreciation for the Japanese people, despite clear impression to avert from some of the fine nuances that are presented in their culture, and which one might believe that he is seeking to escape his own cultural background, as if a vagabond in search of his soul. In this way he seems to have a sad and endearing appreciation for something that doesn't entirely isolate itself to Japan, although in many ways unique to it. In part because he gets caught into the moment of his experience, he sometimes steps back and picks at nuances, sometimes disrespectfully callow; though this is rare for him in this instance. Read it and maybe what I said will make sense, as I didn't write this too well.
RMP
A 10 star book but..........2006-08-26
I really could not praise this book enough. It is one of my favorite books of all time and a truly astounding piece of "travel writing". However, this edition is a bit wanting.
The new afterward is very good but a bit sobering, confirming that, yes, to a large extent the place you have just read about is now dead as the dodo, all too effectively ending your "fever dream". Also, the new pictures are junk. They look as though they came from a Lonely Planet guide, whilst the original edition had beautiful, mysterious, haunting, high contrast photos that came across more like paintings.
Most puzzling is the page layout which consists of 2 columns per page, like a magazine article. Why? So it looks like something from "Outside" or GQ? Needless to say I preferred the musty tome from the library that read like some brilliant forgotten diary.
An All Time Classic About Japan .......2006-05-21
This is a rare gem of a book.
First published in 1971 it is just as topical now more than 30 years later. Richie travels Japan and captures the essence of the people, their humour, kindness and unique attitude to life. Opening the book at random here is a taste;
"The mist rose like a curtain, obscured the mountain, revealed the beach, the pier, the three girls. They looked like small children, small on the black pier, the black mountains behind them.
The sun lifted itself above the mountains, flying. The rising mist turned gold. The entire island floated large on the sea like a mirror. The girls were gone, swallowed into the morning." (Page 88)
The front cover reads, "A masterwork of travel fiction..." and that is exactly what it is.
Brilliant Travelogue Capturing a Picture of a Departed Japan.......2005-01-02
Without a doubt, Donald Richie is the foremost Western interpreter of Japanese culture and society. In this reprinting, updated with an afterword, of Richie's travel around the Inland Sea more than 30 years ago, he has captured a world that was then disappearing and now almost gone. This reviewer is, admittedly, not a huge fan of travelogues. However, Richie's prose flows beautifully. The reader is able to see through his eyes and experience the isolated islands of the Inland Sea. Although there are some photographs, one does yearn for more. The map of Richie's journey is printed across 2 pages, and there is a bit lost in the middle. Nevertheless, these are minor problems. This book provides a glimpse and an insight to a part of Japan that was rarely viewed by Western eyes and it is almost too late to see the remnants.
Beautiful and Real Description of Japan.......2004-05-04
One of the great values of this book is that it was written at the beginning of the 1970s, and thus shows a rural Japan even less influenced by the west than now. Richie travels from island to island within the Inland Sea of Japan. His insights and comments on the country are intriguing and entertaining. The reader is able to view this truly remarkable region of Japan through the eyes of a foreigner. Richie's language ability in Japanese allows him to become one with the Japanese in conversation (or at least as much as is possible for a foreigner in Japan to become one with the people), and his English writing ability keeps the reader full of emotions - from laughing to feeling lonely, to (perhaps for some) lusting after Japanese schoolgirls. This book really is beautifully written, once the reader gets used to Richie's sometimes abrupt style. This book is different from other travelougues about Japan because the author is not afraid to be honest with his feelings towards the country (though Alan Booth's works are worth reading). Anyone interested in the Japan of today or yesterday should read this book, because life in the Inland Sea is and was definitely distinct (if not better in many ways) from life in Tokyo or Osaka, today or yesterday.
Book Description
From Library Journal:
"The essays are eclectic, engaging, and entertaining. The individual chapters . . . taken together . . . constitute a love letter to the Midwest as well as a lively commentary on creativity and the writing life. Highly recommended for all libraries with large collections on creative writing and for all libraries in the Midwest." --Library Journal, June 15, 2007
Calling on the image of the Midwest's vanished inland sea, Susan Neville has written a compelling collection of essays that ponder writing and the "landlocked imagination." The essays range from interviews with Indiana writers Kurt Vonnegut, Scott Sanders, Marguerite Young, and others, to discussions on techniques grounded in a Midwestern sensibility. As director of Butler University's Visiting Writers Series, Neville has had the rare opportunity to converse with such literary giants as Salman Rushdie, Ray Bradbury, and Toni Morrison, and some of those exchanges have been incorporated into this exciting new collection.
Books:
- Birnbaum's Walt Disney World 2007 (Birnbaum's Walt Disney World)
- Born to Win: A Lifelong Struggle to Capture the America's Cup
- Ciao! (with Audio CD)
- Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success: Building Blocks for a Better Life
- Dark Noon
- Day & Overnight Hikes in Shenandoah National Park, 2nd (Day & Overnight Hikes - Menasha Ridge)
- Europe on a Shoestring (Lonely Planet Shoestring Guides)
- Fly Fishing New Mexico
- Flying High: How JetBlue Founder and CEO David Neeleman Beats the Competition... Even in the World's Most Turbulent Industry
- Fodor's Portugal, 7th Edition (Fodor's Gold Guides)
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