Nowadays Bad Guide Category One often very shiny thing that was released one of the major publishers. He has a brilliant page, lots of colorful charts and photos, and appears eager to cover all bases. Its authors - because, as a rule, more than one - collected these guidelines carefully and obediently. Maybe too much on the assumption that their readers will be treated in a foreign city or country they write with the same mood. These books are apparently based on the belief that people are not traveling for pleasure, but from a sense of sacred duty.
Individuals of these books are to talk with scientists on an excursion. Who else would be interested in long descriptions of 13th-century methods of masonry or painted glass windows or the antics of long-dead despots or, worse still, their annoying little mistresses? Why, incidentally, all the French kings named Louis? And why are they all their Super Bowls?
And who else would spend most of their time (judging by the space they devote to these guidelines) in musty museums, places that have been developed for SAP your will to live and that, quite often, in a hot summer day to download?
It is in books such as these, where you can find a possible location for a day trip summarized as follows: "Village of the 14-century church, the Gothic style with some elements of the later 16 th century Renaissance town hall and a museum with two minor Tintorettos .
Now what's wrong with that? Everything. Because it tells you nothing about the place you really want or need to know. It's like a party, and someone approaches you to enter one of his friends. "You have to meet Bill," he says, "Bill broke his ankle last year during a game of tennis and lost a tooth when he was a little boy." Uhhh, yeah, Bill, very glad to meet you ...
Bad Guide Category Two is a different animal. Generally, there is only one author, and his name will be displayed on the home page. We understand at once: it is much more personalized account, and we, for better or for worse, offers an experience of the city or the country through the eyes of one individual.
In principle, this can and often does work very well. But, unfortunately, some authors are much more interested in talking about themselves than about the city or the country they were hired to talk. I read once walking guide of Paris, where one participant suggested that the reader may follow it in all places where she and her friend was a lesbian with a good, or how their business is moving toward its end, there is less of a good time. I mean: pooh-Lease.
That the authors of travel guides must understand this: the book is a tool to assist the reader in organizing a successful trip, does not differ essentially from the map or compass. This is not a literary work. This is not a scene for you to express yourself. This is not about you.
