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ashleylm's review against another edition
4.0
To be completely honest, I'm not completely finished ... but my trip to NYC is over, so I won't be reading any more until my next vacation. I'll assume the sections on Staten Island or Kips Bay were as interesting as the sections on Chelsea or Riverside Drive.
First, some quick minuses: it's a tricky book to manage as a Kindle read, it's difficult to navigate back to maps (so you mostly just ignore them and follow addresses as best you can), and the order of neighbourhoods was maddening: almost always south to north, so you might finish one tour, and then have to walk 20 blocks back to begin the next, rather than laying it out so one could simply begin, and just keep going (which is totally doable).
On the plus side, it's pretty exhaustive. I got an awful lot of steps in, and whenever I was just wandering and decided to start a tour, I had but to look around me, pick a likely building, and, oh yes, there it is in the book, voila. I ended up visiting streets I'd never seen before (I don't live in New York, but I normally go twice a year for a week or so at a time, so I know it fairly well), seeing buildings I'd never seen (or noticed) before, and had really the thrilling experience of visiting someplace brand new ... even though I've spent almost a full year there, when you add it all up. Fresh eyes, and all that.
It's from 2010 and could use an update again already (there seems to be a current mini-building boom, or maybe not so mini, though I supposed not when compared to the 19th century!), but aside from the new Billionaire's Row or the most recent High Line adjacent additions, it covered everything I'd want to know about.
(5* = amazing, terrific book, one of my all-time favourites, 4* = very good book, 3* = good book, but nothing to particularly rave about, 2* = disappointing book, and 1* = awful, just awful. As a statistician I know most books are 3s, but I am biased in my selection and end up mostly with 4s, thank goodness.)
First, some quick minuses: it's a tricky book to manage as a Kindle read, it's difficult to navigate back to maps (so you mostly just ignore them and follow addresses as best you can), and the order of neighbourhoods was maddening: almost always south to north, so you might finish one tour, and then have to walk 20 blocks back to begin the next, rather than laying it out so one could simply begin, and just keep going (which is totally doable).
On the plus side, it's pretty exhaustive. I got an awful lot of steps in, and whenever I was just wandering and decided to start a tour, I had but to look around me, pick a likely building, and, oh yes, there it is in the book, voila. I ended up visiting streets I'd never seen before (I don't live in New York, but I normally go twice a year for a week or so at a time, so I know it fairly well), seeing buildings I'd never seen (or noticed) before, and had really the thrilling experience of visiting someplace brand new ... even though I've spent almost a full year there, when you add it all up. Fresh eyes, and all that.
It's from 2010 and could use an update again already (there seems to be a current mini-building boom, or maybe not so mini, though I supposed not when compared to the 19th century!), but aside from the new Billionaire's Row or the most recent High Line adjacent additions, it covered everything I'd want to know about.
(5* = amazing, terrific book, one of my all-time favourites, 4* = very good book, 3* = good book, but nothing to particularly rave about, 2* = disappointing book, and 1* = awful, just awful. As a statistician I know most books are 3s, but I am biased in my selection and end up mostly with 4s, thank goodness.)
jmcdbrock's review against another edition
2.0
American Institute of Architects, I expected better from you! Small black and white photos, mostly close-ups of windows and doors, don't do justice to NYC's architecture and boroughs. Here's hoping for an improved Sixth Edition.
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