Repetitive repetitive repetitive

I had to give up reading this book, which I found very interesting because I couldn't cope with the author labouring the point. Take this example from page 172 of my copy:<br /><br />For anyone today to walk eastwards, from Dorset to Dover along this coastline, just as William Smith had walked eastwards along the Somerset Coal Canal from Dunkerton to Limpley Stoke some two centuries before, is to walk forwards in geological time - is to walk away from and out of the older rocks and towards and into the newer. The cliffs that ranged before me now were each made of rocks that were successively younger than those in the cliffs that ranged behind me. The more distantly ahead of me they ranged, the younger and younger they became - so that those lost in the shimmering haze of the afternoon belonged to whole stages and epochs of geological time that were far more recent than those beside and behind me.<br /><br />Apart from the fact that the reader is by now quite familiar with the starting and finishing point of the Somerset Coal Canal and with the fact that Smith lived 200 years ago (this fact is repeated many times as either"200 years ago" or"two centuries before")the author has now told us that the rocks get younger as one walks from Dorset to Dover 4 times in one paragraph.<br /><br />I just couldn't take it anymore!

Everything you ever needed to know!

I think this book is fantastic. Whether your helping the kids with their homework or planning a holiday, this book will have information in it that will definately be useful. It is easy to read and follow, and you don't need to read cover to cover if your just after one certain thing. It is such a useful reference book, I'd definately recommend it.

A disputed birthplace

A very easy read. I was very curious to read this book since I live in Amalfi and Flavio Gioia is a locally disputed"hero" since both Positano and Amalfi claim themselves to be his birthplace. The book actually denies his existence! I have not yet seen the book in Italian and I would be interested to hear what our local (Amalfitan) history society thinks about it.

Generally good, but slighty disappointing

Having waited for such a book for a long time, as the previous books i've read are out-dated and the information has been far from accurate, i find this atlas at bit disappointing.It's easy to digest and can easily occupy you. It's also excellent when it comes to comparing countries and is very handy as a reference source for school projects. It provides the mainstream topics and issues such as 'The Cost of living','Life and Death' etc around the world. But having been published in 2003, some countries have 'no data' and most of the other data has been collected from 2000 and not 2003. 'No Data' in several topics for countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, which are the focus of the world's attention today disappointed me. Adding to the disappointment, i feel that the topics raised are too vague and that other main topics such as 'Food' have been missed out.