5. Remarkable Places: Explore the beauty of nature's hidden places by Parragon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
An excellent collection of photographs of fascinating places with informative captions. The book is an overview of natural wonders, ancient civilizations, and monuments/buildings carved from rock. If you want more than basic stats and background, you'll need to investigate further, but this book is a fun introduction to a lot of amazing places on Earth.
I was familiar with many of the locations, but there were several that were new to me which was cool. There's a handy index of the sites at the back.
Sorry there's no picture, I had to add this book to GoodReads as it was. My parents picked this book up from The Christmas Tree Shop for me (for xmas) when they couldn't find a good photo book about Petra for me. I'm a fan of most ruins and natural wonders, so this was a great alternative. A very enjoyable slim volume.
A year ago on TTaT: The Blue Shirt, Icicle Branches
Do you know there are miles and miles of old stone walls across the east Bay Area? True story. When are you and I going to sit down and have a cup of coffee and talk about ancient civilizations? (Maybe not coffee, I just remembered you don't drink it, but we do have some good tea houses around here.)
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of bummed I didn't know about those walls when I was living in SF. The bigger bummer is that I wasn't blogging back then (2003-4), and I don't think you were yet either. I was just getting into reading Wil Wheaton's blog.
ReplyDeleteHopefully our paths will cross sooner than later. That is a conversation I'd like to have. Bonus points to you for remembering I don't drink coffee. If you have a good juice/smoothie bar, you can get extra credit. :)
Let me know if you're ever eastbound with some spare time and I'll do likewise if I'm westbound. Might make travel logistics more feasible.
There's a chance we might be headed to Ohio in September for a wedding. I hope to god we can pull the financial together to make that actually happen by then since I have declared this to be Get Your Life Together Because Jesus Christ You're 34 Years Old Now And Really Need To Get This Shit Figured Out Year for me. So, um. Yeah. I'll give you a heads up, is what I'm saying.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to ignore the fact that you're 4 years younger than me for the moment and say Ohio sounds promising. Let me know.
ReplyDeleteSounds like quite a year for you. Did you finish reading/doing the exercises for Your Best Year Yet? (Think that was the title.)
In 2003 I don't think I'd even heard the word blog. I remember when I did, I didn't know what it meant and also found it a horrible unaesthetic syllable, like a cudgel smiting my ears. Whatever it was, I hoped it didn't catch on. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteIf it helps I've always thought of you as being my age and I have a hard time conceiving of myself as being older than 30, or that any of my friends are now achieving such advanced ages, considering the number of shenanigans I feel we still have in us. As for the book: not yet, but my hope is tomorrow morning over breakfast.
Yeah, I didn't much care for the sound of "blog" either though I reckon I've acclimated to it now. Summer 2004 is probably when I started reading Wil's, back when I embarrassingly thought, "I can do that! I'll post some stories and someone will offer me a book deal." Um, yeah, not so much without the pre-existing fame. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteAnd it may not help, but I think of you as being *my* age. I'm willing to let you have it your way though. ;)
One of my dearest friends just turned 40 today and that seems all kinds of not possible. He has loads of shenanigans ahead of him though that he's actually pulling off, so I have hope.
Tomorrow morning over breakfast sounds like a plan. Good luck!