Now that I have again recommended this 'architectural odyssey', my spare goes up for grabs after years of appreciative reading. All I ask is a trade or postage, because Beny's excellent photographic plates make it a hefty package. It lacks a dust-jacket but otherwise all is well.

Sorry…this edition is not the high-priced spread: I cling to my new copy. (Eat yer hearts out!) The AVL is by McLelland with the text from Thames and Hudson, displaying the original publisher's photo-selection.

ETA: Put on reserve a year later to accommodate a BXer who has caught the vibe.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This is *really* a pleasure: RABCKing a lively BXer with a lively and endearing book that has stood by me for years.

I was delighted to have the postman hand this book to me today. [And even more delighted that the sun came out while he was doing so; we haven't seen the thing in weeks for all the rain!] Looks like a lovely collection of ruins around the world - just the sort of book I can lose myself in... Many thanks!

[Haven't forgotten about Fry's Ode Less Travelled; I have finished it, and it's somewhere in the stacks of books-I-mean-to-review-any-minute-now. Hope to get it off to you soon!]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - a world tour of ruins from many different civilizations, some of them no longer in existence, others "restored" to a state that may be of great interest in its own right but is much less picturesque. The author quotes Henry James on this fondness for ruins:

"A heartless pastime", Henry James called his own ruin-questing (and this was a title I considered for my book), "and the pleasure, I confess, shows a note of perversity."

I admit to adoring ruins - both the immense, spectacular ones, and the almost-invisible cellar-holes that are still to be found in nearby woods. They evoke history, and long-forgotten stories, and the passage of time - or maybe they just remind me of ghost stories, which is also good.

There were lots of great photos here - some of them focused on small details of an immense ruin, or of fallen columns dimly seen through water or foliage, with others showing the vastness of the site. Pyramids in the Yucatan, castles in Ireland, temples in Sri Lanka - and while they're all crumbling to some degree, they've still endured a lot longer than most modern structures will... Thanks again for sharing this, Dunzy!

I've enjoyed this book for some time now, and I think it's time to share it, so I'm adding it to the I Hate SF bookbox, which will soon be on its way to BCer grubsneerg in Pennsylvania. Hope everyone enjoys the selection!

[Update: I was very sad to learn that Dunzy passed away in August (forum thread here). This book is one of several that we had in common, and its future travels will help keep him in my thoughts.]

Taken out of the I Hate Scifi box

Thank you for sending! This book will be wild released on Feb. 9th by the Rubber City Book Posse and the Akron Reading Festival held had the main branch of the Akron Public Library.

Look for the Rubber City Book Posse!

Bookcrossing: n. the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise.
- from the Concise Oxford English Dictionary

Welcome to BookCrossing!

Thank you for picking up this book. Please make a journal entry on the BookCrossing site (www.bookcrossing.com) to let me know that this book has found a good home with you. You may choose to remain anonymous or to join (its free). If you join, please consider indicating that you were referred by Tribefan. I hope you enjoy the book. You can make another journal entry with your comments when you’ve finished reading. Whenever you’re ready to send it on its way, make a journal entry if you are giving or sending this book to a known person, or release notes if you are leaving it “in the wild” again for anyone to catch. Then watch its journey. You’ll be alerted by e-mail each time someone makes another journal entry. It’s all confidential (you’re known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address), free, and spam-free.