Releasing.

Picked up at tonight's meeting. I think my husband will also enjoy it.

TBR: offering to LastEdition. http://bookrelay.com/relay.php?id=1078

I have to stop reading historical fiction, especially those based around actual people rather than just set in a certain time period; they just bug me. I got so tired of wading through all the lengthy descriptions of the different Japanese costumes. Good lord, just call them by what they are actually called, put a dictionary in the back of the book and move on. Please no more lenthy descriptions of what every single Japanese meal tastes like! Please no more haiku (even if it is written by a Master)! Please no more random use of Japanese words when 90% of what people are saying is in English; or at least BE CONSISTENT. If every other major character's name is kept in Japanese (albeit transliterated), then leave the main character's in transliterated Japanese. Her name isn't Cat; it's Neko.

My final thoughts on this book; save yourself the trouble of slogging through every detail and watch some anime instead (subbed, not dubbed). You'll learn just as much and probably be better entertained.

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailing to LastEdition.

Arrived exactly 2 months after it was sent! I wonder if it is not the last vestiges of bookrelay.com! It will be missed:-( Thank you very much, Caligula!
Having read several descriptions both fictional and non-fictional of the Tokaido Road, I have been looking forward to this one. Having read the previous reviews: I can deal with descriptions of clothes and food, but wonder if I will take kindly to transliterations of personal names and expessions ... it recently stopped me from finishing a historical fictional novel from China ca. 745 AD. Not exactly sure why that is such a bother, but it is .. it could be that I might feel patronised, something I truly hate.
I will get to this book eventually, probably together with reading Jeanne Larsen's Silk Road which is also on my TBR list - I am currently in a Si/Fi frame of mind!

I have little to add to Caligula's review. Such detours and all that useless details! Considering the lenght of the Tokaido Road, I became quite worried when halfway though the book they had covered so little ground, so I skipped over 120 pages and suffered no ill effects (i.e., lost none of the plot) and I admit I gave up in the end and just read the last two chapters (something I usually never do).

PS: Larsen's Silk Road is not worth the candle eiter.