The Caribbean Dive Guide
by Kurt Amsler
List Price:
Our Price: $9.24
You Save: $18.26 (66%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Kurt AmslerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-03-01
ISBN: 0789203073
Number of pages: 168
Publisher: Abbeville Press
Book Reviews of The Caribbean Dive Guide
Book Review: Less than mediocre.
Summary: 1 Stars
This book does not reach the standards demanded by today's discerning Scuba Diver. It is also very difficult to see where this particular publisher is coming from with a title "Caribbean Diving Guide" on the cover of a book which does not include so many of the very best diving destinations from the Caribbean islands. In short, it is difficult to match that title with the content.
A glance inside reveals a selection of 28 dive sites in 9 countries. Whilst I might view the choice of country as questionable, I did expect to find the very best diving from each chosen location but there are just not there.
Not for the first time, this particular publisher appears to have cobbled together the work of several contributors to produce a disjointed book from whatever information and photography was available - rather than commissioning somebody to go out and produce something much better. In short, they have gone for the cheaper option and it shows.
Beginning with a very disappointing selection from the Bahamas - where any mention whatsoever of the Blue Holes (for which the Bahamas are world-famous) is studiously avoided, we are then taken to the Florida Keys, neither of which are even "in" the Caribbean.
After a trip to Cuba, where we are treated to 3 very low-grade sites with maximum depths of 20m, 15m and 10m respectively - and you begin to get the idea. These are followed by Cozumel (wrongly spelled Cotzumel) where, yet again, the best sites are avoided. Four sites from the Caymans - predictably including "Stingray City" (yawn.), are followed by three in Belize - where the Author attempts to rename the "Great Blue Hole" the "Giant Blue Hole." After visiting Honduras, we are suddenly treated to a 1,600 mile journey over to Guadeloupe and Martinique for 2 dives each before rounding off the diving in continued disappointing fashion with the last 2 underwater sojourns being a further 500 miles away in Curacao.
Whilst claiming to be a guide to the "Caribbean," Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, BVI, Cayman Brac, Grenada, the Grenadines, USVI (to name but 8.) are not mentioned at all.
As always, Kurt Amsler's photographs are very good (and this earns the book its one Star) although a number of other images are under-exposed and not up to the standard expected in this day and age. The 24 pages of drawings of common fishes at the end is useful - and perhaps they should have concentrated on that particular theme instead of producing a book which is of little value to any serious diver.
NM
Travel Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Travel Books
The Guadalupe Mountains of Texas (Elma Dill Russell Spencer Foundation Series)by Alan Tennant
University of Texas Press; Published: 1997; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.95
Wild South Africaby Alan G. Mountain
The MIT Press; Published: 1998-09-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $420.74
Prairie Passage: The Illinois & Michigan Canal Corridorby Edward Ranney, Emily J Harris
University of Illinois Press; Published: 1998-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $69.00
Chicago and Downstate: Illinois as Seen by the Farm Security Administration Photographers, 1936-1943 (Visions of Illinois)University of Illinois Press; Published: 1989-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.83
Price in other shops:
Travel Photographyby Roger Hicks, Frances Schultz
Focal Press; Published: 1998-11-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $74.20
A Southern Celebration: Charleston and Savannah Proclaimedby Jane Sobel, Arthur J. Klonsky, Christian Gehman
Skyline Pr; Published: 1985-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $39.99
Framing the West: Race, Gender, and the Photographic Frontier in the Pacific Northwestby Carol J. Williams
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2003-10-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $21.95
Price in other shops:
A Day in the Life of Ireland: Photographed by 75 of the World's Leading Photojournalists on One Day, May 17, 1991by Collins Publishers, Collins1, Jennifer Erwitt
Collins Pub San Francisco; Published: 1995-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $79.99
Over Londonby Jason Hawkes
Harpercollins Pub Ltd; Published: 2001-03; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Walking the Bible: A Photographic Journeyby Bruce Feiler
PBS; William Morrow; Published: 2005-10-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.72
Price in other shops: