Circle Line is a book I found in that travel bookshop on Long Acre and anyone who knows me knows I love London (I mean really love this-is-where-I-belong kind of love). This is a book about sailing around London along canals and the Thames in a week. I bought this because I am obsessed with London (also it's freaking gorgeous) but it didn't quite live up to my little fangirl heart.
The first couple of chapters are full of sailing jargon which I felt made me feel excluded from the readership. I get it, it's a book about sailing, but it was very much marketed as a book about London because that is where the market is. I felt like when you know someone in a group of friends so you hang out with them and you just feel awkward: you don't get their jokes and they all went to that party you didn't go to. It was odd because I always feel that books are talking directly to me and that I am the only readership but I felt excluded by this book.
Some parts were really slow which was a shame because some bits were pretty interesting (especially the bits about Paddington as a westerner. I will have passionate conversations about trains with Nithya). Some of the history was really interesting but the part about turtles was a little slower.
I love maps in books but the one at the front of the book was quite hard to read in relation to places mentioned in the book, even for someone who spends quite a lot of time in London. The book wasn't quite clear enough to not have a map but it might as well as had no map.
This is my first ever book on travel so it could be super good for travel I just didn't love it.
I would recommend this if:
You love sailing and it consumes your life
You love London and it consumes your life
You want something a little bit different
I gave this three stars.
i love travel books like these, but i totally understand what you mean about feeling excluded.
ReplyDelete~ amy
I just know nothing about sailing and I felt the author didn't really care about the London-obsessive part of his audience
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