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Book Review: "Blue Guide Israel and the Palestinian Territories (Blue Guide)" by Kay Prag (published by A&C Black (London) / WW Norton (New York), 2002)

(July, 2004) I purchased this book (through an on-line dealer, based on very positive experience with the Blue Guide to Germany) and was disappointed. I advise you to look elsewhere, keeping the following information in mind. If I had browsed in a bookstore first, I would not have bought this book because it did not meet my particular needs or desires.

The book is very well-organized and is quite a convenient size for traveling with. The maps in it are good, but there should be more regional maps with more details, such as distances between points.

This book is very heavy on archaeological information; the cover describes author Kay Prag as "an expert in the archeology of the Near East". If you are looking for that, this book should meet that need. It also gives A LOT of historical background for SOME places.

Not counting introductory material, practical advice (which seems sound), background information, a fair-to-good glossary and the index, the book has 408 pages. Of these 408 pages, 221 of them are devoted to Jerusalem! If you are looking for a guide to Jerusalem, this book is recommended. It seems to have lots of in-depth descriptions of the major sites - maybe a bit too in-depth for the average traveler who may prefer a bit less in-depth information about some places, but information about more places where they are likely to go.

Some examples:

* Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem (the site of a crucial battle in 1967) - this book devotes 5 lines to it, as opposed to almost one page in Zev Vilnay's "The Guide to Israel". The museum and memorial there is very interesting.

* Ein Gedi (a natural spring/nature preserve on the Dead Sea) - this book does not mention its important connection to King David.

* Safad/Tzfat merits just more than one page in this book, as compared to eleven in Vilnay's Guide.

* Mount Tabor - this book does not mention its connection to the Samaritans.

* This book has no index entries for Nahariya, Netanya, Hadera, Afula, Rehovot, Mitzpah Ramon. If you look at a map of Israel, it will become obvious that any traveler is most likely to at least pass through these places on a trip to Israel.

The book is written with the "metric traveler" in mind. A conversion table for temperatures and distances printed on an inside cover would have been a very nice touch.

If you will be traveling to Jerusalem this may be just the book for you. But if you will be traveling to Israel, check out other books before buying this one.

I took this book with me on a two-week trip I made to Israel in July and August of 2004. After a couple of days, I stopped referring to it. After a couple of more days, I stopped carrying it with me. (I greatly preferred my 1979 edition of Zev Vilnay's "The Guide to Israel". If you are fortunate enough that you can get hold of a copy of this book, by all means do so!)

Learn more about this author, Bernard Kesten.
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