Peru and Bolivia, 8th: The Bradt Trekking Guide

Rating:
Summary: in dire need of some decent editing
Review: Although writing the perfect trekking guide is an almost impossible excerise, there is certainly room for improvement in Bradt's latest offering. Whilst generic lonely planet guide blueprint is limited, the layout employed here is quite confusing and random, with maps, route descriptions, silly anecdotes, natural history, local culture and general travel advice thrown in together in a very messy fashion which limits the usefulness of the book as a reference material. The content itself is extremely bloated with superfluous info and suffers from inconsistent writing - at times it feels more like a disparate collection of internet postings than a trekking guide. Whilst is great to see the alternate and no less spectacular routes getting a mention, some serious thought needs to be given to the editing process - it is a difficult task to write a concise and informative guide, but this is what is necessary to stand out from the dross.