The Underground Guide to New York City Subways

Rating:
Summary: ARROGANT, POMPOUS AND A GREAT READ !
Review: this book made me laugh more times than i can remember -- and if you're not prone to being offended by salty language and pompous wit, I'm positive that you will love this book as much as i did. A great New York epic in classic "New York" style.

Rating:
Summary: Wrong, repetitive, and worse
Review: This book's goal is admirable to anyone who loves the city subway - visit every station and desvribe it for all to know. However, Dave Frattini, makes a pretty bad job of it. While his effort is admirable, his information as duly noted by others is often plain wrong.
His style could use some work too - how many times can one write "let's face it" in one publication??
Furthermore he includes completley unnecessary racial comments into the descriptions: why "scary black guy"??(p.180) Why shouldn't residents of Ralph Avenue watch a TV sitcom with white characters?(p.37) Van Siclen Avenue area is not a shanty town - why should it be surprising to see satelite dishes? (pp.179-180) I can't find such remarks informative or funny.
Real people live and work in all these neighborhoods - they have many more positive sides than can be seen from a brief peek from inside the station - but it seems the author did not really do this much for some of his listings...
The book presents New York, New Yorkers and the subway as the same old stereotypes from bad movies of a few decades back.
Some one should us all a favor and write a new and better book!

Rating:
Summary: awesome guide !
Review: what can i say -- this book gave me everything and more about what the average New Yorker needs to know regarding the subways, and the various neighborhoods and 'burbs they traverse. If you are a New Yorker, a tourist or anywhere in between, this book will help make the underground crawl a lot more tolerable. AWESOME GUIDE !