Mona Winks: Self-Guided Tours of Europe's Top Museums (3rd Ed)

Rating:
Summary: the BEST european tour guide - don't leave without it!!
Review: This book opened my eyes to many of Europe's treasures. I backpacked for 2 months through Europe last summer, and found this book to be one of the best things I brought along. Rick gives a thoughtful, entertaining description of the best works of art in Europe's top museums. As I never took an art history class, this book gave much more meaning to my museum visits. Rick's explanations and descriptions are so personal, it was like having a good friend take me on a tour of the museum. Additionally, to lighten my backpack load as I went along and to make new friends, I'd rip out each museum's chapter on my way out the door and give it to an english-speaking person on their way in. If you don't know much about art and plan on seeing Europe's great art musuems, don't leave without this book.

Rating:
Summary: the BEST european tour guide - don't leave without it!!
Review: This book opened my eyes to many of Europe's treasures. I backpacked for 2 months through Europe last summer, and found this book to be one of the best things I brought along. Rick gives a thoughtful, entertaining description of the best works of art in Europe's top museums. As I never took an art history class, this book gave much more meaning to my museum visits. Rick's explanations and descriptions are so personal, it was like having a good friend take me on a tour of the museum. Additionally, to lighten my backpack load as I went along and to make new friends, I'd rip out each museum's chapter on my way out the door and give it to an english-speaking person on their way in. If you don't know much about art and plan on seeing Europe's great art musuems, don't leave without this book.

Rating:
Summary: some useful information, oversimplified discussion of art
Review: This book was useful to get the overview of what museums are the most well-known, and the information as to location and opening hours was useful. Beyond that, I can't recommend this book for anyone with a college education and an interest in art. I went to europe with no background in art history, and found the taped headsets in the Louvre and other museums (Musee D'Orsay, the Uffizi, Vatican museum) to be so much more informative, without any technical language or tedious narrative. I would recommend that you save your money to buy a book on the artist(s) or period that most takes you fancy after visiting the museums!