Review – Instant Expert: A Visual Guide to the Skills You’ve Always Wanted Hardcover by Lonely Planet (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: All Ages
Genre: Non-fiction
Length: 204 pages
Publisher: Lonely Planet
Release Date: December 1, 2014
ISBN-13: 978-1743219997
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Amazon Vine
Rating: 3/5 stars

I got a copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. This was an odd book. Some parts were interesting, other parts were just plain weird. This might make a good coffee table book, but aside from that it’s not all that useful.

This book is basically two page explanations for a variety of things. The book is broken into six parts: practical traveller, health, outdoors, arts and culture, food and drink, and fun stuff. Each part covers a number of different topics. For example in the practical traveler section there are two page explanations for bouncer, launderer, motorcyclist, bike mechanic, sailor, and swimmer. Each topic has some pictures, fun facts, and tips on how to do/be that topic.

The main problem with this book is that there isn’t really enough information on any topic to actually help. The Yogi guide actually does show a number of yoga poses that you could try, so this section has some decent information. The hiking guide section basically tells you that if you carry less you can hike farther; not really useful at all. It would have been better to list the essential materials you should bring hiking.

The other issue with this book is that some of the sections are completely bizarre. There is a section on how to be a Caber tosser, how to be a Smoke Jumper, and how to be a cat…the section on how to be a cat is especially random.

My last problem with this book is that it is obviously meant to release in Europe because there is a lot of British-English in here (for example using tyre instead of tire).

All the above being said it’s not an awful book. It might make a good coffee table book for someone to pick up and scan through. There are some fun facts in some of the sections that are entertaining. Still I was a bit puzzled about what this book is actually aiming for; it’s partly useful but also seems to be partly a joke or parody.

Overall this was an okay read but not what I expected. The guide to each of the topics covered really doesn’t provide enough information to be useful. There are some fun facts in here though and this might make a decent coffee table book. I would recommend taking a quick look through before purchasing to see if this kind of thing interests you.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge