Travel book reviews: Heights of Madness; History and Mystery: New York

By Clover Stroud Published: 11:34AM GMT 01 March 2010

Previous of Images Next Heights of Madness follows Jonny Muir as he climbs Britain"s top peaks Photo: CORBIS History and Mystery: New York facilities twenty-four themed walks around New York Photo: CORBIS

HEIGHTS OF MADNESS

By Jonny Muir (Metro, �7.99)

More ride book reviews Arts and enlightenment legal legal holiday ideas Travel books: Viva South America!; DK guide to Great Britain & Ireland Travel books: The Glory of the Sultans and At the Water"s Edge Travel book: Paris and her Remarkable Women; Bradt"s Nova Scotia Travel books: Walking on the Brecon Beacons; The Reluctant Traveller

Energetic is positively a word that could be used to report Jonny Muir, who set out to stand (for charity) the top points in each of the counties in the UK in 3 months. To have it harder, he motionless to abstain from all forms of ride detached from those he could propel himself. A bicycle and his feet, therefore, were his selected modes, but he vowed not to have use of open transport, or join a lift, however tempting. Already a penetrating walker, his proclivity for the outing was in piece a enterprise to redefine what "adventure" should mean. He longed for to infer to himself that it could be something any one can achieve, but carrying to ride to the furthest corners of the globe. This is a sensitively inspirational and mostly droll comment of his adventures in his homeland.

Extract: "Moel Sych lies at the secluded heart of the Berwyns, Snowdonia"s nauseous sister. The mountainous country miss the angled astonishment of Snowdonia and, as a result, shun the crowds of the National Park. The highway clung to the eastern corner of Llyn Tegid, Wales" largest healthy lake, upheld the Bala Lake Railway and took off over the high pass of Llangynog. A high hairpin highway by the woods catapulted me onto the moor, with the Berwyns rising kindly to the east. It was a overjoyed 45 mins of cycling, a peaceful breeze at my behind and perceptibly a car on the road."

HISTORY AND MYSTERY: NEW YORK

By Michelle and James Nevius (AA Guides �9.99)

The initial Europeans to solve in New York were employees of the Dutch West India Company. Immigrants flocked to the city thereafter, formulating graphic districts that even currently have this an glorious place to find on foot. This book contains twenty-four themed walks of in between 1.2 and 2.5 miles. A well-designed guide, it has multiform pages clinging to each walk, and a minute map. A short key to the informative credentials of the district lonesome is followed by numbered points en route. Details of the credentials of buildings upheld are additionally included, with glorious records on the less viewable and some-more particular architecture. The "mystery" component of the guide concerns assorted dark corners of the city. There"s additionally a sidebar on the most appropriate places to eat in each area. A utilitarian guide that will heighten a legal legal holiday to the Big Apple.

Extract: "The tenure East Village was combined after World War II to remonstrate renters that they were relocating in to an area that had some-more in usual with stately Greenwich Village than with the plentiful Lower East Side, to that these streets were once deliberate integral… The large series of German immigrants to the city after 1848 altered the neighbourhood"s impression and for the rest of the 19th century it was well known as Kleindeutschland "Little Germany". The falling of the liner General Slocum in 1904, carrying parishioners from St Mark"s Church on an outing, killed 1,021 people and broken the German community."