Paris

Because he was a champion bodybuilder, Paris begins, he's the ideal fitness book author. While sometimes championship bodybuilders go on to author terrible books, Paris has given us a great book with Natural Fitness. Taking a mind-body, rational approach to structuring change, the book helps you develop a commitment to your fitness habit by first exploring your priorities and reasons underlying why you work out, and then developing a sound, effective exercise program of weights and cardiovascular training. If you are able to commit to going to going to a gym in addition to doing regular aerobic exercise, this book will give you a good start. The list of exercises is more than enough for a beginner, but lacks the large-body muscle lifts any athlete will know, such as power cleans, deadlifts, and push presses. These more challenging (and therefore very effective, if somewhat harder to teach) exercises never make it into this book, which I wish had more exercises and less philosophy. People into the emerging whole-food, vegetarian/macrobiotic trend in nutrition might take exception to the nutritionally adaequate somewhat pedestrian diet suggestions, which abound with insipid dishes like baked potato, nonfat cottage cheese, cauliflower and spaghetti sauce (for more tasty healthful meals consider supplementing this book with the Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites Cookbook). Despite its shortcomings this is a fine book you can use to change your body and build a lifelong, healthful habit of gym and aerobic exercise.

Since purchasing Bob Paris' book "Natural Fitness" about 10 weeks ago, I have gone through a lot of changes. I made progress toward my weight loss goal of 35 pounds (25 down, 10 to go) I totally changed my diet, built some muscle, and began to look inside to see the things that were driving me on and off a healthy lifestyle. This is what the book is all about: the whole packsage. Paris makes a point of saying that physical health without corresponding progress in mind, emotions, and spirit is a hollow shell. He also asks the reader to delve into his or her motives for fitness in the first place and see what lurks below the surface. It has been an awesome experience because I have been a "hot and cold" fitness buff forever. Well, I'm 47 now, and the "cold" side could have dire consequences for me, so I bought the book. I am so glad I did. This book has everything a person can need to change from a sedentary lifestyle to an active one. It offers tips on the whole person, food, meals, exercises, routines, etc... and challenges our (my) tendency to look for quick fixes for long term problems. This book is real. It is honest and detailed. It has gotten me so stoked that I'm going to buy Paris' "Flawless", the 10 week phyique transformation manual. I feel I'm ready for that one because "Natural Fitness" has prepared me physically and mentally.

This book focuses on introspection and examining your own goals and reasons for becoming fit. Motivation and a balanced approach toward a maintainable fittness program are stressed. It has a slightly philosophical tone, if you like that kind of thing (which I do). After reading this book and applying some of the ideas, I now bike to work and home (30 mi) 3 times a week, I lift weights 3 times a week, and on weekends ... mountain biking and hiking! I have lost 20 pounds, and I feel better then I have in years.

I love deceptive books.

Example: _Our Paris_, by Edmund White and Hubert Sorin, is ostensibly a series of short essays, written and illustrated in a fairly direct style, pertaining to life in the city. But in a stunning, disarming preface, White alerts us to the real subtext: his partner's slow death from AIDS. It's this subtext that transforms the book from a pleasant travelogue to a devastating account of loss.

Lurking beneath the book's shimmering surfaces, and within its numerous lacunae, is the emotional life of a couple threatened by the fast-approaching specter of death. An attentive reading of White's text and Hubert Sorin's illustrations reveals the mauvaise foi, the daily negotiations, the implicit contract of domestic denial that enables an endangered couple to keep death at bay for just a little longer.

_Our Paris_ looks slight, as if it were merely a pleasant evening's worth of travel anecdotes and gossip. But if you take yourself into this book's confidence, it will reveal unexpected secrets.

I picked up this little book for a return flight from Paris to LA. It looked like perfect plane reading -- short, gossipy, topical. And although it lived up to each of those expectations, the devastation implicit in the book (and explicit at the end) hit hard. The book is not easily forgettable -- and probably no less memorable for the passengers and crew of American Airlines flight 45 who watched me become a sniffling, tear-stained disaster.

It's very intimate, shockingly un-French. White and Sorin invite you into their lives. You feel as if you're at a dinner party listening to them recount(even bicker a little about) their recent mundane adventures. But this intimacy also means that you feel very close to the heartbreaking loss that is the real subject of the book.

It's a beautiful, touching book. The illustrations complement the text (or the text complements the illustrations) perfectly. But if you want to avoid the mess entirely, try The Flaneur.

This is a sweet collection of short pieces, quirky and personal, about a tiny Parisian neighborhood, Paris itself, the French, lots of friends, and a great dog named Fred. Most of all: about Edmund White and his lover Hubert Sorin. Economical yet enjoyably gossipy, kind-hearted, opinionated, informative. Achingly sad, though, because Hubert is dying of AIDS, and in fact does die at the book's end. Definitely worth reading -- especially for fans of Edmund White. Engagingly illustrated by Sorin, who was trained in architecture and took up drawing when he became ill.

Judith Mahoney Pasternak understands Paris: she not only is well-schooled in the history of the City of Lights, she is also acquainted with the intimate side of Paris. This is the type of book that will prepare the nascent visitor to Paris with an insider's view and will also substitute for a personal scrapbook for frequent visitors. The book is divided into two parts: L'Histoire (with sections on 'The City of Yesterday', 'A City of the Mind', 'A City of the Senses', and 'The Living City') and Les Images. The photography is atmospheric, elegant and informative, mixing the requisite grand buildings with intimate photos of the Parisians sitting along the Seine, wrapping cheeses, in the flea markets. This book truly contains the spirit of Paris and belongs in every traveller's library.

I've lived in Paris and visited it many times (though I'm not a Parisian). While Paris is not my very favorite city in the world, it certainly ranks in my "top five" and it is certainly one of the world's "timeless places," for Paris has been a city for more than 2000 years and it is certainly a wonderful mix of the ancient and the modern.

In TIMELESS PLACES PARIS, the author first gives us a brief overview of the history of Paris that I found very interesting. We learn about the founding of Paris on the Ile de la Cite in the middle of the Seine, in the third century BCE by a Celtic tribe the Romans called the Parisii. In 52 CE, the Romans, themselves, built a provincial capital called Lutetia.

TIMELESS PLACES PARIS tells us that while all traces of the Parisii are now gone, the Left Bank (Rive Gauche) still holds remnants of Lutetia and, in fact, two of Lutetia's original buildings are still extant...the 15th century Hotel de Cluny (which now houses the Musee National du Moyen Age, Cluny) and the Arenes de Lutece.

In this book's brief history, we also learn how Paris became one of the most important cities in Europe during the Middle Ages and home to one great Gothic cathedral after another, with the most important being Notre Dame, a building so beautiful some revere it as the beautiful ever designed and built.

We also learn that how Paris became a center of learning with the founding of the Sorbonne (classes were originally only in Latin, thus giving the Latin Quarter its name).

Paris, especially Montmartre, has always been the center of "la vie boheme," and a center for artists, writers and philosophers. So many of them, whether French or not, lived and died in Paris and Paris has contributed much to art, literature and poetry. It is the birthplace of Symbolism, Impressionism, Cubism, Fauvism, etc.

Paris is, without equal, a city of the senses. I think everyone is familiar, at least to some extent, with French cuisine, but Paris isn't just a feast for the palate, it's a feast for the eyes as well. Notre Dame, the Theatre National de l'Opera, the great white Roman-Byzantine Basilica of Sacre Coeur, the Art Nouveau entrances to the Paris Metro and the Eiffel Tower are all testament to Paris's wonderful sights.

There are other vistas in Paris that are just as important as the monuments and cathedrals, but less obvious to the casual observer. These include its many parks and gardens, chief among them, the Bois de Bologne, (the 2200 acre former royal hunting ground), the Tuileries on the Right Bank and the Luxembourg Gardens and the Jardin des Plantes on the Left as well as the "newer" Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.

More than anything else, in TIMELESS PLACES PARIS, we learn that Paris is, more than anything else, a living, thriving, changing city made up of the Parisians, themselves, who frequent its many boulangeries, fromageries and cafes. While only someone actually born in the city can call himself a true Parisian, we learn that the inhabitants of Paris are an ethnically diverse group encompassing Jews, Thai, Vietnamese, Indians, Japanese, Chinese, Ethiopian and Greek. Men, women and children in traditional Arabic dress ride the Metro side by side with native born Parisians in designer suits and dresses. The largest minority group now inhabiting Paris are North Africans who frequent the exquisite Paris Mosque on the Left Bank, a mosque that serves a tea to visitors every afternoon but Friday. The Institut du Monde Arabe houses the largest collection of Arab lore outside of the Arab world.

Paris is truly a "world city," and, as ancient and timeless as it is, it is ever changing and renewing itself daily. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Paris. You won't find a detailed history here and this is certainly not a guidebook, but the descriptions are fascinating and the photos are glorious. This would also make a wonderful gift for anyone who loves Paris or a beautiful "coffee table" book for your own home.

I was looking for some nice postcards or a small book with nice pictures of Paris. I'm very glad I found this one. Beautiful, not ordinary, colorful photographs printed on good paper; some history of Paris and words of love to that City. Photography books are so expensive! But look at this, it's a bargain.

On the inside, this is simply the most beautiful collection of photographs of a major city that I have ever seen. One would think that Paris would not be a major candidate for a new collection of photographs, but as familiar as it is, Subervie manages to make it look completely fresh and new, much in the same way that AMELIE made Paris look like an unfamiliar and eerily beautiful place. If you take this book and look through the photographs with a map in hand, you can actually take a remote visual tour of Paris. I love the way the book is organized, with the various sections of Paris grouped together. I own several books of photographs of Paris, and this one easily laps the field. The only problem I have with the contents of the book is the absence of an index. The book contains a wealth of photographs, and just about every important structure in Paris is covered, but finding one in particular would have been greatly facilitated by an index.

I dock the book a star because of the experience I have had with the book's exterior. It is a paperback, with nice, heavy-stock paper covers. But they have placed a plastic film around the book's exterior, and for reasons I won't go into, I have found that most of the copies of the volume have problems with the plastic film peeling off. This does not, of course, effect the contents of the book, but it is a shame that such an extraordinary book should suffer from poor jacket design. As it stands now, you have this marvelous collection of photographs, with sizable portions of the covering peeling off. I hope that the book sells out of its first printing and that the publisher will tweak the design to correct this problem.

Apart from that caveat, this is one of the most satisfying collections of photographs of a city that one is ever likely to find.

This is a gift to and for anyone who loves Paris. The quality, quantity, sharpness, camera angles and color reproductions of the photographs are first-rate. Here is a visual feast of both tourists' Paris and insiders' Paris, the famous buildings and the little nooks and crannies that make Paris the most beautiful city on earth. Note: The photo on the cover of the book is different than the one displayed on amazon.com.

This book has few words and no space wasted in lavish layout. Just a hefty little paperback (about the size of the Insight travel series but twice as thick) with page after page of terrific Paris scenes. Many of the photographs are full-paged, some are double-paged. Brief captions are included and often indicate the camera location when appropriate (e.g., shots from atop Samaritaine or Montparnasse Tower).

The photography is artful without being self-consciously arty. It shows ~Paris~, not precious images that might have been cleverly shot anywhere. Most of the shots are exterior. The famous landmarks are well covered, and from views quite a bit fresher than your average postcard. Other photos show the city in spots not quite so well known. They are all wonderful.

I am obsessed with Paris and buy everything I can find in the way of physically depicting the city -- every kind of photo book, aerial photography, satellite imagery, maps, architectural guides, travel books, etc. I have some grand [and costly] coffee table books. But I have nothing that I enjoy more than this little paperback.

This far and away my favorite gay guide to Paris. The author has a real gift for capturing and describing the true atmosphere of the various haunts (bars, restaurants, saunas, cafes, museums, hotels, community center) that you might visit on a trip to the city. I especially appreciate his attitude towards the sexual possibilities of a trip to Paris -- his tone is neither leering nor ashamed, and he clearly contemplates a little sexual adventure as a normal part of a visit to Gay Paris.

It's a shame that this book has been out of print for so long -- any publisher who would buy the title and pay for an update would do a great service to gay travellers. Despite the fact that some of the information in the book is out of date, I still rely on it each time I go to Paris.

From the author: The fifth edition, and the most comprehensive of my back-pocket-sized companion to the romance and thrills of Europe's most tempting and flirtatious city. I trawled the bars until late, I sang the torch songs at midnight, I held hands under the bridges and I nursed my morning-after-head with complimentary orange juice and black coffee as haut-couture wafted past my bleary eyes at a breakfast fashion show. Never a mere directory, Paris Scene is a collection of annecdotes and tips from a traveller who has been there, done it all and woken up in someone else's T-shirt. Over the years the guide has grown up to include everything from finding a croissant in the middle of the night to finding like-minded friends in the middle of winter. So use the unique phrase book, take our boys guide to Disneyland, learn where to swim and where not to sunbathe. Above all, let me show you my favourite places.

"Complete gay listing for the City of Light." - From MPG Book

I co-edited this important literary document with Dr. Thomas F. Staley, Director of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, where the vast Stuart Gilbert collection was acquired in the early 1990s. Gilbert was a British citizen, who, after retiring from his work as a judge in Burma, married a French woman and moved to Paris in the early 1920s to pursue more intellectual pursuits. Once in Paris, he became an intimate part of the literary circle surrounding James Joyce, and wrote the first book on Joyce ("James Joyce's Ulysses"), before falling out of favor with him. His dyspeptic journal, at turns scandalous and illuminating, gives an inside account of life in the Parisian literary circles where Joyce lived and worked, and is prefaced by an introductory essay by Dr. Staley, one of the leading scholars of literary modernism. It should be useful to the many students and scholars interested in better appreciating Joyce, European modernism generally, or simply the joys of Paris in the twenties.

Randolph Lewis rrlewis@hotmail.com

This book gives the reader a much better understanding of Joyce and his writings . It fills in many gaps in this 'larger then life' authors career . The many previously unpublished letters to his friend and literary collaborator , Stuart Gilbert , allow one to see the author is his own light . The rare photos , provide the reader with an intriguing glimpse of this colorful author .

A must have book for the serious James Joyce scholar .

Refreshing that Michael Rothenberg has written the 'Paris Journals' ...as a relative novice to Euro travel (I spent a month or two in the Greek isles) I found that reading this great book made me want to find out for myself. It's like an open doorway leading to the psyche of an interesting friend. From beginning to end, well worth the trip...

A must buy for every traveler to Paris. Wherever Michael Rothenberg goes you want to go with him. He sees it all in every exhibition. Behind each painting another imagination conjured in penetrating reflection. He has poetry by the throat and drags it around with him. Genius and tenacity. He is the troubadour.Not cool objectivity but personal obsession. Brandishing a baguette as he mounts the Eiffel Tower to call out his own liberation. There's something to discover here and Rothenberg makes it seem easy. With Rothenberg, it's always Romance. and always the first time.

This book is a real trip and apparently so is the author. I read his novel Punk Rockwell and was sorry it ended so took a chance on the Paris Journals. The trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower from where he calls his mother and then takes you home to bed with him is alone worth the price of admission. Rothenberg displays his appropriately maladjusted relationship to a world that is not quite ready for someone with his degree of insight.

Just returned from a trip to Paris. Found this little guide very helpful. Used this along with bigger guide books, but this is the one we carried with us every day because it was so easy to fold up and carry in a pocket. The walking tours were very good and the suggestions about where to stop and where to eat excellent.

We've used Jeanne Oelerich's walking guides in Rome, Florence, Venice, and Paris and have found these truly unique guides to be the single most helpful sources in planning our day and time around the places that we want to visit. They are lightweight, compact, and remarkably comprehensive, with large, easy to read maps of specific areas, showing all the major sights, and many less obvious ones; good restaurants, great views, and special treats, such as small craft shops or great ice-cream. There are often museum floor-plans, brief histories of the area, travel and packing tips, ad glossaries. An incredible bargain!

This was given to us by a friend prior to our trip. I barely looked at it and thought "well, this might help". The evening we arrived in Paris we decided to plan our next day. I pulled out this guide and realized this was our only hope for seeing all we wanted to see in a timely manner. The most valuable piece of information Jeanne gives in this guide is where the Metro stations are located and what train we need to catch to get to our desired destinations. Couple this guide with the metro & city map provided by the metro stations and probably your hotel and you have a fail-safe tour of Paris! Not only did we see all we wanted to see but we did it in an efficient manner! We travelled with my in-laws and they couldn't stop complimenting me on what a wonderful tour I "put together"!

I highly suggest Walk C!

We brought this guide with us on our last visit to Paris. We hadn't been to the Louvre before, its size had overwhelmed us. Armed with this guide, we were able to focus on what we wanted to see, and had a wonderful souvenir when we got home. The pictures are tremendous and the section on the history of the Louvre was very interesting. The descriptions of the art itself were, however, frustratingly brief. Also, even though at over 500 pages, the guide is hardly "pocket", it didn't include several paintings we wished it had.

This book captured the essence of the Louvre. It is the perfect resource for those too time-poor to make the trek to Paris. You will want to read it while you have your morning espresso in a sidewalk cafe.

A trip to Paris would be incomplete without a visit to the world's largest museum and probably the most fascinating in the world, the Louvre.

The difficulty in visiting the Louvre is that it is overwhelming, as it galleries display over eight centuries of the world's greatest masterpieces.
"The Grand Louvre" is spread over four levels and comprises 30,000 works of art that occupies approximately 1.6 million square feet.s
Furthermore, 645, 000 square feet are dedicated to distinct exhibitions.
Put it very simply, "ouch my aching feet!"
In other words, you can't possibly appreciate these great works of art without a well planned out itinerary.
Here is where a comprehensive guidebook entitled The Pocket Louvre authored by a professor of art history at the Université de Tours, Claude Mignot, can prove to be a godsend.

What immediately caught my eye when I thumbed through the guidebook was its practical organization.
Each page contains beautiful illustrations that serve both as a record of works seen and as a capsule of Western art.
However, what is extremely useful is that on the side of each page the author in small print denotes the exact school of the work of art.
Not only are we presented with this information but also Mignot pinpoints the floor and room it is located.
Let us suppose we are interested in viewing the Mona Lisa and we do not want to waste time in trying to locate the painting.
All we have to do is look in the index, find reference to the Mona Lisa "et voilà" we are referred to the appropriate page. We are now told that the Mona Lisa is located in room 6 (Salle des Etats), on the first floor. Furthermore, the author also gives us some useful tidbits concerning this well-known work of art.
With this in mind we can repeat this method when we wish to plan our own trip to the Louvre.

On the other hand we can also pursue the various array of tours suggested by the author.
These tours are broken down into various time frames: the three-hour tour, the one-day classic tour and the four half-day comprehensive tours.
When you read the author's comments pertaining to each one of the tours, you actually feel his presence.

Other useful features of the book are it's over 500 rich photo illustrations and the numerous gallery floor plans.
The table of contents is quite comprehensive and allows the reader to quickly identify the type of tour he or she may wish to embark upon.
There are also various useful tips such as avoiding lines, where to eat, getting to the museum, where to relax and the various services offered in the Louvre.
We are also provided with a capsule history of the Louvre.

Mignot definitely has written a comprehensive guide that is aware of the elements of time and physical endurance that every visitor to the Louvre encounters.
Merci Prof. Mignot!

This review first appeared on the reviewer's own site:
www.bookpleasures.com

...is evident in every page. Even if I hadn't been planning another trip to the city of lights, I would have been on the next flight!
As shown in her other books, Maribeth Clemente has a wonderful way of not only giving you the information that you need, but getting you excited about your exploration with every word. She covers the "unique" of Paris with a fresh, honest perspective. I feel like I'm walking down a lovely boulevard with her as my guide. When I've checked the "reality" of other travel books, I've found a real mix--what I read was not always what I got. It seems like reviews were completed by multiple sources with multiple perspectives of what would entice. Maribeth Clemente's insight/personality is consistent, elegant, fun and unexpected. And yet...she always seems to leave a little bit to your own exploration. I trust her to route me to the best--especially if I don't have a lot of time. This book is also an improvement from prior releases in it's organization--making quicker, easier reference to the user "on the road". Thanks!

One has not travelled until you have visited Paris. It is a city of wonder, history, romance, excitement and fashion. I studied for a short time in Paris many years ago and fell in love with the city. It also fell in love with my pocket book! The cafes, exquisite boutiques, and Epicurean cuisine will forever be a cherished memory; however, the first-time traveller to Paris should be forwarned; it can be a VERY EXPENSIVE city to enjoy, particularly if you do not know where you will get "the best value for your dollar." As this book clearly points out, most of the better hotels are luxurious and quite costly, as are the better known, finer restaurants. You definitely will not want to leave home without your trusty credit card! I purchased a Chanel Tee-shirt and for the same price, I could have purchased an entire rack of tee-shirts in my country. However, the joy of Paris is for many, a once-in-a-lifetime experience and one you will never regret no matter what the cost. The book is not complete; however, many of the special places of interest are not included in the book, which was rather disappointing. There are also some excellent more affordable restaurants and places to stay in Paris which are not listed here. The book was interesting and informative but did tend to patronize basically the higher-end, upscale facilities.

Most of the Paris guides available give plenty of information on using the Paris Metro, the museums, and taking a taxi. However, what they lack is information on the very things that make a visit to Paris memorable and personal. Maribeth Clemente's "The Riches of Paris" provides key information on a wide variety of shopping interests. Are you into antique books?-the book has it....Are you into food stores, children's boutiques, or flowers? - the book has it. How about the best place to get a couture scarf, a pen, a cigar? - Again, the book has it. What I especially found useful was my ability to plan my shopping excursions before I got onto the plane...when I arrived I was able to fit in both the best sightseeing and museums AND the shops I knew would be of interest to me. My time was efficiently planned and I was able to fit many more memorable experiences into my trip. Ms. Clemente's index is especially useful in personalizing your trip...seperating shops by like categories, and presenting them in the book by area. This categorization takes the work out of planning a day....one day I planned to visit a particular area...I was set because of the book. Another day I decided to visit all children's toy stores...no problem again because of the book! A must have for getting the most out of your time!