Barnes and Nobles is my heroin...

As much as I still am carrying a torch for tripadvisor, there's nothing quite like turning the pages of an actual book and seeing pictures, maps, tips and tricks, etc. Everything is being graded on the same scale in a travel book, because the same writer (theoretically) has visited all of these places, looking for the same things and grading them against each other.

This is not always the case with tripadvisor. Some people (I've learned) are way more demanding on a hotel than others, and reviews of the same place can vary wildly.

I have spent countless hours over the last few months looking at an entire smorgasbord (or smörgåsbord, whatevs, spell-check) of travel books. Lonely Planet, Frommer's, Fodor's, Let's Go...I saw them all, I flipped through them all, and ultimately I put them all down in favor of (drumroll, please) Rick Steves' series.

Rick Steves' does Europe through the "back door," and his witty writing style and pithy reviews are great for forming a general "plan of attack" for an area that you may have never visited. I like the way he organizes "sights to see" based on area as well as ranks them, making it easy to find something close to where you are that would be worth taking another half hour detour for.

He also writes with the budget-conscious in mind, which I appreciate.

Considering that I'm broke. Or will be after this trip.

The only bummer about the Rick Steves' books are that they are so big! Well, not big compared to other travel books. They're actually pretty compact, comparatively speaking. It's just that with the limited amount of luggage space and a very strict packing list (Rick Steves is HUGE on packing only the essentials and packing very very light) I don't really have the room to lug around 6 RS books.

Some people have advocated slicing out the pages I need with a razor blade. While that would be easier and lighter, I suppose, I am so anti-book destruction (they're so pretty) that I just can't bring myself to do that. Plus, they're not exactly cheap. Plus, what if I want to use them again, and the whole section on Rome just happens to be missing?

So, what I have done is photocopied only the pages I need out of all six books and had it spiral bound at Kinkos. It only cost me about $5 to put a cover and back on it and have it bound, and while it is still a pretty good size, it's only one book. And I'll have no compunction about tearing some pages out of this particular book, should the need arise, to lighten the load or make it more portable.

Just a few thoughts. Counting down to Europe!