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Window Seat: Reading the Landscape From the Air
 
 
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Window Seat: Reading the Landscape From the Air [Paperback]

Gregory Dicum (Author)
3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 16.95
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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Aiming to educate air passengers about the structures and topography they spot out their windows during flights over North America, Dicum, who chronicled the coffee industry in 1999's Coffee Book, also entertains. Instead of organizing the book by well-traveled routes (New York to L.A., for example), he divides America and Canada into regions (the Great Plains, the Mid-Atlantic) and describes the landforms, water formations and human features endemic to each area, with sidebars on how to spot such entities as urban sprawl, interstate highways and federal land. Satellite images taken miles higher than the typical flight's altitude of 35,000 feet illustrate what readers are likely to see from their window seat. In the chapter on Texas, for example, Dicum uses satellite photos to explain how to identify oil wells, the border with Mexico, and Hill Country towns settled by Germans, who arranged their New World communities just as they had in Europe, with the main street parallel to a river. In an easy, cogent style, Dicum answers questions curious flyers may have wondered but never understood, like why some farmland is arranged in squares and some in perfect circles. He manages to wrest fascinating cultural significance from quotidian details (e.g., the bizarre land shapes in the rural South result from the postâ€"Civil War government's attempts at land redistribution). Compulsively readable, the guidebook is composed of both handy factual information as well as deeper lessons about North America and its inhabitants. 70 color photos, 25 line drawings.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Book Description

Talk about a fresh perspective! Perched 35,000 feet in the air, Window Seat decodes the sights to be seen on any flight across North America. Broken down by region, this unusual guide features 70 aerial photographs; a fold-out map of North America showing major flight paths; profiles of each region covering its landforms, waterways, and cities; tips on spotting major sights, such as the Northern Lights, the Grand Canyon, and Disney World; tips on spotting not-so-major sights such as prisons, mines, and Interstates; and straightforward, friendly text on cloud shapes, weather patterns, the continent's history, and more. A terrific book for kids, frequent flyers, and armchair travelers alike, <I>Window Seat</I> is packed with curious facts and colorful illustration, proving that flying doesn't have to be a snooze. When it's possible to "read" the landscape from above, a whole world unfolds at your feet.
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First Sentence
Beneath its babbling brooks and grassy sand dunes, under the sugar bushes and picturesquely stacked lobster pots, New England is a hard land of rocky mountains and cold shores. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

9 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
3.3 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1.0 out of 5 stars Title a misnomer . . . great concept, but doesn't deliver., July 18 2004
By 
jeanne425 (REDMOND, WA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Window Seat: Reading the Landscape From the Air (Paperback)
I agree wholeheartedly with the Oakland, Pittsburgh, and St. Paul 1 & 2 star raters below. Glad I checked this out of the library before buying it. It went back well before the due date.

I was excited when I read the review for this book. I anticipated a book chock full of photo references from 35,000 feet to help decipher the view below. Instead, what's presented is a bunch of satellite photos that have absolutely no relevance to the perspective one has from a plane.

While there is a lot of good information for the geography buff, I'm rating this only one star because it clearly doesn't deliver what the title suggests.

And kudos to the King County Library System for quickly acquiring many copies of new releases, allowing me to try before I buy without waiting months.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Open your eyes!, July 18 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Window Seat: Reading the Landscape From the Air (Paperback)
I was the type of flyer who did her nails, read my book, and occasionally glanced out the window. Recently I flew from Harrisburg PA to Toronto, Canada on a sunny afternoon. Armed with "Window Seat" I began studying the landscape. What an eye opener: I saw a huge open pit coal mine, a military cemetery, and of course the usual farms, plus the Susquehanna! Later there was Niagara Falls,with all the generators etc., the Welland Canal and locks, and of course all the details of my home town: Toronto! I loved it. But Dicum was right: you do get a crick in the neck.
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5.0 out of 5 stars great book for learning more about our world, July 8 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Window Seat: Reading the Landscape From the Air (Paperback)
This is an amazing, brilliant book! How many times have I gazed out of an airplane window wondering what I was viewing down below and wishing I could ask someone? And how many times have I regretted watching the vacuous movie instead of doing something more enriching with my flying time?

This well researched, beautifully illustrated book offers the vocabulary and lens I need to bring all of my future flights to life. I especially like the diversity of information the author details - the different "layers" on the earth below (geological, hydrological, ecological, cultural).

A must read for all of us who travel a lot and who are curious about the world we live in.

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