Travel: Books of the week

The Adventure Motorbiking Handbook (Compass Star Publications, pounds 13.99) by Chris Scott.

This little handbook turns out to be surprisingly entertaining, even for people who have no intention of ever mounting a motorbike. There are sections on vehicle documentation and engine mechanics, and tips on which bikes are most suitable for long overland trips (it turns out that "rat bikes" - unfashionable old plodders - are the best because you can ride them to death and dump them in the Sahara without a care). The list of recommended bike spares and tools is also reassuringly long, as long as you know what epoxy glue and Allen keys are. As for the Life On The Road section, blunt truths seem to be the order: "Accept that you are going to lose something or even everything, either through carelessness or theft" we are warned. Not that we should worry too much of course. Otherwise we would not be riding across remote deserts, bogs and mountains on a motorbike in the first place.

Adventure Holidays 1998 (Vacation work, pounds 7.99) by Victoria Pybus

Straightforward and thorough, this is superb for people badly in need of a thrill. With detailed listings of active outdoor holidays available for the forthcoming year, both in Britain and abroad, categories range from airsports to cycling, hiking, riding, overlanding and mountaineering (as well as a plethora of more specialist activities such as cattle ranching and even arctic exploration). For each activity, a number of relevant tour operators are detailed with at least a suggestion of price and the kinds of holiday (length, group size etc) that are available. If you can't find what you need in here, it probably doesn't exist.

Istanbul (Everyman Guides, pounds 16.99)

I am suspicious of guide books that are full of attractive colour illustrations. The implication is that the hard nitty-gritty detail will be lacking. And indeed in the case of the Everyman Guides, the restaurant and hotel (and other) listings are confined to a narrow section at the end of the book while the rest of the book bulges with paintings, drawings, maps and illustrations of every variety. This is not to say that the colourful pictures are all useless - the architectural section is particularly informative in fact, as are the excerpts from literature chronicling the history of Istanbul. On the other hand if your interests extend beyond history and art (football? nightlife? contemporary music?) you are better off sticking to the guidebooks without pictures.