Subpar Planet: The World's Most Celebrated Landmarks and Their Most Disappointed Visitors

I used to follow Amber Share’s posts and I probably should make more of a point of it to do that again. I had read and enjoyed her book Subpar Parks: America’s Most Extraordinary National Parks and their Least Impressed Visitors and even though a few of these entries sometimes go a long way I was in the mood to read this second book just as it became free at the library and I thoroughly enjoyed reading every page cover to cover. I liked this book even more than I liked the previous one and I also gave that one 5 stars.

When I look at the art captions in artwork one by one I find many of them hilarious. I love to check in on her Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/subparparks/. She had a website too: show more target="_top">https://ambersharedesign.com/.

This is an old article that was written by the Sierra Club because of the first book about the National Parks: https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/slideshow/meet-amber-share-roaster-nature-s-fi....

I got a lot of laugh out loud moments and even more smiles as I read this book. It’s also a great armchair travel book.

I have a bunch of favorites. I’d like to quote most of the book but will share just a very few.

One of the ones I laughed at was from the pages for Tikal National Park, Guatemala, a major site of Mayan civilization. The review: “The ruins are not in good shape” and the author’s comment: “Here’s a fun fact some people apparently don’t know: Ruins, by definition, are usually not in amazing shape.”

Another representative example is for Cape Breton Highlands National Park. The review: “All the cool places are at the top of the mountain.“ Her comment “Hold up – you’re telling me I have to drive a scenic road all the way to the top of the mountain to see the breathtaking views from the top of the mountain? Hard pass.”

I like the entry for Loch Ness: The intro is “A lake best known for logs people think are a glimpse of a giant creature” and the review is “Just a lake” and the author’s response is “A little tip that might’ve helped you out a whole lot: Loch is a Scottish Gaelic, Scots, and Irish word meaning… lake.”

This one on the Matterhorn: “the mountain was much smaller than depicted.“ “I’m curious about what kind of depiction this person could’ve seen that a 14,672-foot mountain simply could not live up to in person.” And later: “there is also a 1:100th-scale replica at the Matterhorn in Disneyland, sitting at 147 feet tall, which made its debut there in 1959. Perhaps the reviewer accidentally visited that one?“

One more: Sahara: “The disappointment knew no bounds.“ “Picture this: a sea of sand stretching as far as the eye can see, and the only thing more boundless than the desert in front of you is the absolute disappointment you feel.“

This is both an entertaining and an informative book. I learned a lot about the world’s national parks and other natural sites and also about human made monuments and other objects/structures/things. There is a lot more detail in the text than just the blurbs. There is a lot of information about each place. She has an amusing way with words and is able to also educate.

I love the art. The picture for each place is wonderful and I love the various pictorial maps and the various other pictures. (I am such a huge fan of the art I feel as though a couple of sentences here isn’t enough as I could write a review just about the art, but I’m not going to do that. I’ll just add that the art makes the book.) Both the art and the text are wonderful but without the art the book wouldn’t be anywhere as good as it is.

This book makes me wish I I had traveled much more when I was younger and fitter and when it was often much less expensive to go to many of these places.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Some Background and Perspective
The Americas
Europe
Africa
Asia
Oceania
How to Have an Absolutely Terrible Time Traveling

That last section is reason enough to read the book. It has great advice for anyone traveling anywhere away from their home area.

This author-illustrator’s two books are ones I’d like to own to occasionally dip into and to share with others. This was a perfect book to read for my last book of 2024. They’re brilliant books and would make great gift books for the right readers. show less

Chosen to meet the Travel category of the Nonfiction Reader Challenge, I was looking forward to visiting various landmarks around the world, and being entertained by the incomprehension of some of its visitors, in Subpar Planet: The World's Most Celebrated Landmarks and Their Most Disappointed Visitors by Amber Share.

I certainly enjoyed my tour of nearly one hundred spectacular locations around globe. Share devotes about a page of text to each, which includes a personable description of the site and often a brief explanation of its historical or cultural significance. In her introduction she makes it clear that she hasn’t visited all the places listed and has relied on research for what she presents.

On the facing page is a graphic, show more poster like illustration of the site drawn by the author, emblazoned with a remark that Share sourced from an online 1 star review. The art is beautiful, but this is where I think Subpar Planet doesn’t quite deliver on what I expected. Yes, each comment often made me smile, like the criticism of the Eiffel Tower as ‘A big hunk of steel’ or the Matterhorn dismissed as ‘Much smaller than depicted’, as did Share’s riposte’s, but I had thought there would be perhaps a collection of quotes rather than a single 3-7 word statement.

Share’s tongue in cheek tips on ‘How to have an absolutely terrible traveling’ offer a humorous conclusion to the travel guide, and I think this book would be a fun gift for the reluctant traveler in your life. show less

This book uses the unique concept of gathering one star reviews of amazing travel destinations and combining it with historical info. Some reviews such as "Only go if you like art" referring to The Louvre leave you shaking your head. I mean...duh.

The layout of the book covers the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania with details about the history of the landmarks and wonders of the world.

The comment on the left side of the page is the one star review. Might have been nice to have a more detailed review but what do you expect from someone who states Stonehenge is just a field of random stones or the sunrise over Mt Fuji was nothing spectacular. No pleasing some people.

The opposite page tells some history of the visited site and show more tips on best times to visit. It's amusing but don't expect true photos of the venues.

Tags are Nonfiction, Nature, Travel, Humor, Geography and History.
Educational and entertaining plus the armchair travel I crave. That's a win-win-win for me! That said, I give it 3.5 stars. show less

Funny and informational as well.

For the rest of the review, visit my Vlog at:

https://youtube.com/shorts/d1gqnxl513Q?feature=share

Enjoy!