Dec. 11, 2009
BOOK REVIEW: World's Greatest City Deserves, Well Served by 'The Ultimate Book of New York Lists'
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
Trivia fans and fans of New York City rejoice: Bert Randolph Sugar (with C.N. Richardson) has written a book that lives up to its title: "The Ultimate Book of New York Lists: Everything You Need to Know About the Greatest City on Earth" (Skyhorse Publishing, 224 pages, $12.95).
It's also a good travel guide: the next time I go to New York, I'll take it along with my trusty "Fodor's New York City." One correction, guys: It's "Qantas" not "Quantas" (Page 130) for Australia's biggest airline -- and the world's second oldest airline. "Qantas" is an acronym for "Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services."
Sugar and Richardson serve up more than 400 lists of everything pertaining to NYC, from the greatest movies about the city to the greatest songs to the best bagels to the most famous native New Yorkers to the best watering holes and nightclubs to just about everything you can imagine and many things you can't.
You're a fan of "Mad Men"? Who isn't? How about a list of the best advertising slogans created by NY ad agencies (Page 210)? Or a list of the top NY ad agencies (Pages 209-10)? Just in from Texas and miss the special kind of barbecue from the Lone Star State? Check out Pages 173-4 in the chapter "Taking a Bite Out of the Big Apple." In addition to addresses of places of interest from hotels to hospitals, the authors provide phone numbers. Priceless! Since Sugar is a sports historian, naturally there are lists of the 20 greatest New York Yankees, Mets, Giants, Rangers, Jets and Knicks players of all time. Along with plenty of other sports lists.
"The Ultimate Book of New York Lists" is perfect for the tourist, but New Yorkers will get a kick out of it, too. They might not agree with the authors' choice of the best hamburger or the ten best songs ever written about New York or the ten best books set in New York, but they can create their own favorites in a place at the end of the book for notes. A great idea that should be included in every book of this type.
With a foreword by legendary newspaperman Bill Gallo of the New York Daily News and lists from celebrity New Yorkers like Pete Hamill and Howard Stern, this is a book no lover of New York City should be without.
About the Author
Bert Randolph Sugar is one of the world’s foremost sports historians. The former editor-in-chief of The Ring and Fight Game magazines and the author of more than eighty books (including over a dozen books on baseball), Sugar lives with his wife in Chappaqua, New York. Yes, that's the same Chappaqua where Bill and Hillary Clinton have a house.
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BOOK REVIEW: World's Greatest City Deserves, Well Served by 'The Ultimate Book of New York Lists'
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
Trivia fans and fans of New York City rejoice: Bert Randolph Sugar (with C.N. Richardson) has written a book that lives up to its title: "The Ultimate Book of New York Lists: Everything You Need to Know About the Greatest City on Earth" (Skyhorse Publishing, 224 pages, $12.95).
It's also a good travel guide: the next time I go to New York, I'll take it along with my trusty "Fodor's New York City." One correction, guys: It's "Qantas" not "Quantas" (Page 130) for Australia's biggest airline -- and the world's second oldest airline. "Qantas" is an acronym for "Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services."
Sugar and Richardson serve up more than 400 lists of everything pertaining to NYC, from the greatest movies about the city to the greatest songs to the best bagels to the most famous native New Yorkers to the best watering holes and nightclubs to just about everything you can imagine and many things you can't.
You're a fan of "Mad Men"? Who isn't? How about a list of the best advertising slogans created by NY ad agencies (Page 210)? Or a list of the top NY ad agencies (Pages 209-10)? Just in from Texas and miss the special kind of barbecue from the Lone Star State? Check out Pages 173-4 in the chapter "Taking a Bite Out of the Big Apple." In addition to addresses of places of interest from hotels to hospitals, the authors provide phone numbers. Priceless! Since Sugar is a sports historian, naturally there are lists of the 20 greatest New York Yankees, Mets, Giants, Rangers, Jets and Knicks players of all time. Along with plenty of other sports lists.
"The Ultimate Book of New York Lists" is perfect for the tourist, but New Yorkers will get a kick out of it, too. They might not agree with the authors' choice of the best hamburger or the ten best songs ever written about New York or the ten best books set in New York, but they can create their own favorites in a place at the end of the book for notes. A great idea that should be included in every book of this type.
With a foreword by legendary newspaperman Bill Gallo of the New York Daily News and lists from celebrity New Yorkers like Pete Hamill and Howard Stern, this is a book no lover of New York City should be without.
About the Author
Bert Randolph Sugar is one of the world’s foremost sports historians. The former editor-in-chief of The Ring and Fight Game magazines and the author of more than eighty books (including over a dozen books on baseball), Sugar lives with his wife in Chappaqua, New York. Yes, that's the same Chappaqua where Bill and Hillary Clinton have a house.
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