Back around 1972 I noticed this book on a revolving rack of Penguin published paperbacks (although I prefer to keep the hardback edition Macmillan published in 1970 in my permanent collection). As Penguin's emphasis is on providing the most exceptional literature civilization has ever produced, and this modern offering was displayed in that class, I realized its mere 115 pages had quite an endorsement. Although I have no real fascination with death, and don't buy much with that theme, I was prompted to read this book. The defining moment for me came when the author got his central point across, with a convincing number of examples, about how those who live the fullest lives actually accept a certain amount of physical risk. On the other hand, even though I'm sure he's right about race car drivers and others getting addicted to their adrenaline rushes, I count myself among those who still prefer less risk than that. The greatest physical risks we take are in our youth, and as we grow older, more experienced, and certainly less flexible, most of us just naturally reduce the amount of risk we take on. As high risk activities are especially fashionable among young people today, those who would like to explore or critique the value of that trend will enjoy this unusual book that was decades ahead of its time.

As usual, Lonely Planet have attacked this project with vigour and research and produced a comprehensive guide to the Middle East. However, as is the problem with the "Shoestring" editions, a vast amount has to be left out, an enormous of amount of information must be precised in order to produce a managable, helpful guide for a region. Local knowledge of an area is vital to ensure that the correct points, places of interest and general information are included. Unfortunately, LP have hit slightly wide of the mark with this region. It is an area which is full of history and a culture that is very sensitive to the western ideals and my advice would be to purchase each country's book separately. Whilst this is a more expensive and even bulky alternative, simply sell, swap or send home the discarded books.

I understand that LP are in the process of producing further separate guides thus breaking down this region again, which will be excellent. The guide itself, however, is a good read though!