This classic of basic definitions has a new edition that came out in 1999. Although I have not yet read that one, I do suggest that you skip this one.

The book is filled with discussions of how investors value stocks that few serious investors would recognize. There is almost nothing about investing outside the United States. NASDAQ gets almost no mention. The information about discount brokers is wrong. The terminology for describing many types of stocks was never correct, as best as I can recall.

The facts that are correct relate mostly to trivia, like what the number on a stock certificate means. It could help you answer a question on Do You Want To Be a Millionaire? but has little other practical use. Many of these facts (such as how to read the stock tables) can be garnered by simply reading the footnotes in The Wall Street Journal or Barron's.

This book is a good example of the communication stall. We tend to believe everything that we read from what should be reliable sources, even when the information is often faulty.

Donald Mitchell....

This book is excellent for people who are new to investing and managing their own money. It is colorful, easy to read, gives great real-life examples and provides a great index to the book can be used as a referrence manual. The book can be read rather quickly to give someone a feel for understnading stocks, bonds, mutual funds, futures and money in general. It's a must read prior to investing money.

there is a newer edition out there. this one is way out of date and shows how long "cool" stuff lasts in the windy city. Better get off of that moneyclip and spring for the newer one.

When it came to finding a place to eat or the best site in the city of Chicago, Access Chicago is a must. Even finding a good quality not to expensive Hotel the book became very useful. A must have if going to Chicago.

very easy to read and quite descriptive= having the focus on neighborhoods helped a great deal. this would not be my first book of choice for chicago -go to the green guide or lonely planet if possible- but the information is helpful and easy to access

I got this guide after skimming it pretty extensively at a bookstore. I was impressed by the content, the nice user friendly format, and the graphics quality.

When I actually tried to use the information in the guide, however, I was deeply disappointed and angered, because (1) much of the information is hugely outdated even though the guide claims to be updated - for example, a restaurant that has been closed since 2001 is still highlighted in the guide in several places - tells you how dated the "best of" opinions written by local Napa luminaries are... and (2) the author and publisher didn't bother to verify that phone numbers were accurate, so I wound up calling wrong numbers, dead numbers, numbers for business offices of wineries only to find that I should have called the tasting room number, which these guys didn't bother to include...

in short, don't buy this book! judge this book by its "cover" and you will be fooled and disappointed.

This guide is very comprehensive-- great to help plan a trip to Wine Country. It gave us the scoop on activities, wineries, hotels, restaurants, etc. The maps are also good. The disappointment came when we tried to find dinner our first night in wine country. We literally went to 3 restaurants in a row that were recommended by the guide but were no longer in business. We wasted a lot of time driving around to find these places. In the end, we did find our 4th choice restaurant in town, and it was an excellent dinner. Moral of the story-- great guide, but can't hurt to call ahead!

Just returned from a trip to Sonoma and Mendocino counties. This book was an excellent guide and I really liked the maps detailing where everything was. Of course things change and places close or move - we only had one "surprise," when we went to Hidden Cellars and learned they'd been bought by Parducci and were now in that tasting room instead.

Otherwise, this book is terrific to have along. I recommend looking at websites on the internet before your trip - just type "Suffolk County wineries" (or whatever) in a search, and start studying! If a winery you want to visit is in the book, definitely read what they have to say. Just be aware that other wineries that are good (Gary Farrell) or great (the tiny but superb Nalle Winery) are not included in the book, and are really worth seeing. Use the guide to augment your research, but don't rely solely on this - or any other one - guide to give you complete info on a trip to the wine country.

While Access guides are usually wonderful sources of information for travelers, I was sorely disappointed with this guide when I bought it (and with myself) because I hadn't noted that it hadn't been updated since 1996. 1996! So much of the information in the book is out of date! Not only must you ignore all restaurant information, even museums have moved locations in the intervening six years. Richard Saul Wurman, please update Access San Diego or stop printing it!

ACCESS guides are excellent for the traveller who wants to know exactly what they are getting into. The guide practically walks you down the street and lets you look into each store, restaurant, lodging, or sight. The guide is color-coded to identify restaurants, shops, hotels, sights. Additionally, probably as space fillers, there are numerous tidbits or facts or famous authors' bests of the city. Probably a weakness of ACCESS is its maps. An excellent starting point for researching your next vacation.

I thought this book is great for a prospective traveller to San Diego. It has beautiful pictures, great details on area attractions, and suggestions on where to stay in San Diego! It's a must read for those who are planning a first time trip to San Diego!

Fairly decent guide book, but somewhat overpriced for a paperback. The inclusion of logos from some establishments makes me wonder if their reviews have been skewed by a monetary inducement to the author... Also, I can't believe a Cape Cod guide book that doesn't include a reference to Cuffy's factory store!

In 1996 I purchased several books about Las Vegas for a trip I was planning. I found that the third edition of this book, Access Las Vegas, was a great source of information. I found the maps and the information cross referenced to them especially helpful. Plus the size of the book made it very easy to take along as you explored Las Vegas. Since I was highly impressed with the 3rd edition I decided to purchase an updated book for our up coming trip.

Upon looking thru the book for the additions to the ever-changing landscape of The Strip, it became apparent that the map of the strip was filled with errors. Based on their map the Monte Carlo was built on the site of New York New York. The MGM Grand has moved east on Tropicana Ave. New York New York has moved to the site of the Tropicana and the Tropicana has moved off of the map. The Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay are not even referenced on the map. The majority of the maps cross-references for the Strip are inaccurate. Did anyone with any knowledge of Las Vegas check these maps before they were published? If the maps are this inaccurate what other information is incomplete or inaccurate? It is a real shame for what was a great vacation guide to become useless. I am highly disappointed in that Mr. Wurman produced in this 5th edition.

I went to the Access Guides web site to see if they posted corrected maps for this book. Unfortunately they have not made corrections available. I looked for a way to email them about the problems with their book. However they did not offer that option.

For correct maps of Las Vegas visit the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority web site. There are numerous other Las Vegas web sites with very useful information. My recommendation is to skip the book and use the web sites.

While I have enjoyed the compact format of Access Las Vegas with its color-coded run-down's of various restaurants, casinos and hotels in the past, I found this edition to be slightly out-of-date, especially in the section on shows (featuring several that closed or changed stars prior to January 2000). I enjoyed the featured "Bests" comments by local Las Vegas personalities and trivia boxes with interesting Vegas facts. However, [..] for 140 pages [..] I found this to be a little pricey.

'Access Las Vegas' was not exactly what I was looking for, but is a well rounded guide to the city and the attractions. I am a college student taking my first trip to Las Vegas, and I was looking for a guide to the sites on a very small budget. This would be a good book for someone with more of a budget to work with, and more time to spend in the city.

The format of the Access books is terrific. Unfortunately, this bookis outdated to the point of being DANGEROUS to use. I visited L.A. insummer '99 with my husband and baby son. Beforehand, I carefully wentthrough this guide, using a hiliter marker and making hotel reservations from the recommendations of the author. Let me tell you about that hotel. When we arrived.... it was filthy.... To this day, my skin crawls to think of it. (We left).... For the rest of the trip, my hilighted sites turned out to be long-closed businesses, stores and restaurants. I can't tell you how much money I spent parking to go to places that turned out to have been closed for years. I understand that it's to be expected that 5-9% of the info in a travel guide is out of date by the time it goes to press.... I learned three lessons about travelling: one, call all the phone numbers first to be sure your chosen attractions are still open; two, never go to a "recommended" hotel that AAA ignored; and three, never buy a travel guide by this "expert" again.... Consider yourself warned.

I've been waiting for the 9th edition to come out because of the errors I found in the 8th edition. I've been a user of the Access guides for more than ten years and I have always found them very useful. However when I bought the 8th edition I had to call the publisher because there were many mistakes in the guide map numbering. They thanked me and said they would notifiy me when the next edition came out (naturally they didn't). I was very distressed from the first review on Amazon of the 9th edition. It appears that they don't really have anyone that checks for accuracy. I guess I'll wait for the 10th edition.

This book is phenomenal for architecture, museums, parks, galleries and other interesting sites. The maps help us in using large L.A. map to keep us oriented. Have found some great places to shop by just checking the area around our destinations, like the outdoor mall area of Santa Monica. Have made L.A. trips using the older version and love it.

Do not buy this book! The inaccurate maps will drive you crazy! Maybe if you already knew Philadelphia, it'd be okay. But then, you wouldn't really need the book. Letters to the publisher have gone unanswered. I'd seriously consider never buying another Access Guide on the basis of this one.

If you're unfamiliar with the Access Guide series, the text and maps are keyed to each other by numbers. However, the maps printed in our copy of the 4th edition are unchanged from our copy of the 3rd edition, while the numbers in the text have changed as entries were added and deleted. As a consequence, the numbers on the maps often bear no relation to the numbers in the text, making the book less useful. Try to find the third edition -- not that much changed in the fourth edition -- or wait a few years for the fifth edition. It's a shame, the Access Guides are generally among the most useful for the casual tourist. Don't try looking at the URL given on the back cover of the 4th edition for corrections -- that web site has no content. E-mail to the publisher has not elicited an acknowledgement of the problem after ten days.

Incredibly inaccurate. Flashmaps: where are you when we need you?

Do not buy this book. It is incredibly out of date. It also spends too much ink on the tourist traps that are already well known (e.g., 20 pages on Harvard Square, which is increasingly full of chain stores), and gives short shrift to the neighborhoods that are truly up and coming (e.g., one column on Central Square...which is also increasingly full of chain stores :-( ). A big disappointment, since I liked one of the earlier editions so much. I'm not sure what they updated for this edition; they highly recommended a bakery that's been shut down for over six years! Talk about information anxiety....

I am a long-time Boston resident, and I bought this book to loan to my guests from out-of-town. Now i'm going to find a book that has actually been updated since the days before "internet". Is there a Rough Guide for Boston?

This book was assigned reading in a technical writing course I took in college. It is quite simply the worst thing I have ever seen in print. The book is supposed to be about giving and receiving information efficiently, yet it is filled with dozens of misspelled words and grammatical errors. It looked like it was written by an 8 year-old.

It's filled with silly cartoons and information that alternates between obvious and useless. My dim-witted professor and the author of this book are living proof that just about anyone can get a college degree. I'm still mad that I had to shell out cash for this garbage.