How to be More Scottish: Book Review

This is a good "first look" at Scotland, for anyone who is unfamiliar with the land and its people and wants to know more. It's accessible, light, and a practical introduction to all things Scots--including a brief history, the culture, dialects, the people, the food, the land, weather, common words and phrases (as well as how to properly pronounce them), and various points of interest. It was also full of useful tips on what to do and say and what NOT to do and say (for instance, NEVER call a Scot "English," and always carry a brolly, er...umbrella). I found the travel/tourism part of the book less useful than the rest of it; there is so much history, too much to see and do there. It's just not possible to cover it all in a book like this, and that was not the authors' intent. But it was somewhat frustrating to me that so many place names were thrown out with not even a two-to-three-word description of what they are or why they were mentioned. I had no idea what most of these places or points of interest were, so I found myself skimming this section with plans to refer to my Lonely Planet Guide to Scotland or the Rough Guide to Scotland instead. The book could have used some better editing. Some sentences were awkward and difficult to understand. I was reading the book on my Kindle, and it felt as though it didn't translate well to the Kindle format. For instance, the paragraph indentations were odd, margins weren't consistent, and end punctuation was often left out (which made it trickier to read). All in all a good, fun read that feeds my excitement about our upcoming visit to the country. And it's only $1 on Kindle! Ye canna beat that!

Buy it on Amazon.