false149928081180969297808118096969312Paris Out of Hand: A Wayward Guidehttp://photo.goodreads.com/books/1223643811m/149928.jpg
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/149928.Paris_Out_of_Hand_A_Wayward_Guide
27016Karen Elizabeth Gordon6169040falseSun Aug 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009Fri Aug 21 05:52:12 -0700 2009Sun Aug 23 08:23:28 -0700 20092 The book is hilarious, with a dry-wit, tongue-in-cheek, irreverant at times sense of humor. It resembles a travel guide to Paris, but it's definitely not going to get you around the Paris anyone knows.
The book is broken down into sections, covering hotels, restaurants, nightlife, and the like. Hotels starts out with a key, and here is your first clue that the book is going to be a hoot. For instance, there is a symbol for:
*Bidet in the middle of the room
*Fezzes not required in public areas
*Angora busboys
*Beds turned down, chocolates left on pillow
*Beds turned down, fish left on pillow
And so it goes for two pages.
One of the hotels has no elevator because one of the ROOMS is IN the elevator. One restaurant only serves food that begins with the letter "P", and one restaurant only serves after 100 women are present, and if at any time that number decreases, the waiters stop in mid-step until another walks through the door. This means that women walking by the restaurant (or men in drag) run the risk of being kidnapped and fed a nice meal.
The drawings in the book are also a delight, and the only reason I gave the book four stars is because it got a little bogged down towards the end. But it's definitely a departure from the norm, and therefore absolutely worth finding a copy and reading it.