Continuing on the theme of my Budget Travel piece on how to choose a guidebook, here’s a good piece comparing several books to the same destination: Guidebook Smackdown!

It was very interesting to see that Frommer’s ranked high for sharp opinion–I guess the only one I’ve read is the New Mexico one. Its first-person tone–which even includes the author’s childhood memories at certain points–drives me up the wall.

And since I just got done writing very, very short hotel reviews for Rough Guides, I guess the criticism is true. I swear, on the second edit, I will add more juicy details. But in about 30 words, that just means “plastic flowers galore” or something.

I’m driving around NM right now. Completely fried. Can’t even compose funny stories, because nothing fun has happened, because I’ve been driving too fast. Oh, except just FYI, Farmington is where all those trends you’ve read about in the newspaper are actually happening: scrapbooking stores, soup served in bread bowls, methamphetamine. I was there when the new 10-screen multiplex opened; the story in the newspaper lamented how the old 4-screen theater had opened just months before stadium seating was introduced–one trend that Farmington took a while to catch up on.