cover image Around the World in 80 Treasures

Around the World in 80 Treasures

Dan Cruickshank. George Weidenfeld & Nicholson, $29.95 (255pp) ISBN 978-0-297-84399-3

Travel the world in five months, see 80 ""treasures."" This is the conceit behind a recent BBC TV series hosted by architect Cruickshank, who is also the guide in this companion book. He visits, in rapid-fire fashion, fantastic, if not entirely unexpected, places (Egypt's pyramids, the ruins of Peru, the Parthenon), documenting each with sometimes transcendent pictures, but much of the narration is bogged down by Cruickshank's complaints about speeding through the ruins and getting up for early flights to dash from one continent to the next. Cruickshank's descriptions vary in quality, sometimes reading like brochures. (A product, perhaps, of brief visits that don't allow him to absorb anything before he's off to the next destination.) Though some of the destinations seem absurd for a top-80 list (firing a Colt pistol in Durango, Colorado?), Cruickshank is a witty travel agent and his architectural background enriches the best sections. Anyone seriously interested in these marvels will be frustrated by the slight treatment each receives; Cruickshank is too busy traveling to provide much depth. However, fans of the series will appreciate how Cruickshank crams the entire world into one journey and one book.