Lonely Planet Has Come to Town

A whole new series of Lonely Planet, who keeps on ripping off its fellow Australians to feed people in UK and US, has arrived in town. They are now on sale in Augus & Robertson Bookstore, with an amazing price of $51.99, which is such a discouraging behaviour that made me more determined not to buy ANY books in Australia. I do care about the carbon offset of long distance international postage, but I also care about my bank account which is on the verge of deficit on the arrival of the bill of university tuition fee.

(US version of Discover. Pic from Lonely Planet Official Website)
However such behaviour does not stop me from entering the bookshop and have a little look of the book. Obviously lonely planet has launched their new campaign by inserting a little cute bookmark introducing their different series of travel guides. And the new one, Discover, has been defined as the book suitable for people who "focus time and planning on those can’t-miss experiences". For me, it looks like a country version of Encounter guides, which were in full colour and such such.

I assume that as the emerging of more and more full colour travel guide books, lonely planet is seeking a way to survive. Country guides are probably for those who will stay in a country for a long time and set their steps on every small town with less than 2,000 people and enjoy every restaurant and hostels around the country, while Discover guides are for fast-pace travellers, who would rather plan their itinerary ahead based on the photos and descriptions of the travel guide.

I happened to have bought a Country guide of Japan from Amazon UK at £8.99 the day before yesterday, after a desperate hunting of suitable travel guide of this country. I would certainly have bought a discover guide instead if I knew, for I will only be in Japan for two weeks and I need a simulation of photos and full colours. Unfortunaly, this is life.

One more thing, the guides have been pubulished as two versions, AU and UK version (red cover) and US version (green cover). I wonder why. Spelling?

AU and UK version of Discover. from Lonely planet official website.