填空题 A = Book1 B = Book2
C= Book3 D = Book4
Which book(s)
gives an unconventional view of a revered river?
writes about a journey through West Africa?
is a blend of adventure and historical tale?
are made up of black-and-white pictures
gives readers a full picture of the Earth?
retraces the steps of an 18th-century explorer?
consists of a photographer"s experiments with photography?
is about one country"s relationship with the sea?
leaves the reader confused about what to do?
presents the coast as a changing landscape?
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. 6
7. 7
8. 8
9. 9
10. 10
A Book 1
What began as a conversation around the Christmas table became reality for Tom Fremantle when he set off to visit the fabled Timbuktu and follow in the footsteps of his hero, the 18 ^th -century explorer Mungo Park.
This was to be no tourist trip. Starting in The Gambia, Fremantle makes a remarkable journey through West Africa, covering more than 3,200 kilometres in three months. He travels variously by donkey and cart, dugout canoe, on foot with a wayward ox and by bus with a hash-dealing driver before finally arriving in Nigeria.
In the book, Fremantle provides a vivid snapshot of modern West Africa, telling the stories of the people he meets, from a lovelorn Senegalese prostitute and Bozo fisherman with a megawatt grin to a dignified Tuareg tribesman keen to keep his ancient traditions alive.
The book is part adventure, part historical tale, with Fremantle slipping skilfully between present-day narrative and Park"s journey in 1795 as an eager young man commissioned by the African Association to unlock the mysteries of the River Niger. He tells Park"s tale of ambush, starvation and disease with well-researched simplicity, right the way through to his return home as a celebrity in 1797, only to fall victim to his own success and die on his second expedition, in 1805.
It"s no easy task blending a historical journey into a modern-day setting, but Freemantle succeeds in doing just that, writing with a depth and perception that makes the book a fascinating read.
B Book2
Italian photographer travels the length of the Ganges, takes lots of great photos and the publisher packages it all up in its much-copied coffee-table style. And that should be the end of the story. But it isn"t, because Aldo Pavan"s photographs are almost as extraordinary as the subject matter he has so evocatively recorded.
These days, photo essays about the Ganges are commonplace, and so are the images of buffalo, ritual ablutions, crumbling architecture, terraced paddies and cannabis-smoking sadhus that make up the stereotype. And, admittedly, all that stock fodder is here -- it would be difficult to photograph the progress of the river without including it -- but Pavan goes out of his way to make his images deviate from the norm. His experiments with focus and composition are quite daring, even if they aren"t always successful. The result is a curious splattering of oddly placed horizontals, entire images out of focus and composition with seemingly no subject at all. It"s genuinely dynamic stuff, made all the more exciting by the fact that Pavan really does know what he"s doing: the experimental pieces sit next to classically composed portraits and landscapes that are quite beautiful.
And so this book isn"t an unqualified success, but it"s a refreshing and inspiring alternative to the more formulaic stuff the great river typically spawns.
C Book 3
This lavish photography book conceived, written and produced by the staff of New Internationalist magazine, is intended as both a celebration of life on Earth and a reminder of what is under threat. Readers of the magazine may already have seen a selection of the book"s 120 colour images in the May 2005 issue on ecosystems, which dealt with the current mass extinction, global warming pollution and humanity"s assault on the land.
The photographs are spectacular; however, they suffer from an apparent lack of order -- polar ice follows cacti follows aircraft. Perhaps this is intended: to seduce with the sheer variety and contrast of life and land; to show the Earth"s full picture.
The message is certainly subtle. Despite an opening quote by Tony Juniper, executive director of Friends of the Earth, that "the stakes are so high and time is so short" and a foreword by Dr Caroline Lucas MEP exhorting readers to "act now", one is left a little unsure exactly what it is we"re supposed to do.
For now, however, we can simply enjoy the blast of colour, pattern and form of these marvelous pictures, hopefully bathed in the glow of an energy-efficient lightbulb, wearing fair-trade clothing in a sustainable home.
D Book 4
After the success of the National Trust"s photographic exhibition The Coast Exposed -- one of the best of last year I the Trust has produced Sea Fever, a portfolio of 117 black-and-white prints by the distinguished Magnum photographer Stuart Franklin.
Franklin has used his reportage skills to capture the UK"s relationship with the sea in all its forms. From a happy family of picknickers on the cliffs above Marloes Sands, to the weathered face of an oyster fisherman on the Fal Esturary, these photographs are designed to inform the reader rather than inspire.
Sea Fever stands out from other books about Britain"s coastline because it attempts to convey through the stark and subtle tones of black and white how the sea can be both playground and workplace at the same time. The images of Boscastle after the freak storm of August 2004 also show just how fickle a force the sea can be, and how the coast will always be a changing, transient landscape never to be bridled by those who live alongside it.
A book that, like the sea, you can dip into and out of and always find something new.