Gerard Koeppel
Autor de City on a Grid: How New York Became New York
Sobre El Autor
Gerard T. Koeppel is a writer and journalist. A former editor at CBS News
Obras de Gerard Koeppel
Obras relacionadas
Water-Works: The Architecture and Engineering of the New York City Water Supply (2006) — Contribuidor — 29 copias
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
Miembros
Reseñas
Premios
También Puede Gustarte
Autores relacionados
Estadísticas
- Obras
- 4
- También por
- 1
- Miembros
- 268
- Popularidad
- #86,166
- Valoración
- 3.4
- Reseñas
- 2
- ISBNs
- 16
If it were half the size (or a third), focussing on the good bits, that would have been quite a book! But by including every fact about everything and everyone he just lost me. Here's an early tidbit:
"In April 1790, the Council formerly offered L'Enfant ten acres at the northeasterly corner of the Common Lands, roughly between today's 68th and 70th Streets east of Third Avenue. Remote as it might have been from the city, this land did border the well-traveled Post Road and was just up the road from the Dove Tavern, a popular public house established in 1763 (and the locus of Nathan Hale's hanging in 1776) at today's 66th Street and Third Avenue."
And guess what? He turned them down! A whole paragraph about nothing. How about "The Council offered him land but he turned them down." I don't need all these details about what the rejected offer was, and what it was near, and what things happened in a place that was near the place that was near the land that he didn't accept.
If you love detail upon detail, don't wait. But for the average reader, I expect this is more chore than cheer.
(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. There are a lot of 4s and 3s in the world!)… (más)