This week Go Readlooks at Sod Abroad by Michael Moran and Time Out's Edinburgh Shortlist
Sod AbroadBy Michael Moran John Murray, £7.99
This book should be utterly awful. However, Michael Moran manages to be witty, offensive and completely aware that most of what he is peddling is piffle.
Staying at home is appealing, but not for the reasons Moran puts forward. Judging by this book, the man lives in fear of the unknown: foreign seas are festering with poisonous jellyfish, tentacles barbed with coma-inducing poison; foreign restaurants are a run-the-gauntlet experience where languages and the xenophobia of wait staff conspire to bring about your ignominious downfall; airports are a less a necessary evil than a disaster.
Under chapter headings such as "how to be a loveable hostage" and "camping - all the comforts of homelessness", Moran launches an assault on the notion of leaving the comfort of your own home.
What is most interesting are the surprising statistics. For instance, the world's top tourist trouble spot for rape, according to the UN, is New Zealand, then Austria, Finland and Sweden. You have been warned.
Edinburgh ShortlistTime Out, £7.99
With festival season getting under way, the daddy of them all makes a tempting option. The Edinburgh International Festival and its accompanying Fringe take over the city in August, and Time Outhas brought out a new edition to its slick city guide to get you in the mood. It is practical and concise, with every listing located on one of its colourful maps. The restaurant and bar guides are enough to make you hungry and thirsty, and the shopping listings are unusually in-depth, though the ads do lend the book a bit of an in-flight magazine feel.