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1001: Natural Wonders You Must See Before You Die

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Takes you on a journey to some of the most spectacular natural wonders in the world. Spanning every continent and ocean on the planet, this title presents a compendium of experiences that you can revisit time and time again. It helps to learn about the explosive rumblings of Caribbean volcanoes and the secluded Spanish wetlands.

960 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2005

18 people are currently reading
494 people want to read

About the author

Michael Bright

244 books12 followers

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5 stars
87 (39%)
4 stars
70 (31%)
3 stars
53 (23%)
2 stars
10 (4%)
1 star
3 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
Profile Image for Regina Hunter.
Author 6 books56 followers
November 4, 2011
I love the book series. They provide very short description of anything that I need and it is not a main source of information, but a nice beginning. I would read every single one I will find and suggest everyone does the same. It is very good for basic education.
Profile Image for Hayley.
191 reviews
July 24, 2011
This book was written fairly well & it had so many places included in the 1001 natural wonders that I'd never seen or heard of before. However, I wished that some of the photography had been better quality & that there had been pictures of every, or almost every, place included in the list.
Profile Image for Sandro Helmann.
310 reviews
June 29, 2023
Livro interessante, embora privilegie alguns lugares em detrimento de outros mais merecedores. Fernando de Noronha, por exemplo, nem é citado, e Rússia e China, países abissalmente grandes e com ambientes variados, têm, juntos, menos menções que a Austrália.
107 reviews
March 28, 2018
A must have book for any serious traveller and an epic tome of inspiration for the coffee table.
Profile Image for Maureen.
498 reviews3 followers
July 29, 2020
since not travelling due to Pandemic so enjoying the wonderful photos in this travel book. Lots of places to see when able to travel again, in the meantime can dream of these magnificent places.
Profile Image for Kirk.
238 reviews2 followers
February 19, 2011
This was an okay read, but I have a few issues with it:

-They had to start with North America? It's so typical, and they really blew through their picture budget on the U.S., leaving the rest of the world's locations mostly to the imagination. The U.S. locales have about twice the number of pictures as say, African locations, places most of us have never seen pictures of; instead, we get more pictures of places like Mt. Rainier and Crater Lake, places which even an amateur nature enthusiast has most likely seen many pictures of or even visited. Even though these pictures were a bit redundant, they're still nice to look at and were well taken, I only wish they'd saved the pictures for the lesser-known and lesser-photographed places of the world.

-Do you guys need an editor? I found numerous spelling errors and constant overlapping between the contributors. If the editors had been a bit more careful, there'd have been less repetition of information and less glaring errors like "Montertay Canyon" and rainfall "per yeart."

-The spine doesn't seem very durable; granted, I had a library copy that was already a couple of years old, but still, this isn't the kind of book you can cradle in your hands off the table for more than a couple of minutes before its weight compels you to set it down on a table with both flaps down. Then you notice the pages starting to separate from the spine and it crackles a bit. Come on, for a book that's over 1000 pages and weighs about ten pounds or more, they really could use some stronger craftsmanship.

-Too much emphasis on discoverers and place-naming for a book about natural wonders. I'll say it again: a book of this nature is incredibly dependent on its visuals to make it an engaging read. After 500-some pages I found myself just skimming the text entries, especially if there were no accompanying picture. And the captions were really worthless in the few spots where they actually appeared, just telling you that yes, this picture is the place that the bold text at the top of the page hinted at.

Hopefully later editions of the book will have many more pictures and a better format for their descriptions. I do appreciate the effort of this project and believe in its importance, I just think they could have gone about it in a better fashion.
Profile Image for Blog on Books.
268 reviews103 followers
May 11, 2010
A companion book to '1001 Escapes You Must See Before You Die' is ‘1001 Natural Wonders to See Before You Die’ (edited by Michael Bright of the BBC’s Natural History Unit) and while this huge, 960-page volume has a slightly different stance, it only serves to pique one’s curiosity about even more places to add to one’s proverbial ‘bucket list.’ The obvious difference between the two books is that since less of the locales in ‘Natural Wonders’ are promoted as ‘businesses,’ that it’s quite possible that in many cases their entire existence might be missed if not for this book. ‘Natural Wonders’ is an updated version from a 2005 edition with a new emphasis on eco-ism, species behaviors (check out Kenya’s famed Mara River Crossing) and other environmental factors provided by UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) whose World Heritage Sites are given a special designation throughout the book.

Both books showcase many of the most amazing places on each of the seven continents (not to mention a trip to space on Virgin Galactic’s airship) through stunning photographs (though not of all attractions) and cogent descriptions and while some may argue over the inclusion of one destination over another, it’s hard to diminish the coverage that these two books offer when viewed together. All destinations are also reviewed for cost, ease of travel, accommodations and so on as well.

WIthout a doubt, before you even think of booking your next trip, we urge you to pursue these pages first as you will definitely find hundreds of interesting alternatives to the more standard fare that you’ll graze across at a travel agent’s office or website. And, if for $35 you end up finding the trip of a lifetime, it should certainly be well worth it.
Profile Image for Tyler.
21 reviews3 followers
did-not-finish
June 25, 2013
I just finished the North America section (skimming) and so far this is sort of bullshit. It's HIGHLY biased towards the western half of the continent (not counting the Caribbean). Other than the Everglades and the Bay of Fundy, there's practically nothing east of the Mississippi! They gave 5 entries to Yosemite, but they can't spare a page for the Hudson River valley or the freaking Great Smoky Mountains?
They're also way too focused on volcanoes. Obviously they're not all the same, but it's like they made a point of including as many as they could, and ran out of time for writing about other interesting places.
Profile Image for Diane.
4 reviews
September 18, 2007
This is a great read for anyone looking for nature travel ideas.

The book includes a picture and a one page description of each destination. The photographs are amazing and the descriptions are well written.

The destinations are interesting, however some of them are located in volatile and remote regions of the world. The format of the book precludes inclusion of this information, but it is something to consider.

Profile Image for Astrila.
196 reviews
June 19, 2008
A great book full of beautiful things you probably won't find out about anywhere else. It doesn't give a whole lot of info on each thing, however it has some beautiful picts, and it's a great way to find out about things and then research them further elsewhere.

There are more than 1001 awesome natural wonders in the world, so this book certainly doesn't include everything, but still a great reservoir.
Profile Image for Alana McCool.
56 reviews
Read
August 4, 2018
This book makes me sad. I can't see the things. I can't see them, not 1 percent. This book has a really bad title or happen maybe it is for rich people. I don't know. You can't see these things. You can only see pictures. If you have more money, maybe you can see 1%. If you have more time and money, maybe you can see 10%. But you can't. So happen you sit and read and you are sad. Bleh.
374 reviews
July 23, 2013
ISBN 0764158171

Buying this book! Great pictures and loved the explanations and histories about the different places. A must have for many of these places that I want to go that are on my bucket list.
Profile Image for Lauren.
459 reviews19 followers
November 7, 2007
Discouraging, because I'll never see even a small portion of them, but beautiful pictures and interesting to read about.
Profile Image for Panthea.
106 reviews37 followers
November 3, 2014
wish i could see more of Iran,and also many places were introduced without photos.
Profile Image for Purna Yenti.
30 reviews1 follower
October 19, 2012
Bagus bangeet... smoga bisa bisa mengunjungi tempat-tempat itu, before I die.. ^^,
Profile Image for L F.
261 reviews12 followers
October 25, 2014
A good bucket list read and see.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews

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