The Visitor's Guide To The New St Petersburg
-Carl Bernstein
This little typo-filled guide was probably the hardest thing I've ever written, and it rocks. Written without sentimentality or fear of reprisals, the book slashed and burned through the tourist nightmare of post-Soviet St Petersburg - the first of its kind.
Writers from The Rough Guide and the US Department of State plagiarized it (the former inexcusably, the latter at least on the pretense of �informing Americans of dangers in the city�). Restaurants lambasted in the guide made pleading or threatening phone calls to our office. It became a local classic, and eventually scored me my job with Lonely Planet.
After I left the company, Ben Lehrer took over the writing, and the book got funnier and funnier, over the next two editions. It's out of print now, but damn, was that a fun one.
