Book review: Graffiti Travel Guide: Singapore

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As the readers of this blog are well aware, we are now living in a world saturated with guidebooks. It’s almost difficult to imagine a time when we couldn’t go to the local library or bookshop and easily find out facts about Bhutan or Montenegro or Grenada. There’s such a wealth of information out there about the different cultures of the world that travel feels more accessible than ever. However, if you’re a guidebook publisher, and in particular a new one just starting out and having to compete with Lonely Planet and Rick Steves and Fodor’s and the other established publishers, what do you do to distinguish yourself from the big boys?

If you’re Graffiti Travel Guides, you find your niche and play to your strengths.

Graffiti Travel Guide: Singapore is small enough to fit in your pocket (at 4.5″ x 5.75″, or 114mm x 145mm), but packs an incredible amount of information into its almost 200 pages. The book is split up into six sections — Engage, Relax, Eat, Shop, Play, and Sleep — and is stuffed to the gills with photography and graphic design elements. The descriptions, emphases, and tone clearly aim toward a young, hip, progressive audience (early 20s by my best guess), with a sense of exuberance and play that is missing from many other guidebooks.

However, the presentation often overwhelms the content, with the effect of something like a little kid jumping up and down and yelling, “Hey, isn’t this cool?” to the detriment of describing the thing itself. It’s indeed very pretty, but because the book places so much emphasis on the visual, the information to be conveyed doesn’t easily stay in the head afterward. Fortunately, the index in the back organizes all the information according to geographical region, and it saves the book from drowning under the weight of its enthusiasm.

Certainly a fresh take on the travel guidebook genre, Graffiti Travel Guide: Singapore provides a good introduction of things to do and see in Singapore, and especially of what to eat. You won’t find another book quite like it, especially one that delves so much into the local culture. If you want more readability and ease of use (and maps), better stick to the more established publishers; however, if you want the inside scoop to life in Singapore, this is probably the book for you.