Having just come back from five days in Vienna with the Knopf Guide to Vienna as my Baedeker, I can say authoritatively that this book was worth its weight in combustible materials if I'd been pinned under a fallen tree in the Vienna Woods in the middle of winter. Unfortunately, since I was wandering around the city in the spring, it was pretty much useless.

The book is the height of a normal book but only half its width, thus making it easier to leave wedged behind the cushions of a couch owned by someone you don't like. The cover is mainly green, with an illustration of an equestrian statue in front of some yellow piece of architecturre. I tell you this so you can avoid buying it by mistake.

It looked quite reasonable. Handsome, in fact. I bought it thinking that in addition to the usual information in a guidebook, its pages on the contents of various museums would enrich my art-viewing pleasure. But not only don't the comments about particular artworks go further than the signs next to them, the book doesn't have the usual information in a guidebook.

Start at the beginning. The book's table of contents is arranged by area. So, of course it begins with an overview of the city's districts. Well, first there are 11 pages of bird and squirrel illustrations. Pretty but not the first thing we need to know. But then we finally get to the layout...never. At no point does the book say something along the lines of: The city is divided into districts. The first district is the historic downtown. There's a honking big river called the Danube, but before you get to it, you'll cross over a smaller river that's actually the Donaukanal that you'll take pictures of thinking that it's the Danube...etc.

After making your way through richly illustrated sections on the history of Vienna, the Viennese dialect, and Vienna as seen by painters and writers, you're ready to see Vienna yourself. So, you open up the book to the section-by-section guide. Each has a thumbnail of a big map showing you exactly where each area is located. Now if you could only find the big map that the little one refers to. And each section has a closeup map of the area, but the few street names that are marked had us looking up the German word for "magnifying glass." Seriously. And while the text takes you through each of the notable buildings with gorgeous photos and adequate text, it fails to mention little items of context such as that the central district is dominated by pedestrian-only streets. Nor does it coordinate its way of dividing up the city ("From Secession to Musikvereinsgebaeude") with the way the citizens do ("Third District").