RECREATION IN AND ABOUT BOSTON. Compiled by The Prospect Union Association. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930. Price $1.50.

GUIDE BOOKS are usually rather dry accumulations of fact and description with appeal to none but the most earnest seekers after culture. Occasionally, however, a book appears containing information of such interest to the reader that one forgets the didactic tone in which it was written. Such a book is this little collaboration by members of the Prospect Union Association of Cambridge. The purpose of the volume as stated in the introduction is to be a directory of ways and means for using the leisure time of those unacquainted with Boston and its surroundings. Any student who has spent aimless Saturday afternoons and Sundays in Cambridge should find at least, one suggestion in this book to relieve his boredom.

Historical walks, walks for architecture and walks for nature, opportunities for music, amateur dramatics, horseback riding and even folk dancing are only a few of the many forms of recreation mentioned. Among the games and sports it is surprising to find that Boston has cricket grounds, curling rinks and even a place to practise bowling-on-the-green. The description of the examples of early American architecture in Boston by Robert Peabody Bellows was perhaps the most entertainingly written, but the appeal of the various parts of the book will depend on the individual interests of the reader. That the work has a definitely Harvard flavor can be seen by the fact that of the twenty contributors, twelve have Harvard degrees and five have served on the Harvard faculty.