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Wikins, Ken Smith, and Doug Kirby. The New Updated and Revised Roadside America. New York: Smith & Schuster, 1992.

This is a revised edition of the immensely popular 1986 edition of Roadside America. As the front cover of the book declares, Roadside America is "the modern travelers guide to the wild and wonderful world of America's Tourist Attractions." However, this is no where near you"average" travel guide. It is full of the architecture of "the absurd." The authors have compiled a connoisseur's guide to the "camp" and "kitsch" that can be found throughout the United States. The editors trace the trend of architectural and cultural experimentation. As they write in the introduction: Small towns desperately look to tourism for their next meal. They'll do almost anything to get you to stop." The authors set themselves against the purifying and genteel ideas of travel while celebrating the strange and original structures of the road. For example, in the introduction they write: "We give an oxen statue that pees a fiar shake against any celebrated 'folk art environment.'" This book is full of fun and interesting areas and buildings throughout the coutnry, most of which have not been studied in academia. [N. King]