Our good friend and fellow travel writer Max Hartshorne, Editor of GoNOMAD.com, recently introduced a new line of travel ebooks called Plane Readers that are now available on Kindle, Nook, Apple, Kobo and Barnes and Noble Nook reader formats. Here, he shares with us an excerpt from the latest edition in the series, “York, England, The Original York.”
Cliffords Tower, scene of a massacre in York, England. (courtesy Max Hartshorne) 

By Max Hartshorne, GoNOMAD.com

We arrived in the city of York by train. It was almost hot, and by Northern England standards, that’s call for celebration.

York’s reputation was cemented when the earliest visitors to the New World named what would become their biggest city after this English city of 195,000, which was first settled in the year 71 AD. Back then it was called Eboracum.

Walking over one of the many road and footbridges over the River Ouse, the sun glinted off the water and onto the terraces of the cafes, and it was indeed a beautiful morn on one of Northern England’s most scenic cities. York is known far and wide as a place to get away to, a touristy sort of town with major league attractions.

While the attraction of these ancient walkable walls and Roman-era burial grounds and intriguing excavations still in progress brings millions to the city each year, York is firmly looking ahead in 2011, with lots of exciting exhibits taking place in and around the city.

The center of York and the edifice everything is built around is the York Minster, that towers up 275 feet. Visitors can pay a pound and climb up hundreds of steps in a narrow dark aisleway, and at the top marvel at the view. It’s a big cathedral that takes up so much space that all of the streets head down toward it like spokes in a hub.

York is a city with a violent past. We joined a popular pastime one summer evening… strolling the city following an actor who recounts tales of savagery by citizens of York to other citizens of the town.

Mark Graham, our tour guide and the city’s resident ghost hunter, wears black jacket pants, shoes and gloves. And he tells tales with… just.. the right… timing and punch, scary stories about ghosts, jittery objects and… as he tells the story he YELLS! making many audience members shudder with fright. A good endorphin rush. A SCARE!

Mark Graham, a tour guide steeped in York history and good at ghost stories. (courtesy Max Hartshorne)

For more information and to purchase, click here.

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About the Plane Readers

Each book contains 25-30 travel feature stories about the destination, and every page of the books has a photo. These anthologies are culled from the GoNOMAD.com travel website, which is known for high quality writing and travel photography that began on the web in 2000.

“We have plans to publish 50 ebooks over the next few years,” said GoNOMAD editor Max Hartshorne, from the website’s offices in South Deerfield MA. “We think of these books as a great way to get ready for a trip. You can read them on the plane, in the airport, and find interesting ideas about places to go, things to do and other perspectives about where you’re going.”

So far the series includes books about Italy, Central America, Cuba, England, and a title called Naked Travel, with feature stories and a guide to nude recreation clubs in the US.

The publishers plan to create titles in the next month about Spain, France, Ireland, California, and Australia. They will also be publishing themed Plane Readers such as Bicycle Touring around the World, Visiting Vineyards, and Women’s Travel anthologies. Find out more about GoNOMAD Plane Readers on the website.

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