Just picked up the new Lonely Planet Middle East book, 6th edition, May 2009. Pretty much exactly the same page-count as the previous edition (700-odd), but coverage has shrunk to the core Turkey-to-Egypt countries plus Iraq – there chiefly for the Kurdistan section. Libya and Iran have both been left out this time – quite rightly; they don’t belong in a Middle East book – but rather than cut the book back accordingly and save 120pp, LP have instead kept it at the same size and expanded detail on the remaining countries.