Elminsters Forgotten Realms

"Ed Greenwood presents Elminster's Forgotten Realms" the newest Wizard's of Coast splat books. One of the splatiest offerings to come down the pike in a long time, I mean even the title pretentious, as if we had been playing in someone else's Forgotten Realms" all this time. Filled with information such as forgotten realms slang, popular literature of the realms, and Tethyrian cuisine, you find no actionable gaming material within (unless you are making  "Trival Pursuit, the Forgotten Realms edition"). And yet I cannot write it off completely, for scattered within are copies of Ed Greenwoods typewritten notes from the original manuscript (although on far too pages). As one always fond of peeking behind the curtain, I find old notes intriguing in a manner no "gussied up" splat book can match. Would that they had published a book of Ed's notes instead of the rest of this clap-trap (I am still waiting for a full description of level 4 of Undermountain as well). I am also totally using the troll cart on the cover for a wilderness encounter as well. Not as disappointing as the new 40K Chaos Space Marines Codex, but that is a story for another blog.