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Rating: 
Summary: I am always suspicious of large print.
Review:
It may seem a strange thing to say, but I really am always suspicious of extra large print. This book has large print and because of that, one has to ask the questions; Is it a book for those with reading difficulties? It doesn't say so. Are they trying to pad out the content to justify the large format? It would appear so.
This is a large coffee table book written by a man who has encountered wild Bears in British Columbia and throughout the USA. That, however, appears to be his only qualification for writing such a book. I am not trying to be unkind here but how many of us have encountered common garden birds or squirrels - and yet still remain unqualified to write an authoritative document about them?
Most of the photographs are extremely good and I particularly liked the way in which the photo credits were listed firstly by page number and then again by photographer. Those of us with an interest in "who took what picture" are easily able to determine the answer in this book. Apart from a couple which are soft focus (blurred!), my only real disappointment, as far as the photography goes, is that none of the photos were taken by the author.
So what we have here is a fairly reasonable book about some species of Bear which have, at some time or other, been encountered by an amateur naturalist - though never when he had a camera in his hand. Whilst it appears to be a fairly competent product, there is no way of knowing whether the text is accurate or not.
In summary, I actually found the overlarge text off-putting as far as reading was concerned and I was left wondering whether or not I could trust what was written.
Two stars retained for the photography.
NM
Rating:
Summary: I am always suspicious of large print.
Review: It may seem a strange thing to say, but I really am always suspicious of extra large print. This book has large print and because of that, one has to ask the questions; Is it a book for those with reading difficulties? It doesn't say so. Are they trying to pad out the content to justify the large format? It would appear so.This is a large coffee table book written by a man who has encountered wild Bears in British Columbia and throughout the USA. That, however, appears to be his only qualification for writing such a book. I am not trying to be unkind here but how many of us have encountered common garden birds or squirrels - and yet still remain unqualified to write an authoritative document about them? Most of the photographs are extremely good and I particularly liked the way in which the photo credits were listed firstly by page number and then again by photographer. Those of us with an interest in "who took what picture" are easily able to determine the answer in this book. Apart from a couple which are soft focus (blurred!), my only real disappointment, as far as the photography goes, is that none of the photos were taken by the author. So what we have here is a fairly reasonable book about some species of Bear which have, at some time or other, been encountered by an amateur naturalist - though never when he had a camera in his hand. Whilst it appears to be a fairly competent product, there is no way of knowing whether the text is accurate or not. In summary, I actually found the overlarge text off-putting as far as reading was concerned and I was left wondering whether or not I could trust what was written. Two stars retained for the photography. NM
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