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Rating: 
Summary: Good but lacking
Review: I did find the book helpful for some types of wood, however, I also found that some of the discriptions were verbatum to another book that I had. I am not sure who copied who. This book did not list all the common names of some of the more available species where it went overboard on some very obscure species. I also found it lacking in the number of species that it covered. I have many species in my shop that are not mentioned anywhere and they are readily available commecialy.
Rating: 
Summary: Good intro book for the beginner, but....
Review: the major strong point of this book, as mentioned by others, are the nice color photos. the biggest complaint I have is with the small number of species listed - only 150, while other books have around 230 or more. this book excludes many of the woods i have used or have in my "shop." although there are many nice pictures in this book, the most important pictures, which are the samples of the different woods, are extremely small and are not always typical in appearance. take cherry for example. there is a nice section near the end that further discusses some of the more "important" or significant woods, such as oak, maple, yew, lignum, rosewood, lime, beech, etc. some sections, such as the discussion on man made boards, are a complete waste of pages in my opinion. I hardly think that a person buying a book about local and exotic woods needs any info on MDF. the only reason i gave this book 3 stars intead of 2 is because there is a pretty good amound of text for each wood listed, though other better books have the same feature. my advice is to save yourself some time and money by buying a book with info on more species
Rating:
Summary: Succesfull coffee table-book, failed encyclopedia
Review: The strength of the book is the fine quality of the printing, the good color photographs and the enthousiasm of its makers, who obviously love crafting things of wood. This certainly is an attractive coffee table-book which may well inspire those who browse through it into making better use of wood than before.As an enyclopedia it certainly does not make the grade. Obviously nobody with a botanical background was involved here. On page 20 is a remark about 'apetalous' trees that if ever I decide to award a price for the most-nonsensical-botanical-statement-ever will be a strong contender. The writers failed to pursue a consistent way of writing botanical names. Glancing through the book I note various errors in the history of the use of wood. In addition the wood pictures, although of the same general size that is cute in "Identifying_Wood" by Aidan Walker (see there), a book derived from this, are pretty smallish on this big page size. I feel uncomfortable about some of the pictures which appear hardly typical of the woods they supposedly represent, and indeed some were replaced in the little book. As "Identifying_Wood" is not a bad book but unsuited for identifying wood, so is this "Encyclopedia_of_Wood" unsuited as a reference. I don't want to give the impression that it is riddled with errors (I have seen much worse), but it falls well short of the level of, say, "The_International_Book_of_Wood" (1976) let alone of an encyclopedia. P.S. I do hate the clumsy square shape. Obviously it was not meant to ever come off that coffee table: it decidedly would sit awkward on a shelf among real reference works.
Rating: 
Summary: A truly excellent book
Review: This is a truly comprehensive encyclopedia, liberally illustrated with large photographs--a must for any wood lover. It includes precise descriptions of grain, pattern, figure and color, as well as the relevant harvesting locations, processes and uses. Interesting historical tidbits also add to its richness. Attributes such as stiffness, density, workability, crushing strength, and hardness are specified for each wood. It is a remarkable and beautiful book that I STRONGLY recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book for the money, but ...
Review: To start, this is a very nice book, lots of nice pictures of things made from wood, location shots, and as much information as almost anyone would want to know about wood, in general. My problem is with the title word "Encyclopedia". "Thorough Introduction" would have been a better choice. As for the individual woods covered, the author selected about 150 which he expanded on nicely. Considering the thousands of woods in the world, 150 could hardly be considered encyclopedic (unless of course this was just volume one). There is a mixture of common and very obscure woods. I can only assume there was a reason behind the selection process. There was also a considerable bias toward European wood over the western hemisphere. The wood ID photos seemed a bit small at 1.25 inches square (about 3.3 centimeters for the Europeans).
So to sum up: excellent photos (except the tiny wood examples), lots of interesting information, reasonable price, wish there were more woods covered (which would have obviously impacted the price). Knowing what I know now, would I still have bought the book? Yes.
Rating:
Summary: Great coffee table book. Nice photos. Basic information.
Review: While the book could have been a little more dense it was a good read overall. I would have liked to have seen more focus on North American hardwoods, but that aside the book was very informative. About 150 different woods are described in detail with acompaning pictures. There is also a nice section on fine furniture. This book is an excellent introduction into the world of wood working and would make a fine gift for anyone with even a passing interest in that direction.
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