<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: The Ultimate Reference
Review: Old habits are hard to break. It's possible, though, that the "Ultimate Visual Dictionary" will cure you of yelling to anyone within hearing distance, "Do you remember what those little petals that sit on the top of a strawberry are called?" but I can tell you that when no one in the house comes running to your aid, you will be really glad to have this reference sitting right on your desk.
Libraries are nice. Heavens, the NET is even nice. But nothing can surpass a good, well-worn reference that you come to know intimately, know its strengths and its weaknesses.
The pictures in this book are colorful, clear and not so cute they're annoying; it is divided into sensible categories like "The Universe," "Prehistoric Earth," and "The Human Body." There is a concise index and an appendix of useful data like mathematical symbols and the ever-confounding metric conversions.
Now, sometimes you will need the name for something like the hole in the face of a guitar. You are praying there is a term that alliterates with the adjective you have already chosen to describe it. You rush to the wonderful book (after getting blank stares from anyone you ask about it first, of course), find the section for "music," and are disappointed to find that it is called a "sound hole." It's not a poetic term. It doesn't have any potential for a lyrical metaphor. Still, that's not the fault of the book, is it? At least you'll know that you are on your own for coming up with a term that is kinder to the ear or that, if you settle for "sound hole," there is nothing more accurate available.
Check out the page for "Books." You'll find wonderful terms about your own craft that you've forgotten or never knew--like "mull," "buckram corner piece," and "tail."Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of "This is the Place"
Rating: 
Summary: disappointed
Review: As others have mentioned, the print is much too small. There was no need to do this, as the book only measures 5 1/2 by 6 1/2 inches. What is more upsetting, however, is (so far) everything I've looked up in the index gives the wrong page number. Since the book isn't alphabetized, and I have no desire to spend hours browsing through it in search of what I'm trying to find, the book is next to useless for me. Don't waste your money.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent material - if only the pictures were bigger
Review: I bought the paperback version of this excellent reference book after having looked at the hardcover version in the library. I was blown away by the beautiful illustrations and photos and the tremendous amount of information included. Each page has dozens of details, definitions, terms, etc., accompanied by paragraph or so descriptive overview of the topic and lovely, clear, illuminating illustrations and photos. The only disappointing thing about this paperback edition is that it is shunk down in size compared to the hard-cover. Each page of the paperback version is about 61/2" x 51/4"- the hardcover has much larger pages (8" x 10" or thereabouts). I didn't realize this when I purchased my copy. The effect of shrinking each page so drastically is that each very detailed illustration, diagram or photo is much more crowded and a little eyestrain is involved in looking at them. You may want to consider springing for the higher-priced hardcover for this reason. That quibble aside, however, this is an excellent and entertaining book to have around the house to look stuff up in (as I had to do when I finally read Moby Dick recently) or just to poke around randomly in. My 5 year old son absolutely loves this book (he's a bit of a techboy) and has obsessively perused its pages for a year now without getting tired of it. In fact, he's looked at it so much that the binding has broken - another reason you may want to consider the hardcover version.
<< 1 >>
| 
