5 comments about Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web.

1. Despite the short length of this book, it was packed with lots of good information and was easy to read. It brought to my attention aspects of fungi versus microbial activity that I was never aware of and how these affect soil quality for gardens versus shrubs. The book has had an immediate payback for me, as I am a novice composter and now know how to do that better. It also described compost teas which I was only vaguely familiar with. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in gardening in an earth-friendly way or to those who have relied solely on inorganic fertilizers and need to learn their true effects.



2. I love this book! I raise red wiggler worms and lecture on worms and composting. This book has added to my interest and fascination with worms and now with worm/compost tea. I will use it as part of my lectures and recommend it in my classes and lectures.



3. A beautifully written book. This book is simple and highly informative. It is a must read for everybody who is interested in organic gardening. Once you have read the book you will have a deep appreciation and understanding of soil.



4. This is a detailed description of organisms in the soil, what kind you need for different types of plants, and how to get and keep them. It explains why organic gardening is more efficient, and eventually an easier way to grow. It is well written and informative.



5. This book is not for everyone. The first half as the author refers to it is a science book in every meaning. Details, facts, vocabulary are all present. I've had a fair amount of science in college but never in this area. I'll admit it was a bit slow at the start. But once you get to the second half it all falls into place. When he starts to discuss different composts, you understand what is in them, what purpose they serve, because he's already given you the background.
   
   Cons not for everyone.

5 comments about Language, Proof and Logic.

1. I used this book in a distance learning course, so my experience was halfway between classroom and self-learning. There were moments when the instructor's very helpful remarks made a big difference by placing the immediate subject in a larger context or by giving me a hint for an especially tough proof. But the book itself is so well-paced that I'm convinced one can work one's way through it alone and get most of the benefit. The software is the key, because (if you get the latest edition and buy it new!) you have unlimited access to the Grade Grinder servers. No one need know how many typos or missteps you make in your proofs! Every problem can be solved, sooner or later, if you interact with the automatic grader. The writing style, level of editing, and succinctness of explanations are superb. I found the book plus its software quite a painless way to learn first-order logic.



2. The service was great and the time from purchase to reciept was fantastic. The only reason I did not give this a five (would really be more like a 4 3/4) is that the box was open at both ends with a note that if the box is opened then a return is not possible, which made me a little nervous. It all worked out, though, because the book and CD work great with no returns needed.



3. I would just like to say that this book is the worst text book I've ever had to go through. Not necessarily the writers fault, it's the subject. It has absolutely no purpose and I actually feel dumber after having read/studied it. If you have any choice at all, do not take logic. Stay far far away from it.



4. This book was useless without the original software to be able to register the program.



5. I had to buy this book for an introductory logic course. Good book, easy to follow and I really like the grading system. If you are only interested in book out of curiosity and not buying for a class, consider buying the book alone without the CD.

1 comments about Chasing Science at Sea: Racing Hurricanes, Stalking Sharks, and Living Undersea with Ocean Experts.

1. "Chasing Science" is a relatively short, yet informative look at the world of marine science. Covering oceanography, geology, marine biology and other lesser known sciences, the book provides a feel for the life of a marine scientist. It is well written and very easy to read, but is lacking in depth. It consists mainly of very short stories of what can be expected if you enter the world of marine science. There are a few facts, but do not expect great detail.
   
   If you are expecting moderate or heavy science from this book, you will be disappointed. The book, however, works well as an introductory look at the world of marine science and I would highly recommend it to non scientists and to students who may be interested in making marine science a career.

5 comments about Laboratory Manual in Physical Geology (8th Edition).

1. I inherited this lab manual when I started teaching physical geology this semester, and I told my students to return it to the bookstore. It contains factual errors (such as referring to hornblende and other non-metallic minerals as metallic, which they are not - metallic minerals are opaque in thin section), and the pedagogy is highly questionable. In the rock and mineral sections, it relies too heavily on photographs. Students already have a tendency to want to simply match minerals and rocks to pictures, which doesn't work, and this book encourages this. The book is too much talk and not enough action. Students in a lab should be guided to work with objects, not to simply answer questions out of a book. There is too much explanation provided, with little left for students to figure out on their own. Labs should be presented to students as mysteries to be solved, and this book takes all the mystery out of everything.



2. I was concerned because this book was used & included a CD. It was in very good shape and the CD was unopened. Thank you!



3. i ordered the book less than two weeks before school started. and it arrived with plenty of time for me to begin paging through it. it is in excellent condition, unused and very modestly priced.



4. The book was in great condition, but for the fact that it's missing the page with cutout tools towards the back (an important page to be missing).



5. I bought this book for my Geol 110 class at the University of Maryland in College Park. It's completely unlike every other lab manual I've used in college. It does not directly relate to the lab project, its more like a textbook or information packet to prepare you for the concepts you'll cover in lab. It has glossy pages instead of the usual paper so I'm discouraged from writing notes and lab findings in it. I feel like we probably could have gotten this information out of our normal textbook rather than buying a separate lab manual.

5 comments about Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas.

1. The authors of this guide did almost everything right.
   
   It's just the right size; at 9 X 6, it's large enough to be legible and small enough to be easy to handle. It's spiral bound, so it lies flat for easy viewing. The paper is heavy with a semi-glossy finish, so it should resist dew fairly well and won't produce reflections from a flashlight.
   
   Most importantly, the charts are extremely well designed and clear. They are arranged in an order that makes a lot of sense, and it's easy to locate the charts of sections of the sky that are adjacent to the one you're looking at. There is a lot of detail, but not so much that the charts are just masses of dots. The color coding and labeling is very clear and completely consistent throughout the book. Finally, the three index sections-- one general index, one index to Caldwell Catalog objects, and one index to Messier Catalog objects-- are extremely easy to use.
   
   The one thing I worry about a little is heavy dew situations. The paper seems very durable, but it's not coated. I bought a piece of clear Lucite the size of the opened book to shield it from the heavier moisture.
   
   If I had to choose just one sky guide for regular use, this would be the one. I'm very happy I bought it, and I'd do it again.



2. If you are new to astronomy and maybe have a pair of binoculars or a low-powered telescope, or even just your eyes, and want to learn the constellations, then your best bet is really to download Stellarium and get yourself a handheld planisphere for carrying around. You will have enough on your plate to start learning the constellations and some of the nearer objects. As your hobby grows and time goes by you will probably notice that against the background (and sometimes foreground) of the stars of the constellations you are looking at are other stars that look interesting but you don't know much about them. This is where a sky atlas comes in and it is an essential if you want to move beyond learning the constellations.
   
   This isn't the place to plug another book but I feel one should get a mention quickly (in return I will plug this book there). "The Stars: A New Way to See Them" by H. A. Rey really does take constellation exploration to a whole new level and then some more. I thought that a planisphere would be more than enough but that book by Rey, although it looks like a cartoon book for kids, is the kind of material that Hubble would probably open beside him for warm up. If you are looking for the next step after the constellations then that is the book you want first... and then a proper sky atlas. Both books compliment each other a lot. Rey teaches you constellation navigation. The atlas gives you the details.
   
   So if you are looking for a sky atlas then the probability is that you have a scope (eyes are not enough to see the magnification detail beyond 1 to 4, such as 5, 6, 7 + that these maps offer) have some degree of experience with the constellations and want to learn more about everything else you are seeing through your scope. You have qualified yourself in need of a sky atlas. The next question is not if you need a sky atlas or not (you do) but what type of sky atlas is for you and ultimately this depends on the power of your scope and what you want to do. Now here I find myself plugging another book but I think it safe to say I can return the favor when I review that product and in the end a dedicated astronomer is going to own all of these. The Sky Atlas 2000.0, 2nd Deluxe Unlaminated Version by Wil Tirion is twice the price of this and is much bigger and more detailed. There is a laminated version that is more expensive yet again put perfect for lots of outdoor use. Anyway the point is that this maybe the sky atlas that you want especially if you have a bigger scope. At the same time many astronomers just like to sit outside with a medium sized spiral-bound book and explore the stars with their low to mid range scope. If this is you then this is probably the book you want and it is a very nice star map indeed.
   
   First of all it is a spiral-bound star atlas. You can lay it flat on the table beside you. Not a lot of star maps can claim that. However it is not so much of a pocket book but rather a thin but regular sized book. Don't expect this to fit in your jacket pocket. You will be carrying it like a regular book but it's thin, very thin. The design, weight and size are very strong points that this book has to offer. In fact many large scope owners may get this book for its ease of portability and skinniness.
   
   These are black stars on a white background that many astronomers recommend as better to look at under red light (and you will need a red light with this book to make full use of it). Other objects are identified by greens, blues, reds and yellows. The index tells you what these are. The layout is medium difficultly to navigate (it isn't easy and you will spend time on it, but that is the nature of this field and is not the fault of the book) and like a good map you can follow where you need to go and with more experiences get faster doing it.
   
   You can't really fault this map in terms of what it brings to your night gazing diversion. It truly opens up the skies to you in a way that you can hardly predict if you have never owned a star atlas before. The index is comprehensive, there is a constellation chart divided into pages for easy reference and there are several ways to navigate the stars from coordinates to star hopping by shape and dispersal to a combination of all the above. The constellation borders are present as well as grids. If there is any star map you should get then really this could be that one.
   
   I say `could be' because I have some reserves. A larger star map maybe what you really wanted instead. Sometimes the detail in this map overwhelms its size. Working on the big dipper is nice because the number of stars can be handled, however turn to Vega and Cygnus which is on the Milky Way and the stars amounts jump by a factor of 10. Suddenly you go from shapes you can easily remember to pages where there are almost more black dots than white spaces. It actually looks like a blow down instead of a blow up. The overkill of stars is challenging and quite simply a bigger map would help make more sense of what you are seeing. Yet again it just requires more work on your part to figure them out. It is not impossible, but things get cramped.
   
   Another issue is that not all the constellations will fit on the one page. Draco for example spans a few pages and so requires page flipping and the way the book is made doesn't mean that the next page follows on directly from the last although there are arrows indicating which page to turn if you go in that direction. While these do work sometimes you will have to go back and forth to the index to complete some constellations. There are no reduced maps for the larger constellations. So be prepared for some constellations to span more than one page.
   
   Star visibility/illumination takes some getting used to. H. A. Rey's book, although cartoons, prepares you for illumination issues much better. You may see a sector you want to examine, count 4 to 5 visible stars among 10 possible ones and yet only see 2 (again depending on visibility and quality of scope) or maybe much more than you expected.
   
   Sometimes the dot size between what you can see and won't see is so close that you won't know until you look. From time to time this simply throws you off... sometimes a way off to the point that you don't even know if you are looking at the right sector or not. What does this mean? Is the sky atlas bad? No, far from it, this book is clearly a cut above what most pocket sky maps offer, you just might not be prepared to put the work in that this book demands of you. Casual star gazing is one thing. Using an atlas can quickly turn this leisurely pursuit into work.
   
   Many readers come away only having looked at two or three sectors in the space of an hour. The good news is the sky is not going anywhere. The bad news is that we only live so long. I think if you are willing to move at a slow pace then you can enjoy this atlas adventure a lot more.
   
   The IAU website uses a very similar set of maps that you can look through to see if it is a map design you would like to work with but the maps in this book are of much better quality. Still you get the overall idea. So about this book, what is the verdict? This is a 5 star experience regardless of quirks. We are talking about condensing into 80 charts, over 30,000 stars and 1500 deep sky objects. Sometimes you win them and sometimes you loose them. You can debate whether this is a problem of the book or a problem of viewing conditions/equipment but you can't debate that there isn't much competition out there for something this size and price and that is where it wins, hands down. It's an economy star atlas with lots of perks and a super design but is no replacement for a full star atlas. Still if you are a binocular user and looking to experience more then get this at all costs. Your astronomy will improve tenfold due to it.
   
   Pros:
   - So much in so little space
   - Spiral-bound and designed to lay flat
   - Low cost
   - Guaranteed to improve your hobby tenfold
   - Black stars on white
   
   Cons:
   - Some charts get overwhelming because of their content
   - A basic moon map wouldn't have been too much to ask for
   - You will work hard even on the easier sectors
   - Some constellations span more than one page



3. This is a good field guide at the telescope. I like the layout and the information contained within it. Spiral bound is a plus, allowing you to lay it flat and not loose pages after a few weeks. However, I know it's a pocket book but its not! It's a little to big to be a pocket book and to small for easy identification of stellar targets. The size is just wrong! Bigger and it would be awesome, smaller and it would be very handy, as it is I use an old 1970s Patrick Moore book that is pocket size.



4. I purchased this book based on all the positive reviews. I thought it would be good for a beginner stargazer like me. This book is very confusing. Page after page of dots connected. I'm not sure where to look in the sky, what the constellations are, when to look. Help!! Maybe when I get better at finding constellations I will appreciate this book more, but in the meantime it has me puzzled.



5. I wasn't sure what this atlas would be like. I mean, how many stars could you pack into a "pocket atlas". The answer - a lot. This atlas, in fact, does a very good job at putting most of the important stars and deep sky objects found in the 2000 sky atlas. The thing that impressed me the most, however, was the layout and organization of the book. After struggling for years with trying to find the right page or chart to see a particular portion of the sky, this atlas makes that job easy. It's opened up an whole world of casual sky browsing. Of all the atlases and guides I own (about 10), I like this the most.

5 comments about National Geographic Dinosaurs.

1. I bought this for my grandchildren for Christmas and they loved looking through it. Beautiful pic's and fun to read together.



2. We bought this for my five year old nephew who LOVES dinosaurs. He can read pretty well on his own and has enjoyed flipping through this book, reading and looking at the pictures. My husband also thought this book was awesome and wished he had had more time before Christmas to read this book before wrapping it up for our nephew!



3. See all my reviews of dinosaur books.
   
   "National Geographic Dinosaurs" is aimed perfectly at the new student (aged 8-12). It's illustrations are vivid and the information is well-pitched. The only problem is this book was originally published in 1999 so feathers don't appear on dinosaurs like Therizinosaurus or the dromeosaurs. This edition was reprinted in 2006, and unfortunately there are still no feathers.
   
   
   At almost 200 pages in length, there are thicker books. However, with 120 pages dedicated to dinosaur profiles, there are enough dinosaurs to satisfy the new student.
   
   Typically, there are a series of chapters that provide a context, followed by the dinosaur profiles. "Nat Geo Dinosaurs" contextual chapters include 'What is a Dinosaur?'; 'The Age of the Dinosaurs' - info on the Mesezoic era and other creatures - marine and flying; 'Dinosaur Sites'- key fossil sites; 'Discovering Dinosaurs'; 'Reconstructing Dinosaurs'; 'Dinosaur biology and behaviour'; 'How they Lived' - maternal instincts, hunting and fighting, arms and armor, diet, size and weight, movement; 'Classification' with flowcharts. Overall, these chapters hold-up reasonably well with other similar books, especially the classification pages. After the profiles there are chapters on extinction and dinosaur films.
   
   The book then goes into genus profiles (usually of one page per dinosaur, sometimes two) of the bird-hipped dinosaurs for 50 pages then the lizard-hipped dinosaurs for another 60 pages. Each of these pages contains a Fact File with a grid showing the size of the dinosaur against a 6 foot man. Included in the Fact File is: Genus; Classification; Length; Weight; (When it) Lived; and where it was found (with a world map). Also included is a colour illustration of the dinosaur in a profile pose. The information is generally 3 to 4 paragraphs long and is very basic science. Normally there is information on distinguishing features and some comparison with cousins. Unfortunately, single dinosaurs are not covered in detail; it is only the genus - so if you are looking on the Tyrannosaurus page, you wont find anything on each of the tyrannosaurs (like Albertosaurus or Tarbosaurus). What you get is pretty much T.rex disguised as a generalised tyrannosaur.
   
   Where I really think the book falls down is in it's interpretations of dinosaur behaviour and adaptations. There is quite a lot of information presented as fact when it is pure speculation. Also, there isn't any balance in arguments. For example, the profile on Carnotaurus states when mentioning its short snout 'that it could have got twisted and bent, particularly in struggles with large animals' suggsting that 'Cartnotaurus did not often attack animals of the same size or larger than itself, as its skull could not withstand such forces'. This is only providing one side of the argument (and the weaker side at that). There is currently strong debate about the diet of Carnotaurus due to the argument of how strong its jaws actually were, and whether it hunted in packs. I prefer information that is more balanced like the more accurate "The Kingfisher Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia" by David Burnie. The information in "Nat Geo Dinosaur", however, is way more realistic than Gee and Rays "A Field Guide to Dinosaurs", but not as adequate as Parker's "Dinosaurus" which has individual species profiled.
   
   Overall, I do "The Kingfisher Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia" by David Burnie over this book due to its superior information, and perhaps "A Field Guide to Dinosaurs" by Gee as the illustrations are more up to date.



4. I bought this book for my son, and he LOVES it. It has so much information and great pictures it keeps him busy for hours!



5. I bought this book for my 5 year old son. He is a die hard dinosaur fan. He loves it. The pictures in it are magnificent! The information is in laymens terms. You don't have to be a scientist to understand the content. There are tons of dinosaur pictures. Definately one of my sons favorite dino books!

5 comments about Biodiesel Basics and Beyond: A Comprehensive Guide to Production and Use for the Home and Farm.

1. This book was purchased to get a better understanding of the biodiesel production process and industry. It also goes into great detail in how to build your own quality biodiesel plant. The author also dispells the fact from fiction involving quality biodiesel production. It is a good book for the person very interested in building a plant and is wanting to make an educated decision before he builds the plant. Overall, Great Book!



2. This book is great and details exactly how to make and use your own biodisel. It also covers saftey and logistical aspects of creating it which I thought was quite nice. The only reason though that i gave it 4 stars was becuase it is a bit wordy. There is a lot of information in this book and it can be overwhelming but overall it is very good and useful.



3. After researching most of the books available on the market on the subject of BIO-DIESEL I eventually settled for this book.
   It is well-written and covers every aspect of the manufacture of bio-diesel that the smaller-scale individual would look for in a book. The author is well-versed in his subject and is a definate must-have book if you are looking to get into this field.
   Definately worth 5/5 stars from me.



4. This book was very well written and researched. The book is detailed but still very interesting. I felt lead by some suspense. I was thinking, "Given all the hard truths, Can he really make it work for the home scale producer?!?" - and in the end, he does.
   I wish he'd said a little more about using SVO but that's not what this is about.



5. Excellent book.Very comprehensive,a must read for anyone who is either making home brew biodiesel or intends to.

2 comments about Earth: An Introduction to Physical Geology (9th Edition).

1. I have found reading this text to be an awful lot of fun. Does that sound strange? Learning how the physical features and materials of the Earth came to be has always been fascinating to me. Part of it is because of the vast amounts of time involved, but also because how the descriptions of what has been observed connects so well with what we have come to know. Certainly, there is a lot left to explain, but many things are pretty well documented.
   
   While the concept of Continental Drift has been around for many decades, I remember some of the descriptions of Plate Tectonics when I was a kid in the 60s and the hoopla the idea of floating continents caused. Adults debated back and forth what they heard in the news without much real information about the ideas. Here we are four decades further on and a great deal of confirming discoveries have been made.
   
   The authors write with a lively style what could have been a dry as dust textbook. I love the way it is organized, the wonderful illustrations, and the "Students Sometimes Ask" feature. Each chapter is summarized well with the main concepts in bullet points. There are review questions so you see if you have internalized the material enough to formulate a proper answer. A list of key terms is also provided (with the page numbers so you can pop back into the chapter to dig into those words that haven't quite stuck in your brain).
   
   The authors also list web sources for materials they provide on their Prentice Hall website. A particularly nice CD comes with the text that not only presents animated slides of the material for each chapter, but it is also narrated. There is also a chapter quiz for the material presented on the CD. This disk is a very nice feature for our more visually oriented age. Sure, I prefer the text, but I bet I could sell studying the CD to young people quite easily.
   
   The physical geology of the Earth is covered very well in the book's (and CD's) twenty-four chapters. After the introduction we dive into plate tectonics, minerals, igneous rocks weathering & soil, sedimentary rocks, metamorphism and a lot more. And like all science texts, the concept of climate change is presented.
   
   I think general readers like myself can enjoy this book and get a great deal from it.



2. I bought the book for my sis who is in college, so I cant speak for the content of the book, but the service and condition in which it arrived was excellent.

5 comments about Planet Earth: As You've Never Seen It Before.

1. BEAUTIFUL BOOK TO HAVE. NOT ONLY IS IT INFORMATIVE, BUT THE PICTURES ARE TRULY A PIECE OF ARTWORK.



2. I have not had the chance yet to review this product. I'd thought I'd purchased the dvd set for this same title, so was surprised to receive a book. I decided not to return it, but I know I will enjoy it.



3. if you believe in God or not, i dare you to look at this book and not be in awe of nature. my husband and i enjoy looking at this book any seeing God's wonderous creation. anyone who has children should get this book. they probably won't read every word, but they will learn a lot from the pictures.



4. Not only did I receive this product faster than expected, it was brand new and it was one of the most amazing books I have ever read with some of the most exquisite photography I've ever seen!



5. XXXXX
   
   "The authors of [this] book (producers of the [Planet Earth TV] series) are extremely grateful to the [TV series'] production [the production team consisted of almost 25 people], post-production, and camera teams [the camera team consisted of more than 55 people] for their talent, dedication, and determination. The result of their hard work on this challenging series is not only obvious in the television programmes but in these pages. The stories they unearthed and the trips they organized were the inspiration for much of the text, and many of their unique images [or photographs] illustrate this book."
   
   The above is found in the first paragraph of this book's acknowledgements section. According to this book's cover, it is authored solely by Alastair Fothergill, one of the TV series producers. However, according to this book's title page, there are five more co-authors (all producers of the TV series) making it thus authored by six people altogether.
   
   This book (a "New York Times" bestseller and endorsed by Oprah Winfrey) is supposed to be a "companion" to and a "mirror" of the TV series which "took four years to make [and was] filmed in more than 200 locations worldwide." However, don't get the idea that this book is simply a rehash of the TV series because it definitely is not.
   
   This book consists of two outstanding features:
   
   (1) exquisite, revealing, and unique colour photographs (of which I counted more than 360 captioned ones)
   (2) text (which is quite comprehensive and informative)
   
   To give the potential reader a "feel" for this book, I will give the chapter titles and a brief description. Note that the first chapter should be read first and subsequent chapters can be read in any desired order:
   
   (1) The Whole Earth (Gives a general overview of the entire planet and orientates the reader.)
   (2) Frozen Poles (The ultimate places of extremes, the Artic and the Antarctic.)
   (3) The Great Forests (Between the poles and the equator lie huge tracts of forest. These forests have great effects for both the wildlife living there and for the health of the entire planet.)
   (4) The Great Plains (These plains cover more than a quarter of the planet's land. They support the greatest gatherings of wildlife anywhere on Earth.)
   (5) The Great Sands (Deserts are the hottest, most arid regions of the world. Only the hardiest of plants and animals can survive in these areas, each with a special repertoire of tricks.)
   (6) Mountain Heights (Mountains epitomize wilderness--remote high-altitude places, where only the hardiest of animals survive the cold.)
   (7) The Underworld (Caves are the least known environments on land, are home to some of the strangest animals, and offer unique landscapes and thrilling experiences. **This is my personal favourite chapter.)
   (8) Fresh Water (All life on land is dependent on fresh water. It is the most precious resource on Earth.)
   (9) Rain Forests (Reliable year round sunshine and regular rain downpours result in a rich rain forest with a variety and complexity of life unmatched by any other habitat on Earth.)
   (10) Shallow Seas (These are by far the richest parts of the ocean. It's in these seas that you find the coral reefs, the sea grass beds, the kelp forests, and 90% of the world's commercial fisheries.)
   (11) Open Ocean Depths (The deep and open ocean covers more than 60% of the Earth's surface. It regulates the climate, conditions the atmosphere, and contains some of the least known and most extraordinary animals on Earth.)
   
   Finally, there are some problems with this book. Note that these problems in no way affect its readability but are irritations (at least to me):
   
   (1) In the book's front material is a world map with the names of the continents, oceans, selected seas, and other selected landmarks printed directly on it. (This map is not indicated in the table of contents.) As well, there is a numbered list of almost 55 features whose numbers are printed on the map. This map is untitled and there is no explanation of how it's to be used.
   
   When I first came across this map, I assumed that it was unimportant and forgot about it. It was not until I was well into the book that I discovered accidentally what it is and how it's to be used.
   
   This map is a locator map. The idea is that when you come across a place, feature, etc., in the main narrative, you look it up on the map. For example, if you came across in the main narrative the Himalayas, you then go back to the map to see where these mountains are located.
   
   The numbered list of selected landmarks is used in the same way. For example, the list of landmarks indicates that the Great Barrier Reef is #52. When you come across this reef in the main narrative you are then supposed to find this number on the map to discover the Reef's exact location.
   
   I think this is a good idea since this actually adds another dimension to the book. However, I found another problem. The reader is not told when to refer to the map. So what you end up doing is guessing if a particular place, feature, etc., is on the map. I guessed wrong many times and thus became frustrated.
   
   My question is why is there no instructions on this map of how it`s to be used? As well, in the main narrative, why isn't the reader told when to refer to this map?
   
   (2) The same problem goes for the photographs in the book. The reader is not told when to look at a particular photograph. You either have to read the entire narrative on a page and then look at the photograph (many pages have more than one picture per page) or you have to guess when to look at a photograph when you come across the name of a particular animal, feature, etc., in the main narrative.
   
   (3) Much of the material in the text gives some highly specific detailed information. Why isn't there any credit given as to where this information was obtained?
   
   (4) All the back material (most notably the index) in this book is not indicated in the table of contents.
   
   In conclusion, this is a fascinating book where you truly get to see the planet "as you've never seen it before." I leave you with the final paragraph of the book's Forward (written by (Sir) David Attenborough):
   
   "This remarkable and beautiful book should stand not just as a revelation and celebration of the wonders that our planet retains at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It surely must also be seen as an eloquent rallying call to all of us who care for the Earth's welfare to redouble our efforts to protect those wonders that still survive."
   
   (first published 2006; foreword; locator map; 11 chapters; main narrative 305 pages; index; copyright; names of some people that made the television series possible; acknowledgements; picture credits)
   
   <>
   
   XXXXX

1 comments about Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity.

1. First the more practical stuff. I think the book is very cheap, because I found for a much higher price somewhere else, but also because of its size and print quality (I expected something smaller). And it arrived very fast (I got super-fast shipping for free).
   Now the book. I like that it has a lot of figures. I'm a scientist and usually have to read long, black and white papers, with only formal figures. Adding figures to text books is not cheap, but is makes is much more reader-friendly. Also, it is written in a non-scientific language so that anybody can read it, and it explains all necessary scientific terms. This might be a bit boring for those familiar with terminology, but I think its better that way, because this is NOT a scientific text book, it aims to reach wider audiences. thus, it has ''basic'' chapters on what biodiversity is and why is it threatened. Still, the book is essential for conservationists. It contains many hard data on why biological conservation is not just something we should promote because of aesthetic or recreational purposes but because of live and dead issues such as medical research and disease spreading. I would have liked though more than the seven groups of living organism that were reviewed in this book, for example fungi.
   This book is somehow a mixture of scientific data with general environmental education. Something I will use for my work and also to share with my friends and (future) children.