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- Much, much more than a book of FACTS.
- Winner of prestigious Klinger Book Award
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At the Desert's Green Edge: An Ethnobotany of the Gila River Pima
Amadeo M. Rea
Manufacturer: University of Arizona Press
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ASIN: 0816515409 |
Customer Reviews:
Much, much more than a book of FACTS........1999-07-21
Certainly this book is "about" the following: Pima Indians Ethnobotany Gila River Valley (N.M. and Ar Native American Anthropology Nature / Field Guide Books Science Botany Native American Studies - Tribes Plants...
...but it is really a glowing absorption of the essences of life as only those who still live in what's left of this earth's eden can truly and fully know. Rea perhaps brings this through to the reader better than any writer, poet, or other artist in history. This book is not just a "gem" or some other catchy adjective from the "How to Review a Book" manual--it is a true treasure, a legacy more valuable to the priceless "things" of life than all the dusty gold from King Tut's tomb. It is a ocean of pearls cast before the multitudes, hoping, perhaps, to snare a fertile, vigorous mind or two... You will laugh deeply. You will cry unrepentantly. You will revel in the invigorating joy of discovery. No matter who you are or how you make your way in this world, the spirit of this book will touch that secret something in you that you thought you would never find anywhere else...
Winner of prestigious Klinger Book Award.......1998-10-31
I just want to let people know that At the Desert's Green Edge was awarded the Klinger Book Award by the Society for Economic Botany. This is according to an announcement in the members' publication for the San Diego Natural History Museum, where Dr. Rea is a research associate.
Book Description
This new title is dedicated to the sheer lunacy of California and its citizens, covering the biggest, the best, the wackiest and weirdest of the state's people and places.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent California Travel Guide.......2006-03-08
Eccentric California is a wonderful travel guide for those visiting California! It is full of great leads and information about the quirky and fun places and events California has to offer! I highly recommend bringing this book with you on your next visit to the Golden State!
Funny and True.......2006-02-15
As a native Californian (who ran away from San Francisco because it was getting too mainstream and conservative) I am very familiar with many of the things reviewed in this book, most particularly in the Central and Northern coastal areas. But, much to my surprize, areas that I thought I knew well house many previously unknown and interesting places to visit and things to do. Cool!
Definitely worth dropping a few bucks for if you are planning on discovering what makes Californians tick. (Just remember, Northern and Southern California really are two different states, lol.)
Eccentric California.......2005-12-20
The author Jan Friedman has touched base on so many eccentric places, things and events in California.
Her detailed explanation of each place makes me want to pack my bags and go see them all.
Coming from Phoenix, AZ I have not seen or been too much in the Golden State, but with 2006 around the corner and a great book. My News Year's resolution is to travel and get coffee stains all over this fantastic read.
And to all you want to be PRICE IS RIGHT CONTESTANTS.
This author has hit the nail on it's head.
Not only did I stay at the Farmer's Daughter Hotel and was prepped with the best insiders information. I also started milking the cows about 4:00am just to become the:
Showcase Showdown Winner.
Yes, I said WINNER!!!!!!
I'm very excited to see more with this book in 2006.
Thanks for the great information on California.
This is a book about the State your mother warned you about. Wacked Out California!.......2005-11-29
Finding this book was my own personal Fordors to Calfornia. Ok, maybe I am a bit eccentric myself. A collection the my kind of wacky shops, restaurants, events, museums, spas, and internet address's for many of the places and events that are in the book, so while my reading it, I'm also checking out all these cool sites, and I'm an instant gratificationist, so I can't leave an interesting site for later.
For visitors from outside of California, they might expect earth quake alerts, but instead the book is full of Quirk Alerts, special mini sections of extra special info. The book sections are almost as much fun as the places in the book, like "Room with a Skew", "Just Plain Weird", "Quirkyvilles", "Odd Shopping" "Quirky Cuisine" "and "Peculiar Pursuits".
Living in the San Francisco Bay area I am creating a to-do list of the all the stuff I have been I been missing within an hour of my house. This book pays special attention to food, with is my favorite subject, some of the restaurants that sound like they are worth a taste are Big Bubba's Bad BBQ, Aero Dogs, home of the Famous Flying Wiener (inside of an grounded airplane), the Squeeze In, a 10 foot wide restaurant, and Lou's Living Donut Museum. Plus a clothing optional restaurant at Harbin Springs ( I just hope the cooks are clothed.)
Eccenric California - Don't believe the misconceptions........2005-10-31
There are many misconceptions about the Golden State and one of them is that California is an eccentric place. And, in truth, eccentricity there is not the same as eccentricity in, say Utah.
California is known for it's cutting edge social conventions, and admittedly, many first originated in the Golden State (from Frisbees and motels to skateboards and drive in churches).
Clearly, author Jan Friedman has her work cut out for her, but she seems up to the challenge, discussing festivals and events, peculiar pursuits, museums and collections, "quirkyvilles" (towns with a twist), offbeat tours, unusual cuisine , kitschy attractions, and anything and everything else that is different to say the least.
Average customer rating:
- Our Man in San Fran
- A Truer Emperor than Most
- Rush of Dreamers
- HAIL ERIS! ALL HAIL DISCORDIA!
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A Rush of Dreamers : Being the Remarkable Story of Joshua Norton Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico
Cech
Manufacturer: Marlowe & Company
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Norton I, Emperor of the United States
ASIN: 1569247757 |
Customer Reviews:
Our Man in San Fran.......2005-03-19
While Joshua Norton, aka Emperor Norton I is an incredible character, not just in San Francisco, California or Gold Rush lore, but in Americana, this book is only margainally about him. It seems actually that the author saw what remarkable qualities Norton represented as a story, but had to build around him another story.
This other story is of a young man's journey west, from Boston at the height of the rush to California.
He travels by boat, south past the Cape of Good Hope and through the Golden Gate. Then from a burgeoning San Francisco towards Sacramento and the Sierra Nevadas and Sutter's Fort, where anyone with a prayer and some tools seems to have come seeking the proverbial pot of gold and a life of luxury and joy.
Through this journey he meets other wild and interesting chracters, interspercing his relationship with Joshua Norton throughout. Eventually he, Norton and others we've met on the way venture for gold and find adventure, life lessons and violence.
All of this culminates as a backstory for who, what, why and how Joshua Norton, a South Africa of English and Jewish descent, became Emperor Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.
In truth that build up is interesting, engaging and vibrant. But perhaps a tact regarding this not as a historical and fictional biography, but as a historical fiction of San Francisco and environs as of the Gold Rush era would have been better. Because it is not just "the Remarkable Story of Joshua Norton Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico." It is other things and about other people.
But for San Fran lovers, natives or transpants, Gold Rush enthusiasts, eccentric character fans, or Westward Ho! affecianatos this is a good book. It paces along well, and retains a youthful attitude toward a rough time and seemingly barbaric place, where people with kind hearts, rascals, rogues, inventors, eccentrics and lost souls converged to create the most beautiful of American cities, one which I in all bias call home, and one which it may be said cherished and enjoyed (even to this day) the likes of Joshua Norton, aka Emperor Norton I.
A Truer Emperor than Most.......2003-10-23
This book is not a biography of Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico. It is instead a work of historical fiction, in which the Emperor is the foremost of a wide range of famous and eccentric characters drawn from real life (from Sam Clemens and William Tecumseh Sherman to Rufus Porter (inventor of the aerial locomotive) and Abe Warner (proprietor of the Cobweb Palace.)) It is also very good, especially for a first novel.
While the characters are presented as larger than life, they are not cartoonish. The character of Joshua Norton is especially painted with depth, or at least as much as such an enigma can be. Sure, most people today would write him off as a penniless bum, madman, con artist, or worse. There was much, much more to him, though. Invariably, those that knew him spoke of his dignity, moral strength, and kindness. If he were simply mad, in a city like San Francisco (then or now) he would hardly have merited a second glance. Yet for over 20 years he was accepted as Emperor. Newspapers printed his edicts, restaurants fed him for free, citizens accepted his currency, heads of state corresponded with him (Lincoln, Victoria, and the Tsar) - and over 10,000 turned out in pouring rain to attend his funeral at the Masonic Cemetery. Norton the First was respected, he was listened to, and his moral example was followed- there are many called "Emperor" that could not claim this much.
In addition, this book presents a colorful and detail filled picture of gold rush times in early California. The author has done his research. I was especially taken by how he got the details of placer mining correct. My only minor criticism would be his knowledge of firearms of the period- there are a few obvious inaccuracies there.
If you are looking for a formal biography, then try _Norton I, Emperor of the United States_ by William Drury. The author also lists it as his primary reference.
Rush of Dreamers.......2000-10-10
This fictionalized account of the life of Emperor Norton fails utterly to convey any sense of the man who is an icon in the San Francisco Bay Area. Reading this artless book is neither enjoyable nor informative.
HAIL ERIS! ALL HAIL DISCORDIA!.......1999-05-17
Some excerpts from an interview with Malaclypse the Younger by THE GREATER METROPOLITAN YORBA LINDA HERALD-NEWS-SUN-TRIBUNE-JOURNAL-DISPATCH-POST AND SAN FRANCISCO DISCORDIAN SOCIETY CABAL BULLETIN AND INTERGALACTIC REPORT & POPE POOP.
GREATER POOP: Are you really serious or what? MAL-2: Sometimes I take humor seriously. Sometimes I take seriousness humorously. Either way it is irrelevant.
GP: Maybe you are just crazy. M2: Indeed! But do not reject these teaching as false because I am crazy. The reason that I am crazy is because they are true.
GP: Is Eris true? M2: Everything is true. GP: Even false things? M2: Even false things are true. GP: How can that be? M2: I don't know man, I didn't do it.
GP: Why do you deal with so many negatives? M2: To dissolve them. GP: Will you develop that point? M2: No.
GP: Is there an essential meaning behind POEE? M2: There is a Zen Story about a student who asked a Master to explain the meaning of Buddhism. The Master's reply was "Three pounds of flax." GP: Is that the answer to my question? M2: No, of course not. That is just illustrative. The answer to your question is FIVE TONS OF FLAX!
Product Description
In searching for her estranged father, the scion of one of Chicago's empire-builders, the author traces his steps from one of being a respected Pasadena businessman to becoming an ever-more outlandish and bizarre recluse walled off from all those who loved and wanted to reach out to him.
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California Characters
Charles Hillinger
Manufacturer: Capra Pr
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0884964434 |
Customer Reviews:
Very Good Account.......2007-06-08
This is probably the best biography of Bat Masterson out there. It is also a good history of 19th Century Kansas is that interests anyone. I learned that alot of western history took place in Kansas so I may want to travel there and check out the sights thanks to this book.
Bat Masterson: The Man and the Legend.......2007-01-10
Mr. Dearment has provided an excellent read. The data is presented in a well thoughtout manner while the writing style is easy to read and comprehend. It seemed like there was less of Bat's later life presented then earlier days but that may be because there was more to present. I tend to read mostly non-fiction, historical books and found this to have been a very worthwhile project to read.
THE REAL MAN . . . . .......2007-01-09
I bought this book in hardcover when it was first published back in 1979, having that same first edition copy on my shelves. Hadn't read the book in quite a few years and with Encore Westerns now re-running the "Bat Masterson" TV series of the late 1950s thought it time to once again to brush up on the 'real' William Barclay Masterson. While the TV series offers great intertainment it also offers very little solid history or biography.
I have all of Mr. DeArment's books so coming to this book was nothing new to me, but the one thing that struck me during last evening's read was the amount of collateral information included in this book; it is not just a straight biography focused on Bat but included much surrounding information, for example, the founding of Fort Dodge with the later Dodge City becoming just Dodge. The rough, tough edge of the frontier men: some fair and square, others just vicious killers. Whether as DeArment states no evidence exists for Bat's killing anyone, many, many other men with whom he daily associated did kill with some killing more than once. And most famous names of those western times on both sides of the law, were personally well known to Bat Masterson, and he lived to tell about them and the times, too.
It's good to see this book still being read by people not only interested in Bat Masterson but also the west in general. No better way to spend a few evenings than going over this book that is now close to a generation old; but as one reviewer here remarked, it is still the standard bearer for contemporary writings on Bat Masterson. Since I am an avid western reader, fiction and non-fiction, I have most of the newer biographies on Earp and Holiday, but for Masterson no newer book has appeared. Best to read this one if Bat Masterson is your man!
Recommended.
Semper Fi.
Um-Umh Good!.......2006-11-23
Mr. DeArment is one of my favorite authors, when writing of the old west as he is in his element! Most any book on the old west by Bob is going to be a winner. My copy won't make resale as it is reference copy for my library as is dog-eared and highlighted from front to back, with my notes all over the pages. I throughly enjoyed this book and came to have more respect for Bat..than Bat did for Doc.
Well Written, Well Researched........2001-02-15
Undoubtedly a standard bearer for all future biographies concerning Bat Masterson. So much credit must go to the author for his literary style, thorough research, and daring, in his portrayal of this man and his times. At the very beginning of this book, Robert K. Dearment states most clearly that "there is no hard evidence that Bat Masterson ever killed anyone". This statement may deter readers who are only interested in reading about the West's man-killers, and law officers who shot up plenty of bad-guys. But this would be a mistake. Bat lived in exciting times. He was corageous, daring, had many adventures, and plenty of controversy. As the author so correctly states: "The story of Bat Masterson requires no sensational embellishment. His was an exciting life..." He was certainly an able lawman, responsible for the capture of many outlaws, and should be credited for achieving this so regularly without the spilling of blood. Yet there were still many occasions when Bat called upon the use of his firearms; whether he was buffalo hunting, fending off Indians, acting in self defence, attempting to carry out a vengeful attack, or in his duty as a law officer. Interestingly, despite the lack of definte notches on his six-gun, Bat was regarded by his contemparies as an excellent shot, and certailnly this reputation struck fear into the hearts of his adversarys. Thanks to the research of this book, the reader understands that in times of crisis he was often admired for his part by his fellows; as in the case of the fascinating account at Adobe Walls, where Bat and just over twenty other men fended off hundreds of Indians. What really sets the story and life of Bat apart, is the association he had with so many other legends of the times. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Ben and Billy Thompson, and Luke Short are among the obvious ones. But there were others whose lives were destined to entwine with Bat's, including Bill Tilghman, Mysterious Dave Mather, Dave Rudabaugh, Clay Allison and Jim Courtright. Bat Masterson was not a saint, nor was he a notorious man-killer. He was brave, loved adventure, enjoyed a joke, extremely loyal to his friends, but above all led an interesting life. Whether Bat Masterson deserves any more recognition than many other law officers is a matter of personal opinion, and to some extent, irrelevent. He certainly contributed.
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Bat Masterson (Outlaws and Lawmen of the Wild West)
Carl R. Green , and
William R. Sanford
Manufacturer: Enslow Publishers
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Binding: Library Binding
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ASIN: 0894903624 |
Book Description
A Bad Place to Die
When Wyatt Earp and his brothers left Dodge City, they left the job of keeping the peace to young Bat Masterson. But a lawman's badge is little more than a target in this rough, wide-open frontier town where, for every citizen who abides by the law, there are two who want to tear it apart. And nearly every stranger who rides in is offered a handsome fee to put a bullet between a lawman's eyes. Teddy Blue's come for a different reason. The Pinkerton agent has built a reputation as a useful man with a gun, having already saved the famous skins of Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok. But keeping Masterson breathing could prove to be the most difficult assignment of all. Because there's nowhere to turn for help in Dodge; it's just Bat and Blue against pretty much the whole damn town. . . with the killers lining up to take their shots.
Book Description
They weren't born in Colorado and only Doc Holliday died in Colorado. However, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp (whose lives were very closely intertwined) spent a considerable portion of their careers in Colorado. Bat and Doc were involved in the Royal Gorge Railroad War in 1978-79. Bat was a peace officer in Trinidad, Colorado. Wyatt and Doc came to Pueblo, Colorado just a few months after the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Doc was arrested in Denver, then the trio traveled their various ways all over Colorado's mining towns including Silverton, Leadville, Gunnison, Trinidad, Pueblo, and Aspen. Doc died November 8, 1887 at Glenwood Springs, but Bat was back in 1892 during the Creede mining boom and continued to hang around as a gunfighter and fight promoter before leaving Colorado for good in 1900.
Book Description
In 1919, on the eve of Prohibition, Bat Masterson, legendary gunfighter and a sports columnist in New York for two decades, is ill and thinking of his youth as a frontier lawman. He is bothered by the legendry that has dogged his footsteps, and on impulse he heads west with his wife, Emma, to revisit his past. Traveling back to Dodge City, through Colorado, and on to Los Angeles, Masterson ponders the legend that he has become and the elusive truth behind the lies. As America shifts into a new era, can one man reclaim his life from dime novelists and make sense of a story whose truths may never be known?
Customer Reviews:
The Last Vacation.......2007-06-15
This novel recreates the life of William "Bat" Barclay Masterson, a crony of Wyatt Earp. Masterson spent years as a sheriff and marshal in the West's most dangerous boom towns and was proud he never killed a man. He later became a journalist, sportswriter, and boxing authority. Dime novels made him a legend in his own lifetime. Richard Wheeler has written many novels, and lives in Montana. The 'Author's Note' says this novel is drawn from reality as much as possible. Bat evolved from an unschooled farm boy into a shrewd, well-read, and sophisticated New York newspaper executive and columnist. His friend Damon Runyon created the character "Sky Masters", a gambler from the West, from the real "Bat" Masterson. This book used the biography of Robert De Arment as the guide. Wheeler used the family biography of Doc Holliday as a source that is different from the dime novel legends.
This novel is set in 1919 where Bat and his wife Emma travel back to the cities in the West where they lived over three decades earlier. Buffalo hides were used to make belts to run machinery. Kansas was one of the first states to prohibit alcohol. In 1919 Dodge City was a wholesome town that censored its past, Masterson was 23 when he was the sheriff. Chapter 25-26 tell of Hollywood filming "On the Outlaw Trail". [In Chapter 34 a telephone rings in a hotel room. Is this an anachronism?] The comments on women suffrage and Prohibition provide humor (Chapter 37). Another anachronism is mentioning "Errol Flynn" who was still in Australia in 1919 (Chapter 43).
One unstated irony is that about 40 years after the end of Prohibition states started to run lotteries. Later they began to license gambling casinos, slot machines, and all that had been banned earlier with that "noble experiment". Most states have passed a "right to carry" law so citizens can travel "heeled". Massage parlors advertise openly in the classified section of local newspapers. Drugs are available if you know where to look. The rich and famous have no problem is obtaining drugs like Oxycontin, etc. Have we returned to the 19th century? The one thing least likely to return is the small and medium sized businesses that were so common over 50 years ago.
Dreadful.......2005-04-20
As usual another Wheeler downer, reflecting the superficial research available from incomprehension of the secondary sources. I. E. Literary theft, without much cerebration about what it signifies, put politely.
Why not read Bob De Arment's Masterson instead and avoid all of the saccharine baloney.
A book for the mentally uncomplciated. To them I highly recommend it. It beats reading labels on cans of beans. But that's about the size of it in this reader's opinion. I confess that I didn't read the entire book, having been endowed with a sense of self preservation.
Old Valentines Are Best.......2004-02-05
"Masterson" is a sweet valentine of a book, not at all a conventional Western, though it starts out with that tone. "Well, hell, I guess it all started this way," says Masterson who is the speaker right to the end.
The old man, plagued by diabetes and a love of alcohol, is about to be greatly inconvenienced by Prohibition. He is getting close to the end, but he hasn't finished what the psychologist Erik Erikson called the seventh stage of life, coming to terms with the past. It's 1919 and he's working as a sports columnist (especially boxing, on which he was an expert) for the New York Morning Telegraph, where the Hollywood columnist is Hedda Hopper. Partly because of her interest, Bat decides to tour his past, literally, taking along Emma, who has become his life-companion through persistence and a sense of humor. No need for a stagecoach -- the railroad will do.
Dodge is shocked by his appearance, a demon from the past they are trying to deny. Another place is in love with the shootist they believe him to be. In Hollywood William Hart initiates Bat and Emma into the world of the silent Western, quickly casting them in an improvised movie that is little more than a child's game of "Let's play guns -- you be the bad guy and I'll..." In a dozen towns Bat goes to the scene of traumatic confrontations and finds them removed, boarded up, sunk into decrepitude. What kind of sense can he make of all this? Last century's news. Comforted by alcohol, Emma, and fairly dependable good meals, he is able to persist but not to sum it all up.
The couple zigzags thorugh the West visiting the personalities left from long ago -- though it wasn't that long, was it? You remember Hedda Hopper, don't you? At that time she was a bigger and more powerful force than Masterson, with only her typewriter to render the ratatatat. Baby Doe is an ascetic broke old woman. Wyatt Earp is a resentful paranoid old man, he and his wife fighting hard to keep up a front. Some are only headstones, and probably not the original ones at that. One newspaper man comes only to attack Masterson as a two-bit crook and killer; another comes with research to reveal that there are no known deaths except the first one, which was clearly self-defense, and though Bat made his living in the shadowy demi-monde of gambling and stage shows, he was never a keeper of whorehouses or a seller of drugs.
What's more important is Masterson's slow realization that A) he actually cares about being seen honestly and B) his best defender and ally has always been the woman he took for granted, Emma. And so, in Denver, a town he never liked, he does the right thing, and comes home ready for Erikson's eighth and final stage: Wisdom.
Fact or Fiction?.......2003-08-18
I really enjoyed this novel.I have read a lot of stuff on the Old West ;both fact[?] and fiction. As for fiction I like Longarm and Trailsman.However part of the fascination is trying to sort out which is which.The author takes a novel approach in trying to do this and produces a very readible and convincing book.The list of books at the end is appreciated;thanks.
Well done.......2002-12-23
Wheeler assumes Masterson's identity and writes a first-person account of a 1919 trip the old lawman, gambler and businessman might have taken out west to make sense of his life and legend.
The author seems to care very much about getting historical details right, which is important to me as I like to learn something about history when I read historical novels.
Masterson was, by 1919, a newspaper columnist living in New York City with his wife Emma. Wheeler has Masterson uneasy about the dichotomy between his legend and his real life and sends him back into the American West to reach some conclusion about how he would like to be remembered.
It's a fact-filled odyssey that takes Masterson to Dodge City, Trinidad, Los Angeles, Leadville and Denver (among other places). Along the way he reminisces about his life in the West, talks to Wyatt Earp, gets a bit part in a William S. Hart movie, discovers the result of a forgotten act of kindness in Denver and formally marries Emma (a rite they had somehow neglected oh those many years).
There's a touching scene when he visites the grave of Doc Holliday and hears that the long-dead dentist's widow has been paying to have flowers put on the grave every week for years. "God bless you, Big Nose Kate," he says to no one.
It's a masterful book, no pun intended, and I'm glad I read it. But it suffers from lack of a plot, which is why I'm giving it just three stars. I won't fault the author for that, however, as the whole premise mitigates against the use of a plot in the meaning that the term is generally accepted to have.
"Masterson" does exactly what historical fiction is supposed to do. It entertains and instructs simultaneously. I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in the reality of the American West but has trouble digesting non-fiction history books.
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The Ham Reporter: A Novel of Bat Masterson in Twentieth-Century New York (Garden City Large Print Books)
Robert J. Randisi
Manufacturer: Doubleday Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0385239912 |
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Bat Masterson
Manufacturer: Whitman Publishing Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 9877762226 |
Product Description
Authorized edition based on the TV series starring Gene Barry.
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Bat Masterson's Last Regular Job
Bill Ballantyne
Manufacturer: Theatre Communications Group
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ASIN: 0887544827 |
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- Limited usefulness
- Use with caution
- a great addition to a web designer's library
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Color & Type for the Screen (Digital Media Design Series)
Veruschka Gotz
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ASIN: 2880463297 |
Customer Reviews:
Limited usefulness.......2005-03-01
I thought the interior of the book was over-designed and aesthetically offensive. It took me a while to learn how to ignore it. The principles and considerations delivered in the book seemed pretty solid, but I felt that the book was starting to get behind the technology curve. A 1998 book on screen display doesn't do justice to what's being successfully done in 2005.
I wouldn't have bought the book if I knew exactly what it would be like, but that's in part because I just don't like the style the book is done in and espouses. Too modern, too small, too smart. . .other people like the style more than I.
Arlan
Use with caution.......2000-03-25
Lots of color, some of it distracting, but useful when it illustrates the effects of different color combinations.
Some of the advice is simplistic to the point of being misleading if followed unthinkingly. For example, on page 62 it states "Even if the text is clearly structured, it may be difficult to read it if the lines are too short. But where there is only a small amount of text, as in picture captions and notes, short lines are perfectly legible". If you read this out of context, you might guess that you can shorten a line of text as much as you like and it will still be legible - but of course this isn't the case. Imagine a 12-character line for text with words like "incomprehensible" or "extra-terrestial" (both 16 characters).
I'm also concerned that the book makes almost no mention of the purpose of the text, even though this has a profound effect on the way it is read and therefore its legibility. The screenshots are nearly from sites with large amounts of graphics and small amounts of text. Different considerations apply to information-rich sites that will be read for their content, for example an FAQ.
I did like the illustrations of the same font in different styles and on different backgrounds. These really help to show how a choice that would look great on paper can look awful on screen.
Buy it for the pictures, but be cautious about how you use it.
a great addition to a web designer's library.......1998-07-17
Excellent! Beautifully designed, clearly written, good solid concepts addressed thoroughly. I am a web designer and although this is more of a beginners book, I refer to it a lot. Buy the book, you won't be sorry!
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