Book suffers when concept outpaces the number of pages
934825
I wanted to like this little book (182 pages) but found it disappointing overall. National Geographic took too many subjects (the rocks and minerals of the title, but also fossils, structures and landforms) and crammed them in.  The result: less than half the book is devoted to rocks and minerals (literally so: 44 pages on rocks, 44 pages on minerals, and the rest is all about those fossils and landforms). With one rock or mineral per page, that means lots and lots of them have been omitted from the book. There are venerable field guides that do a better job, from Smithsonian to Simon & Schuster to the National Audubon Society. You don't need National Geographic's entry, especially since it is so far from being comprehensive.

The problem with this book isn't limited to trying to pack too many subjects in too small a space. The rocks, minerals, etc, are not listed in any way that makes sense to me. They're not alphabetical by name or class nor in order by hardness...not in any order, as far as I could tell.

On the other hand, they do some things right. First, they have not only a lovely photograph of each item but also a line drawing which, in many cases, offers a clearer idea of just what you're looking at. Second, devoting a full page to each rock or mineral (or fossil or landform) offers room for a good description with key facts in a highlighted box. The quality of the paper, font and binding are all excellent.

However, if you're seriously interested in rocks and minerals, I recommend sticking with the other guides mentioned above. If you're also interested in landforms, the Smithsonian Guides to Natural America are perfect companions.
1288384
This is a very good book that I enjoyed a lot.  It's partially a novel, partially a kind of "essay-fiction" of which I don't know many antecedents (W.G. Sebald?).  I found many of the ideas stimulating, and I really liked the concept of a novel that coheres from a large number of apparently disparate fragments.  It feels bigger than its size, only 236 pages in my edition, but there's so much material--Simone Weil, Paul Thek, Ulrike Meinhof, the Gavin Brice character, narrator's film production experience--that it's like a mini-epic.  Thing that stops it from getting 5 stars is ending, which just kinda stops.  Last third is the scenario of a movie the author made, her efforts to sell had comprised a significant portion of actual novelistic first two thirds.  I felt the switch to the scenario (i.e., like a screenplay, but written more in a novelistic format) was a let-down; I was kinda hoping it would fly completely off the rails, but it seemed to stop short.
2430296
This book bears a succinct formula for churches to remain vital. It states and elaborates on five specific practices to be pursued. I think the basic concept is right on, and look forward to pursuing the concepts in our church, and in fact in my personal/spiritual life.

However I have not recently encountered a work that could benefit more from being reorganized around a simple outline. Instead, this book's six chapters are divided apparently randomly among five or six subparts labeled 1., 2., etc. and that's it-- no indication of what the subparts are meant to create from a design or argument standpoint. And the purpose of the subdivisions is certainly not clear from the context or content, perhaps because the book is massively repetitive.

Now I understand that repetition is the mother of learning. I also know that it has a limited role on the printed page. I have been studying Thomas Paine of late and as such have pamphlets much on my mind. If the book was reorganized around a simple outline as I suggest, and the repetition removed, I bet it would make a dandy pamphlet.

And what would be wrong with that? Answer: It does not match the way that publishers desire to ply their trade. However, the dinosaurs expired, the publishing emperor has no clothes, and the times, they are a-changin... but that's another essay isn't it?

Again the book has very worthwhile concepts, but i found it a chore to read.
1227145
The premise of the book is an intriguing idea that would have made a good paper but instead forms an overlong book.  A previous reviewer, Mr. Keer, correctly notes the uniformly poor grammar that makes reading less than enjoyable.  The book appears hastily put together perhaps to meet some publishing deadline.  Illustrations would have facilitated understanding, but are little used especially in later chapters.  The thesis of the book is simply that scientists underestimate the effect changing levels of oxygen have had on evolution.  In fact, the author seems to believe that oxygen level is the primary driver of evolutionary change.  He then picks isolated facts to support his hypothesis.  Read the reviews for a summary of his opinion; otherwise, save your money.
2864714
Fantastic subject matter and I love that this topic is approached from a solid biblical perspective, but I often found that this book didn't just get to the point.  It's about 400 pages and I feel like there's often too much redundancy, extra information, and explaining of new age positions that don't add to the understanding of the material.

I'd love to see this same book presenting a solid case in half the amount of paper.  It's so long that I found myself losing the interest to continue reading.
2934462
This is a very interesting concept, and reasonably well written, but the book is at least twice as long as it should be.  A day by day, hour by hour accounting for each possible event is overkill, especially since the book really just focuses in on one key character.  Also, be aware that the book leans pretty heavily into right wing, anti-government politics, if that's not something you're interested in reading, then move along.  It's not my politics at all, but always interested in different viewpoints so doesn't bother me.

One complaint about the writing style - very black and white in many cases, good guys vs. bad guys. He could have done much more in exploring how a situation like this pushes basically good people to do dishonorable things.  Instead, the people who do bad things do REALLY bad things - murder, arson, rape, etc.  Thegood guys, even if the events lead them to do things they normally would not have, are still above reproach. Naive in some ways, or at least playing to an audience.
4729859
The concept is good, but as the size can't be altered, and the contents pagee is not interactive, all the words need to be flicked through to get to the higher levels.
4158145
It's a nice idea. And very beautifully laid out. I'm just not too sure it's enough to be an entire book.
3153794
I downloaded this and realized I had read the paperback only months ago. Inheritance is truly an excellent concept for a novel, but it seemed far too much emphasis was placed on insignificant matters, thus making it drag a bit to me.  If a novel is really interesting, I can read through obscenities - even when they seem gratuitous.  Unfortunately, not only did the story stall and feel arduous to read, the errors made me hesitate.

I will read another novel by author Wymark, and hope his idea for a storyline is great and his editor is sharp!
837977
Interesting idea behind it, but the book is at least twice as long as it needs to be to tell the story within it. Lots of extra material that doesn't really move the story forward or develop characters, etc.
980879
It is unfortunate that a novel of with such tremendous potential winds up being an overly long, often confusing piece of science fiction.  In the case of "Lucifer's Hammer", there are simply too many people and too much story to keep up with.
 The premise is interesting enough...a newly discovered comet on a collision course with Earth.  This in and of itself made me pick up the book initially.  But the sheer number of characters and various subplots doomed this story.  The fact that it is over 600 pages, in small type, doesn't help, either.
 Still, for the hard-core science-fiction fan, "Lucifier's Hammer" may be worth the purchase, simply because of its historical value and significance.
1137788
The book's concept is interesting, and could have resulted in a fascinating book. However, it suffers from two great drawbacks that make the reading experience not very pleasurable.
First of all, the entire text is in dire need of copyediting by a native speaker of English. Almost every sentence in the book shows evidence of a disregard for current English stylistic standards. Just as an example, consider the following beginning of a paragraph: "While we speak of mistakes on public display, consider the clock atop the tower on St. Marien Church..." (meaning, I suppose, something like: "Still on the subject of mistakes on public display, consider the clock atop the tower of St. Marien Church"). The book is literally full of such stylistically awkward formulations. If you're at all sensitive to such issues, the book will cause you considerable discomfort.
Secondly, arrangement and presentation of the examples are in need of editing. Most of the book is arranged according to domains of manthematics (Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Probability and Statistics) but the first chapter is a hodge-podge of "Noteworthy mistakes by famous mathematicians". However, even within the individual chapters, the examples are not arranged in a discernibly heuristic or logical order. I would expect a book about mistakes to provide a rationally constructed discussion on the types of mistakes, the source or cause of the mistakes, and how such mistakes can best be avoided, with examples to suit each part of the discussion. Instead, we are presented with a more or less unordered set of anecdotes about mistakes, sometimes with (not very clear) mathematical explanations.
In short, this is a book with a lot of potential, but in need of a firm editorial hand.
I bought this book to my Kindle, without first looking at the offered preview pages. I will try in future to be more patient.
1747876
I love the title and the idea of the book--a fun, accessible introduction to geography. And, the book accomplishes what it sets out to do, to a large extent. However, as I read it I kept being jarred by errors; not just typos or minor errors, but really big, sloppy mistakes. Here are a few of them (from the 1992 paperback):

 Page 175: Since it takes the moon a little more than a day to orbit the Earth . . .

 Wrong, and in a way that suggests the author really doesn't understand the Earth-Moon system.

 Page 212: . . . the white marble lighthouse stood 440 feet (1234 meters) high . . .

Let's see, are meters longer than feet, or shorter than feet? Do we multiply or divide?

 Page 275:  . . . meteorites strike at tremendous speeds--as much as 90,000 miles per second.

 Hmmm. That's about half the speed of light. I don't think so.

 Page 289: The spiraling winds may reach from 9 to 24 miles (15 to 20 km) up into the atmosphere.

 At least try to keep the numbers consistent.

 Page 312: Pluto may actually belong to another solar system . . .

Then what is it doing orbiting the sun?

Etc., Etc., Etc.

It's a very good idea, but one that deserved a lot more care.

Robert Adler, author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation; and Medical Firsts: From Hippocrates to the Human Genome.
4459420
This book gets off to a great start and presents a great concept that I feel a deep connection to. So, I had high hopes that this might be my favourite book of the year so maybe I started with unfair expectations.

Unfortunately, the two most important aspects of this book (to me, anyway) - how to choose what's essential and how to say no to everything else - were glossed over in a few pages. I can't work out what more focus wasn't paid on these areas.

Instead, lots of dubious personal anecdotes that pad the narrative, sometimes three in a row just to make one point - not very essentialist.

The last 1/3 of the book borrows heavily from the hot topics of the moment - mindfulness, cognitive biases, mastery, flow - these are all relevant but are only presented in very loose association with essentialism.

I would have loves to see more depth around essentialism rather than breadth of subject matter from other areas.
1481240
The concept of this story is brilliant. The first sentence introduces a mystery that drives you to turn pages all story long. The events and backstory--on a macro level--are awesome. One of the most creative concepts I've read and I read a lot.

But the execution of these concepts was sloppy. Characters suddenly swing into rages, standing and yelling at each other. The health and fitness aspects weren't believable (some people run distances too easily and later in the story are winded by less, healing happens too quickly. The social dynamics aren't nuanced--they're pretty stereotyped. And for a long while I wasn't sure I liked the main character.

So it's worth reading, but you'll have to be patient with immature writing. I'm hoping the author got better in the next books.
3917782
Good Book; but cost too much money for the number of pages.
4853467
The book's premise, the temporary exchange of a spherical volume between our world and one from an alternate time line, is quite clever and used to produce an really ingenious thought experiment.  The text delivery drove me nuts, however.  It switches sizes at random intervals, embedded emphasis fonts come out in miniature and much of the text is centered down the middle of the page, instead of left- or full- justified. I'm guessing that the author is probably even more annoyed about this than I am.  I enjoyed the book enough to download # 2, and a cursory view indicates that the second book does not have these problems.

Also, I have checked "graphic violence."  It's nothing you would want to read to a small child without redacting details. However, it's no worse than the typical thriller/mystery.