Beautiful, if repetitious pictures, graced with uninspiring text
597648
I am just a bit disappointed by this book. My daughters love horses and beautiful pictures so I thought this would be a slam dunk but it just was not. The entire book consists of beautiful, soft monochromatic watercolor pictures of a girl and a horse in silhouette. The colors are different for each 2-page spread; they are beautiful orangish-reds, yellows, blues, and purples. I enjoyed the pictures more than my girls. In trying to analyze why they were not captivated, I think perhaps it is because after the first few pages, the pictures are very repetitious. I am not sure, I just know they seemed only mildly interested.

The pictures are more interesting than the text. I found the text uninspiring. I have come to expect a book with beautiful illustrations and few words to have a flowing, almost poetic feel. Unfortunately, not the case here. The words did not flow beautifully off the tongue when read aloud but rather just were... I am not sure I can explain it better that that. I recommend checking this out of the library like we did before purchasing it. Some children may love this wholeheartedly but mine did not. I agree with them, this book just did grip me like I hoped it would.
2006616
This book is, indeed, what its title claims it to be: pictorial.  The pictures are good, so if you want to feast your eyes on the lovely Elizabeth Taylor, buy away.  But if you're craving more textual content on the fascinating life of Liz, look elsewhere.  The text was pretty wooden.....which is amazing, given the excitement of Liz's life.
1181585
I could not quite decide whether to give this book 2 or 3 stars.  I decided on 2, because of my disappointment with the quality of the reproductions--mediocre reproductions of otherwise beautiful paintings.  That is not to say the book is worthless.  It has considerable value as an illustrated overview of this subject; but you will need to look elsewhere to see a truer depiction of the beauty of these paintings.

This book's reproductions are not necessarily worse than those found in many other (most other?) art books.  I'm just bemoaning that this book, like far too many others, does not display paintings in any way close to true color, depth of color, or brilliance, etc.

There must be valid reasons for such low-quality reproductions (e.g., higher quality might translate into too-high book prices); regardless of the reason, though, it is fair to point out the low quality.  Maybe publishers can find a way to do better.
2305296
This is a great little book if you're looking for old pictures of DeKalb. If you're looking for any kind of interesting context for them, however, you're out of luck. Most images have non-sequitur captions, giving random tidbits of general historical datum, rather than anything of historical interest relevant to DeKalb. Worse yet, there are an awful lot of recent pictures of random people, including the author's daughter and grandchild! I expect more from this series than vanity projects to gratify someone's ego. Worth owning for the images alone, but I hate to send a message to the publisher that this kind of pap is acceptable.
1871369
Pretty pictures, but no help in doing it yourself.
2316194
The text is excellent; however, the quality of the photographs is terrible.
2418855
Most (maybe 90%) of the images are just a bunch of magazine cover scans and the whole thing feels really thrown together. There is certainly not 1000 unique images. I caught several identical images repeating pages apart as if they publisher was trying to make the collection of images appear larger and the reader would be too stupid to notice... there is some interesting images in the book and the nostalgia factor but over all I would not have bought this if I had seen it in person at a book stoor before ordering it from Amazon.
4553976
This is a stunning photographic survey of Romanesque architecture, with a text that does not live up to the pictures.  Like the precursor volume in the Taschen series, "The Early Middle Ages", it is chock full of beautiful photographs that show off many aspects of Romanesque architecture.  Anyone with serious interest in this topic should consider buying this book, for the photographs alone.  Unfortunately, for me at least, the text was not as illuminating as the photos.  It may be lack of knowledge on my part that prevented me from profiting from the text to the full, but it seemed to me too focused on the details of particular buildings, and too little on broader trends and patterns.
41516
The pictures in this book are lovely images.  However, there are no data explaining
exposure, composition etc.  The message is more faith base with scriptures:  for which
I find pleasing because of my own faith.  This book and their other publications would
be great in printed form so as to put on a coffee table for anyone interested.  But, if
you're looking for a book giving you insight into how the pictures were taken and the
though behind them, I can't recommend this book. But, if you're interested in a Christian
theme with images that compliment the messages, then this is a first class book.
1698402
The 147 full page black and white photos are pleasant to leaf through. The composure and lighting of each picture is immaculate. However, the bondage itself is mostly decorative rather than functional. I was disappointed by the sloppiness of much of the ropework, especially considering the tradition of elaborate and strict positions that Japanese bondage engenders. This book would make a respectable coffee table conversation starter for those so inclined, but is in no way suitable as a "how to" reference. The pictures depicting rope coiled around the neck could be potentially dangerous - don't try this at home!
3812708
Nice book to put on the coffee table, best look elsewhere
4965082
a lot of the pictures are disappointing and look amateurish  and cheap
277152
If you want a coffee table book, then buy it. The photographs by Hu Chui are stunning, and the reproductions of Chinese scrolls and paintings are excellent.
However, the information about the Forbidden City is at the  breakfast mush level - easy to digest but of little value. The information  is superficial, and often inaccurate. Knowledgeable students of the  Forbidden City will groan, and wince. It perpetuates blunders such as  referring to the East Glory Gate as the East 'Flowery Gate,' and the  Chinese advisor on eunuchs knows little about the subject. The book talks  about emperors as if they all had the same personality and all did the same  things.
Enjoy the pictures, but take the text with milk and sugar.
1534252
good page layout, etc--v. dull NYC photos--should have used NYPL historic collection or Museum of the City of New York
373782
Beautiful photos but it's all similar photos kind of boring after the second page, it's not even a good portfolio
159229
This book has LOTS of nice photos, so if you're interested in this subject it is worth adding to your collection. However, in many places the text is poorly written and edited (even some of the photos are misidentified), and some of the information presented is poorly researched - not what you might expect from a person with a Masters degree and numerous literary credits to his name.  The typo's, occasional shabby grammar, and other inconsistencies are most annoying, so reading it is something like trying to listen to the radio through moderate static. It's not all bad, but this reviewer recommends that you buy it for the photos, not its less-than-impeccable accuracy or other literary "graces".
3373637
First things first: beautiful pictures. Leave this one on your coffee table for guests to peruse though...
However, there is one major problem: the author's incredible penchant for run-on sentences. A seven-line paragraph without any commas, colons, or periods does not generally constitute an acceptable paragraph by anyone's standards... was the editor asleep? You decide....
That said, the information is interesting, albeit hard to read. The author tends to diverge from his topic with astounding frequency, then jumps back to the original topic without reason or warning, let alone a connective thought... or should I say, "connexion"... apparently the letters 'c+t' in the word 'connection' were offensive to the author's eye? I don't quite understand it either...
But it is a lovely book to look at, valuable from the artistic point of view. Buy it if you are interested in the topic, borrow it if you just think Egyptian art is pretty.