I had a look at the Morcombe guide over the weekend (by the way, the price
in Canberra seems to be $40).
At the risk of falling foul of those people who think one shouldn't
criticise anything I have to say I was completely unimpressed by it. The
illustrations are..... well, the phrase 'scratchy little doodles' came to
mind, and they may well be accurate, but they are completely unappealing
aesthetically. But the worst fault of the book is the overcrowded plates;
they make me, at any rate, reach for the aspirin after a minute or so of
use. I can't imagine that there would be many people in our visually
oriented era who would persevere with them.
What surprises me is that publishing is very collaborative enterprise,
especially in the case of something like a field-guide. Steve Parish (the
publishing enterprise, not the individual) is a large organisation, and
produces some very well-designed and informative books?I can't imagine how
they can have decided to break so many of the rules of book-design (amount
of white-space &c) for this one.
John Leonard
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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