World’s Greatest Wonders - A Review

 

World’s Greatest
Wonders

Chartwell Books has put together a great collection of pictures and text walking the reader through the “World’s Greatest Wonders” - both man-made and natural. 

The book starts out by examining 18 man-made sites - ancient (Stonehenge) and modern (Sydney Opera House). None of these were unfamiliar to me, but the images and the accompanying text provided more detail than I had previously had known. This is followed by 12 gorgeous sets of images of natural landmarks. I was surprised that some of these were new to me (e.g. Iguazu Falls and Anjajavy). 

Together, the 30 sites chosen provided an education and sparked a wish (alas, only a wish) that I could visit the sites. A paper copy of the book would make a good coffee table book. An electronic copy can be expanded, allowing a closer view of places and things only seen in broad swaths of images in the past. This is easily a five-star review.   

______________ This review is based on a free electronic copy provided by the publisher for the purpose of creating this review.  The opinions expressed are my own.

The Infographic Bible - A Review

The Infographic Bible

by

Karen Sawrey

The Infographic Bible is a colorful book full of useful details. However, the type face is so small and the font color so light, it is often hard to read and understand the information included by the author. The book, thus, becomes more of a coffee table book, than a useful reference book.

One must begin by stating that this is not a Bible — but a set of images designed to convey information to the reader. The images do stand out and are vivid. They draw the reader’s attention immediately to the pictures. But the font chosen to accompany the illustrations is so small as to make them difficult to read. Contributing to this is that the colors chosen for many of the fonts do not contrast well with the page background. Finally, it must be noted that though the images are designed to convey information, there is no data to support the claims made by the illustrations. “Sources” are given, but it appears that the data gleaned from the sources comes in a variety of ways. Sometimes it is directly inferred from the sources, but at other times it is only indirectly drawn from the sources referenced.

Several improvements would make this book more useful.

1. Be sure that all data is thoroughly referenced using standard footnotes 
2. Reduce the size of the graphics and increase the size of the fonts 
3. Provide the book in an electronic format that would allow images and fonts to be enlarged 
4. Allow a book designer to review the finished book to ensure that information is clear and readable — this includes both the sizes and the colors used throughout the book. 

I had looked forward to reviewing this book, but was disappointed with the final product.

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This review is based on a free copy provided by the publisher for the purpose of creating this review. The opinions expressed are my own.