Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)What a beautiful book! This coffee table book on rocks and minerals is absolutely stunning.
The book is divided into 4 sections:
1.Origins, focusing on the evolution of the Earth and the universe, and how and why minerals are formed.
2.Rocks, a species-by-species guide to the major sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks.
3.Minerals, a species-by-species guide to the key minerals (silicates, oxides, sulfates, etc.).
4.Fossils, showing fossils of the major taxonomic groups.
The strength of the book is sections 2 and 3. Almost every page has jaw-dropping photographs of high-quality museum specimens of rocks and minerals (principally from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History), interspersed with great stock photography. On a visual basis, this book leaves its competition in the dust. The accompanying text is interesting as well, particularly in its explanations of how various minerals (and their component elements) are used in modern society. The species-by-species descriptions are interrupted by sidebars on interesting topics (the Taj Mahal, the Hope Diamond, the Petrified Forest, etc.).
To make this book an ideal stand-alone volume on rocks and minerals, some of the space devoted to individual rock, mineral, and fossil descriptions should have been allocated instead to more general topics. Instead of 100 pages on individual silicate minerals, for example, the book could have used more detailed information on rock collecting, mineral properties, and mineral extraction (mining). Still, this comes closer to being an all-in-one guide to rocks and minerals for the layperson than any other book I have come across.
Be aware that you are buying a general information volume on rocks and minerals, not a rock collecting guide. The book's size and information content both work against using this book in the field. To make a comparison with astronomy, this book is more like a collection of photos from the Hubble Space Telescope than a star chart that will show you how to find the constellations.
With that caveat in mind, this book is a source of wonder that you will find yourself returning to time and time again. It will make you aware of how much natural beauty there is in our world, for those who take the time to look.
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A fascinating encyclopedic reference on rocks and gems, including their identification, composition, and their use. The many feature boxes cover topics such as the Malachite room in the Winter Palace and the collection of the Hope Diamond and the superstitions surrounding it.
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