The Seven Hills of Rome: A Geological Tour of the Eternal City
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The Seven Hills of Rome: A Geological Tour of the Eternal City Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
Sadly, a missed opportunity
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This should have been a wonderful book.
Instead it deeply flawed by very bad writing.
The narrative is about as exciting as a glass
of cold spit and the sentence construction
reads as if it came from the pen of a sixth
grader who slept through English class.
On top of an impenetrable writing style the many
photographs are all black and white, even when
colour photographs or art work would have
been better (the line draws are wonderful for
the most part, clearly showing essential
material).
The photographs further suffer
from poor quality/composition. For example
the photo’s on page 6, 8 and 9 showing the
Trevi Fountain at different scales are useless
without a magnifying glass, and a photo
interpreter’s loop would be even better.
Page 57 shows a sink hole that could be
from any part of the world and simply takes
up space to no real effect. Again and again
the photographs either add nothing to the
readers ability to understand the narrative or
indeed take away from the book.
1) page 91, the “church of San Vitate”
according to the legend it’s surrounded
by “debris. . .accumulated since medieval times”
But from the picture it looks like a fast food
restaurant under construction.
2) page 93, a picture of “Monte Testaccio”
which shows a grassy mound with bits of crumbling
masonry and a fence that could be Monte Testaccio
or could be a grassy mound in NJ.
3) p112, caption “you can see evidence of the gradual
slumping movement in the curved trunks of trees.”
No, you can’t, or at least I can’t. It’s a picture of
trees and brush that could be almost anywhere in the world.
IF the reader looks very carefully they may see a tiny road
sign in the background that, with a bit of imagination, might
seem to show the curve of the trees. Or might not.
4) Page 115, a big hole in the ground with an earth mover.
The picture quality is almost good enough to make out the
strata. Almost.
5) Page 128, a riveting picture of what is supposed to be
the “modern travertine quarry, Bagni di Tivoli . . .” Looks
like a broken wall, with rubble and another earth mover that
could have been taken at a construction site in Idaho.
Fortunately I got this from the library. A book worth
adding to your personal library, but not at retail price.
I’m going to wait and buy my copy from the bargain bin at
$5.00 or better yet, $0.99. |
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