Something I've been a little behind on... Book reviews!
The Crossley ID Guide - Raptors
(Princeton Publishing was kind enough to provide a copy for review).
The Skinny:
Price Listed on the Book: $29.95
Authors: Richard Crossley, Jerry Liguori, Brian Sullivan
Pages: 290
Size: 7x10
34 species!
A whole lotta photographs...
This is my second review of the "Crossley" Series. The first is here:
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In my first review, one thing that bugged me a fair bit was the "distracting elements" added to the backgrounds of species accounts. Thankfully, that does not appear to be an issue at all (to my eye) with the raptors. Here's a sample of how it is laid out:
(2 page spread)
I feel like this book succeeds more than the first due to the fact that the scope is smaller, with only 34 species. The "two page spread" shown above is common place throughout the book and works well time after time.. The species accounts (text) are in the second half of the book. This also works well, as it allows for more focus on the strong point in the crossley series (doing his best to make a ton of photos look visually appealing and useful as a learning tool).
It's also a much more managable size than the first book (Eastern Guide) - where I was happy to bring it on a plane and read through it for this review. The first book is so large, it never leaves my appartment - for ANY reason.
Overtime, I've also found that it really is a fun resource for an obsessed birder like myself. When I have a major identification problem - a photographig guide gives REAL examples. Often an illustrated guide is subjective and does not have the highly detailed information I require in extreme ID problems. Yet interestingly, this is not the goal of the book. Let's do my standard breakdown on who should buy the book -
Who should buy it?
Beginner/Casual birders - this is (from what I understand) the demographic that the book is trying to reach. It's trying to change the approach of bird ID from "field mark" based to "impression" based - and I while I have a VERY hard time figuring out if it would be sucessful (as I'm already an impression-based birder) - I do think it'll work... If you want to learn more about raptor ID (and especially hawkwatching) - this may be of great use. Hawkwatching is the most impression-heavy birding there is (in my opinion).
Advanced Birders - For 29.95, I don't care how "good" you think you are - it's worth getting for the photos alone. Mind you B Sullivan and J Liguori have a LOT of good raptor work out there, it really is cheap enough to add another book to your collection.
Kids - for the first time, I actually pictured a birding "field guide" being visually appealing enough to get a child interested in birds. A child who has no prior knowledge or experience with birding.
Biggest Critique:
I honestly can't bring myself to think of any potential improvements about the book specifically. Heck, who really cares if a single photo is misslabeled or there's an incorrect reference in the back..
Yet there is a MAJOR issue that I can't avoid. Heck, it's blocking my thought process right now. I am SICK and TIRED of hearing about how REVOLOUTIONARY the Crossley Guides are... They are NOT that impressive in my opinion.
It's like a girl who's an 8.5/10 - pretty darn attractive - and I DO think these books are really quite good and a lot of fun. But then, you find out she's the biggest dork, grump, annoying, awful, mean, $&^T, $!#*H unpleasant person you've ever met, and her score goes down to 6.5/10. If you haven't heard anything like this from the marketing team - it won't effect your opinion on the book and you'll enjoy it a lot. But seriously, it's like they're attacking Roger Tory Peterson's approach with every chance they get.
And don't get me wrong. The best way to convince people you're great (or your product is great) - is to physically jam it down their throat... And I know most people don't notice or care about an approach like that - but I do...
ANYWAYS
Conclusion - there are a LOT of cool things about this book - including quizzes and effects of lighting etc that I didnt' discuss. It's a great book for your birding collection at $29.95.
