The Collector's Encyclopedia of Shells

by S. Peter Dance

Book Overview

"Evolving a peaceful co-existence between people, societies and cultures. ""The idea of this book came out of an irrepressible urge, which lay dormant in the subconscious, probably since early... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0070152926
• ISBN13: 9780070152922
• Release Date: March 1977
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Weight: 2.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Good, but Could be Better.

First of all, it is a good sized book. 7 1/2" X 10" and 1" thick. You can see it is not a very large book, but then not very small either. But very thick. It is a large field guide, packed with about 2,000 species of mollusks(shells)and 1,500 color photographs. Are there really that many species in this book? Maybe. The book is full! This is an older book though. Originally published in 1974, then again in 1976 and now republished, or reprinted with corrections in 1990-since this is a newer addition it's not that old. To be truthful, the color photos are good, but could be better. The are not as colorful or in other words, "clear in color" as I have seen in other books on shells. This is important when you identify shells. For example, if the description says the shell color is orange, in the photograph is appears more on the tan or brownish side. I think it has a lot to do with the ink or type of paper used in the printing process. I wish the publishers would have done a better job in that. I don't believe the photographs in this book look any way close to the original photographs of the shells taken. I feel that they did just an "ok" job in the printing, but as I said for a field guide, not could, but "should" be better. However, the book is a very good sized field guide. It describes the appearance of each shell quite well. Many descriptions have the accompanying photo with it. The scientific names are given for each shell. Not every shell mentioned has a photograph though. I wish they did. I wonder why? They really should. It's very hard to picture and identify a shell or any animal species without a photograph. I think you can agree with me. The book also describes the location or habitat where each seashell is found, it's growth size, and if it's abundant(frequent)common, uncommon or rare. Edited by Peter Dance-all his books are very good and very informative as usual. You can guess why I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5. It is good, but I can't say very good. It does have a lot of shells though. I do mean "A lot." Thanks for listening everyone. I hope this review helps all you shell collectors out! -Rehana(Chicago, IL)