Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Often-Tumultuous Saga Of Books And Book-Places In The World: A Review, Dayne Sherman

E-JASL 1999-2009 (Volumes 1-10)

Book review of Battles, Matthew. Library: An Unquiet History. W.W. Norton, New York, NY, 2003. $24.95.

Excerpt:

Library: An Unquiet History dignifies the work of librarians as a profession, something needed more now than ever before, as we encounter this chaotic Communication Age. It tells us why we are here toiling in the library by telling us how we arrived as keepers of books and guardians of democracy.

This State Has "Boundries" (Sic), But No Focus: A Review, Richard Defoe

E-JASL 1999-2009 (Volumes 1-10)

Review of Louisiana Biographical Dictionary: People of all Times and Places Who Have Been Important to the History and Life of the State. Somerset Publishers, St. Clair Shores, MI, 1999. $87.50.

Review:

Somerset Publishers produce biographical dictionaries of some of these United States. The Louisiana volume does not instill confidence in their efforts. Sloppy printing, sloppy proof-reading and sloppy and turgid writing are just the beginning of the problems with this book – the title of this review features one of their glaring spelling errors from the foreword.

But the major problem with this book seems to be focus, …

Flyer By Night: A Cautionary Review, Richard Defoe

E-JASL 1999-2009 (Volumes 1-10)

Review of Bio-rhythms, Biological Clocks and Periodicity: Index of New Information with Authors & Subjects by Preston G. Parke. ABBE Publishers Association of Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. 1996. $49.50.

The flyer piqued our interest: a hot topic that students were trying to find pre-packaged for their reports and essays. One hundred and sixty pages full of the most recent articles on bio-rhythms -- with index. A reasonable price, for this day, was demanded. The book was ordered, cataloged, prepped and placed on the new books for reference truck. Twenty minutes later, the book had been withdrawn and a note made …