Imperialdiscus
07-04-2006, 02:46 PM
Andrew's book arrived in the mail yesterday so I thought I would take a break to peruse it.
For those who don't have it, it's an interesting book. If you are a newbie discus keeper, it's probably an essential book to get, it has a lot of great info all collected in one spot. For 70.00, it's a good buy considering it condenses a lot of material that is scattered over numerous Discus books from the past.
Some complaints though is that Andrew isn't a very good sketch artist. Also the layout when sketches were included was not all that good. The pages didn't flow, and they had to tell you where the picture being discussed in the paragraph was on the page. Really a minor point but to me it was a bit of an annoyance.
A thin book, but he really condenses things to the key points pretty quickly.
Having kept Discus for a very long time, I didn't really get anything new out of it other than some really nit picky, very minutae specific grading methods. Although I could say that justifies the cost. (I tend to impulsively collect things) An interesting story about Singapore wild discus, and a couple of other small points.
I would have liked to have seen a much more comprehensive book, with more volume to it, maybe along the lines of Dieter's Discus Health book for example, with fish room setups, and in depth technical details. However I am sure that book is still out there waiting to be written........
All in all, I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars for sure.
EDIT:
I was surprised at all the ads in the book. Kind of interesting.
For those who don't have it, it's an interesting book. If you are a newbie discus keeper, it's probably an essential book to get, it has a lot of great info all collected in one spot. For 70.00, it's a good buy considering it condenses a lot of material that is scattered over numerous Discus books from the past.
Some complaints though is that Andrew isn't a very good sketch artist. Also the layout when sketches were included was not all that good. The pages didn't flow, and they had to tell you where the picture being discussed in the paragraph was on the page. Really a minor point but to me it was a bit of an annoyance.
A thin book, but he really condenses things to the key points pretty quickly.
Having kept Discus for a very long time, I didn't really get anything new out of it other than some really nit picky, very minutae specific grading methods. Although I could say that justifies the cost. (I tend to impulsively collect things) An interesting story about Singapore wild discus, and a couple of other small points.
I would have liked to have seen a much more comprehensive book, with more volume to it, maybe along the lines of Dieter's Discus Health book for example, with fish room setups, and in depth technical details. However I am sure that book is still out there waiting to be written........
All in all, I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars for sure.
EDIT:
I was surprised at all the ads in the book. Kind of interesting.