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Australia: A Continent Revealed
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 23, 2016
As most of my Goodreads friends probably know, my oldest daughter married an Aussie, and lives in his Australian hometown (Maryborough, Queensland). My wife and I visited the couple there for four weeks in 2007 (during our summer, but their winter --and despite southern Queensland's "sub-tropical" status, this was their coldest winter in living memory, and some nights and mornings got pretty chilly!). To prepare us for the experience, they gifted us with this book.
This is what's sometimes described as a "coffee-table book," oversized and generously and beautifully illustrated. I've never looked up the origin of the term. But I surmise that it may have come from the size of the volume: it's too tall to fit onto a normal bookshelf with a shelf above it, so most people would probably find it most easily stored on a table; and while its size doesn't make it prohibitively difficult to read in a chair or on a stationary bike, it's a bit more awkward than a normal book would be, and could be handled more easily resting on a table as you read it. And it's certainly handsome enough in its appearance to be suitable for display in an elegant room. I've sometimes heard the term used with a disparaging connotation, implying that the book so designated is all appearance and no substance; and/or that its only worth is in the pictures, not the text. However, that isn't the case here. This is a serious introduction to the geography (human and physical) and natural history of Australia. The text is informative and well-written, and though it takes up less pages than the lavish, full-color photographs do (the size of the book is probably intended to allow scope for showing many of these full-sized), the latter come with detailed captions that are often a paragraph long; they supplement the text wonderfully.
Although the Australian continent technically includes New Zealand, this book, despite the subtitle, deals strictly with the nation of Australia (which is almost the size of the continental U.S.). It opens with a clearly-drawn, easily read and visually appealing double-page map, with a simple text describing the country's three physical regions (Eastern Uplands, Interior Lowlands, and Western Plateau) and giving a few basic facts --names of the states and territories, estimated population size and density, and its distribution. The first chapter is a 17-page (and these are large pages) general description of the country's geology, natural history, aboriginal culture, and the history of European settlement and evolution into the present federated Commonwealth. The succeeding five chapters each look in detail at a particular geographic area, highlighted in red on a roughly two-inches wide map: the northern rim, the eastern coastal region (the part that Barb and I actually visited), the arid interior, the southeastern coast including Tasmania, and the far west. (Together, these comprise the whole country.) Finally, it's furnished with a two-page index.
While the primary readership for this will probably be non-Australians who want to learn something about the country, it could be appropriate for Aussies who want to learn more about their country as well (and was actually published there). It's written for adult readers, but high school and junior high school students with good vocabularies could easily handle the reading level. No information is given in the book itself about Neil Hermes, who authored the text (an editorial team put this together with the illustrations), but he's apparently a professional nonfiction writer who's also the author of several book on Australian wildlife.
Obviously, there's much about the country that a single book (or even many books) can't convey; there's no substitute for being there. But the book really does give a good factual introduction to this amazing land, and provides a vicarious experience of its flavor, its diversity, and its breathtaking beauty. Highly recommended!
This is what's sometimes described as a "coffee-table book," oversized and generously and beautifully illustrated. I've never looked up the origin of the term. But I surmise that it may have come from the size of the volume: it's too tall to fit onto a normal bookshelf with a shelf above it, so most people would probably find it most easily stored on a table; and while its size doesn't make it prohibitively difficult to read in a chair or on a stationary bike, it's a bit more awkward than a normal book would be, and could be handled more easily resting on a table as you read it. And it's certainly handsome enough in its appearance to be suitable for display in an elegant room. I've sometimes heard the term used with a disparaging connotation, implying that the book so designated is all appearance and no substance; and/or that its only worth is in the pictures, not the text. However, that isn't the case here. This is a serious introduction to the geography (human and physical) and natural history of Australia. The text is informative and well-written, and though it takes up less pages than the lavish, full-color photographs do (the size of the book is probably intended to allow scope for showing many of these full-sized), the latter come with detailed captions that are often a paragraph long; they supplement the text wonderfully.
Although the Australian continent technically includes New Zealand, this book, despite the subtitle, deals strictly with the nation of Australia (which is almost the size of the continental U.S.). It opens with a clearly-drawn, easily read and visually appealing double-page map, with a simple text describing the country's three physical regions (Eastern Uplands, Interior Lowlands, and Western Plateau) and giving a few basic facts --names of the states and territories, estimated population size and density, and its distribution. The first chapter is a 17-page (and these are large pages) general description of the country's geology, natural history, aboriginal culture, and the history of European settlement and evolution into the present federated Commonwealth. The succeeding five chapters each look in detail at a particular geographic area, highlighted in red on a roughly two-inches wide map: the northern rim, the eastern coastal region (the part that Barb and I actually visited), the arid interior, the southeastern coast including Tasmania, and the far west. (Together, these comprise the whole country.) Finally, it's furnished with a two-page index.
While the primary readership for this will probably be non-Australians who want to learn something about the country, it could be appropriate for Aussies who want to learn more about their country as well (and was actually published there). It's written for adult readers, but high school and junior high school students with good vocabularies could easily handle the reading level. No information is given in the book itself about Neil Hermes, who authored the text (an editorial team put this together with the illustrations), but he's apparently a professional nonfiction writer who's also the author of several book on Australian wildlife.
Obviously, there's much about the country that a single book (or even many books) can't convey; there's no substitute for being there. But the book really does give a good factual introduction to this amazing land, and provides a vicarious experience of its flavor, its diversity, and its breathtaking beauty. Highly recommended!
December 10, 2019
Wat een mooi boek van dit prachtige land.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews