Customer Reviews

Handbook of Industrial Drying: 001

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Positives: this is a classic technical reference. If you work in the field you want a copy (at least for $6). If you do not work in the field, you will not be reading this. This edition is out of print (see below) so having it on Kindle seemed like a great find.

Negatives: this Kindle book is so hard to navigate that you have to be motivated to find anything (at least on an IPOD). You can move from page to page or to a given page, but there is no index so there is no way to know what page you want (no, the table of contents does not list page numbers). The table of contents has links to the articles; however, they seem quirky (sometimes they go to the start of an article, sometimes the middle) and to find something, you have to go to the Table of Contents and page through the links to the Foreword to the first edition, the Preface to the second edition, etc. to find what you want. Also, this is volume one -- not both volumes. Many of the most interesting articles are in volume two (a statistician might suggest that half of them should be). If you happen to scroll into volume two without noticing it (easy to do on the small screen) and click on an article you get sent to a pseudo-random page in volume one (the preface to the second edition, the list of contributors, etc.). Then, there are the inherent limitations in reading on a small screen (including footnotes that are separated onto othe pages so you cannot tell which note goes where).

Caveat: I do not have a Kindle, I have the book on my IPOD Touch using the Kindle for IPhone app. It would be much easier to read on a full sized screen and it may be less quirky on an actual Kindle (if anyone tries it, leave a comment to let me know).

Bottom line: when I bought this Kindle book, it was the only way to get an out of print reference: better than nothing and inexpensive. Since then, the Handbook of Industrial Drying, Third Edition has been announced. Although it is pricey ($260 more than this Kindle edition), if you want a handbook on drying, buy the newer edition in hard copy. If you really want to look up a reference (in volume one) and your library does not have the original, you can do it for $6.