10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good what there is of it, March 30, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Lighthouses of the World (Paperback)
I agree with stiffcrust. An ambitious book which doesn't quite live up to its potential. A large number of very surprising omissions, and most text on US lighthouses is copied from F. Ross Holland's books. Hailed as a study of more than 125 of the most significant lighthouses in the world, this book leaves me a little baffled, as the selection process seems quite random and sketchy. The photographs are worth the price of admission alone, but strong as they are, there are oddities...the current photo of the Eddystone is covered in text (not the only picture to get this treatment either), only casual mention of the aethetically deplorable, yet supremely functional helideck on this lighthouse and other British lights. That contraption was the biggest innovation to come down the pipe for rock lights since Whinstanley built the first Eddystone in the 17th Century. It seems also that the background photo is the same as the feature color photo on a few of the lights. Basically this is a coffee table book considering the pictures, but the text is certainly pushing the envelope for the casual lighthouse fan. Personally, there are many lighthouses I would rather see in a book of this scope. At least a second volume should still hold plenty of interest, but it will need a livelier text, a better selection process, and it might be nice if the lighthouse on the cover was discussed within the text (unlike this book). And yet for all that I like the book and I do recoemmend it.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Indispensible for anyone bitten by the lighthouse bug, December 10, 1998
This review is from: Lighthouses of the World (Paperback)
This is the English version of "Phares du Monde" published in France by Edilarge SA, and has been eagerly anticipated. There are some amazing photos which you are not likely to see anywhere else.
It's a wonderful addition to my collection, but I have 2 complaints about the text. One is the emphasis on technical detail versus historic background. There is much content related to candlepower, electrical generators, radio beacons, and such. Personally, I am interested in why and how the lighthouse got built in the first place. So the text is somewhat dry and lantern/equipment oriented, with negligible anecdotal content.
Secondly, the choice of lighthouses seems puzzling to me. There are some famous lighthouses, e.g. in Portugal, Hawaii, the Red Sea, Sri Lanka, India, which I would have expected to find in here. Australia gets 1 lighthouse, Germany, Croatia and USA get 5 each. Go figure, based on the respective coastlines. A fascinating book, but surprising too. I'd like to get this in hardcover format.
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