Inside Figure Skating (Hardcover)

by Alina Sivorinovsky (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: MetroBooks (NY); First Printing edition (November 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586630059
• ISBN-13: 978-1586630058
• Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 9.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,848,517 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Photos, But Not Much Else....., November 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Inside Figure Skating (Hardcover)

Any fan of figure skating photography will certainly enjoy the pictures that grace the pages of this book. Ranging from black and white photos of Tai and Randy at the 1979 Worlds to full-color and almost full-page photos of all the stars of the 1998 Olympic season, this book gets an A+ in the picture department. Fans of figure skating BOOKS, however, will be very disappointed with the rest of the book. Although there are some bright spots in the text (one of which is an excellent review of professional skating from the earlier part of this century to the modern day), most of the book skips between trying to offer a historical perspective and a highly subjective analysis of certain personalities in skating. This latter part is obvious when the author discusses certain skaters -- ones that are obviously disliked in the author's opinion are excessively critiqued (and sometimes even their fans are critiqued for no apparent reason), while other skaters who seem to be favored are only spoken about in a 100% positive light. Some of the captions on the beautiful photos also appear in many places to not be describing the actions and/or events actually going on in the picture. If you are a collector of excellent skating photography and don't mind inconsistent and very subjective writing, buy this book. Otherwise, keep looking for a better, more balanced analysis of this wonderful sport.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The pictures are beautiful, the author is biased, August 3, 2000

By	Colleen (Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside Figure Skating (Hardcover)

The pictures in this book are gloriously rich and beautiful. The cover shot of Michelle Kwan is breathtaking...however, I find it funny how the author uses this lyrical, mesmerizing skater on the cover of this book, and inside uses it's pages to bash her, for some unknown reason. I find this author biased and totally out of the real world in terms of her inferring things about skaters, like how they feel, what they think, etc. This book also contains several factual errors , and mis identified skaters with photos. Very poor detective work on this book. I rate it highly for the pictures. This book would have been a much better picture book, than an informative book. The author's biases and the numerous errors make it a joke as an informative resource. Buy only for the pictures, and then,only on the discount rack.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Subjective and very BIG waste of money!, March 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Inside Figure Skating (Hardcover)

I bought this book because of the beautiful photo of Ms. Kwan on the cover, and I wish I had saved my money. The book is dreadful. Any educated skating fan will be bored beyond belief at the subjective ramblings in its pages. Unless you are interested in an extremely biased book interspersed often with unsubstantiated arguments for and against certain skaters, I would heartily recommend you pass this one by.