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Rating: 
Summary: Good book for the money
Review: This book covers more than just the lumber. It explains how trees grow, how forests are managed, how lumber is cut, and some basic woodworking techniques. Endangered trees are discussed and marked throughout the book. Traditional woodworking woods, plywood, and man-made woods are covered with characteristics, common uses, workability, and finishing tips for each. There are many beautiful pictures and drawings throughout.A few things could be improved. The wood descriptions are arranged by scientific name so a better index is needed to help locate common names. For example "Walnut" and "Black Walnut" are not in the index, but "American Walnut" is. A section of the book shows pictures of each tree species (20 per page) but instead of having the name by each picture there is a "from left to right" list in a small box at the bottom of each page.
Rating:
Summary: Good book for the money
Review: This book covers more than just the lumber. It explains how trees grow, how forests are managed, how lumber is cut, and some basic woodworking techniques. Endangered trees are discussed and marked throughout the book. Traditional woodworking woods, plywood, and man-made woods are covered with characteristics, common uses, workability, and finishing tips for each. There are many beautiful pictures and drawings throughout. A few things could be improved. The wood descriptions are arranged by scientific name so a better index is needed to help locate common names. For example "Walnut" and "Black Walnut" are not in the index, but "American Walnut" is. A section of the book shows pictures of each tree species (20 per page) but instead of having the name by each picture there is a "from left to right" list in a small box at the bottom of each page.
Rating: 
Summary: Ideal starter's book
Review: This seems pretty close to an ideal introduction to the world of wood and woods. After the succes of the British version of this book ("Collins_Good_Wood_Guide") there now are US, French and German versions (and perhaps some more in other languages?). The great thing about the book is the quality of the illustrations which convey a very great deal of information very effectively. I am not entirely sure of the quality of the text, which dips into a very wide range of topics, but owing to the quick-in quick-out style the authors certainly manage to avoid saying anything stupid. My favorite part is the 74 individually photographed wood samples (also including a bit of end-grain and a bit of side-grain, occasionally including the bark) which are faithfully reproduced at an ample size and in glorious color. This 128-page book may not completely satify the wood buff, but it is pretty close to an ideal introduction to woods for anyone starting out doing anything with wood. Great value for money!
Rating:
Summary: Ideal starter's book
Review: This seems pretty close to an ideal introduction to the world of wood and woods. After the succes of the British version of this book ("Collins_Good_Wood_Guide") there now are US, French and German versions (and perhaps some more in other languages?). The great thing about the book is the quality of the illustrations which convey a very great deal of information very effectively. I am not entirely sure of the quality of the text, which dips into a very wide range of topics, but owing to the quick-in quick-out style the authors certainly manage to avoid saying anything stupid. My favorite part is the 74 individually photographed wood samples (also including a bit of end-grain and a bit of side-grain, occasionally including the bark) which are faithfully reproduced at an ample size and in glorious color. This 128-page book may not completely satify the wood buff, but it is pretty close to an ideal introduction to woods for anyone starting out doing anything with wood. Great value for money!
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