Gardens of Pompeii

Rating:
Summary: Bad Design and Not Great Quality
Review: I bought 2 of these Getty books on Pompeii (Eroticism and Gardens) and I only wish I could have viewed them first because then I wouldn't have bought them at all. As art books go, the design is really bad - the book itself looks like the design you see in a children's report book - there is no dust jacket, only a shiny "library-book" style hardcover. The printing inside is large, with large spaces between the lines (as if it were printed for a grade-schooler) - perhaps this is done to fill out a not-quite-long-enough text. Many of the pictures are nice, but there are not enough of them (especially considering the price of the book), and very many of the pictures have bad resolution or are so tiny, you have to squint to make them out. It seems as if the pictures are only added to illustrate the text, not the other way around.

I like my art books with big, beautiful illustrations - not mostly text. I trusted Getty to produce a beautiful book on Pompeii - but it is only serviceable at best.