Encyclopedia of Hurricanes, Typhoons, and Cyclones

Rating:
Summary: Please reprint this book ASAP
Review: As previous reviewers have noted, this book must be reprinted. The errors have been detailed at length by previous reviewers and I won't bore you by repeating them.

Suffice it to say that if it's a 'must have' because a teenager is considering a career in meterology then perhaps it's worth getting this edition. However if you can wait, it's best to wait for the second edition when errata can be corrected.

That last piece of advice goes for nearly every reference book and piece of software.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Idea, A Noble Effort, And A Mediocre Execution
Review: David Longshore's Encyclopedia of Hurricanes, Typhoons and Cyclones is an ambitious undertaking, impressive in its intent and scope. I was excited to pick up a copy for my library, but unfortunately, the more I read the more my excitement mingled with dissapointment. On the positive side, the work is fairly well organized and presented, and does make a handy quick reference guide. Unfortunately, it is also subject to a weakness common to encyclopedias of all types: it contains numerous errors, large and small. Several of the track charts presented for particular notable hurricanes are inaccurate to varying degrees. There are some errors in statistics, dates and the various minutiae associated with individual storm histories. More importantly, there are also places where Longshore's discussions of meteorology and other scientific material related to the subject are in error, or at least subject to serious debate. While most of these faults are minor in the larger context, a few are not, and when taken together they lessen the usefulness of the work. In addition to the errors, Longshore has an unfortunate tendency to engage in turgid prose and hyperbole; extreme adjectives and adverbs fly in great profusion about every storm and every aspect of every disaster. The net affect is the same as over-spicing the soup or adding too much sugar to the tea -- at best, one loses the flavor of the subject; at worst, the product can, at times, become almost indigestible. Personally, I am hoping that Checkmark Books and Mr. Longshore have opportunity to revise this work in the future, eliminating the mistakes, balancing the writing and tightening the reins on purple prose. Such efforts would greatly strengthen the merits of this work. Despite its faults, I would still recommend the Encyclopedia of Hurricanes, Typhoons and Cyclones to anyone with a general interest in the subject. However, for those whose professional interests or responsibilities involve this topic, I would have to recommend that they rely on other materials for their research and reference libraries.

Rating:
Summary: So many facts, that some aren't
Review: I appreciate the wealth of information in Longshore's books, and the many photographs and maps. It is one of the definitive laymen's books on hurricanes, but some of the material lacked a proofread and factcheck. I just received the book a week ago and have only perused some items. Having experienced Hurricane Betsy in New Orleans, I read that section, and found examples of errors. "Betsy's winds lashed neighborhoods in the western quadrant of New Orleans..." Actually it was New Orleans East that got hit the hardest. The author mentions 27000 homes "completely destroyed" in Golden Meadows. I doubt it. The 1998 population of GM was only 2079. He mentions entire beaches washed away in Bay St. Louis,MS. I lived in Bay St. Louis. There are no beaches, and never were. Then, Hurricane Betsy moved inland to ravish Baton Rouge. Not easy since BR is 100 miles to the west. Elsewhere in the book he refers to the "nation" of Hispaniola which is actually an island of two nations (Haiti and the Dominican Republic). He describes the Caribbean Sea as "situated between latitudes 10' and 30'N. Actually the sea lies between 9' and 22'. Finally, spare us the hyperbole and florid language. Every noun does not need to be preceded by an adjective and every verb by an adverb: "...The eradicating brunt of its seaborne fury." Sticking to the facts would give the text more credibility.