Rating: 
Summary: Reading the Earth: Landforms in the Making
Review: Reading the Earth: Landforms in the Making written by Jerome Wyckoff is a richly appointed book with pictures explaining why there are so many different features on the Earth that we tread upon. This book is illustrated with 556 photographs and 75 drawings and has and extensive index of over 6,000 page entries that makes information easy to find.If you are interested in rock formations and tectonic plate activity, volcanoes and mountains, seacoasts and limestone caverns you'll fall in love with the easy prose and well-explained information in this book. There is information on glaciers and deserts, soluble rocks and sculpures by running water. Not to mention, there is extensive information about our changing planet from ancestral earth, inside the earth, crustal plates in motion to regimes of climate, weathering, and gravity movements. This is an excellent book for high school aged children and older who have an interest about the ground we all walk upon. The prose are engaging and fascinatingly captivating and the author explains the workings of all of the Earth's systems. I found that I read and reread this book several times and it is a welcome addition to your natural history self in your home library. This book is well worth the money spent as you'll find yourself referencing it many times. For instance there are references for lateral and terminal moraines, drumlins and fluting, and eskers these are explained well with illustrations so you can see what these parts of a glacier activity look like. This is an excellent book for understanding why the earth is shaped as it is where it is.
Rating:
Summary: Reading the Earth: Landforms in the Making
Review: Reading the Earth: Landforms in the Making written by Jerome Wyckoff is a richly appointed book with pictures explaining why there are so many different features on the Earth that we tread upon. This book is illustrated with 556 photographs and 75 drawings and has and extensive index of over 6,000 page entries that makes information easy to find. If you are interested in rock formations and tectonic plate activity, volcanoes and mountains, seacoasts and limestone caverns you'll fall in love with the easy prose and well-explained information in this book. There is information on glaciers and deserts, soluble rocks and sculpures by running water. Not to mention, there is extensive information about our changing planet from ancestral earth, inside the earth, crustal plates in motion to regimes of climate, weathering, and gravity movements. This is an excellent book for high school aged children and older who have an interest about the ground we all walk upon. The prose are engaging and fascinatingly captivating and the author explains the workings of all of the Earth's systems. I found that I read and reread this book several times and it is a welcome addition to your natural history self in your home library. This book is well worth the money spent as you'll find yourself referencing it many times. For instance there are references for lateral and terminal moraines, drumlins and fluting, and eskers these are explained well with illustrations so you can see what these parts of a glacier activity look like. This is an excellent book for understanding why the earth is shaped as it is where it is.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Fascinating!
Review: This is a fascinating and magnificently illustrated introduction to the landforms of our planet. It is a book for ordinary observers, an informal guide in the field, an armchair companion and a window on `art' in nature. It could also well serve as a textbook for beginning geology and earth science classes. It is far more appealing than the books I remember wading through in my high school days. Jerome Wyckoff comes to this work with impressive credentials. He is the author of `The Story of Geology,' first in its field and a best-seller, as was his `The Sky Observer's Guide.' He helped in the development of the well-known Golden Nature Guides and was managing editor of the award-winning `Harper Encyclopedia of Science.' The book begins by sketching the basic processes and conditions involved in shaping the Earth's crust -- plate movements, climate change, tectonic and igneous activity and erosion. Next, the author looks at the nature of the rocks that make up the crust and their typical forms. Finally, there is further detail about the processes that shape the crust and form landscapes. "Mountains and plains, river valleys and seacoasts, limestone caverns and desert dunes and volcanoes -- such features," Wyckoff writes, "are recognized, often rhapsodized about, but how they are created, undergo natural change, and eventually are obliterated or recycled is understood by few." The book is easy to read and avoids lengthy or dry textbook-like descriptions or analyses. Yet there is an education to be had here simply by looking at the pictures and reading captions. I found it a treat to delve into these pages at random, nearly always finding something new and engaging. Chris Angus in Adirondac Magazine, May 2000
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and magnificently illustrated
Review: This is a fascinating and magnificently illustrated introduction to the landforms of our planet. It is a book for ordinary observers, an informal guide in the field, an armchair companion and a window on 'art' in nature. It could also well serve as a textbook for beginning geology and earth science classes. It is far more appealing than the books I remember wading through in my high school days. Jerome Wyckoff comes to this work with impressive credentials. He is the author of 'The Story of Geology,' first in its field and a best-seller, as was his 'The Sky Observer's Guide.' He helped in the development of the well-known Golden Nature Guides and was managing editor of the award-winning 'Harper Encyclopedia of Science.' The book begins by sketching the basic processes and conditions involved in shaping the Earth's crust -- plate movements, climate change, tectonic and igneous activity and erosion. Next, the author looks at the nature of the rocks that make up the crust and their typical forms. Finally, there is further detail about the processes that shape the crust and form landscapes. "Mountains and plains, river valleys and seacoasts, limestone caverns and desert dunes and volcanoes -- such features," Wyckoff writes, "are recognized, often rhapsodized about, but how they are created, undergo natural change, and eventually are obliterated or recycled is understood by few." The book is easy to read and avoids lengthy or dry textbook-like descriptions or analyses. Yet there is an education to be had here simply by looking at the pictures and reading captions. I found it a treat to delve into these pages at random, nearly always finding something new and engaging. Chris Angus in Adirondac Magazine, May 2000
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