Reading Instruction Books

Alan Bartram takes those high and mighty old farts down a notch or two. What did Nicolas Jenson, Aldus Manutius, William Caslon, and John Baskerville really know about book design, anyway? (Besides more than you and I will ever know, even if we devote the rest of our lives to study.) Bartram has the audacity to take on some of the greatest printers in the history of movable type and point out the flaws in their designs. The result is witty, learned, and educational. By starting at the beginning and working forward, he is able to simply demonstrate the origins and necessity of some of the features of modern typography we take most for granted, like indented paragraphs and intermingled roman and italic types. It's also humbling to see how understated and elegant these supposedly primitive designs are compared to the vast majority of books being printed today.

When one of the world's most renowned designers calls a book about design a turkey, it's a bit of a shock, which makes it a little intimidating to contradict him. Still, I think this book's emphasis on interior matter (i.e. the text, where most of us spend the majority of our time with books) and its penetrating, critical tone, coupled with the profuse illustrations (which are both clear and legible in my copy) make it a useful complement to the works of Bringhurst / Chappell, Blumenthal, and others.

In his preface, the author states that his purpose is "to look at classic books afresh, through the eyes of a twentieth/twenty-first century designer." That stated, he freely attacks the work of Jenson, Aldus, Plantin, Morris and Rogers with little consideration of the technical limitations or the aesthetic conventions of the times in which they worked. In the eyes of Alan Bartram, only Baskerville and Bodoni were book designers worth serious consideration -- those that came before, and those that followed were untalented brutes.

In nearly every example, Bartram condemns the use of periods after titles and subtitles, citing this as a design flaw. He fails to address why early printers and readers expected them to be there. He also doesn't like the type to be close to illustrations, or type to form triangular patterns at the tops and bottoms of pages -- "flaws" that early designers thought to be desirable. Particularly irksome to him is type with little or no leading. In actuality, renaissance and baroque types, with their long ascenders and descenders, need little lead.

He saves his most vicious comments for Americans, particularly Bruce Rogers, who he unfairly and outrightly condemns:

(About the opening page of Fra Luca de Pacioli) "When Rogers dares to be less directly derivative, his weakness in handling space, in analyzing the hierarchy of headings, and in relating different sizes of type, becomes apparent." Who is he kidding? The page in question is roundly considered one of the most beautiful pages in twentieth-century book design. While not all typographers may agree on Rogers' handling of the details, no one, except Bertram, can deny its design is entirely appropriate to its subject, and that its beauty exerts its own magic spell, even today.

I'm not convinced this book is either illuminating or educational -- or even entertaining. A better approach would have been to explain why early designers did what they did, how design has evolved and why we approach design differently today -- rather than callously bashing the work of past artists. Besides, the works presented usually defend themselves: they exude their own power and charm, and we are unable to duplicate this type of work with modern technology (and aesthetic sensibilities).

Perhaps that is the one lesson I was able to take with me after reading this book. We cannot duplicate the art of the past, but should appreciate it for what it is.

There are several superb books on the history of book design: Joseph Blumenthal, Art of the Printed Book 1455-1955; Norma Levarie, The Art and History of Books; S. H. Steinberg, Five Hundred Years of Printing; and Warren Chappell and Robert Bringhurst, A Short History of the Printed Word.

Alas Alan Bartram's Five Hundred Years of Book Design is uninformative, unscholarly, and unpleasant. The analytical level is casual, adolescent. Readers will learn little about books from the thin text.

The photographs of the great books, taken at the British Library, are murky and out of focus.

How did Yale University Press come to publish this turkey?

I do not have a taildragger plane. I am just a flight simulator entusiast. The book show us how to fly some flight simulator taildragger planes. If it is a very helpfull book to a simulation software, for a real plane it will be better !

Only a small portion of this book pertains to "Flying a Taildragger". Most of the book is of a general nature that is not taildragger specific, therefore, I feel the title is misleading. If the reader is looking for a thorough intro into the operation of conventional gear aircraft, look elsewhere, you will not find it here. Based on the title, this book is a waste of money.

I purchased this book from ASA in 2004 to prepare for tailwheel transition training. The text covers basic techniques applicable to any airplane but the most useful chapter covers Ground and Flight Dynamics (Chapter 2) that impact a tailwheel airplane. I felt that the book was rather "thin" and was padded by adding 90 pages discussing "different" taildraggers, usually rare and unique ones. The cover photo shows a beautiful Ryan WWII trainer but does not discuss this aircraft at all. Most US pilots I know would prefer to have a basic discussion of common types of tailwheel aircraft available to them, especially the kit-built experimentals such as the RV series. I received my tailwheel endorsement in 3.5 hours in an Aeronca 7AC (85 HP) but also received my ASES certificate in 4.0 hours in a Piper PA18-180 on EDO 2250 floats. My tailwheel flight instructor thoroughly reviewed Flight and Ground Dynamics in my first lesson with her. My reading this book prior to my first lesson at least allowed me to be able to verbalize to her my understanding of the concepts she was discussing. Rather than keep the book in my aviation library, I have lent it out to friends who have transitioned to tailwheel training who thought it useful. I currently fly a Taylorcraft BC12-D (65 HP) which handles differently than the Aeronca 7AC on landing. A discussion on these differences in comonly available aircraft would have been very useful.

A great resource for begining teachers. It is a text book, it isn't written like a novel.

I had to read parts of this book for a class. It is one of the worst books I've had to deal with - the material is disorganized and key points are not adequately covered nor highlighted (and I had a used, already highlighted book!). If you have to use it for a class, you have to use it. Otherwise don't waste your time or money on this one. For an excellent, comprehensive, easy to read book about teaching reading and all it's elements, I suggest Are You Prepared to Teach Reading? A Practical Tool for Self-Assessment by James Zarrillo. This book is not just for a test preparation but also provides a great overview of reading strategies that every teacher needs to know. It's a reference and overview that is well organized and easy to understand. Nether of which can be said for Creating Literacy.

The author/editor does not follow his own basic rules about an easily read size of type for a READING text. Seems fundamental to me!

The author/editor does not follow basic rules about using different colors/fonts/sizes as a way of denoting major headings, headings, and details.

There's FAR too much information in one chapter for any one student to digest in a week.

It may be quality information, but it's NOT quality page readability.

Restaurants will tell you--presentation matters.

I am new to music and thought this might be "the only basic piano instruction I'll ever need". Maybe I am not musically talented enough, I feel that the book gone far too fast for a beginner - I even have hard time playing the first simple tune. Nevertheless, I must say that the content of the book is really robust and complete, it just that it doesn't suit me. I am better with "Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course" series, and it is a good idea to check that series before you decide

This book was not a good choice to learn how to play the piano. It's good reading material...but not good to sit at the piano and try to play

I have dabbled in piano here and there and took a beginning class in college. I wanted to continue now that I am older, but didn't want to go through everything all over again. I was very pleased with this book. It did have all the basics, but it was quick enough that you weren't dwelling on them. It gave a great section on the different keys, which is what I am spending my time on now. I thought it was very clear, very straightforward and I enjoyed the exercises in them. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who wants a summary of basic piano theory or who is committed to studying themselves.

I purchased this book with the hopes it would answer some questions i had concerning reading drum music. It was definitely for the reading drummer. It's the same book with drum grooves like hundreds of other books.

The publisher claims this book is ideal for both beginners and pros and includes EVERYTHING you'll need to make sightreading drum notation easy and natural. Nothing could be further from the truth. Unless you have previous knowledge of such things as note values, how to count notes in measures, etc. this book is useless. In other words you need to have some prior knowledge of how to read music for this book to be of any use. So if you are a drummer who plays by ear, has no knowledge of how to read drum music and was hoping to find a book to teach you how to read you should look elsewhere. The book mainly consists of written measures with no text to explain what is written. What a disappointment!!!!

I have never been able to read drum music well. I picked up the drum by ear and although I can read basic drum music, I have never acquired the skills to read advanced music which has really stunted my musical development. Although "The Reading Drummer" does not make reading drum music easy, it definitely has made the process more logical by breaking down the music to make it more undestandable. There are over 50 lessons in the book and I've only gotten through about 15, but already I can see an improvement in myself. I have been very pleased with this book and I feel that it is an excellent resource for any drummer.

I bought this book to use as an IFR refresher without really looking into the content. When I actually got around to reading the book, I was at first disappointed because I had expected a technical review of the hands on techniques for IFR flight.

After reading the first chapter I got the point. Apart from the pretty good read and interesting actual examples, I realized that one of the most important aspects to IFR flight is good pilot judgement.

Poor judgement is what kills most pilots (and passengers) and IFR flight is a most risky activity. Not that technical skill is not important, it is. But pilot judgement skills are often neglected and under appreciated.

The book is well written and the accounts of both personal flights (from two different perspectives) and industry accidents are very instructive and interesting.

Highly recommended for those wanting to go beyond the basic skills. This book is not for new IFR students. I am recommending this book to my experienced students.

I was disappointed in this book especially since the title contained the word "Refresher". Instead of the book focusing on IFR flying and new techniques, the book turned out to be a collection of short stories and dialog about IFR flying as told by the author.

For a better "refresher" on IFR flying, I would recommend "Instrument Flying" (4th edition) by Richard L. Taylor, which is better orgainized, and does give tips on the art of instrument flying.

Chris Coetzee's approach is unique. This book is a mixture of music appreciation and violin tutor. It avoids the drills and repetitions that most beginners' books use. After a few simple exercises for finguring, bowing and the mandatory Mary Had a Little Lamb, the author launches into a chapter on interpretation, with pieces to play by Elgar, Bach, Mozart, Haydn, etc.

Each piece in this section has an accompanying 1 to 3 pages of text on the composer, style, history, etc. and the reader is encouraged to do further research to make sure they have thought about interpreting the style. E.g. before playing the first piece, by Elgar, Coetzee tells us to "find out what you can about [Elgar's] life and the time in which he lived, to get some insight into how to interpret his music". Seems a bit like jumping into the middle of the Pacific Ocean, for folks who, if anything like me, are still struggling to hit the right strings and draw the bow so that it doesn't sound like a screeching cat.

Rather than having music theory points interspersed throughout where relevant, Coetzee puts it all in a ten-page chunk at the beginning. This might give you an overview, but I imagine it would be difficult to synthesise all the information for easy recall when it is needed.

This book is definitely not one for kids. And avoid it if you just want to learn some stuff about simple violin technique and some tunes to play. I also wouldn't recommend it if you prefer to play by ear, as Coetzee focuses very much on reading the notes on the page. This book might be interesting for those who want some background info on the major western classical musical styles as well as some music to play on their violin.

In short, this is a reference book and not a how to book. Not organized very well, many advanced topics are covered before more basic ones. Assumes some working knowledge and does not define all terms used.

i bought this thinking it would give some examples from the ATC point of view but the entire book was mainly stories of a pilot and his trips over the years. on the upside it is a short read.

Do-Able Differentiation held no new information for me. I was disappointed to find that the description of lessons were just renamed ideas that have been in use for years.

I find the music in this book pretty hokey. The advanced exercises are frequently 'random' (author's term, not mine). Random note patterns have no place in any instructional music book. What a cop out! Compose something!