Archery Books

To be honest, it is not the author's fault. The book is just so badly designed.

First glary problem is the index of the book... there isn't any. 200+ pages of technical stuffs, and there is no index. Then there are the tables and pictures. To be specific, there is NO table and RANDOM pictures.
Let me explain. When the book reads "...see table in following page for an example of an arrow size selection chart..." you would expect to see a table somewhere. Right? Well, I scanned the next couple of pages (as well as a few preceding pages, just in case) but could not find any tables. Then I scanned the ENTIRE book and could not find the table at all. And this has happened to me on several occasions.
Then there are the pictures. First off, no figure/picture numbers (none for the tables either). And the figures lack coherence with the text. Of course when you are reading a chapter about arrow rests, you would expect to see the proper examples next to the text. But in this book, it is as if they RANDOMLY put pictures of arrow rests across the chapter. You would read about drop-away rests, but would see a shoot-though rest picture next to it. And this is consistent through out the book. You read about a riser of a certain brand, but would see the riser of another brand.

To be fare, the text itself covers most of the material of an archer's gear. Compound, recurve and longbows are covered, with an exclusive chapter on crossbows. Arrows are well covered, as well as arrow rests, sights, release aids, quivers, stabilizers, and so on...

It is a shame that a good text is marred by a poor document design. In fact, the book would have been much less confusing if the pictures and figures were simply removed altogether.

This book was published in 1971, and is very proud of "modern" archery technology -- while this makes it a funny read, it's not really very useful anymore. The author skims over all the necessary subjects, giving them mention and a very brief explanation, without going into any of the necessary depth. You will learn from this book if you know nothing of archery, but if you've already shot a bow, and know what the nock point is, try for a less condescending book. It does have groovy pictures of archers with bellbottoms, though.

This book falls into the uncomfortable middle ground. It's not basic enough to be a good first book and it's not advanced enough to be an expert book. The book suffers from lack of diagrams and in depth descriptions of the subjects that the author glosses over. Although I will admit that he glosses over an awful lot of ground. If you're interested in finding out what you should learn about, this will give you a list. However, if you wanted to learn something about either archery or bowhunting, look elsewhere.

this book is a true classic, however this version is a very bare bones booklet that does NOT have the plates that the text often refers to and are a significant portion of the total worth of the book. this is a major omission! also the lack of the plates is not mentioned in the book description!
why anyone would knowing sell the text without the plates is beyond me.
i would not have purchased this book it had i known this.

This seems to be an update of a previous book of the same title and two of the three authors. I bought the original version for review in the magazine I edit, Archery Focus. I bought the newer version thinking it a different book, which it is ... somewhat. Possibly the third author was added in an attempt to fix all of the mistakes in the first effort.

There is little to recommed here. Much of the photography (including the cover of the original version) is not only unhelpful but also incorrect and misleading. The same can be said for much of the technique advice.

We did not review the book in Archery Focus as we avoid negativity in its pages, but I do not want to see beginning archers wasting their money on this book. Go take a lesson from a certified coach instead.

This is just a reprint of Bertalan's 1989 book, with absolutely nothing added except a few pages in the end and changing the word Bible to Encyclopedia; it is neither. It is a personal view of the author's reflections of has-been bow builders in the archery world.

Almost every bowyer in this book is out of business...and have been for almost twenty years since it was written..yes, that's right; it was written twenty years ago! Some of the bowyers have been dead almost as long.

At the time it was original published, most of the bowyers mentioned were still in business; in a year over half of them were already gone.

I asked T.J. Conrads why he endorsed it. He told me he wrote that quote 20 years ago and was rather upset that his name appeared on this new edition as he was not asked and would not have endorsed it. In fact, all the endorsements are 20-years old!