David Ludlum (1910–1997)

What could have been a wonderful book was spoiled by a concentration on the freakish and the exceptional (are four photographs of mammatus clouds really called for?) and an annoying populist editorial perspective according to which the atmosphere is "our [sic] most valuable possession" (p. 23), nature is an artist and the sky overhead is "nature's canvas" (p. 155), and so on. These perspectives have their place, or places, but an Audubon guide shouldn't be one of them.

Also unappealing, to me at least, is the disfiguring of the pages by right-justifying texts and wasting acres of space with enormous (1-1/4") left margins and tiny right margins (1/4"), unindented paragraphs, a number of charcoal pages, etc. etc. -- but these are common to the entire series and should no doubt be blamed on self-indulgent designer Barbara Balch, ( http://barbarabalch.com/ ) who has uglified many a book in her time by making its pages over-busy and self-attentive.… (mehr)