Total Perspective Vortex: Books I Have Loved

Recently, I've been doing some exploratory searching for replacements of books that I've owned since....actually, I can't remember a time when I didn't own them. I'm not really talking about children's books exactly, because those tend to stay readily available (or at least the good ones do). I'm talking about the entry level science books, or the hobby books that you obsessed over growing up, reading and learning as much as you can, but always coming back to that one book (or two) that made you love the subject in the first place.

Looking back at these now...they're outdated, inaccurate, and falling apart. Dust jackets are missing, the bindings are in tatters, and pages have fallen out. And in some cases, the information inside hasn't fared much better - science has expanded our knowledge beyond what was known when these books were written. They don't get reprinted - there's no market for them anymore. Anyone else would have tossed these or given them away years ago.

I can't even begin to imagine doing something so callous.


Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Reptiles (1960)
by Jane Werner Watson, Illustrations by Rudolph Zallinger

The text is still generally accurate, but what stands out in this book are the illustrations by Rudolph Zallinger. Zallinger is well known for his 110 foot long Pulitzer Prize winning mural The Age of Reptiles, completed in 1947. The artwork in this book from 1960, while no longer representing the modern view of dinosaurs, is still breathtakingly beautiful.

It evokes a sense of awe about these creatures and their environment, and brings them to life.



Card Magic (1982)
by Bill Okal

While the "Purchaser Agrees Not to Disclose Secrets Contained Within" printed on the cover seems trite now, back when I was growing up, it was a secret glimpse behind the curtains of magic. I was reading this in the mid-to-late 1980s, around the same time David Copperfield had his television specials on ABC. Card magic was something anyone could do if they took the time, yet also gave a sense of hidden knowledge.

While I had a few other books on magic, none got the workout this one did; Pages 23 - 55 are completely free of the binding. I still, to this day, remember the order to put the deck in for one of my favourite tricks from this book.



Astronomy Today (1982, Updated in 1986)
by Dinah L. Moché, Ph.D., Illustrations by Harry McNaught

This book was my primer in astronomy. These days, the information is severely outdated. Pluto isn't a planet, the Kuiper Belt wasn't discovered until 1992, the Hubble Telescope hadn't been launched, etc. But what sticks with me the most is the illustration on the cover, also shown inside with labels, which shows the relative sizes of the planets and the sun.

It also included a brief section on the constellations, which triggered a brief interest in astrology (the book itself only provides a single paragraph on the subject, and dismisses it as unscientific). And I still can never find the Big Dipper...all I can ever spot is Orion.


The Illustrated Dinosaur Dictionary (1983)
by Helen Roney Sattler, Illustrations by Pamela Carroll

Where the first book provided pictures to fuel the imagination, this one provides the information. Not only does it provide entries for all the well-known species, it covers the lesser and the uncertain ones also. There's a pronunciation guide for each name, and taxonomy information for each entry. I remember spending countless times going through the genus and orders for all the dinosaurs and sorting them.

The dust jacket for this one is long gone - the book itself is in relatively good condition (and it's a first printing!). I also recently found out that an updated edition was released in 1990, which I'm sure to pick up sooner rather than later.


I think I'll save the others for a second post. It's fun to go back through my older books, for nostalgia's sake if nothing else. These are the books that made me curious, and in looking through them again, years later, for the nth time...they still work.