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A review by perfect_leaves
The Computer: An Illustrated History from Its Origins to the Present Day by Mark Frauenfelder
1.0
See the full review on my blog: Swallow Song. I've posted excerpts below.
While Fauenfelder's writing skills are alright, this book clearly did not receive enough editing. Fauenfelder repeated himself almost every other page, which makes it feel like he really didn't have much to say at all. It got to the point where I was ready to throw The Computer out the window is Fauenfelder mentioned Alan Turing's suicide one more time. Some of this repetition could have been resolved with a little reorganization of the material, but clearly the author and editor couldn't figure that out.
Organization aside, the font choice in this atrocious.
I only read 100 pages of The Computer before I gave up and pretty much every chapter featured blank space. The pictures took up most of the pages and underneath or beside each picture there were little blurbs explaining the photo.
The Computer is a coffee table book, the only problem is the book isn't good enough to be featured on a coffee table. If you have the kind of guests that just look at the pictures I suppose there isn't any harm in displaying the book, but if you have guests who actually read the books, spare them the headache.
While Fauenfelder's writing skills are alright, this book clearly did not receive enough editing. Fauenfelder repeated himself almost every other page, which makes it feel like he really didn't have much to say at all. It got to the point where I was ready to throw The Computer out the window is Fauenfelder mentioned Alan Turing's suicide one more time. Some of this repetition could have been resolved with a little reorganization of the material, but clearly the author and editor couldn't figure that out.
Organization aside, the font choice in this atrocious.
I only read 100 pages of The Computer before I gave up and pretty much every chapter featured blank space. The pictures took up most of the pages and underneath or beside each picture there were little blurbs explaining the photo.
The Computer is a coffee table book, the only problem is the book isn't good enough to be featured on a coffee table. If you have the kind of guests that just look at the pictures I suppose there isn't any harm in displaying the book, but if you have guests who actually read the books, spare them the headache.