Product Description

A fascinating encyclopedic reference on rocks and gems, including their identification, composition, and their use. The many feature boxes cover topics such as the Malachite room in the Winter Palace and the collection of the Hope Diamond and the superstitions surrounding it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27774 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780756633424
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
With more than 40 years experience as a geologist, prospector, and gem cutter, Dr. Ronald L. Bonewitz provides a unique perspective on the subject.

Customer Reviews

Beautiful all-in-one guide to rocks & minerals
What a beautiful book! This coffee table book on rocks and minerals is absolutely stunning.

The book is divided into 4 sections:
1.Origins, focusing on the evolution of the Earth and the universe, and how and why minerals are formed.
2.Rocks, a species-by-species guide to the major sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks.
3.Minerals, a species-by-species guide to the key minerals (silicates, oxides, sulfates, etc.).
4.Fossils, showing fossils of the major taxonomic groups.

The strength of the book is sections 2 and 3. Almost every page has jaw-dropping photographs of high-quality museum specimens of rocks and minerals (principally from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History), interspersed with great stock photography. On a visual basis, this book leaves its competition in the dust. The accompanying text is interesting as well, particularly in its explanations of how various minerals (and their component elements) are used in modern society. The species-by-species descriptions are interrupted by sidebars on interesting topics (the Taj Mahal, the Hope Diamond, the Petrified Forest, etc.).

To make this book an ideal stand-alone volume on rocks and minerals, some of the space devoted to individual rock, mineral, and fossil descriptions should have been allocated instead to more general topics. Instead of 100 pages on individual silicate minerals, for example, the book could have used more detailed information on rock collecting, mineral properties, and mineral extraction (mining). Still, this comes closer to being an all-in-one guide to rocks and minerals for the layperson than any other book I have come across.

Be aware that you are buying a general information volume on rocks and minerals, not a rock collecting guide. The book's size and information content both work against using this book in the field. To make a comparison with astronomy, this book is more like a collection of photos from the Hubble Space Telescope than a star chart that will show you how to find the constellations.

With that caveat in mind, this book is a source of wonder that you will find yourself returning to time and time again. It will make you aware of how much natural beauty there is in our world, for those who take the time to look.

Rock and Gem
A lot of effort went into the preparation and production of this book BUT it was not properly vetted by someone who really knows the subject. As a result it contains an astouding number of factual problems, I estimate about one per every other page. These include downright errors as well as misstatements of fact. There are also a number of general flaws, such as the fact that most of the mineral specimen photos do not carry locality information, call-outs (used extensively) often go to the wrong feature or something that is not seeable in the photo, the colors of the minerals are frequently way off, and more. The publishers acknowledge this criticism and I understand that they have engaged an "expert" to fix these problems so that the next printing will contain fewer errors.

I have written a formal review of this book which will appear in a future issue of the journal Lapiday Journal.

More than a guide book.
Excellent book with beautiful, detailed pictures of an extensive collecton of rocks, gems, minerals and even fossils. I especially liked the articles depicting the various ways that mankind has utilized these items throughout history. An example being the exquisite pictures of a jade burial suit of an ancient Japanese princess. The book contains plenty of analytical detail for the serious geologist in a format that is appealing to the casual collector as well. Even if I didn't love the subject I would buy this book for the art and history it contains. I had admired this book and was delighted to find a copy in "new" condition for roughly half the price I would have paid at the shop where I first discovered it. Thanks you for this lovely addition to my personal library.