The Handy Weather Answer Book (The Handy Answer Book Series)
The Handy Weather Answer Book (The Handy Answer Book Series) – Review
I have something of ethnically mixed feelings about this title. I have to admit that it was more my curiosity about weather and not a true slowly burning passion that partly inspired me to widely read this one. Maybe I’m just not the originally intended audience. First what I like about the book. I love the design of question saw by reasonable answer. No lengthy dissertations to slog through just to find what you’re interested in. The chapters are well done and cross-references when necessary. I can’t fault either the author or editor here. Second good thing is that it is not geared towards a exact age/academic group. I commonly found the answers to be interesting without really feeling like I was back in third grade again. Mr. Lyons doesn’t dumb down the science for a wider appeal. He just presents it in a manner that makes it enjoyable and accessible for folks from 10 – 80. Truly a meteorology book for the average layperson. What I don’t like about the book. Is it really necessary to include the history for just about every person who has even noticed weather? There is indeed a true need to hit the extreme points and famous people, but I eventually bought a book about weather, not history. This could have been better easily handled by referencing supplementary texts or sources. It would have possibly eliminated close to a 100 pages or so. Overall there is quite a fragment of useful information here. I can’t knock the author for a lack of information or how it is generally presented. If you have an interest in really knowing something about weather I wouldn’t tell you to avoid this book. Just and FYI that there is a portion of history to get through before you see anything about the art of meteorology.