General grump-ing.

[zianuray]

The one annoyance about having several different (reference-type) books on the same subject from several different publishers is that each book has much of the same information, presented in almost the same words.

I have two aromatherapy books (both for slightly more advanced practitioners) that do NOT feel it necessary to expound on the history of scents and the various methods of getting the essential oil out of the plants and into the bottles.  The other twenty or so?  Even the ones supposedly for not-QUITE-beginners-anymore?  Right.  At least a chapter each on
a) what is an EO
b) why EOs are hard to get at including where they are in the plant
c) where EOs come from (regions, etc)
d) history of EOs and perfumes.

And all list the same sources for their information; in many cases it's darn near C/P from one book to another.

One book drives me batty all by itself -- in each and EVERY recipe, the directions include :"Place the carrier oils in a clean container, add the essential oils, and gently turn the container upside down several times or roll between your hands to blend.  Apply as needed."  (Aaaugh, wait, she forgot to tell me to put the lid on!  i just dumped the oil all over the floor!)  If the author had put that at the beginning of the chapter and said "this applies to every rx unless stated otherwise" it would have resulted in a 20% savings on paper, ink, and transport costs.

I suppose that the repetition between books is "just in case" a person only GETS one book, so they'll have the info, but when you have several it wastes time and shelf-space!  Hello, posty-notes!

Comments

[barnhengemama.livejournal.com]

That really bothers me, too. What's worse, IMO is when the different books keep using the same stock photos.

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

YES! That too!

I kinda wish the books were all the same size so I could cut the spines off, drill holes, and binderize the pages I want to keep!

[barnhengemama.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh, you may have a plan there!

My problem is that I have a very visual memory, so the stupid repeating illustrations throw me every time. "Hrm. Was that blend listed near the photo of the apothocary jars and sprigs of lavender or by the woman with the rocks on her back.....?"

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

I've been marking chapters with sticky-notes that poke out the top of the book with a one-or-two-word summary on them, and particular recipes sticking out the side (again with a word or two written on the tag).

Thing is, each book has different approaches and thus very different recipes!

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem is simply that, in Pagan and New Age genres, there are 10-20 beginner books for every intermediate book, and about the same proportion of intermediate to advanced books. That level of detail does belong in a book written for novices; but when speaking to intermediate practitioners, one can assume they know the basics and just summarize stuff.

When I'm writing recipes, I go for meticulous, because when I read recipes I tend to go line-by-line and it's easy to make mistakes when I'm concentrating on the food. So every one of my ice cream recipes says "Turn ice cream machine ON" -- because forgetting that will snap the paddle in the machine I have.

When I wrote my book Composing Magic, however, I specified in the introduction that this isn't intended as a first book on Paganism. Thus I assume that the reader already has at least a basic understanding of nature religions and is ready for something more challenging than doing rituals/spells straight out of a book -- because my book is all about how to write your own. I do go into rather more detail about the writing process, but it's not really a "first book on writing" either.

I have many thousands of books in my house. Some categories, every book has something new and interesting -- Tarot is a good example. But other categories, like introduction to Paganism, there's so much repetition that I may not bother to keep a new book that says the same thing as six other books I already have.

Re: Hmm...

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

I've passed along so many "basic" pagan books...once I got the directions and elements written down, I didn't need most of them, so I agree there.


With aromatherapy, the repetition is in the first few chapters -- after that, how to concoct recipes gets pretty eclectic!