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badstarSo a couple of weeks ago I came across a book on Amazon, Apollo: The Great God by Gregory Zorzos. I ordered it a bit over a week ago and have been waiting for it since, including some stupidity on the delivery by the post office.
I just opened the box roughly three minutes ago and I can already tell anyone who wants to know more: Don't bother. It's self-published. I knew that before I ordered it. It doesn't mean the book is going to be bad- I have read books by other folks (on my friends list! Hi guys!) which are self-published and have no arguments about the quality of the writing.
Apparently, this is one example of the sort of self-published book that isn't of the greatest quality.
The book is 152 pages long. The cover is nice and shiny! The first three paragraphs of the book appear on the back cover. Pages 23-149 plus page 152 are noting but images- statuary, coins, renaissance-era paintings, modern day postage stamps. Including two images and the title "Apollo Secret Symbols" at the top- but no indication of where these symbols came from or how they are known to be "secret symbols". Basically, it seems that the guy did a google image search and pasted everything he found into a document and shipped it off to press.
The type is huge- 16 or 18-point maybe? Which I have to say- if you're visually impaired and want a book with some basic information on Apollo, here's one for you. The first four pages of the book are devoted to the author telling you how awesome he is- pictures, organizations he belongs to and awards he's won. There is a detailed, numbered list of every group that thinks he's awesome. (Or that he at least pays dues to) Apparently he's written more than 500 books, dvd's, cd-roms and board games on assorted ancient subjects. Five hundred???? I want to say that's an outrageous number, but if they're all like this book, I can totally believe it.
I have yet to carefully examine what little text there is, but so far as I can see, there is nothing contained in this book that can't be found on theoi.com
Also, the writing is rather awkward and clumsy. I can't decide if it was translated into English by a babelfish engine or if he used a rather sucky translating service. I'm assuming that some sort of translating service or the such was used, as the languages in which this book is available number in the double digits.
There is no bibliography, no explanation of any of the abbreviations used. Sadly, amazon provides no information to indicate that the book would be so useless.
I think I'm going to need to post a review.
ETA: Someone posted a discussion on the Author's Amazon page stating that he plagiarized her and other author's works. Awesome. Wish I had bothered to check this out before.
I think I am going to contact Amazon to see about the possibility of a return.
I just opened the box roughly three minutes ago and I can already tell anyone who wants to know more: Don't bother. It's self-published. I knew that before I ordered it. It doesn't mean the book is going to be bad- I have read books by other folks (on my friends list! Hi guys!) which are self-published and have no arguments about the quality of the writing.
Apparently, this is one example of the sort of self-published book that isn't of the greatest quality.
The book is 152 pages long. The cover is nice and shiny! The first three paragraphs of the book appear on the back cover. Pages 23-149 plus page 152 are noting but images- statuary, coins, renaissance-era paintings, modern day postage stamps. Including two images and the title "Apollo Secret Symbols" at the top- but no indication of where these symbols came from or how they are known to be "secret symbols". Basically, it seems that the guy did a google image search and pasted everything he found into a document and shipped it off to press.
The type is huge- 16 or 18-point maybe? Which I have to say- if you're visually impaired and want a book with some basic information on Apollo, here's one for you. The first four pages of the book are devoted to the author telling you how awesome he is- pictures, organizations he belongs to and awards he's won. There is a detailed, numbered list of every group that thinks he's awesome. (Or that he at least pays dues to) Apparently he's written more than 500 books, dvd's, cd-roms and board games on assorted ancient subjects. Five hundred???? I want to say that's an outrageous number, but if they're all like this book, I can totally believe it.
I have yet to carefully examine what little text there is, but so far as I can see, there is nothing contained in this book that can't be found on theoi.com
Also, the writing is rather awkward and clumsy. I can't decide if it was translated into English by a babelfish engine or if he used a rather sucky translating service. I'm assuming that some sort of translating service or the such was used, as the languages in which this book is available number in the double digits.
There is no bibliography, no explanation of any of the abbreviations used. Sadly, amazon provides no information to indicate that the book would be so useless.
I think I'm going to need to post a review.
ETA: Someone posted a discussion on the Author's Amazon page stating that he plagiarized her and other author's works. Awesome. Wish I had bothered to check this out before.
I think I am going to contact Amazon to see about the possibility of a return.
