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Book Review: Salamanders and Newts: A Complete Introduction by Byron Bjorn (TFH Publications, 1988, 96 pages) AND
Salamanders and Newts as a New Pet by John Coborn (TFH Publications, 1994, 63 pages).
I'm going to review these two books together because after a while it gets difficult to tell them apart. Two more introductory TFH books, about the same size, and sharing some of the same pictures. Kind of like siblings in a family where you really only need to know one of them. The apple doesn't fall far from the other apple.
Both Bjorn and Coborn's books contain the obligatory sections on evolution and classification, biology, housing, food, and general care. Then, following the same pattern, is a selection of species accounts.
Patterson's book (reviewed previously) is pretty similar also.
Bjorn's starts with an 11 page section on the axolotl. Coborn's book has a special chapter on "Reproduction of Salamanders and Newts", which, however, is really just a chapter on axolotls in disguise. Coborn's has better pictures, if you're trying to sex your axies.
The species in Bjorn's book is an odd selection, some of which are commonly kept, and some of which are rarely or not at all kept, outside of zoos.
Coborn's book covers only North American species (16 of them) until the last three pages, when a few European species are thrown in as an afterthought.
The formula is so similar, TFH must have decided it was time to update its Salamanders and Newts book, chose a new author, and told him to go to town. But not a very far away town.
Coborn's title is almost the same, and he follows the same formula. And although Coborn by no means plagiarized the former book, he definitely referred to it. The similarities and differences are purposeful and almost forced.
Which means nothing, really, except that like I said, they're like children in the same family. So do you need all three of these books (I'm including Patterson's book in this sentence too)? Only if you think that family is so much fun you can't get enough of them. Does Harry Potter really need ALL the Weasleys? Really he only needs Ron. Oh, and Ginny. Well, Fred and George were a big help. And I guess Bill and Charlie had their roles to play. Maybe I picked the wrong family for this example. Let's try the Bush family instead. I'll let YOU pick which ones of them we can all live without.
Patterson's book, as I wrote in that review, stands out from these two by virtue of its pictures, which have a better species variety than either of these two. It is the only one with a Tylototriton, and has a number of pictures of P. waltl (five, in fact, where Bjorn has none and Coborn has only one, identical to one of Patterson's). Maybe this is an uninteresting tangent; but I'm easily transfixed by pretty pictures.
None of these books, however, has a picture of a P. labiatus. For that we must move on to Andrew Gray's book, coming next week to a book review near you.
As of this writing, Bjorn is available used on Amazon starting at 1¢, and Coborn starting at $1.98, though there is another book by him called Salamanders and Newts as a Hobby (1993) from the "Save Our Planet" series, starting at 88¢. I don't know if it's the same book or not. It's 98 pages, whereas the one I'm discussing is 63 pages.........Well, I just ordered it, so I'll let you know when I get it.
Salamanders and Newts as a New Pet by John Coborn (TFH Publications, 1994, 63 pages).
I'm going to review these two books together because after a while it gets difficult to tell them apart. Two more introductory TFH books, about the same size, and sharing some of the same pictures. Kind of like siblings in a family where you really only need to know one of them. The apple doesn't fall far from the other apple.
Both Bjorn and Coborn's books contain the obligatory sections on evolution and classification, biology, housing, food, and general care. Then, following the same pattern, is a selection of species accounts.
Patterson's book (reviewed previously) is pretty similar also.
Bjorn's starts with an 11 page section on the axolotl. Coborn's book has a special chapter on "Reproduction of Salamanders and Newts", which, however, is really just a chapter on axolotls in disguise. Coborn's has better pictures, if you're trying to sex your axies.
The species in Bjorn's book is an odd selection, some of which are commonly kept, and some of which are rarely or not at all kept, outside of zoos.
Coborn's book covers only North American species (16 of them) until the last three pages, when a few European species are thrown in as an afterthought.
The formula is so similar, TFH must have decided it was time to update its Salamanders and Newts book, chose a new author, and told him to go to town. But not a very far away town.
Coborn's title is almost the same, and he follows the same formula. And although Coborn by no means plagiarized the former book, he definitely referred to it. The similarities and differences are purposeful and almost forced.
Which means nothing, really, except that like I said, they're like children in the same family. So do you need all three of these books (I'm including Patterson's book in this sentence too)? Only if you think that family is so much fun you can't get enough of them. Does Harry Potter really need ALL the Weasleys? Really he only needs Ron. Oh, and Ginny. Well, Fred and George were a big help. And I guess Bill and Charlie had their roles to play. Maybe I picked the wrong family for this example. Let's try the Bush family instead. I'll let YOU pick which ones of them we can all live without.
Patterson's book, as I wrote in that review, stands out from these two by virtue of its pictures, which have a better species variety than either of these two. It is the only one with a Tylototriton, and has a number of pictures of P. waltl (five, in fact, where Bjorn has none and Coborn has only one, identical to one of Patterson's). Maybe this is an uninteresting tangent; but I'm easily transfixed by pretty pictures.
None of these books, however, has a picture of a P. labiatus. For that we must move on to Andrew Gray's book, coming next week to a book review near you.
As of this writing, Bjorn is available used on Amazon starting at 1¢, and Coborn starting at $1.98, though there is another book by him called Salamanders and Newts as a Hobby (1993) from the "Save Our Planet" series, starting at 88¢. I don't know if it's the same book or not. It's 98 pages, whereas the one I'm discussing is 63 pages.........Well, I just ordered it, so I'll let you know when I get it.
