Wednesday, September 2, 2009

US Battleships 1941-1963 An Illustrated Technical Reference

by Wayne Scarpaci Self-Published 2008 ISBN 978-1-438257440 $32.95 Hardback 134 ppNevada-based artist and battleship aficionado Wayne Scarpaci has self-published this the first in a series of book on 20th century battleships. The pages are filled with tables, photos and copies of artwork by Mr Scarpaci. For some readers this may be sufficient for a readable work in the general category. 
It is a very ambitious effort to cram as much information as possible into 134 pages wherein lies most of the problems with this book. Most of the photos look like they came from 72DPI websites instead of the print standard of 300DPI. This causes many of the images to be of little use as they are blurry and with many technical features of the battleships not discernible. The same holds true for line drawings and artwork. 
The major problem with self-published books is always the lack of proofreading and the typographical errors in this work are too numerous to count. One blatant example is three consecutive ships were listed with the same international radio call sign. 
It's too bad that with some more polish, this book could have been very good. But unless an improved second edition is released, this book cannot be recommended.

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