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Indexes Praised and Indexes Censured are extracted from Indexes Reviewed, a regular feature in The Indexer.
These extracts from reviews do not pretend to represent a complete survey of all reviews in journals and newspapers. We offer only a selection from quotations that members have sent in. Our reproduction of comments is not a stamp of approval from the Society of Indexers upon the reviewer’s assessment of an index.
Barron’s: Barron’s
science study dictionary, by Chris Prescott (2001, 262 pp, $11.95).
Rev. by Maren Ostergard, School Library Journal, Nov 2001.
Students looking for a particular term, rather than a subject, will
find the index in the front of the book helpful. [In the front? Good
idea!]
Belknap/Harvard: How Milton
works, by Stanley Fish (2003, $35). Rev. by Morris Freedman, American
Scholar, 72 (1), Winter 2003.
The current book – generously designed, with fine paper and attractive
font, with a full and thoughtful index, so handsome an object I hesitated
to mark up the wide margins – is a fitting tribute to an academic
luminary who has never hesitated to promote Milton and himself, alertly,
confidently, and in a manner productively attuned to the political realities
of his chosen world.
Blackwell Science: Statistical
methods in medical research 4th edn., ed. by P. Armitage, G. Berry
and J. N. S. Matthews (2001, 817 pp, £55). Rev. by Huw Davies,
Hospital Medicine, 63 (8),
Aug 2002.
Over 800 pages long, with some 22 pages of index (most useful!) and
around 700 references, this is a significant reference work and a useful
addition to any health-care researcher’s library.
CABI: Crocodiles: biology,
husbandry and diseases, by F. W. Huchzermeyer (2003, 337 pp, £95).
Rev. by Katherine Heathcote, Veterinary Record, 13 September
2003.
A detailed index and meticulous cross-referencing makes this volume
useful for dipping into as a reference text.
CABI: Desiccation and survival
in plants: drying without dying, ed. by M. Black and H. W. Pritchard
(2002, 416 pp, £75). Rev. by R. E. L. Naylor, Journal of Agricultural
Science, 140, 489–491.
It is well produced and has a glossary and a good general index as well
as a useful taxonomic index.
Carcanet: A kind of journal,
by P J Kavanagh (2003, 243 pp, £14.95). Rev. by Christopher Howse,
Daily Telegraph, 12 April 2003.
In Kavanagh’s company, the reader is often tempted to exclaim
‘That’s good’. It is partly his eye, the descriptive
exactitude ‘beyond decoration’, as one of his poems puts
it. It is partly the variousness of his interests, reflected in the
index here, a delight in itself: ‘Deal (Kent), exquisite fishmonger’s
shop in: Bus, pleasures of; Cows, dignity of; Grass, nature of wetness
of; Yeats, W B, hypochondriachal [sic] uncle.’ I was complaining
to myself at the lack of an entry for ‘Matches, no boxes in New
York’ when I found the reference under the entry ‘England’s
Glory matches, Fifth Avenue sensation’. For the next edition,
as a signpost to ‘The Rule’, a mysterious poem he quotes
by Richard Wilbur, I suggest the inclusion of: ‘Manchineel, squatting
beneath deadly’.
Channel Highway: Australian
Antarctic science – the first 50 years of ANARE, ed. by Harvey
Marchant, Des Lugg and Pat Quilty (2002, 622 pp, $95). Rev. by Geoff
Fenton, ANZAAS Mercury, 17,
June 2003.
It also has an excellent Index which enables the reader to locate specific
topics easily. [Index by AusSI member Clodagh Jones.]
Chatto: The road to Delphi:
the life and afterlife of oracles, by Michael Wood (2004, 292 pp,
£17.99). Rev. by John Banville, Guardian, 10 January 2004.
The index to The Road to Delphi is an amusing read in itself,
ranging as it does from Suetonius to Tom Cruise, from Adorno to WC Fields,
from Oedipus to Nancy Reagan (she kept a court astrologer, as did, more
surprisingly, François Mitterrand). Wood takes a panderer’s
delight in pushing strange bedfellows under the blankets together, so
that we find Kafka snuggling up to Clark Kent, while, in the index again,
‘Trial, The (Kafka)’ is followed immediately by ‘Truman
Show, The (Weir)’.
Directory of Social Change:
Youth, funding guide, by Nicola Eastwood (2nd edn., 2001, 384
pp, £16.95). Rev. by Peter Riley, Magistrate, 59
(3), March 2003.
To prevent you from getting lost, there is a first-class index listing
funding sources by name and location and, if you thought this was making
fundraising all too easy, there is a chapter on tax and VAT.
Haworth Press: Men’s
health on the internet, ed. by M. Sandra Wood and Janet M. Coggan
(2002, 117 pp, $19.95). Rev. by Sam Burgess, Update, 2
(5), May 2003.
It is often difficult to find a particular website within a book of
internet resources; here, the index resolves this problem by listing
each website under either the name of the parent body or the disease.
Hodder Headline: Spike Milligan:
the biography, by Humphrey Carpenter (2003, 435 pp, $49.95). Rev.
by Graham Williams, Sydney Morning Herald, 18–19 October,
2003.
… it is thorough, intelligent and impeccably indexed.
IVP: The most reluctant convert,
by D. C. Downing (2002, £12.99). Rev. by Ken Bakewell, The
Reader, 100 (1), Spring 2003.
Downing’s excellent book includes a three-page list of biographical
material and a useful index.
Kyle Cathie: The no-work
garden, by Bob Flowerdew (2002, 192 pp, £19.99).Rev. by Gaby
Bartai Bevan, Organic Gardening, Dec 2002.
Flowerdew writes as he speaks, which makes for a lively narrative and
an index that has to work overtime. The index is comprehensive and can
be used as a glossary.
Longman: Advanced learners’
grammar, by Mark Foley and Diane Hall (2003, 384 pp,
£13.95). Rev. by Peter Moore, English Teaching Professional,
29 October 2003.
A well thought-out index contains a wealth of helpful direction finders;
I am tempted to use the word ‘comprehensive’ myself. [Index
by SI Accredited member Sue Lightfoot.]
Manohar (New Delhi): Chronicles
of British business in Asia 1850–1960: a bibliography of printed
company histories with short accounts of the concerns, by Lionel
Carter (2002, 227 pp, Rs. 500). Rev. by Malcolm Stacey, Update,
2 (7) July 2003.
Familiar names like Blue Star Line, Jardine Matheson and Sassoon jostle
with names now forgotten, but all are readily accessed through the index.
Nottingham University Press:
Poultry environment problems: a guide to solutions, by D. Charles
and A. Walker (2002, 88 pp, £20). Rev. by Frank Jordan, Veterinary
Journal, 166 (3), July 2003.
The index is comprehensive and can be used as a glossary.
Oxford University Press: The
Oxford companion to the history of modern science, ed. by J. L.
Heilbron (2003, 941 pp, £80). Rev. by John North, Times Literary
Supplement, 27 June 2003.
The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science has great
breadth, it contains numerous entries that are a pleasure to read, and
its index makes it easy to use.
Oxford University Press: Roman
homosexuality: ideologies of masculinity in classical antiquity,
ed. by Craig A. Williams (1999, xii + 295 pp, $55.00 (hbk), $24.95 (pbk).
Rev. by Maud W. Gleason, American Historical Review, 106
(1), Feb 2001.
The book aims to be comprehensive and occasionally the reader feels
bombarded by a series of examples from a variety of contexts that seems
to have been assembled from a stack of index cards (as on pp. 38–39).
So this is, in a sense, a reference book as well as an analysis. The
index of passages cited will prove useful to many scholars.
Palgrave Macmillan: The New
Woman in fiction and in fact: fin-de-siècle feminisms, ed.
by Angelique Richardson and Chris Willis (2002, 276 pp, £14.99).
Rev. by Nadège Marsaleix, Virginia Woolf Bulletin, no.
13, May 2003.
Incidentally, the index (9 pages) proves to be very useful whenever
you want to clarify a particular point or wish to reread an essay…
Penguin: The Penguin guide
to jazz on CD, by Richard Cook and Brian Morton (6th edn., 2003,
1,742 pp, £22.50). Rev. by Roger Thomas, BBC Music Magazine,
May 2003.
Entries are listed alphabetically by the musician or group for whom
the recordings are named, as in a record shop, but there’s also
a substantial index which allows you to track down any musician individually.
Routledge: The carbon war:
global warming and the end of the oil era, by Jeremy Leggett (2001,
342 pp, $16.95). Rev. by Christine C. Menefee, School Library Journal,
Sept 2001.
… it offers a wealth of information for those interested in understanding
the workings of the real world, and its thorough index will make it
an excellent resource for research on global warming and the history
of the issue.
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