Bill, just my opinion on it, but I disagree on your critique. I don't see anything amateurish about the typesetting, let alone the layout. Most books of this type of similar problems with the pictures, but this just gives it a more personal touch instead of a true commercial style book with boorish pictures. These pictures are relative to the overall story and since it wasn't a commercial book, they were probably pulled from whatever sources they could find, no paid photography at all. It was probably edited too much, so no, it shouldn't have been edited more.
Again, this isn't a commercial book, and I think you are being way too hard on it. It was a great read, I couldn't put it down and wanted more of it. My only complaint about it was the lack of material later on, but due to real life issues, Bill Steele wasn't involved as much in the cave system, but since he was only writing from his vewpoint, that couldn't be helped. I hope Bill Steele writes another, I have both of his books and they are great to read. Charles On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 5:34 PM, Mixon Bill <[email protected]> wrote: > "Huautla: Thirty Years in One of the World's Deepest Caves." C. William > Steele. Cave Books, Dayton, Ohio; 2009. ISBN 978-0-939748070-9. 6 by 9 > inches, 269 pages, hardbound. $24.95. > > The typesetting is amateurish, the color and black-and-white photos were > indifferently prepared for printing, and the cover might charitably be > called cluttered. I can tell the text got a lot of editing, but it could > have used a little more. Still, it reads well enough. > > That said, this is an important and valuable book. Way too few > first-person accounts of exploration by American cavers have been > commercially published. Sistema Huautla was the first of the deep caves in > southern Mexico found and explored, and it is essentially tied for deepest > cave in the Western Hemisphere. Steele was one of the principal explorers in > the caves in the Huautla area during the late seventies and early eighties > and as much time as he could spare from work and family since. He was on the > trips in the spring of 1980 that made Li Nita the first thousand-meter-deep > cave outside of Europe and then, barely a month later, connected it into > Sótano de San Agustín to create the Huautla system. Being short-roped and > trapped deep in San Agustín for several days in 1977 and the famous 1994 > diving expedition from the point of view of those on the surface are among > the other tales in the book. > > This is a personal narrative of Steele's trips to Huautla, based on the > logs he has kept of all his caving over the years. It is not meant to be a > complete history of the project, and I probably made a mistake by leafing > back to try to understand what was going on. (The worthless maps scattered > throughout the book don't help.) Take it for what it is, and just sit back > and enjoy the stories of hard caving in deep caves.--Bill Mixon > ---------------------------------------- > Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again. > ---------------------------------------- > You may "reply" to the address this message > came from, but for long-term use, save: > Personal: [email protected] > AMCS: [email protected] or [email protected] > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Visit our website: http://texascavers.com > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > >
