Monday, August 19, 2013

Anatomy of a Zealot

If you are going to read this blog, at least buy the book.   Buy it here.  Or at your local bookstore.  Whatever.

Hardbound, with dusk jacket.  About 300 pages.   Book design was done by Caroline Cunningham, who I know nothing about.   The two illustrations in the book, one of a map of the First Century Palestine, the other an illustration of the Temple in Jerusalem, illustrated by Laura Hartman Maestro, who I believe has illustrated everything, from Anne Rice companion books to the Joy of Cooking.   The pages smell good. 

Besides the title page, copyright page, “Other books by Reza Aslan..”, there is a table of contents, author’s note, introduction, a time line (chronology), acknowledgments, notes, a bibliography and an index.    The contents are divided into three parts.


Liked the illustrations, the formatting looks good.   The problem I have is with the lack of embedded notes within the text itself.  This sort of bothers me, but I am eager to see what he did with placing extensive explanatory notes in its own section.   My initial angst is about reading the chapter, then reading the notes that apply to that chapter.   Is this how they do it in the humanities?   Or is this a requirement of the publishers to make the book less academic looking for wider audience appeal?  I don’t know.  We will see how it works as we go along.

Also, don't have oily fingers when handling the dust jacket.  Fingerprints easily.   

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