One test of a book is to leave it on your desk for a time and see what happens when somebody picks it up. In the case of Dorrik Stow’s Oceans: An Illustrated Reference, curious examiners wanted to know if it was a textbook, a cyclopedic reference, or a coffee table book.

Garrison, T. 2006. Review of Oceans: An Illustrated Reference, by D. Stow. Oceanography 19(4):190, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2006.38.

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