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The Beatles All you ever wanted to know about the Fab Four
298 pages, Unknown Binding
Published January 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 19, 2018
This book gives the impression it was rushed to production to sell to a fanbase they know exists. It is primarily a book of photographs, although each section has text.
The good: The text often contains quotes from various interviews and other published works. The photos do a good job capturing the feel of the Beatles. Photos are often an entire page.
The bad: The text appears to be 8 point Times New Roman, and is unnecessarily small for the page layouts. This makes it hard to read and emphasizes the use of photographs.
The ugly: Poor writing and editing abound. Sometimes photo captions are placed on the wrong photos. Most sentences are simple and declarative with little variation. My favorite example of poor writing/editing, "Suffering an embolism, a fatal blood clot, McCartney was then raised by his father in his teenage years." Apparently Paul McCartney died due to a embolism, but was then raised by his father, who was a teenager that could raise the dead. Granted, that sentence was preceded by "[Paul's] mother died when he was just 14." but it does not excuse the poor phrasing of the sentence.
Some of the insights into the Beatles' personal lives were interesting or disturbing. There was so much drug and alcohol abuse. Ringo and John were both very abusive spouses, although Ringo and his wife eventually sought help.
If you really like the Beatles and want to learn about their lives, this book is a light read that provides enough details to satisfy most interests. However the shoddy layouts, writing, and editing detract from the overall product.
The good: The text often contains quotes from various interviews and other published works. The photos do a good job capturing the feel of the Beatles. Photos are often an entire page.
The bad: The text appears to be 8 point Times New Roman, and is unnecessarily small for the page layouts. This makes it hard to read and emphasizes the use of photographs.
The ugly: Poor writing and editing abound. Sometimes photo captions are placed on the wrong photos. Most sentences are simple and declarative with little variation. My favorite example of poor writing/editing, "Suffering an embolism, a fatal blood clot, McCartney was then raised by his father in his teenage years." Apparently Paul McCartney died due to a embolism, but was then raised by his father, who was a teenager that could raise the dead. Granted, that sentence was preceded by "[Paul's] mother died when he was just 14." but it does not excuse the poor phrasing of the sentence.
Some of the insights into the Beatles' personal lives were interesting or disturbing. There was so much drug and alcohol abuse. Ringo and John were both very abusive spouses, although Ringo and his wife eventually sought help.
If you really like the Beatles and want to learn about their lives, this book is a light read that provides enough details to satisfy most interests. However the shoddy layouts, writing, and editing detract from the overall product.
October 8, 2019
Pretty bare bones.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews