Geosystems An Introduction to Physical Geography (Custom Edition for Georgia State University) by Robert W. Christopherson

by Robert W. Christopherson

Great book

Genres: Science, Geography, Reference, Textbooks, Nonfiction, Ecology

Paperback

Published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

No, seriously, who actually likes textbooks?

Anyone raise your hand? If so, you are strange.

With that said, Geosystems is actually kind of good. It's fairly readable, lots of good pictures, but most of all: it is fascinating. Maybe it is just the science geek in me coming out, but I absolutely loved this book. I rambled on and on about what I learned from these pages to just about anyone who would listen (or pretend to). So teachers? Tutors? Anyone else who is looking to use this book? I highly recommend.

And just to be clear, I majored in psychology, not geography (although this textbook almost made me reconsider my career choice).

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of super duper information, but I wasn't a fan of the writing, which could be unnecessarily confusing and dry at parts.

[Garth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Considering this is a college textbook I found it very readable and the knowledge contained therein very accessible. It took me a long while to get through because of last year's reading challenge but I'm glad I finished it.

[Anthony Günther · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quality intro text for the natural science student or the layman. Nice chapter organization, effective artwork , and simple, easily digestible prose.

[Kevin Driskill · Rating 5 out of 5]

My only regret about this book is that it is a textbook and was only available as a short-term e-book. I would like too have a copy to refer to in the future. Comprehensive and fascinating.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this book for my freshman college course in Earth Science in 2000. I didn't appreciate it at the time, naively assuming all college texts would be so well written. I just looked it over again in December 2008 and it's stands as one of the best textbooks I ever bought. The material is presented very clearly, and the illustrations are all quite useful in clarifying the material. It covers all the topics you would expect in an Earth Science course, with prose that is clear and on point.

I don't know how interesting or useful this would be outside of a classroom, but I am glad I had it as my class text.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was downright painful. The class I took is supposed to be an intro class--an intro! This textbook isn't set up for people that don't understand this stuff or how on God's green earth "GIS" is equivalent to physical geography. I've went through the class, I understand what both are, and I still don't know why anyone would teach them together, let alone reference them in the same book.

To any reading, do yourself a favor and avoid this book. It didn't help me in the slightest.

Conclusion

I'm going to pretend this doesn't exist and that I don't own it. I recommend that if you see this book being used in a class that you drop that one and take another. It's not worth it.

[Roby]

I read this textbook needed for my Physical Geography class. As an introduction to the science it served its purpose. It taught general ideas about all the different disciplines of the science. I did feel like I learned quite a bit from it even though I was using the text to take an on-line class through my local junior/community college. I am sure had I been in a face-to-face class I may have gotten more out of the class. The text had wonderful pictures and the part that I liked the most were the added websites along inside of the text to go for further reading.

[Tyler Achberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really my favorite textbook, and probably the most useful outside of college, I find myself cracking it open and studying it often.. it's easy to skim with key terms being highlighted as well as the representations and figures are excellent to look at. But it also is great read if you want to sit down and soak in a chapter. It covers a wide range of topics scientifically about all kinds of environments and other facets of the earth.. since this is really the only text book I've really enjoyed I'll give it 5 stars

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Geography is not just maps; it's all about the earth's different systems including the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. This was a great textbook for someone like me: not into science! Lot's of visuals and real life examples of the different systems, plus food for thought about climate change. I was really bummed at the end of my Physical Geography course because I had to return this book; it was a rental and super expensive!

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Class is over - got an A - WHOOO HOOOO! It was very interesting (and the book was good too), but I'm so glad to be done with the class. Now I can get ready for Christmas. Hard to rate this - as it is a "text book" and all, but it really was full of good and interesting information.

[Claudia Young perea · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good text that provides very good tools to understand concepts related with Earth's systems, human-Earth relations, and Physical Geography. I recommend 100% this book to any future reader interested in these topics.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

great geography text.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's a geography book, but seems more like a physical science book. it's not bad, it has good information, just not what I was hoping for. and, I'm able to add it to my currently-reading shelf. ooo

[Textbookman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Class: Geography 101
Condition: Very good.
willing to loan

[Amiri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book because my kid loves it. The subject matter is inherently interesting.

[Saad Abdullrahman · Rating 5 out of 5]

good

[alexander shay · Rating 4 out of 5]

READ FOR EASC 102

This book was actually stupidly brutal, but that's just my lack of interest in the subject matter. The book itself is very comprehensive and in depth, and may have been even better if my teacher followed it in any sort of chronological order that matched up better with the chapters she assigned.
As with any introductory course, it's a stupid amount of information to take in, and I just wish I had more time to familiarize myself with the material. You learn about the sun and its affect on Earth processes (ex. photosynthesis), winds, weather, the ocean, the atmosphere, ice, soil, biomes/climate classification, clouds, and other things I can't remember for the life of me. It's interesting to an extent because I need to know a lot of this for creating my own worlds in my novels, but sitting for an hour and a half a day being talked at about this stuff is not the way for it to be taught unless you have an inherent interest in the subject matter for its own sake. I won't be going into this field any time soon, and mostly just survived on coffee.
But that's a digression. The book is not at fault for any of that. It covers a ton of material and if it had been taught more directly from the book, it would have been an even better resource than it already was. I prefer to read ahead but couldn't with the way the class was set up, so that may have had something to do with it.