[.ca] Aquarium Plant Paradise (ISBN 079380518X)

Colour selection:
This is by far the worst book i do own on Amano's wonderful tanks. Pictures are poorly printed and the overall impression is deceptive.

very sloppy:
Just got this book and noticed that a lot of the information is inaccurate. It seems the pictures of the aquariums and the list of plants in the aquariums do not always match up. It's like they just started naming random plants for each picture.

Was this just an ad?:
I'm not sure what the purpose of the book was apart to say that Amano is good. The pictures are nice, but there are lots of nice pictures available for free.

Great photos, poor information:
I was vary disapoited with this book. It lacked information, jumped around with subjects, and focused more on aesthetic reasons and left out many of the "basics" of aqutic gardining, such as plant profiles, nutriant levels, and CO2 tips. It's more like a picture book than a guide book.

Amano is nothing if not inspiring:
I think Amano's critics tend to overlook the fact that he is a photographer, not a botanist or icthyologist. Even though his technical skills and knowledge of his craft are profound and probably rival, if not exceed, some of the "experts" in the field, he is first and foremost an artist. An exceptional artist. He has taken his love and respect of nature, reduced it to it's essentials and fleshed it out with a personal, subtle spirituality that is conveyed in all of his books, and this one is no exception..... ....as long as you can overlook the typos and printing errors. I don't understand why the publisher would spend the money for spot gloss and good stock, yet overlook glaring alignment and spelling errors, but as previously mentioned by other reviewers, this book does seem hastily put together. It's not horrid though, and unfortunately it seems that all Japanese books translated for the American market suffer in much the same way, regardless of their genre. If you are looking for in-depth technical how-to's and plant information, you will not find it here. However, it's obvious that was not what this book was intended to be in the first place, so it seems unfair to hold it up to that standard. Despite the poor translation and the brevity of the technical information, I think this book can come in handy for the beginning aquatic plant enthusiast, and is a nice low-cost introduction to Takashi Amano. This book emphasizes smaller tanks with smaller, easy-to-keep fish (mostly), gives a broad overview of each tank and provides the basic groundwork for providing a pleasing tank layout. All this in 64 pages for $...- not bad, especially considering that it's more of an art book than a technical manual in the first place. If this book was more expensive, I'd be harsher in my review of it. However, I think for the price, it certainly delivers.