by Lindsay on May 7th, 2012
Verdict: carrot
The time had arrived to upgrade my cellphone and one of the new programs I was able to download was Sky Maps.
I now had a screen full of stars and planets with names that meant nothing to me. Now, together with this book and a small telescope bought at an auction, I am ready to reach for the stars.
Book Details
» read article
by Luso on May 3rd, 2012
Verdict: carrot
What do you call a lover of dictionaries? Lexicomane, perhaps? Unsurprisingly, no such word can be found in the new English Dictionary for South Africa. But that’s no criticism, for this is above all a practical work.
Book Details
» read article
by Carolyn on May 2nd, 2012
Verdict: carrot
In South Africa, we are spoilt for choice when it comes to bird identification guides and bird watchers get quite attached to their guide.
The Sasol Birds Of Southern Africa has always had a strong following and this is the fully revised a fourth edition.
Book Details
- Sasol Birds of Southern Africa IV by Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey, Peter Ryan, Warwick Tarboton, illustrated by Norman Arlott
EAN: 9781770079250
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
» read article
by Sophy on Apr 24th, 2012
Verdict: carrot
Regular listeners of the SAfm radio programme Word of Mouth will be familiar with University of Cape Town linguistics professor Rajend Mesthrie. The Sunday programme features a group of experts discussing various language issues. Often listeners appear to be elderly individuals who have been greatly put out by a mispronunciation by a South African TV presenter, or what they see as the gradual encroachment of “nonsensical” modern terms on English. Sometimes it is difficult not to feel some of their issues have nothing much to do with language, and everything to do with a sense of unease and confusion at a rapidly-shifting modern landscape. That’s the thing about language, of course: extricating it from matters of identity is an almost impossible task.
Book Details
» read article
by Chiara on Mar 28th, 2012
A dispute has emerged between historians Andrew Duminy, UKZN Professor Emeritus, and Elri Liebenberg, chair of the ICA Commission on the History of Cartography, over Duminy’s innovative new book, Mapping South Africa – a book which provides a popular overview of South African maps and charts.
The book has been a five-year project for Duminy, which, thanks to recent developments in digital technology, makes accessible images of maps that have not previously been available to the public.
While the book has been well praised for its approachable, jargon-free tone, its lack of extensive scholarly endnotes has ignited the mirth of Liebenberg, who, in her review of the book, says such to make such an omission is to “commit literary suicide”. Liebenberg claims to have found “approximately 160 scientific and historical errors in the text” but that “to identify and comment on all of these would require almost another book, which is particularly prescient considering that Liebenberg is soon to release her own book on the history of mapping in South Africa.
Leibenberg laments that such errors are found in what would surely be any historian’s “MacGuffin” – the first book ever to be published on the history of South African cartography. Duminy’s response to Liebenberg’s review led to further correspondence between Duminy and Liebenberg in the pages of Business Day.
Duminy has responded to several of the attacks made about factual accuracy and raises suspicions regarding Liebenberg’s refusal to allow Duminy to view her list of alleged errors. He also points out that she “misrepresents” his book as a “reference work” when it, in fact, makes no attempt to present itself as such. Without reading the book though, it is hard to tell where factual correction begins and academic ego ends.
Here is Liebenberg’s review, followed by Duminy’s response and two shorter letters:
Liebenberg’s review
The pre-publication notice of Andrew Duminy’s book, entitled Mapping South Africa A Historical Survey of South African Maps and Charts, was widely welcomed by everybody interested in historical maps. The history of cartography of South Africa has been a long-neglected subject in this country and the prospect that a well-researched book on either the mapping of the country, and/or the actual maps produced during southern Africa’s tumultuous history, was on the press, created much excitement. To date the only other book which deals with historical maps of the subcontinent, is Oscar Norwich’s.
Maps of Africa (Johannesburg: Donker 1972), a catalogue which is of limited use to the person interested in the more scientific aspects of surveying and mapping. Given this positive climate of anticipation, it is most unfortunate that Duminy’s book falls considerably short of expectations. To academics and professional people working in the fields of astronomy, geodesy, surveying and cartography, it is clear that the author, who is by his own admission a non-expert in these fields, ventured into a thoroughly unfamiliar terrain where he got seriously stuck on almost every page. Many of the sinkholes he fell into could have been filled up beforehand if the manuscript had been given to knowledgeable people to read and make recommendations before publication. With this not done, the value of the book has been seriously compromised.
Duminy’s response
Prof. Liebenberg takes me to task for neglecting to include a number of developments in the history of mapping. What to include in and what to exclude from a book is a problem all authors face, especially those like me preparing a short, popular survey of a vast subject. I am sure that ten different authors would write ten different accounts of the subject, all with differing emphases. I look forward to seeing these topics dealt with by Prof. Liebenberg in the book I hope she may yet publish on the history of South African maps.
Like Prof. Liebenberg, I regret that in a number of instances the maps had to be reduced in size to fit on the page (though I doubt whether most general readers would be interested in the reason she gives for wanting greater legibility, i.e. so as to discern between different printing and production techniques). In all illustrated books there is a trade-off between size and cost. A much larger format would no doubt have enhanced legibility but it would have made the book unaffordable to the general reader.
Letter from Liebenberg
I am writing in connection with the interview with Prof Andrew Duminy, author of Mapping SA: A Historical Survey of South African Maps and Charts (Jacana) (March 6).
As I have a copy of this book, I have read the piece in Business Day with great interest.
Letter from Duminy
Prof Elri Liebenberg (A misleading map, Letters, March 8), who is herself intending to publish a book on the subject, continues to misrepresent my book as a “reference work”, whereas it is a short, popular survey; the result of a personal voyage of discovery.
Book details
» read article
by Chiara on Mar 27th, 2012
Verdict: carrot
Sharpeville has twice been the scene of epochal confrontations between popular will and state power. On March 21 1960 police fired rifles and automatic weapons into a crowd of protestors, killing 69 of them, injuring three times as many and inaugurating a new phase of resistance. In 1984, as Tom Lodge puts it in his carefully written new history, Sharpeville and the townships of the Vaal triangle “came to represent the epicentre of an insurrectionary rebellion that, through the remainder of the decade, would engulf South Africa”.
Book Details
» read article
by Carolyn on Mar 23rd, 2012
Uitspraak: wortels!
Jacques Marais is top-fiks, ’n goeie fotograaf en altyd bruisend op pad na sy volgende avontuur.
’n Mens sal moeilik iemand meer geskik vind om ’n boek te skryf soos Die Avontuur Gids van Suid-Afrika (Lapa-uitgewers, 2012, sagteband, 380 bladsye, R275), wat pas verskyn het.
…
Gert Erasmus van George was lank ’n veldwagter in die Krugerwildtuin. Daar het hy ’n besonderse belangstelling in bome ontwikkel.
Ná sy aftrede het hy gaan sit en skryf. Sy boek Witgat het hy self gepubliseer. Dié boomboek is ’n waardevolle bron wat net iemand met baie ervaring kon opdis.
Boekbesonderhede
» read article
by Sophy on Mar 23rd, 2012
Verdict: carrot
This is how a book should look
I love books, and particularly books about African wildlife – so I’ve got quite a collection. I think I know wildlife books. But every now and then one comes along that stands out and really gets me excited.
And few have excited for a while as much as Gamebirds of Southern Africa by Rob Little and Tim Crowe, with illustration by Simon Barlow (second edition, published by Struik Nature).
Book Details
» read article
by Carolyn on Mar 22nd, 2012
Uitspraak: wortel, maar weens swaar styl sal dit dalk slegs kenners boei
Ons leef in ’n gekarteerde wêreld; elke vierkante meter van die aardoppervlak kan met beeldskerp satellietfoto’s nagespeur word.
Ons ken die ligging en grootte van alle vastelande, state en stede. GPS-toestelle maak dit moontlik om presies te bepaal waar ons ry.
Boekbesonderhede
» read article
by Carolyn on Mar 20th, 2012
Verdict: carrots!
My first pick is The History of the World, a giant volume by Frank Welsh, published by Quercus. The book is a joy to handle.
The beautiful cover invites you to step inside, where magnificent pictures reproduced on high-quality paper stimulate interest, so that the reader naturally turns to the text to find out more.
Book Details
» read article
Apr
