Having received a copy several weeks ago, I thought I would give myself a chance to properly devour America's Top 100 Zoos and Aquariums before posting any significant comment here.
I do need to preface my comments by stating that I am good friends with each of the authors: I have known Tim for a quarter of a century, and, through this website, have got to know Scott very well over the past decade or so. The less-frequently-mentioned Alan Ashby, who was responsible for much of the design of the book, is another very good, very old friend.
I have to say that I think the book is fantastic.
It is weighty - literally so - and it looks fabulous: the design is clean, and consistent, and the choice of photographs is excellent (even if, in an ideal world, I would have liked to have seen fewer plucked from Flickr and other such sources). The choice of zoos seems wholly reasonable and fair (if the biggest discussion is as to whether Franklin Park Zoo, Boston, was unfairly excluded, or as to whether the Seaworld parks deserve their inclusion, then things can't be too contentious). Mistakes are very few (so far, I have only come across one statue which seems to have grown in size to be ten times its actual height, and one homonym given the incorrect spelling - more-than-forgiveable errors in a text of this scale, I think).
The text is really very good indeed. The histories of each zoo are rendered efficiently and with clarity - and, I think, with authority as well. The descriptions of each zoo as it is today are well done - although, personally, I would have liked these to have been more opinionated, to give a greater sense of what it is that the authors like (or don't like). Those opinions do come through at times (we can see their dismay at the way in which Busch Gardens mixes animals with 'fun', for example), but as to whether they really like, say, Indianapolis Zoo - often, we do not learn. There is a definite upside to this, however: this isn't just a personal vanity project, in which two authors have self-indulgently foisted their views on to a reading public, but, rather is an objective catalogue which will be relevant to future generations of zoo enthusiasts, just as, for example, Anthony Smith's landmark Animals on View is still relevant nearly 50 years after its publication.
One problem that the authors have faced in completing this book is that, with some exceptions, the histories of US zoos are often very similar: ragtag animal collection in a public park slowly evolves into something more, usually enhanced by the arrival of an elephant 'paid for' by local children and a WPA building or two. I think a similar volume focusing on European zoos would see more variety on this area.
But that does not in any way take away from the importance, the quality, and the enjoyability of this book. Over the Christmas period I have derived an enormous amount of pleasure from sitting by the fire, reading abut the zoos of Nashville, Houston and Fort Worth, dreaming of future zoo trips. America's Top 100 Zoos and Aquariums will certainly sit on my desk alongside the handful of volumes to which I refer the most often, and I cannot imagine that anyone with even the most passing of interests in zoos would not want - and need - to buy it and devour it.
) but don't do postcards (there lies madness
) or annual reports (no time to read, too big to store). I know a few in the Premiership but I'm merely a Championship outfit bobbing around the play-off spots for promotion.
