The new Reviews section is a great idea. I'm really glad to be able to see what others have to say about books that I've been considering, as well as those books that I already own. It should prove to be a useful resource in assisting people of all ability levels in finding books specific to their needs.

The section might be improved upon in a couple of ways. First, it seems that the sight should follow standard convention in that book titles starting with "The", "A", and other throw-away words should have those words moved to the end of the title, delimeted by a comma.

In other words: 

The Perl Cookbook

[download]

should become: 

Perl Cookbook, The

[download]

As it stands now, people searching the list for The Perl Cookbook have to look for it under "T" instead of "P", where it would be found in any other book registry.

Other issues I see are that the book's author should appear next to the title, to help differentiate between various books of similar title. And reviewers should probably be asked to include the edition number as part of the title, or the site should append the edition number automatically based on reviewers inputting it in the review form.

Thanks for starting up this new section!

Dave

"If I had my life to do over again, I'd be a plumber." -- Albert Einstein

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Display of book titles in the Reviews section.
by cchampion (Curate) on Aug 26, 2003 at 08:46 UTC
    Thanks for starting up this new section!

    Did you extend your enthusiasm up to the point to actually reading any of the reviews?

    Apparently not, since the Book Reviews section has been there at least three years !

[reply]
      I was mistaken thinking the section was new. But yes, I've read about two dozen of the reviews. I guess I must have been mislead by the introduction to the Reviews section (emphasis added):

      This new section is devoted to alerting your fellow monks as to what certain modules, books, conferences are good for and why. Initially I'm envisioning an area for each of the following: books, modules, and conferences. I'm sure other categories will pop up eventually but that's what we'll start with for now.

      Age of the Reviews archive, and my length of time with Perlmonks not withstanding, I believe my point is valid. It would be constructive if comments and remarks regarding my assertion were directed at supporting or refuting it, not at my locally scoped experience level nor the age of the archive.

      It would be convenient, and in keeping with common convention, for "The", when it appears as the first word of a title, to be shifted to the end of the title following a comma. It would be smart to include the book's author next to the book name in the review. And as 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions become available, it would be nice to, at a glance, know which edition is being reviewed.

      Dave

      "If I had my life to do over again, I'd be a plumber." -- Albert Einstein

[reply]
[reply]

Back to Perl Monks Discussion