Question for James or Eric: Coral Reef Ecology by Y. Sorok

[Anonymous]

James or Eric,

Could you please let me know how much we will be referring to the following book during this course:

Coral Reef Ecology (Ecological Studies, V. 102) by Yuri I. Sorokin

I know it's not a required text but it is now a recommended text. If we are going to be doing some extensive reading in this text I'd like to know as I may have to check w/ my financial advisor (i.e. wife) about dropping the $$ on this book. I'm just trying to get a feel for the amount of reading that we are going to be doing in this book so that I can try to cost-justify it. If we're going to get heavily into this book I'd like to know. How many pages out of the 500 will we be reading (ballpark).

Thanks in advance guys!

liquid

 

[Anonymous]

I received an email earlier on this same subject. Here was my response:

<<We have played with these books so much. First, I didn't think there was a text to really work with my course - just bits and pieces of several texts and lots of articles. Then, I found Ecology of Indonesia Seae late last year and it was perfect. Its even available in the airport gift shops in Indonesia. But, the publisher in the US was awful to deal with and refused to help us at all. So, we questioned using it at all. Then, reefs.org suggested using my new book. Normally, I don't have the wherewithall egotistically to do such a thing, but everyone asssured me it was worthy of using. Humbly, i agreed. I had suggested, instead, using Sorokin although it was not an ideal work to use by comparison to the Indonesia volumes. Until last week, even I was confused which we were using as required/optional/suggested readers.

Sorokin is an excellent book, BUT for one thing. It was translated from Russian, and there are a plethora of errors - grammatical and otherwise, resulting from its translation. One not familiar with the scientific literature would not know where the problems lie, excepting the grammar. Also, the referencing is awful. But, it is one of the best secondary sources around, and for the money can't be beat. Similar works in scope cost several hundred dollars and are even less available. No, you don't need this book, and I will provide any information from it in my lectures I think is worth knowing for the class. But, if you find the course and the depth interesting, I would highly suggest it for a purchase in the future as a reference source....it has information not found anywhere else.>>

Eric