A Life-size guide to Identifying and Classifying Six Hundred Seashells
by M.G. Harasewych & Fabio Moretzsohn
2010, Univ. of Chicago Press, laminated board covers, stitched binding, 565 pages, about 7 by 10¾ inches (18 by 27.5cm), excellent color photos on each page show reduced size view of entire shell, life sized view of shell or part of shell for comparative size, geographic distribution map with a guide to habitat and a drawing of the shell with size information given for illustrated shell and size range for species.
Make room on your book shelf now because sooner or later you are going to want to have this book in your shell library. This is not another of those coffee table type shell books that come out every few years that you will look through once and then never use again. This is a book that will be used time and time again. This is the first book that comes to mind that gives you a good visual clue as to the size of the shell on the page that you are using. Each shells discussion is very complete and written in a manner that makes it a delight to use and the introductory sections are among the best that I have seen. I think that new shell collectors will derive the most benefit from this book but us grizzled old-timers and malacological pros will also find a great deal of interesting material to study and to contemplate between the covers of this book. Thanks to the fact that the book is published in the USA it is also at a very affordable price.
