"Secret Weapons of World War II" by William Yenne

[RabidAlien]

Currently reading "Secret Weapons of World War II" by William Yenne. I'm divided on this one. The editing is horrific (at one point, he mentions the launch date of a submarine by saying "it was launched on August."), and aside from the cover, there are absolutely no photos included anywhere. None. Nada. Not even a photo of an Me262. The only thing that's kept me reading is the fact that he's mentioned several weapons/submarines/rockets that I hadn't heard of before...and I'm looking forward to getting to Hitler's flying saucer. Would I recommend this book to anyone? Probably not. Will I keep it in my library? Nope.

Okay, I quit this one. Barely made it half way through. Its now sitting on my "to sell" pile.

 

[GrauGeist]

Dang man, that bad?

Can't belive anyone would go to any length of research for a book and have it published without any images/photos...

Is it hard-bound or soft-bound how many pages?

 

[RabidAlien]

I had the paperback version, 290 pages of text plus an index after that. He had a lot of dates, researchers, developers, etc, so I know it took some searching to find all of these entries, which makes the complete lack of photos totally mindboggling. Heck, he talks about the flying wings, the Me262, and various submarines (including the I-400 series), of which I KNOW photos exist....I have quite a few of each in my own downloaded collection. Plus, as I said, the editing is truly horrific. There was one spot where he was talking about a developer, and mentioned his name...then a paragraph later, mentioned the same guy again, but misspelled the name. Or had misspelled the name to begin with. But, c'mon....ONE STINKIN PARAGRAPH APART???? Even if this was self/vanity-press published, at least hit your spellchecker!!!

 

[GrauGeist]

I feel your pain...I've picked up a book because the title and brief description led me to think I was in for a good read, only to discover it was a huge disappointment.

As far as typos are concerned, I'm starting to think that they are a way of life these days. "They" keep screaming and beating thier chests for more money in the school system and yet it appears that everyone is illiterate and can't even tell you what the capitol of New Mexico is (or spell it correctly for that matter)...

While reading the latest news on the quake in Japan, I was amazed at the amount and frequency of typos in the article...and this was the Washington Post I was reading...sad almost to the point of an official fail.

 

[RabidAlien]

...Alberquerque, right? Dammit. Did the spellcheck, its "Albuquerque". But, yeah, I hate the fact that nobody knows how to read/write anymore. So much for "the State lottery supports education"!!! The only part of education it supports is the harsh lesson of "statistics". We're laying teachers off here in Texas, saying the school system is massively over-budget and funding is going to be cut drastically, yet the school board officials are driving around in Mercedes/Caddys, living in million-dollar houses....it scares me how all this is going to affect the future.


ETA: Just so's y'all know, I am aware that the capitol of New Mexico is Santa Fe....which is a heckuvalot easier to spell than Albar....Albuerk.....Elbow.....that other place.

 

[tyrodtom]

I think I got that book from the Military Book Club years ago, a total waste of a good tree.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

We will stay away from that one then. Thank for the review RA! And as for Albuquerque, Bugs was always making a wrong turn there.

 

[RabidAlien]

Yep. Some of the best Bugs cartoons ever! Didn't he usually end up in the Sahara somewhere?