Recent Trend in Aquarium Books

So I really wanted to vent about what appears to be a recent trend with aquarium books these days. For anyone who likes to read up on aquarium related things, you probably know how hard it is to find good literature about aquariums and everything that goes inside of them.

So last night in my research I stumbled upon a set of small books by Robert Fenner. I was interested, because I know he's a well known smart guy, so I purchased the one about Scorpionfishes. Let me tell you, for 106 pages and $10, it was a complete waste of money. I finished it in a hour, and I don't read that fast. And that's a clue to the problem. You have really smart people who know way more than I ever could and they just re-hash their online articles into a book and sell it.

Scorpionfishes: Lionfishes & Much More for Marine Aquariums Diversity, Selection & Care by Robert Fenner

The book is literally a combination of all the articles on WetWebMedia. There are even some typos here and there, but the more bothersome thing is that the book repeats itself about 4 or 5 times on certain items. The author/editor/whomever did not bother to make changes to the articles so you get a repeat everytime a lionfish and scorpionfish have something in common. (For those of you who aren't as familiar with those two groups of fish....they have a lot in common). All the pictures are from his website, and there is nothing new you can learn from the book that you can't learn from reading the website.

There are other books by him that were published the same time as this one (pretty much one book for each type of fish), so with warning, save yourself the money and go read it all online, for free.

Above, I mentioned a trend. There is another book about Lionfishes that I bought some years ago that is also a copy of online articles.

Lionfishes and Other Scorpionfishes (Aquarium Success) by Marini, Frank E., Ph. D.

Also save yourself the money and read the actual online article for free. Here's the link:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-11/fm/feature/index.php

Overall, I guess I'm just disappointed that you have all these new books by a good author, and they are all just copies of free articles. All the more ironic because I bought the ebook online. If Sprung, Delbeek, or Vargas, Mr. SaltwaterTank, or anyone else started doing this, I would be disappointed in them too. Don't buy them, save yourself the money.

 

I think the hope is that there is something new in the book not just a compilation of everything that's already written. This is not a scholarly thesis so it's not going to peer review.
Yes he does run the website, and others contribute to it (i believe, don't quote me) but why not add something new if you're making a book? A new chapter to go with your articles? Something that would drive people to buy the book.