Abridged too far?

Posted on 2011/04/21 , tagged as

Share this

John Walsh of the Independent writes a long piece in the paper today about book series which aim to distil complex information into readable, accessible and enjoyable short books.

He seems to have little time for those millions who bought books like Stehen Hawking’s bestseller, pictured left, but in prefer to read shorter explanatory guides to what Hawking really meant

Naturally, Icon’s books are part of the discussion, both our well-known Introducing series and our much newer 30-Second books.  Walsh argues that ‘huge concepts can’t simply be boiled down into bite-size books.’ Regarding our Introducing series – much-loved by readers throughout the world, students and otherwise – he concedes that, despite the cartoon element, the series is

‘… a lot more sophisticated than it sounds, and you can learn much from the visuals that you might not learn from slabs of prose.’

but goes on to argue that

‘the trouble is, the presentation is so frantic, it pre-supposes a student with the attention span of a grasshopper.

We of course, disagree. What Walsh misses is primarily is that the graphic element to Introducing books, when read attentively, really makes you think. The images encourage you to mull over what you’ve read, and interpret the (often complex) ideas that the book is talking about – rather than just imbibe the author’s teachings as if by rote. Actually encouraging you to think about a subject is not only far more enjoyable, you’re also likely to retain more of the information.

But we’d love to hear what you think – please let us know by commenting on this post!