As the lyrics of one of the most famous popular Christmas songs goes “He knows if you’ve been bad or good / So be good for goodness sake.” And I mean really good; at least if you want to have a hope of seeing a copy of Lynx Edicions’ new 87.00€ Bird Families of the World in your stocking.
Not that a copy would fit in any conventional Christmas sock. After all, it is essentially a distillation of the entire seventeen volume Handbook of the Birds of the World condensed by David W. Winkler, Shawn M. Billerman, and Irby J. Lovette into a single 600 page volume that includes 243 distribution maps, 750 colour photos, and 2,336 bird figures illustrating each and every bird genus.
Lynx describes this new book as having been “designed to serve both as a text for ornithology courses and as a resource for serious bird enthusiasts of all levels.” As someone who has a complete set of the HBW prominently lined-up along one side of an exceptionally sturdy desk, I am very eager indeed to get a look into it to see how well it lives up to this description.
