Signs & Symbols of the World: Over 1,001 Visual Signs Explained

I find symbology fascinating and this text is a good addition to my bookshelf.

It had some interesting information but I feel cheated. No one cares about what traffic signs mean unless they're testing for their driving permit. I can care less about military ranks because I didn't buy this book for that kind of information. Even the flag information was barely making the mark. I feel like I wasted my money.

Good book to have.

i would buy it again.

Informative

So, do you know the difference between an amulet and an emblem, or a glyph and an icon, or an ideogram and a pictograph, or an insignia and a sigil? Well, I do now, and I had a remarkably enjoyable time reading about and learning about all these sorts of signs and symbols. This book is a treasure trove of fascinating trivia, (not that there's anything trivial about civilization's oldest form of communication), and an entertaining and congenial companion.The book is heavy on text, but doesn't skimp on illustrations, (which is, of course, essential when the topic is signs). The organization is wildly idiosyncratic, but I suppose that is to be expected, and I'm not sure if there is any better way to organize such material. The general early flow is historical, in that the first chapters address Alchemy, Ancient Civilizations, Astrology, and Celtic Symbols. The proper order for Chemistry, Currency, Ideograms, Medical, Military, Musical, Transportation, and so on, (apart from being alphabetical), is however you would like it, and mostly just serves to emphasize the extreme skimmability of this work.And skim you should. The tone is engaging and entertaining, but not jokey or casually superficial. This book has not only breadth but depth. There is a great deal of information packed in here in handy sidebar and factoid style, and at least one pleasant, amusing, or intriguing surprise on every page.So, this was a delightful find. And I can thrill my associates with explanations of the differences among the "Eye of Ra", the "Eye of Horus", the "All-Seeing Eye", and the "Evil Eye". A real treat.(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Signs & Symbols of the World: Over 1,001 Visual Signs Explained by D.R. McElroy is a fairly comprehensive collection of symbols and their very basic meanings.While this is a good reference book it is not a scholarly reference book. I don't mean to say it doesn't have a place in a scholar's library but it is neither exhaustive in its descriptions nor does it offer a bibliography or any notes. This is neither a positive nor a negative in and of itself, just something readers need to understand. I miss having a bibliography but I think that is just my personal quirk. This book offers enough information that if I want to research further I have a jumping off point here. Space is also, I think, a consideration. With so many signs and symbols from such a wide range of uses, a bibliography or reference section could get to be as long as the body of the book. I think, for what it is, a general reference for casual readers who want to have access to information, it works wonderfully.I found the presentation to be appealing and I, for one, was neither confused about the layout or had problems knowing what captions went with what images. This is not a book on semiotics and does not get into a lot of depth, but most people who want a book covering this wide of an area don't want or need great depth, that can be found elsewhere, this is to answer the question "what is that symbol?" Why and how is a topic for another book(s).I see two main places where this book will be very popular. First is the person who simply likes to have a handy source that can answer the basic question of what a particular symbol is. This person will also likely enjoy reading through the book, whether cover to cover or jumping around. And it certainly doesn't hurt that this is an attractive book and, at 8"x10", can sit on a bookshelf or on a tabletop for display. The second place is the academic or researcher (writers, game developers, etc) who wants a handy reference to place a found symbol within a context or, conversely, to find symbols within an area they are working.Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

This was fascinating, intriguing and tickled my brain from start to end. Who doesn't like looking at different signs, weird pictures, etc? I loved learning more about the different zodiacs, international signs and more. This book has things I didn't even know existed so I think it is a good concise reference for people interested in the subject or people who are just curious.The author obviously did a lot of research to look for the familiar signs and symbols to the less familiar and unheard of signs. The end result was this book is a complete reference, as mentioned before, but can also full under fascinating useless information/trivia. Hey, maybe this will be a Jeopardy category someday (haha).I was very amused and intrigued by what I learned from this book. It was an easy read because it was mostly pictures and descriptions of each, so the size of this didn't bother me at all. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this and glad I requested this. I definitely want to get a hard copy to own to share this wisdom with others. Perhaps it can help with the game Pictionary too!Thanks to Netgalley, DR McElroy and Quarto Publishing-Wellfleet Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.Available: 5/5/20