Beachcomber's Guide to Gulf Coast Marine Life: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida

This book is an example of bad packaging that's the publisher's fault, not the author's. The colorful cover and title "Beachcomber's Guide" make you think it's for kids and casual beach-goers. It isn't. I found it great for helping me identify the little bioluminescent comb-jellies off our dock, and if you've ever puzzled about why the eastern Gulf is like the Atlantic and the western Gulf is so different, this book explains it beautifully. It's nicely organized according to habitat, so you can concentrate on looking for the right things in the right place. If you spend a lot of time on the Gulf Coast and have a serious interest in knowing more about the non-fish fauna, get this! But don't buy it for a vacation stroll on the beach.

If you read the description you’ll find that this really isn’t a book for children. It’s slightly academic but certainly not a text book. I learned many things in the first 3 pages. For instance, I never knew of the zoographic region called the Carolinian Provence of the Gulf of Mexico. The illustrations are good enough if you’re familiar with a certain beach. Port Aransas is our beach and the writing felt instantly familiar. I love this book. It’s not for your kids. It’s for you to be smarter than your kids when you go to the beach. They are not going to want to read a book while at the beach. That’s my plan. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I received either a very poor-quality printing or an outright fake copy of this book. Every page of text is cut off along all four margins, the page at the beginning of each chapter looks like bad photocopy, and even the title on the front cover is messed up. Shame on either the printer/publisher for letting copies like this ship out or on the despicable counterfeiter who made this fake copy.

Helped with my classes

I received either a very poor-quality printing or an outright fake copy of this book. Every page of text is cut off along all four margins, the page at the beginning of each chapter looks like bad photocopy, and even the title on the front cover is messed up. Shame on either the printer/publisher for letting copies like this ship out or on the despicable counterfeiter who made this fake copy. I know the original book is not like this because I have a copy of this same third edition that we purchased about 10 years ago that has none of these defects.

perfect condition

I expected something my grandchildren would use, but the level is about college level.

perfect