[Rockhounds] new Agates and Jaspers book

[Pmodreski at aol.com]

Hi, Rockhounds List,
 
I wanted to tell you about a new book which I think is quite good, and  
which I don't think (unless I have missed it, that does happen sometimes) has  
been mentioned yet on our List.
 
It's "Agates and Jaspers", by Ron Gibbs, just published (2009) by him via  
his own publishing & website company.  You can read all about it, and  order 
it if interested, from his website, _http://www.theimage.com/_ 
(http://www.theimage.com/)  .
 
It is indeed a real (hard copy printed) book, 239 pages (if you count the  
last page, which is blank), softcover.  It mostly consists of very good  
color photos of all kinds of agate and jasper, but with just enough explanatory 
 text to make for some interesting reading about the different varieties 
and his  thoughts and summaries about how the different types of agate and  
jasper may have formed.  I particularly appreciated (and thought,  mostly 
right on!) his summary about what is the difference between agate and  jasper, 
anyway?, and his discussions about what is or isn't, really  "jasper", in 
spite all the things that are called jasper, sometime  inaccurately.
 
The back of the book and his website give a capsule bio about the author,  
noting his professional backgrounds (research chemistry, digital 
photography,  and website management) and that he was the website manager for the 
Midwest  Federation for several years, and now lives in North Carolina.  Ron is  
obviously a person who is very passionately interested in rocks, especially  
agate and jasper, who knows quite a bit about them, and is a skilled  
photographer.  I ordered this book ($40 + $4 shipping in U.S.) a week or  two ago 
and it arrived very promptly, shipped directly by him and signed  as 
advertised by the author.
 
Surprisingly, I'd not yet heard about this book through any of the regular  
"rockhound" channels; I read about it in via email I receive from Colored  
Stone magazine, which contains mostly gemstone trade news.  I was very  
pleased to read about this new book, it sounded very good, and it is.   There 
have been a number of books published about agates, but who has ever seen  
anything in detail before written about jasper?
 
About the only (a minor quibble) criticism I'd make about the book is that  
it doesn't cover (or, necessarily claim to) "every type" of agate and  
jasper--some of the pages of pictures seem to be just of whatever particular  
examples of pretty and unusual-looking agate or jasper the author happened to  
have acquired, and sometimes the locality for what he shows is simply given 
as  "I got this from a dealer at Quartzsite who said it was from Turkey".  
He  just gives a light touch to fortification agates overall--I don't think 
there  are any pictures at all of Lake Superior  or Fairburn agates--but 
there are  plenty of other books that picture these, and most of his emphasis 
is on plume,  moss, and sagenitic agates, and jaspers.
 
I like the book!
 
Pete Modreski, Denver, Colorado
 
**************Recession-proof vacation ideas.  Find free things to do in 
the U.S. 
(http://travel.aol.com/travel-ideas/domestic/national-tourism-week?ncid=emlcntustrav00000002)


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