Astronomy: A Self-Teaching Guide by Dinah L. MochéMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
This was my daughter's textbook for an astronomy class at a small liberal arts college. Given this application, I was not a fan of the message the title of this book sent. Why was I paying for a college class when it looks like they give you a "self teaching" guidebook. Curious, I read this book. Before reading this book, I'd consider myself a fan of astronomy, having read a number of pop science books on it over the years, and having an interest in astronomy and space travel when in school before college. I found that this book covered many of the same specific topics I already had a basic level of understanding in, and added a layer of more complex information. It did this primarily by providing definitions to dozens of new words, as well as as many words I was already familiar with. The book covered the topics you'd expect - stars, distances, planets... It also had a chapter on life beyond Earth. But because of the way it was written, to highlight the vocabulary of astronomy, this just wasn't very exciting or ultimately that interesting. Good as a dictionary, bad as a story teller.
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