Stuart Lowe

In Cosmos: The Infographic Book of Space, by Stuart Lowe and Chris North, simple-looking line drawings encode a vast amount of information about everything from telescopes to the 30,000 nearest galaxies. Each graphic occupies all the available area on every two-page spread. Although the graphics are organized by topic, I was often surprised as I turned from one page to the next. One page shows relative sizes of planets and moons; the next, an enormous chart summarizing future lunar and solar eclipses throgh 2050; the next, an amusing comparison of the solar system's top ten tallest mountains, biggest lakes, longest channels, and largest craters; the next, scale comparisons of the interior structures of the 14 largest worlds orbiting the Sun. (I had no idea that Loki Patera's lake of lava is the same size as Lakes Baikal and Tanganyika. Yikes.) It's the kind of book that you can pick up and turn to any page and enjoy what you find, but you have to read it cover to cover to be delighted by each and every page.… (mer)