The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cat Breeds (Illustrated Encyclopedias (Booksales Inc)) [ハードカバー]

The write-up and history sections of each breed in this book are very shallow, not detailed, and in some cases inaccurate. For example, the Chantilly Tiffany breed was NOT listed or discussed. Instead, this book lumps the Chantilly/Tiffany breed together with the British Tiffanie breed (p. 206), which as accurately stated in other books, "British Tiffanies have nothing to do with the American Chantilly/Tiffany breed." The write-up in this book is just plain wrong.

Furthemore, most of the information in this book is of the level of detail about what you would expect from a middle-school or high-school book report. I was very disappointed. "The new Encylopedia of the Cat", by Dr. Fogle (DK Publishing) which we ordered from Amazon.com at the same time, is much better and has a lot more accurate and informative details. If you want one book, get Dr. Fogle's. "The Illustrated Encylopedia of Cat Breeds" is shallow and inaccurate. It was a disappointment and a waste of money.

This book met most of my expectations for a general cat breed book, that said, my standards were not set that high...

1. General information- This book has a good section on coat colors and patterns, eye shape, body type, etc. at the front of the book. It also lists some colors that are specific to certain breeds in the front section.

There is a section on general cat history, care, and other points.

2. Photographs- The photographs are in color, and of average/good quality...Not steller, but not badly done either. They are not large, most taking up less than a quarter page in size.

3. Breed specific information- Some breeds have more photographs and information than others, particularly the popular breeds. For example, the persian section (called long haired) is from page 58 - 85). If you are a rare breed fan, you may only get one page with a couple of photographs. The information, although not very indepth, is formated in an interesting way... They give the standard, faults, and some general history of the breed, along with some details about appearance (with photographs) in an in-set box. If you are looking for specific information about the particular aspects of personality or genetics of a breed, this book is not for you.

4. Which standards?
Although this book gives the points allocated for each breed in the US, Most of the breed photos and the groupings/naming of the breeds seem to be British in origin...i.e. "longhair" instead of "persian", having the less extremely short-faced persians favored in the UK, having a more "oriental" looking havanah brown, etc. The photograph captions are also not any help in determining which "style" a cat is.

The good? The bad? Who should buy this book?

Good points:
-A good amount of photographs showing color and pattern variations within some of the more popular breeds.
-Good introductory section on behavior, color/markings, health issues, etc.
-Covers some breeds that other books leave out.

Bad points:
- Not much detail on breed characteristics and behavior.
-Sad lack of info and photos on rarer and less popular breeds.
- Funky combination of american standards with british pictures and groupings.

Who should buy this book?
- If you want a general reference with many breeds in it.
- If you want some basic information on coat color and pattern.
- If you want photographs of color variations within the more popular breeds (persian, siamese, burmese, british short hair, american shorthair, etc.)

I am a vet tech student and found this book helpful for judging points, types of ears, eyes, gestation, healt concerns of felines, type of diet, how much and what type of care. Excellent for the animal student or researcher