Google Eats Light Science and Magic

An earlier edition of the book, "Light - Science and Magic" has been partially eaten by the either wonderful or terrible Google book scanning machine. I have mixed emotions about this. On the one hand, why even go to the trouble of writing books if Google is just going to scan and publish them?

On the other hand, at least they have (only partially) scanned an earlier, B&W edition. The current edition -- the third -- is completely redone, with reworked articles and full color (all new) illustrations.

UPDATE: I have been told that Google now gets permission from the authors before scanning books. I do not know if this was always the case. (I remember a big stink about it earlier.) But either way, I am very glad they are getting permission. Thanks to Aaron for for the info.

So I am publishing the link as a sort of test drive for those who might be considering grabbing the current edition. Do not use the Google link on the scanned book, however. It takes you the older edition, which is not nearly as good and is more expensive.

And the good news is that the third edition is finally back in stock at Amazon, and the price has been dropped by almost eight bucks.

Links:

:: Google-Scanned second edition ::
:: Review of Third Edition of L-S&M ::
:: Third Edition, at Amazon ::


Thanks to Jeremy for the heads-up.