Biodiversity book not reader-friendly

Straits Times Forum 26 Jul 11;

I WAS thrilled to read about Singapore's own encyclopaedia of fauna and flora titled Singapore Biodiversity - An Encyclopedia Of The Natural Environment And Sustainable Development ("Life in an urban jungle"; last Saturday).

But the book was a disappointment, particularly the second half, which listed fauna and flora in reader-unfriendly alphabetical order, repeating the alphabetical index at the end of the book.

Only die-hard eggheads would flip through 295 pages of alphabetically arranged but otherwise random listings of fauna and flora.

Imagine reading a book on world history arranged strictly by dates without regard for civilisation or continent.

I hope the editors and publisher will reconfigure the book in its next run, hopefully with the fauna and flora categorised by genus.

Jacob Tan