We live in a time when access to ceramic information from experienced, authoritative sources is ubiquitous. But, when it comes to actually choosing a book, it's hard to know just how good, how meaningful, any particular book will turn out to be. For anyone with curiosity about what ceramics is all about, this is a book that delivers. It's the book that the "gurus" all know about and refer to.
The amount of information for each entry is well considered. Some are short and concise, others run pages long if important subjects are being explained. After the A-Z section there is a 24-page appendix of very useful tables including cone charts, conversions and material compositions. This 454-page 6th edition by Frank & Janet Hamer is so much more than a dictionary; read it like a book and it will send you off in surprising new directions.