Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Department of Good Timing: New University Press Book Called 'Catastrophes!'

University Press books are notoriously obscure, at least for the general reader. These presses, which specialize in academic research on specialized topics, are not what you'd call timely.

But The John Hopkins University Press has hit the jackpot, at least when it comes to good timing. We spotted a recent ad (in the NY Review of Books) for this title, Donald R. Prothero's new book Catastrophes! Prothero's subtitle is even more on target: Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornadoes, and Other Earth-Shaking Disasters.

We don't know Prothero or his work, but we suspect that he has some important things to say on this topic. He is described in the ad as a paleontologist and geologist who "tells the harrowing stories behind these catastrophic events."

After recent events in Japan, we think Prothero may also be have a pretty good crystal ball.

1 comment:

Donald Prothero said...

Thanks for giving me credit for foresight--but the timing was entirely accidental. The book was written in summer 2009 and was supposed to be ready in 2010, but production delays pushed us to an early 2011 release. The Hopkins marketing people said we should try to link our publicity to the next natural disaster that occurred after the book was released--and then Sendai happened. Most book timing like this is purely an accident, since books often take 2 or more years from complete draft to final publication.