A fishy book

"Fiskarna i färg" is a Swedish book, first published in 1953. For reasons best known to themselves, Amazon actually carries the 1961 edition. My copy is from 1975. The book is part of a whole series of (probably worthless) field guides found in most public libraries in Sweden when I grew up. In fact, the "Färgserien" series may have been the first book on wild animals and nature I've leafed through as a kid. Ah, this product really brings back some memories!

This volume, written by Kai Curry-Lindahl, deals with the fish of the Nordic countries. Both Agnatha, Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes are covered. Or jawless, cartilaginous and bony fishes, if you're Latin is a bit rusty.

The book looks really old fashioned, with rather rough colour plates separated from the main text, which is super-serious and surprisingly detailed. There are even (Swedish?) pronunciation guides to the Latin names! Another annoying anachronism is that not all species are illustrated. The colour plates are adequate, but not much more - but then, Swedes who grew up during the 1970's and 1980's were spoiled by Lars Jonsson's and Bo Mossberg's superbly illustrated and almost artful nature books. Compare to these, Henning Anthon's illustrations look like the work of an amateur.

Since "Fiskarna i färg" is in Swedish, I'm not sure who would want to buy the last copy, but Amazon sells everything...and I review (almost) everything.