The Illustrated World Encyclopedia of Apples: A comprehensive identification guide to over 400 varieties accompanied by 60 scrumptious recipes

Another reviewer lambasted this book saying it wasn't relevant to American growers. Odd, considering apples came from Europe! This book contains American apple varieties and ALSO contains most - if not all - of the major varieties the Europeans created over hundreds of years. Soo... bottom line: this is an excellent history lesson of apples as they came across the pond...

This is a great book for a new (and I'm sure experienced) Apple Orchardist. The pictures are beautiful and the recipes easy to read. Although many of the apples are of European descent, I still found the book helpful in many ways as a reference book. The information provided on history, breeding, locations, etc are detailed and helpful. Again, the photos are exceptional and even though many of the apples detailed originate (or still are) in Europe, it is still a great reference book, as some of the apples from Europe are the ancestors of apples in the United States.

only 400 out of 7500 aple varieties are described - not good enoughonly 400 out of 7500 aple varieties are described - not good enough

Although the book is beautifully illustrated and many England apples are described, the two glaring issues are not indicating if they are suitable for cider making or not. Most listings are "culinary", or "dessert". Also, many popular apples, like Gala and Rome Beauty, to name just a few American apples aren't listed or even noted that they exist. It seems highly biased to European apples, so is mostly worthless to the average American reader IMO. I'm sorry I bought the book because it wasn't inexpensive, and lacking the information I sought.

Great information regarding various varieties of apples! There is so much to learn about apples and book helps to identify different species. There's even some recipes to try.

I absolutely love this book. Great pictures and give a great over view of how of taking care of the trees, from beginning to end.

This contains mostly photos of various apple varieties and very little information on them.Information given was how to grow apples in general.

I was expecting a lot more from this book. It was delayed many times and I finally ordered it from Amazon UK. I will keep it in my collection of reference books but it just doesn't have much useful information.

A nice looking book with excellent photography. Subjects covered include apples in history and myth, cultivation & training, propagation, harvesting & storage and pests & diseases. These are all a basic overview and more detail can be found in other books. Then there is the apple directory in alphabetical order with clear photos of all apples featured - top view, bottom view, cut in half and with some, on the tree as well. However, maybe I'm writing from too British a perspective but there are quite a few varieties left out which I would like to have seen included such as Discovery, Laxton's Epicure, Lord Derby, Bloody ploughman to name but a few. It would also have been nice to see some cider varieties. As befits an international book there are many varieties from France, USA etc. which I will never ever see. Some of the subject apples left me wondering "surely they could have found a better specimen than that to photograph!" The final section of the book is comprised of recipes featuring apples but in my opinion it would have been better to leave this out and instead squeeze more apple varieties in - there are plenty of cookbooks out there but not that many truly comprehensive apple identification guides. Not a bad book and at the price its worth adding to your collection.

Even basic information about the varieties would have been useful, like some indication of flowering time or disease resistance. Sometimes this is included in footnotes or comments, but it is not provided consistently. The main value of the book is the pictures of so many different varieties.

A good picture reference but it would help if it had more information about fruit ripening times and pollination groups.

Although the book is quite good and the delivery was on time I was looking for more in depth on pruning apple trees

I wish I had bought this wonderful book before. It gives you a great introduction to the world of apples. Great photography and I love the combination of encyclopedia and cook book. Lots of great recepies.