Handbooks: Shells: The Clearest Recognition Guide Available (DK Smithsonian Handbook) Paperback – May 15, 2002

With a rather extensive shell collection already labeled and identified but with more shells still to identify, I find books to be a valuable addition to the internet (note that Google Lens is a very valuable identification addition indeed!) After a long break, I recently dove back into my shell collection. I have many books, both general and specific, from the 1970's and before (including S. Peter Dance's "Seashells" from 1971), and each has its attributes. However, I was looking for an authoritative book that would cover a little bit (or a lot) of everything. This book does that! The photographs and detailed descriptions are not only informative but incredibly helpful for identifying a shell (or for reinforcing the identification I did years ago from drawings and written descriptions.) Obviously, with “only” 500 species identified in the book, the book can’t cover every shell, but it certainly covers a valuable number. I was especially reassured with Mr. Dance's words: "Do not expect to identify all of your shells down to species, or even to genus, right away. Identifying shells is seldom easy and takes time." Boy, does it ever....the shells "don't read the books," and there is so much variation within even the same genus and species. With each new shell for my collection, I am starting my identification process with Mr. Dance's "Shells," and it is proving a very worthy starting point. I highly recommend this book, both to seasoned collectors and to those just starting out. Happy shelling!

I purchased this book for my own needs (reference of course) and I am pleased with the book. The cover is a soft and flexible binding with a beautiful matte finish. The inside is nothing but full color photos of shells all grouped together by type. I am no expert in shells, so my observations might be lacking to those with more expertise, but I found the book to be satisfactory. It is easy to read and understand. You can see where each shell derives from and there are a few small factoid tidbits displayed next to the photos. I think for the price, you get a pretty good deal as long as you aren't looking for a ton of information and simply like seeing photos as a quick reference or, like for my purposes, you need just the basic facts and full color pictures of each type of shell, of which there are 600+ to peruse.

Great shell book. It is very helpful.

My wife wanted it and never used, it which is no surprise, looks great in my fish room though lol !

The book itself is great. Shells are well described and the locations where they can be found are easy as well. Five stars for the book. But I deduct a star because the description from the seller said the book was new. However it is second hand. In the front of the book there is a note written that says “merry christmas 2009 Caroline…” etc. So it was someones’ present. In that sense I really did pay too much, because the second hand books are a lot cheaper. Luckily the book does look pretty new and wasn’t used a lot. Great for me that Caroline kept it in great shape. Because for me the book is a real treasure I will use often. So I will keep it. And the seller did send it very fast. So maybe it was overlooked that the book was second hand. Lets’ give the benefit of the doubt.

The book was used and have several pages folded in. It teaches about Hella and their habitat. Gorgeous pictures and the explanations was easy to follow.

A very nice guide for shells found around the world. Obviously no book this size can hope to cover every shell found in the world, and those who want to actually go out and collect shells might want to invest in a book concentrating on their local area. The issue I previously mentioned with downloading onto the Kindle app for iPad has been resolved, and I have accordingly given the book five stars.

The pages, color and information is very well put together. My mother and I collect shells every year on vacation, and half the time we find something, we’re like “what in the world is that.” So this definitely helped us identify our favorite shells and the story behind them.