Let's Learn Astrology, page 3

Contents:

Introduction

1. Learning the basics: Signs of the zodiac, planets, houses, major aspects

2. The details: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto

3. Speaking astrology more fluently: Astrology in action, Combining astrological symbols

4. Delineating a horoscope: Harrison Ford & Clark Gable - the male icon [sic], Martha Stewart

5. Relationship astrology: Jane Fonda's three marriages, Matt Damon & Ben Affleck - an enduring friendship, Obsessive love

6. Astrology as a tool: Using astrology to plan events, Predicting the future with astrology, The predictive tools of astrology

7. Astrology & spirituality: Karmic astrology

Comment: This is a collection of essays that first appeared in Dell Horoscope. Checking the Dell site, I see that Ms Frederick has an ongoing monthly column.

In the table of contents, for each chapter there are opening remarks. The first chapter, Learning the Basics:

Here is where you gain the information you need to make sense of astrology. You may have to memorize at first, but soon enough it will all make sense to you & you'll go on instinct.

In this case, a good book on astrological basics cannot be made from a collection of articles from a popular magazine. Dell Horoscope has not, in recent memory, devoted the time or sheer space to publish comprehensive, well-thought-out instructional articles. What it prints instead are glosses & overviews. Fun to read, but not something you can learn from.

Even with the text as it is, a better book could be had with better formatting. That's the publisher's job, and, I regret to say, the publisher has let the author down. So some quick notes:

Line length vs: point size. In this case, 8-10 point type with 5.75 inch width type blocks. Long lines of small type make it hard to follow the text, line by line. Make the type bigger, or make the text blocks narrower.

There are no page headers in the book. Open the book to any page, you will not know where you are, nor in what chapter.

Along with this, there are few, almost no, subheads. The author's text runs on, paragraph after paragraph, with no clear idea where she is or what she's talking about. Chapter six, Astrology as a Tool, is as good an example as any. It's divided into three sections. Here is the first:

Part One: Using Astrology to Plan Events: 1st paragraph: Personal story. Paragraphs 2-4, introductory remarks. Paragraph 5: Back to the personal story. 6: Reasons for electing times. 7. Buy a car. 8. Mercury & buying a car. 9. Cars & retrograde Mercury. 10-11. Caesarian delivery. 12. Birth charts for Caesarians. 13. What astrologers can & cannot do. 14-15. A charity ball. 16-39: Planning a wedding. (pgs. 167-175)

Publisher-supplied subheads would have made sense of this ramble. They would have forced the author to make cleaner breaks from topic to topic. They would have led the reader on, as, otherwise, I don't know if the casual reader will suspect that after tips on buying a car, there follows a minor treatise on getting hitched. The pages simply run on & on & on.

This book is Print-on-Demand. As such, not that much money was spent on it. With a bit of formatting & a bit of editing, it could be shaped into something quite decent. While I haven't asked, I presume the reason the book was published was that the author was a favorite with Dell Horoscope, and that many sales to Dell's readers are hoped for. Years ago I advertised with Dell & I think the hopes are misplaced. Aside from the AFA's own membership, I doubt it & Dell share much readership. Second, the bulk of Dell's subscribers read their sun-sign forecasts & nothing else. I would like to be wrong.

If there's any lingering doubt, check out the author's own website.

AFA, 204 pages.

AFA, 85 pages.

1. The basics of astrology; 2. The zodiac; 3. The sun, 5th house & the conjunction; 4. The moon & the 4th house; 5. The ascendant & your persona; 6. Mercury, the third & sixth houses, and the trine; 7. Venus, the second & seventh houses, and the opposition; 8. Mars, the first house, and the square; 9. Jupiter, the ninth house, and the sextile; 10. Saturn, the tenth house & the semisquare & sesquisquare; 11. Uranus, the eleventh house & the semisextile & quincunx; 12. Neptune, the twelfth house & the quintile & biquintile; 13. Pluto, the eighth house & synthesis; 14. Transits; 15. The midheaven & self-awareness

Glossary; Appendix 1: Astronomical data; Appendix 2: Creating a birthchart using your CD-Rom program; Bibliography; Index.

Comment: This is about half a book. Planets are not delineated by house, and there is virtually nothing about aspects (nothing at all about nodes). The organization, where a planet, a couple of houses, and an aspect, are jumbled into one chapter, does not make a lot of sense to me. There is a CD-Rom (for Windows computers only), I have not looked at it.

Llewellyn, 228 pages, plus CD-Rom.