Hi Brainard et al. I don't have much experience in heavy reading of any book ( :) ), but in my= opinion, spiral bound types are very ugly and don't fit in well on my bo= okshelf. I think the only reason they are beneficial is that you lay the = book open and it stays open and completely flat - this is useful in circu= mstances when you need to keep referring to it repeatedly in a short peri= od of time. I don't think that this is what KOS folks would use it for ho= wever.=20 I think most people peruse through a book like this casually, in the comfor= t of their own homes. Hence it doesn't need to be particularly strong or = weather resistant. I have now got a checklist on my shelf and i dip into = it whenever I see a new bird for the season to see if it is common or unu= sually early or whatever. I suppose my eventual point is that I much prefer things to be book-like un= less there is a strong reason for them not to be! Other people may view = this differently, and of course the cost of each may influence the decisi= on. Cheers Ian Ian Stewart T.H. Morgan School of Biology University of Kentucky Lexington Kentucky 40506-0225 (859) 323-9499 ================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBERS============== The BIRDKY Mailing List requires you to sign your messages with first & last name, city, & state abbreviation. -------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, send e-mail to: birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx -------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send e-mail to: birdky-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject line. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Kentucky Ornithological Society web site at http://www.biology.eku.edu/kos.htm * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BIRDKY List Manager: Gary Ritchison, Richmond, KY E-mail: gary.ritchison@xxxxxxx