For many lighthouses symbolise hope and man overcoming adversity. Each lighthouse is a celebration of science, engineering and innovation. Each lighthouse is distinct in its design or setting. Each lighthouse came with a sad loss of life before eventually triumphing over nature to become a beacon of safety. Many unique lighthouses are depicted in this book. Who could ever forget the picture of St Joseph’s Light House North Pier, Lake Michigan swaddled in layers of ice as if straight from the set of a movie. Yet, some of the smaller lighthouses like Verdens End in Tjome Island Vestfold Norway, a reconstruction of an earlier design hearten in their drive to connect to the past. The images in this book are beautiful try to allow the reader insight into the many extremes that the designers had to conquer in order to construct.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can highly recommend.

Thank you Netgalley for an advance copy of this eBook for an honest review.

Review to come early may to blog/goodreads/etc..

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I just love lighthouses and this book look gorgeous! Of course I had to get it from Netgalley!

In this book we travel around the world to see some gorgeous, interesting, weird, and oh yes I want a horse lighthouse, lighthouses. I loved seeing all the sorts of lighthouses there are and to see if they are still used or not. Which in one case had me in stitches, they added a mannequin in the top part to deter people from vandalising the building. I loved seeing that not every lighthouse is the same shape or looks the same. Some are weirdly build, others look more like the one I know, others are just some kind of art installation. It was a great journey and I am glad I could make it.

However... I have some things I wasn't such a fan off. The photographs for instance were pretty blurry and grainy, at times just not pretty. I get that this is not a finished product, but for a photography book it is important that for reviewers the book is also in good quality.

Next up were the descriptions of lighthouses. I would have rather had some more historical and fun or funny facts with each lighthouse. Because I did get tired of seeing the same couple of facts get rehashed for each one. How often it blinked, what colour, what way it blinked. And some other stuff, it got real boring to read them and I found myself skipping a few of them.

I still had fun reading and seeing the photographs, but I think my enjoyment would have been higher with better photographs and better descriptions.

I'm boring myself out with the OMG THIS BOOK!!11 opening line, I know, but this is my blog, my review, and my opinion, so you’ll just have to deal.

Ready?

OMG THIS BOOK!!11

Ahem.

I do have some unhealthy fascination with lighthouses, yes. To me, they represent the quintessence of heaven: peace, solitude, and endurance wrapped in a colorful building. While they’re connected to the land – and sometimes the piers are just as stunning as the lighthouses themselves, you’ll see – they stand alone for the most part.

… I really don’t subscribe to that social animal theory y’all keep peddling, sorry. 😛

Anyway, digressions aside, I saw Lighthouses by David Ross on Netgalley and I had to request it. Had to.

Cover

It’s a photography book. I mean, I’d consider it a personal insult if the cover was ugly-looking, eh. Look at how majestic it is.


Yay!

- While I can’t make head nor tail of a camera, I have an eye for pictures – screw false modesty, I do – and L is a work of art. Every shot has been taken with great care, mindful of details and composition. The coloring is perfect, and even if I have a Kindle copy, I can tell that there are no grainy or subpar pictures. Just glossy, shiny perfection.

- Each lighthouse is paired with a detailed caption. Did you know that many are made of cast-iron? Or that a whole bunch has been decommissioned at first and then put back to work? Some are museums, some are quite short-ish, some have a square shape, and one resembles a windmill. There’s even a tilting one! (And a Jeju horse)

- Lighthouses also introduced me with the concept of lighthouses demolition. It took me a moment to process this info, and a couple hours to pen an essay titled ‘Why would you demolish such a magnificent building, you uncultured swines?”

- The book is divided in sections and it features lighthouses from the entire globe. Extra kudos for the organization, David.

- There are too many good pictures, I don’t know what to do with them. I’m listing a few that really stand out, but every single shot is worth mentioning here.


Special mention

- White Shoal Lighthouse, Lake Michigan, USA, with its pretty red spiral band.
- East Pier Light, Flanders, Belgium. The old jetties steal the spotlight here, and I love the trestle pier. I wish I could frame this picture, it’s so beautiful.
- Dyna Lighthouse, Oslofjord, Norway. A wooden lighthouse doubling as a restaurant, so cute.
- Utk Lighthouse, Ijsselmeer, Netherlands. Such a perfect shot, the lighthouse and the wet cobblestone street. Another picture that deserves to be framed.
- Verdens Ende, Vestfold, Norway. This is a replica of an ancient tipping light, unique.
- Tynemouth Pier Lighthouse, England. Lovely deep grey/white paint job.
- Whiteford Lighthouse, Wales. I have this one hanging on my wall! So decadent, I love it.
- Castlepoint Lighthouse, New Zealand. Black clouds, the sun peeking through, a white lighthouse. What a cool shot.
- Every interior picture. I can’t pick one, the symmetry keeps appealing my aestethical side.


Nay

- I have an e-Book copy and sometimes matching pictures with descriptions is not an immediate feat. OTOH, I’m pretty sure the printed copy doesn’t pose such problems and oh, how would I love to own one and be able to check that myself *cough*

TL;DR

Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, showstopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not have been done before (cit.)

5 on GR, 10/10 here. Hey, David, do you plan to do more?

Picture a lighthouse. Got it? I bet it's similar to mine: A red and white striped tower with a domed light at the top. Now imagine my surprise at finding out that lighthouses come in all shapes and sizes! This book is full to the brim with such an enormous variety of lighthouses that I had to read it twice! I was also astonished at the number of lighthouses all over the world. Awesome book!

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

This is well laid out book, with clear text captions. Knowing when each photograph was taken would be useful..
There are really beautiful photographs, showing varied designs of lighthouses around the world. It’s interesting comparing the colours, styles and differing materials used in the construction of lighthouses around the world.

Stunning dawn and sunset views often feature, plus several photographs were captured during storms. Hugely dramatic waves lashing structures, and ice covering the whole of a metal lighthouse are particularly striking.

My mother and I enjoyed looking at an e-copy of this lovely book today, on Mothering Sunday. It would be perfect to give as a gift.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for honest feedback. I just read a similar book by this publisher about Greece, and it has the same layout and design, which I celebrated in a previous review. This book is a lengthy 200-something page celebration of lighthouses. I am not a huge fan of lighthouses or anything, but I think that this book shows off some of the cool features of these seafront figures. One of the shining strenghts of this book is in its crisp, high-quality photography. The photos take up most of the content in this book, with the added information being short, concise and to the point. There is a diverse variety of lighthouses, ranging from different countries to just unique designs like the South Korean lighthouses that look like horses! I think this book is excellent for those with a proclivity for travel photography or an interest in the oceans, lighthouses, etc.

This is a beautiful photo book of lighthouses from around the world. When we travel near the coasts and Great Lakes we always seek out lighthouses. Of the ones featured in the book I've been to twelve, mostly in North America and Hawaii. I was glad to see Tybee Island as I remember it's ghost stories from when we toured there. I also remember being surprised seeing my first short lighthouse as I was use to the taller traditional structures.

The book shows photos in all seasons and someday I would love to visit one when giant waves are crashing against the tower. Although the book touches on the history and use of lighthouses as warnings or to welcome, the focus is on photos of different lighthouse. I was particularly surprised by the South Korean horse shaped lighthouses. Thank you to NetGalley and Amber Books Ltd. for a tempoary ARC ebook in exchange for a honest review.

I really enjoy lighthouses. When we're on the coast we try to find them. I've been up a few just stared at others. I did laugh out loud when I saw the Hilton Head Harbour Town lighthouses because my family loves to mock it. This book is full of beautiful pictures of lighthouses from all over the world. The photos showcase lighthouses in various seasons and all types of weather. I was honestly surprised by the number of lighthouses on the Great Lakes, it makes sense, but you don't really think of lakes, no matter how great they are, as needing lighthouses. The book is arranged geographically in the general sense with sections for North America, Europe, Britain, and the rest of the world, but I wish there would have been more organization of the lighthouses within each section. I do think the selection was very Eurocentric and was confused why Britain has it's own section before I remembered the book the book has a British publisher. I do wish there would have been more lighthouses from the rest of the world featured as those ones had the most interesting architecture (South Korea literally has lighthouses shaped like horses). Overall this would be a very fun coffee table book for beach rental.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amber Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

With breath-taking pictures of lighthouses around the world, this book is more than just a coffee-table book. The captions are full of facts even lighthouse lovers might not know. Not only did I love the pictures I learned much from the book.

I wanted to share another cool coffee table /photography book from the folks over at Amber Books Ltd. I am obsessed with lighthouses, and it was so cool to see a couple that I have visited in this collection. If I could be anything (and still had to work), I’d want to be a lighthouse keeper. A largely obsolete job these days, there’s something fascinating to me about the long periods of isolation, keeping the light no matter what. Plus, I think I’d get a lot of reading done.

My soul lives near and maybe in the sea, so adjacent artwork makes me happy. This would make an excellent addition to a coffee table or a beach house (if anyone actually had enough monies for such things 😂).

As someone who has always been fascinated by lighthouses I was looking forward to reviewing this book.
This is an informative and beautiful book all about lighthouses.there is over 200 photographs of lighthouses from all over the world in various shapes and colours with information on each one. I was particularly fascinated by the ones in South Korea.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in lighthouses and the sea.
Thanks to netgalley and Amber books for my copy in exchange for an honest review

In this day and age when travel is difficult, books like this one are perfect for armchair excursions! I loved the photography and information in "Lighthouses". I was recently reading a fiction set in a lighthouse and that piqued my interest to learn more about lighthouses around the world - glad I found this one! The images were stellar, some formidable, others just breathtaking, showcasing the age, strength and importance of these structures. It was neat to take a look inside and at some of the machinery as well.

I learned a lot about lighthouses from this book. I did not expected such a variety in shapes, sizes and settings. Not all lighthouses are on islands, separated from the mainland. Some are part of the big landmass itself. Though most lighthouses nowadays are either historic sites or automated, not very long ago, people still used to live in them and watch over the sea.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me a complimentary copy with the request for an honest review. Highly recommend this one for your coffee table!

Lighthouses are the symbol of safety to sailors at sea; for the rest of us, they are beautiful, evocative structures; reminders of a time when one or two individuals were in charge of keeping hundreds of ships from a watery grave. Lighthouses from all over the world are arranged in geographical order; from the crumbling towers long forgotten to the lighthouses still in service, albeit with automated systems. A lovely book for all who love the sea

I thank #netgalley, David Ross and the publishers for a free ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Lighthouses leave me quite torn. These buildings, so solitary, so majestic, so bound by duty to safeguard souls start off looking so picturesque but then it was a case of once you've seen one lighthouse, you've seen them all. Or two to be precise. There were the traditional red/ blue and white striped houses and the more decorative modern features we see more and more today.

The pictures were great, taken from a range of angles in an array of locations I found it disappointing to only cover a couple of continents and then group everything else in together. The descriptions were good facts to discover.

This book is best suited to a lover of landscapes and architecture.

This is a beautiful book to have as a coffee table ice breaker! People will be drawn to the cover and then mesmerized by the photos and hunt for the lighthouses closest to their own area. It may even get them to travel to see the beauty of these protective memorials of our history. I have been to several that are in this book and they are truly worth going to visit.
I thought the book was well done, I just wished for more history on each of the lighthouses. Overall, I definitely would recommend this book to anyone including my friends!

I received this free advanced copy from NetGalley and these are my willingly given thoughts and opinions.

I'm a watercolor artist and I've always been fascinated with lighthouses, both as an artist and as a person who loves atmospheric scenery. This book is lighthouse photos is gorgeous. The photography is beautiful and some is very different from other lighthouse photography I"ve seen. I recommend it for anyone who loves atmospheric landscapes, as well as for artists for inspiration. I will leave a review on Amazon once the book goes up there.

Lighthouses by David Ross is an excellent coffee table book with superb photographs. Lighthouses are beautiful buildings. Some look romantic, some look frightening but all are incredible! Learning about lighthouses from all around the world was fascinating. Love it.

If you like lighthouses or looking for inspiring ideas to take photos then this is the book for you. Collection of photographs from around the world to peruse at your leisure. Thank you #NetGalley for the copy.

Well I guess there is such a thing as a lighthouse collector, one who wants to visit or appreciate or get a souvenir of as many as possible. And I can see the appeal when the subject gets this publisher's usual high-quality photo research. This is a worldwide survey of pictures of lighthouses and lightstations, and even the North America opening chapter is remarkable – here is the lighthouse that got moved inland (I know it's not unique, as Beachy Head's Belle Tout later proves, but it's still quite boggling), here is the one actually sited on a traffic island, here is one so over-come with growths of winter ice it looks like it could never outlast the season. I think the jury is out on the captions – the passing browser I am sure does not really care what colour the beam is and at what regularity, but the specialist will find things wanting for more information. Still, these books are more for the coffee table, albeit at a pocket-friendly 6x4 photo size. If anyone you know is, or appears to be a pharophile (if that's even the word), then this would be a treat. And you'd like looking through it before handing it over. A strong four stars.

This is a beautiful book of lighthouses across the world. It includes the descriptions of the locations and would an excellent coffee table book.