Sex Matters

This is a new addition to a series which aims to explore 'a wide range of social issues.' At the start of chapter eight we learn that 'Teenage magazines are now the most common way young people get information about sex'. Given books like this, one can understand why. Not that there is anything wrong with the way the author treats his subject - it is contemporary, objective, even-handed and preach-free; it is also full of snappy quotes and relevant fact-bites and some illustrative pictures as well. It is just that typography- and design-wise, this book is a total turn-off. The basic type face is serif-less, highly compressed and difficult to read; laterally distorted paragraph headlines which are eccentric to the rest of the text are difficult to read; questions are printed white on black - again difficult to read. Add to this a page design that varies from dull to messy and you get a book full of good - often helpful - ideas, refreshingly un-opinionated but obstructively presented. It seems a shame - explorers deserve guide books which are better designed than this.