It wasn't a gas for me 1/5

On the right-hand page, the text runs over the bottom of the photo.

More heading and type over the photo, this is just so amateurish.

Cram it all in and never mind the design quality, a hopelessly messy spread.

This photo doesn't tell the reader anything.

Gas stations are everywhere in the world, especially in America (amazingly, about 150,000) and probably in China. Despite some intriguing designs in this book, they all have the common elements of pumps, and a cover from the elements. I thought the book was a very poor attempt at revealing these fascinating icons of the highway.

The title is basically full of photos and captions. There isn't a Contents page and the first few take a historical look at the origins of fueling stations. The book's longest section covers America with lots of photos, some in color, of the different architectural styles across the country. I liked the fourteen Tichnor printed postcards from the thirties and forties; the places shown used the postcards as advertising for the customers.  The rest of the pages show gas stations around the world with some very flamboyant European versions. 

I was very disappointed with the book's design; it just looked so amateurish. Frequently, text goes over photos and many of these have no captions, so they could be anywhere in the world. I get the impression that the publishers collected as many gas station photos as possible and just tipped them into the pages. This means that a lot of them aren't really worth using. The back pages Index is a good example of how bad the book is. It's arranged alphabetically by photographer (the largest entries are photo agencies AHG-Images, Alamy and Getty) rather than page numbers first. So, if you want to find out who took the photos of the lovely rest stop in Lochini, Georgia on pages 208-211 you'll have look through all the names until you find the page numbers. My copy of the book will shortly appear in a charity shop.