Review - "How to operate a Small Modern Era Switching Layout" by Lance Mindheim

It's interesting to note that many model railway books have long, large titles in an effort to describe the content accurately so the hobbyist knows exactly what they are getting.
This one is no exception. It gives you exactly what you need to know to operate a small modern image switching layout. It is a fascinating book. I'm learning a lot about modern operations. I certainly have a whole new appreciation for what goes on in the rail yard across the car park from my workplace.
The book is about 100 pages long and goes into great detail about switching operations and how they relate to safety and logistics and how you can incorporate some of these things into your operating sessions to increase the realism of them. Had you considered putting a locking cover over a turnout operating switch to simulate the locking and unlocking of a turnout on the prototype. I hadn't until now. The same goes for gates to yards, a locking cover on the operating switches for them. That simple revelation really did get me thinking about things I could do on my layouts. I don't know what I could do to incorporate that onto an APA box layout. But fleeting thoughts did pass though my head to build a shelf layout in my hobby room to exploit realistic switching operation practices.
Yes there is a lot of very interesting stuff in this book. But there is no hiding from the fact that it is a very badly designed book. Single column pages, text that feels too big (this is not a large text book for the short of sight), overly long photograph captions that seem to duplicate exactly what is written in the main text, annoying highlighting of "key points" in the text. These are just a few of the things I had a problem with. It is just plain uncomfortable to read.
To check that it wasn't the new pair of glasses that I had just got making things difficult for my eyes I reviewed some other comparable books in my collection:
"Model Railway Planning and Design Handbook" (Santona pubs)
"Small, Smart & Practical Track Plans" (Iain C Rice - Kalmbach pubs)
"An Approach to Model Railway Layout Design, Finescale in small spaces" (Iain C Rice - Wild Swan pubs)
All are very nicely designed books that are easy to read and breathe a passion for the hobby. To a certain extent Lances' book feels like a heavy college textbook.
Still, there's no doubting the usefulness of the information in the book. I just wish the information was nicer to look at.