"The Wooden Architecture of Russia" is exactly what I want from an architecture book: just the right balance of scope and depth, historical context for the stylistic developments, and most of the discussed buildings are illustrated with many photographs (colour and greyscale), plans, elevations, and sections, and there are images of individual details.

As is often the case, churches make up about half the book because they tend to be better preserved. But, the sections on secular buildings are still brimming with information, and I found them much more interesting. The churches are beautiful, but the houses, forts, hunting lodges, watchtowers, windmills, and barns are so much more varied, with their uses dictating their construction. They are given the same detailed treatment in the text and illustrations as the grandest cathedral.

The drawings are worthy of note for their quality. They're painted to show the texture of the materials and the play of the light on the surfaces, but still retail their clarity as diagrams. The author understands exactly how these buildings are put together - no wonder he was in charge of restoring places like Kizhi - and doesn't need to hide anything.

Northern Russian wooden architecture is a rather specific topic that is probably not relevant to most writers' and artists' projects, but if it's of interest at all, this is the book to get. It's great, and I doubt you'll find better in English. Even if you can read Russian, you'll probably still end up reading Opolovnikov. Though the exact styles here aren't relevant to me and I already had a basic understanding of wooden construction, I still found myself thinking more about the details of construction in my stories, and how different styles might have developed.