Arts Books

This book is a great book for anyone interested in MMA. It shows detailed pictures and everything is explained very well. I would absolutely recommend this book for anyone from beginners to experts to learn everything from basic to advanced moves.

I watch a mma event on dvd everyday and let me tell you; this book covers pretty much all you need to know to compete.Don't get me wrong,there is always more to learn; but this book covers all the basics at the least for sure! Like I said about Randy Couture' book; these guys are the best mma fighters in the world,charge hundreds of dollars an hour and this book in particular gives you about four months of training for only $35.00 dollars!

If you do martial arts and don't know how to fight - what are you doing? This is an essential compliment to whatever martial art you're studying, as it will flesh out your studies and get you to rethink a few things.

This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn the fundamentals of mixed martial arts. Its easy to understand and the most complete of its kind out there. I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning this sport.

When I recently read Victory Belt's publication 'Mastering the Rubber Guard' with Eddie Bravo, I was impressed. It made considerable strides in improving over his last book 'Jiu-Jitsu Unleashed' and gave a detailed insight into one of the most misunderstood positions in today's Jiu-Jitsu world. Well, as far as I'm concerned, Victory Belt has done it again with BJ Penn's 'Mixed Martial Arts - The Book of Knowledge'.

Giving a book a title like that one is a fairly bold move. Those words suggest that this is more a tome - or even "bible" - than a book. And at first glance, it looks like it might be the goods. The black and grey reminded me of later editions of Arnold Schwarzenegger's 'Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding' - a book with a similarly anticipative title. At 308 pages, it also fits the bill size-wise, as well.

Opening up at the contents pages, you'll soon see that the book is very comprehensive. After the introduction, you see that the book is divided into two parts - 'The Standing Game' and 'The Ground Game'. Each of these parts is then subdivided into positions and then further into techniques. One of the things I most enjoyed about the book is the introduction. Most newer martial art books open with a discussion from the authors, but Victory Belt's introductions seem to speak to me a little more.

In this case, the introduction gives you about ten pages of BJ's philosophy and how he arrived where he is. From his early days boxing with "old, ratty gloves" through his eventful MMA career, he gives a little insight into his life. He talks about the sport and how he trains for it. He discusses his philosophy for both technical and physical training and gives some broad ideas the reader can take on board.

I won't get into too much detail about what you'll find in the two fighting parts of the book. I will say this, though. While it looks like a "technique catalogue", it's not really. The book shows BJ working many techniques and combinations against opponent's from his gym. However, each technique fits into his particular fighting structure. What you see here is a collection of the techniques BJ Penn actually uses in a fight and how he strings them together.

If you want to see what BJ would do if he finds himself on his back against a skilled ground 'n' pound guy, the answer's here. So is how to use your striking to set up a takedown (a subject not discussed often enough) and vice versa. Another thing I like is that we see what BJ does from a defensive perspective. We see a lot of defensive postures and escapes, which suits me fine as I'm often the one getting hit. Too often, books like this ignore that part of the strategy and just assume your awesome technique will win out.

As I'm not much of a standup fighter, nowadays, I can especially see myself making use of the simple strategies in the section 'Striking for the Takedown'. That is pretty much my weak point. Honestly, though, there's something here for everyone. You'll see how the various open guard positions play out in MMA. You'll see how to minimise your exposure if you're weak in one area with the more defensive oriented techniques. You'll also learn how Penn counters some very common and tough positions.

From a quality perspective, I didn't notice any grievous spelling or grammatical errors (a small problem I had with 'Mastering the Rubber Guard'). All pictures are colour and are clear and easy to interpret. The descriptions are also quite clear to me, another bugbear I've often had. Although the entire field is getting a lot better in that area.

All up, I really like this book. From this point on, I consider this essential reading for anyone considering a foray into Mixed Martial Arts. However, it's probably more important for coaches and athletes who need to move their game to a multi-dimensional approach. That's something Penn himself has done and done well. I think this makes my "Best of the Best" category.

A good film comes at you slowly, like a work of art, creeping into your soul through metaphors and meditation. That is how Suber's THE POWER OF FILM comes at you. Start anywhere and read a little or as much as you want, in small bites. Then stop and meditate on what you just read. Better yet, think of the film you're working on or just watched, and note in the wide margins what you now understand anew. A good scene in a good film should be watched time and again. Each page of this book is like a good scene. Underline it, mark it up -- and then, later, read it again, and add to your discovery of why film is so powerful.

Howard Suber is a legendary film educator at UCLA, and has taught dozens of courses on every aspect of filmmaking (except for animation). In The Power of Film, he commits his wisdom to paper, gathered over many decades of teaching.
The Power of Film is not a how-to book or theoretical treatise, however. Rather, it is a lexicon of movie storytelling concepts. The topics range from Accidents to Writing What You Know, and cover such things as the most important word in storytelling (it's `but'), the `real' American religion (individualism), the characteristics of the Hero (someone outside of society who sacrifices personal happiness and contentment for the greater good or goal) and whether happy endings are really mandatory. Suber also talks about genres (the essential characteristics of each), dramatic structure (some), and specific narrative tools such as the Macguffin. Throughout the book the emphasis is squarely on the mainstream American film, so you will be able to find many exceptions to the `rules' Suber mentions here, though `rules' isn't the right word. Rather, they are `insights' or concepts which work and have done so for ages, but which are just some of the possible narrative solutions to the problems cinematic storytelling poses.
This is a book to dip into, and which is intended to spark the imagination of the reader. Not all of the topics are equally enlightening, and I disagreed with the definition of the Crisis Point, but as an encyclopaedia of Hollywood storytelling it is currently without equal.

I found The Power of Film truly refreshing and unusually spiritual. Suber compiles years of teaching experience into a few hundred pages loaded with wisdom and wit. While not a believing man himself, his reverence for world scriptures and figures of faith who have changed the world, from Moses to Jesus to Gandhi, is rare in books on film.

Also, Suber's coinage of "Aristolatry" sure could have come in handy in film school (I went to USC, grad level), along with many of his paradigm-shattering concepts. I only had one professor who dared say that some films may have four acts -- I think he got fired!

The Power of Film is a great book that will take a prized place at the top of my list of books about filmmaking.

Howard Suber delivered a lecture to a large gathering in a theater in Kansas City this spring. What was striking about the experience was how Professor Suber turned this theater into a classroom and, by asking questions, made us active participants in a search for answers to the question: "What makes a film great?".

Suber's book, "The Power of Film", uses this same Socratic Method but the technique is necessarily different. Instead of asking questions, a writer can only pose riddles, and to this end Suber employees wit and irony to provoke careful and thoughtful reading of his concise dictionary like definitions.

The films Suber examines are American films. Without being jingoistic, he says that over the decades American films have been the most popular not only in the U.S. but all over the world. The American films he focuses on are those that have maintained their appeal ten years after they were released those, in other words, which have stood the test of time and remain perennial favorites.

The question he asks is: "What makes these films classics?"

Some of the answers are surprising. The notion, for example, that Hollywood films, to be popular, have to have a happy ending, Suber demonstrates is not true. Think of the Godfather films, Lawrence of Arabia, Chinatown. Even "It's a Wonderful Life" journeys through some very dark regions before emerging with a comic ending.

So why do people go to see these films? Suber suggests that going to the movies is akin to going to church, that what people need and want is to experience time honored rituals that put us in touch with our humanity.

As a practicing filmmaker, I have spent many hours over the years thinking about how to use the power of film to move an audience and I am always looking for help. Of the many available, I have culled a few "essential" books on film theory and aesthetics. Eisenstein's "Film Sense" and "Film Form" are two, Pudovkin's 'Film Technique and Film Acting", Mascelli's "Five C's of Cinematography" and a few others. Suber's "The Power of Film" has already taken its place with these.

Why? Because first of all, the book is packed with information and insight covering every subject about American film, literally from A to Z. Second, the insights are uncannily precise. A brief example: I don't like using flashbacks because I feel they are too easy but I find I must at times because they are sometimes necessary and I haven't been able to think of anything better. This is in Suber's definition of "Flasbacks":

"The reason flashbacks came back is that they are not merely
stylistic flourishes, like iris shots; they are necessary tools
that, so far, cannot be replaced by others."

The authority of this statement is reassuring, but notice the two words: "so far"; this tiny insertion leaves open the possibility and, indeed, ecourages the search for other ways.

How to transition to a flashback?

"The camera moves to a tight close up of a character's eyes, they
glaze over and we hear an echo chamber voice..."

I fear that every time I use this device that someone in the audience is going to yell out: "Visual cliche!". It never happens and I continue to use it because, as Professor Suber says: "no one has come up with anything substantially better.".

This is a sampling of some of what can be considered Suber's practical advise; but this book is very rich and has a broad range and covers everything from the technical to the philosophical.

The entry for "Tragedy" is three pages long but delivers a store of wisdom. One paragraph in this concise definition is about "impulsivity", and the final line reads:

"Impulsivity we see over and over again leads to tragedy."

The philosopher Martin Buber in his book "Good and Evil" devotes pages of discussion to the tendancy to impulsivity and how it is an aspect of evil. Suber's book is obviously a distillation of years of thinking and study not only about film but also about human nature.

The entries that make up this book are cross referenced. This cross referencing, like the use of wit and irony, is not only an practical aid, but also an encouragement to explore the connection of ideas.

Suber has carefully culled the essential ideas of what makes a film "great" and this selection reveals that the subject in Suber's mind has a unity, that it constitutes an aesthetic, an interlocking system of ideas. It is an indication of Howard Suber's wisdom as a teacher that he does not expound this system but only indicates it; and because this system must be discovered and recreated by every reader, it will always be new.

Getting the book and reading all of the blurbs on the cover written by film experts like Coppola and several successful Hollywood screenwriters, I was a bit concerned that perhaps I had purchased an insiders handbook, which might prove too esoteric for the casual reader. The 'power of the book' Prof. Suber has written, is his ability to take substantive information and make it enjoyable reading. The book is written in bite size stories, alphabetized by topic, each insightful and entertaining. I often sat down with the intent of a quick read of one or two articles and discovered I had read seven or eight. The topics are easy to digest, yet informative enough to go back and read several times.
Certainly as Bill Cosby used to say, "Be careful or you just might learn something". Film students and pros, no doubt already know about(and swear by)this book, this review is for the rest of us, those who just like films. The Power of Film would make a terrific gift for lovers of films of all ages and is certainly a must read for anyone with film career aspirations.

I purchased this book based on its recommendations, and I'm not sorry I did. It's been 25+ years since I touched a sewing machine, and this book definitely helped take the fright away. Perfect for new seamstresses of all ages.

I have the Rip It! book and love it. I just got this book for my niece for christmas. She wants to learn how to sew and I know this is the best book out there for her. It's very easy to understand and comes with patterns for her to learn with. I'm also getting her a sewing machine from www.sewfastseweasy.com
I love giving! She is going to be so thrilled!

I bought this book for my daughter and she has taken to sewing extremely fast. She's so proud of what she makes. Her enthusiasm for sewing now is almost too much for me to keep up with. This book was was easy for her to understand and the illustrations were very clear. She's been playing around with reconstructing her clothes so I'm thinking of getting her the Rip It book as well. I'm happy to see her involved in a positive hobby that she truly enjoys and gets satisfaction from.

I just bought this book because I wanted to delve into sewing a little more. I knew how to sew but I didn't know much about sewing techniques or terms or sewing notions and how to use them. This book was very easy to understand and explains everything I need to know about sewing and using notions and patterns. It's now my sewing bible! If I get stuck on something I grab my sew fast sew easy book.

The book is great it even comes with patterns. The book is easy to understand and has lots of detail. I would definatly recommend it.

Very good book if you don't have the DVD. Fills in many details not in the film. A must have for Bass Players.

I'm one of those Bass Players who discovered James Jamerson late in my bass playing life. Any young (or old) aspiring bassist should have this book. The 2 cd's that come with it are worth the price alone. Some of the greatest bass players on earth (McCartney, Entwhistele, Pallidino,Bob Babbit,Chuck Rainey..) paying homage to Jamerson and playing some of his famous bass lines. The great thing about it is that when played through headphones you get the bass in one ear and the rest of the mix in the other. I have actually listened to just the bass mix multiple times and marvelled at the Bass Lines. A must for any young Bass Player.

The book has some great stories and pictures and compliments the CD greatly.

I've always been a fan of Motown but of the singers, now I'm starting to realize I shouldn't give the singers all the credit, it was the producers, songwriters, and musicians who made the artists become hits. If it wasn't for the unique, special Funk Brothers who knows if the Motown artists would have become as successful as they did. It doesn't matter how good of a singer a singer is, if the music ain't right, the singer ain't gonna sound good. Its that something special about the Motown Sound that sparks something in our minds, hearts, and souls, the music complimented the singers excellently. James Jamerson was just a handsome, wonderful, real, interesting, talented person. Its sad he had to get recognition after he passed on. It seems the only way to become a legend is to die first then people appreciate you more, well this book taught me to love and praise people while their alive that's what keeps them going. All James wanted in his last days was recognition and to know he did make a difference in the world of music. This book taught me to appreciate the musicians, songwriters, and producers, the people behind the scenes, who made it possible for the music to become timeless, sometimes we give the singers too much credit.

It was interesting for me to read most of the Funk Brothers didn't even like Rock N Roll or Soul music, they were really jazz fans and wanted to play jazz, so it shows how gifted they were to still play soul music effectively even though it wasn't their cup of tea. Another reason why Motown sound is so appealing and fresh is because the Funk Brothers laced different genres of music into the soul music and tried new things with the music creating the Motown Sound, a sound in its own class.

My husband is love with this bass gautairist, and love this book and DVD combo.

James Jamerson is one of the top bassist of all time and this book will give bassist some insight to his genius. I never learned to read music, but I was born with an exception ear! I remember a long time ago, going for a job in a pit orchestra. The musical director was not all that impressed with my playing on the first day, because I didn't read music and I kind of fumbled through the rehearsal. I went home that night and learned the entire show from a tape. On the next rehearsal, when we started to play the opening number, the conductor stopped in the middle of the song, looked at me and said...."Turn up the bass!" ..this made me very happy, as I always felt a little inferior not being able to read :-)

The book covers Jamerson's story and shows many of his classic bass lines for those of you who do read. It's no walk in the park, but it's time well spent and will take your playing to another level.

The book comes with 2 CDs full of Jamerson's bass lines and many top bassist playing their favorite Jamerson tunes. It's all very interesting for musicians and non musicians alike and well worth the price! I never knew how much this guy influenced my playing until I really sat down and listened to him! What a great talent!

The book has great pictures and very detailed if you know someone who loves Sta Wars movies would love this book..

My son is using this book as a reference for his drawing class and we all find it very helpful. There are facts here which are quite detailed and wondered how the author know all these stuff! Anyway, we love the book!

This Book has a lot of glear crisp pictures in it. Since I make Star Wars movie props (Lightsaber hilts, Helmets, Costumes) this book helped a lot. darth vader lightsaber is totally sweet and the moment I saw it in the book I said I gotta make that, so right now I'm in the process of making his and many others.
Again this is a great book so please don't hesitate a second. buy it!

RYAN J.

This guide was accurate, except for one thing: Solah is Padme's sister, and Jobal is her mother. This book portrays it as the other way around. But otherwise, a good reference book for the best movie ever!

This is the best book for any fan of the movies. It explains things you'll never learn about on screen. From their weapons, to their clothes and why they need and have them, it makes sense of things that don't make sense. Good book!

I use the book ZOOM as a way to show business leaders how their perspectives can change realities. Because it's so affordable, I buy the book in bulk and send it out with personal notes after business leadership classes to help reinforce the training's overall messages on perspective. If you lead people, add ZOOM to your business library - it's fun, easy to understand, and very transferable to the adult learning environment.

My daughter, aged 4, was a little bit confused at the book when it first arrived. She didn't like that it didn't have words. After "reading" it with her a couple of times, it has fast become one of her favorites.
More then once I have found her in bed "reading" this book by herself and she will still pick this book on occasion for one of her bedtime stories.

My boys, ages 5 and 7, love this book. It is the last book we look at each night. They read about two books and then want to look at the Zoom book for "quiet time" before they put their heads on the pillows. They have not grown tired of it. It brings such an amazing perspective to life! Some things aren't quite what they seem! Great lesson!

The book came in a very good condition and precisely at the time Amazon estimated. I was also satisfied with the careful packaging of the parcel. Well done!

A friend gave me this book when I was in a super slump. I was amused and amazed as the pictures zoomed away from each other how they put both objects and actions into perspective, not only in terms of size, but also in terms of time and space. The artist cleverly starts with a rooster, a symbol of cockiness, and shows just where he really stands in the giant scheme of things.

Playwright Peter Shaffer is an exceptional dramatist. His characters are unforgettable, and each one is dealing with a psychological struggle. In "Amadeus," Shaffer examines seventeenth century Vienna and the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his rival, court composer Antonio Salieri. This play shatters the view of Mozart as an innocent child prodigy, and instead paints a picture of a childish, scatologically minded, yet ultimately tormented musical genius. Trapped by the financial demands that are placed upon him, and the demands of a domineering father, Mozart strives to make his music and to be excepted.
The main focus of the play is upon Salieri, whom the audience sees as a sweetmeat loving, conniving schemer who is appalled by Mozart's new ideas and manner. However, Salieri is not one demensional. He is a sympathetic character, who wrestles with his conscience. Feeling betrayed by a god who shows favoritism, he recounts his desire to make music that will provide him with unsurpassable fame. However, his music is ordinary when compared with Mozart's genius, and Salieri is fully aware of this whereas ordinary citizens of Vienna are not. Vowing revenge, Salieri decides to lash out at Mozart: "God's Flute," therefore providing an opportunity for a terrifying confrontation in which Mozart is driven into madness and early death. Everyone can relate to the character of Salieri because we have all felt betrayed when our own specific talents were regarded as inferior to someone else's.
Shaffer introduces us to two tortured individuals who are nevertheless sympathetic and unforgettable. Please give this play a chance.

When I was younger, I almost never reread anything. My hunger was so voracious that I gobbled up a book and then rapaciously moved on to the next. But as I've aged, I read less frantically, returning again and again to a few works that especially move me. At the top of the list of such works are the plays of Peter Shaffer. And at the top of that list is his masterpiece "Amadeus."

What I find remarkable about Shaffer's "Amadeus" isn't so much the title character, Mozart, as the character who becomes Mozart's nemesis, Antonio Salieri. Salieri is one of the great tragic figures in literature. He's an individual who appears to genuinely love musical beauty, and who genuinely wants to dedicate his life to it. (In an early scene, for example, he makes a deal with God. "Signore," he begs, "let me be your flute, your mouthpiece. Let me produce absolute beauty. In return, I'll be your slave.") But Salieri is also a hopeless mediocrity. He knows good music when he hears it, but he's simply unable to create it himself. His compositions are acceptable, and sometimes even pleasing to the ear. But when compared with the music of Mozart, they reveal themselves for what they are: technically proficient, but utterly uninspired. The awareness of his own mediocrity, coupled with his absolute yearning for beauty and his life-destroying jealousy of/admiration for Mozart, is the heart of the play. (Milos Forman's 1984 cinematic production of the play unfortunately rewrites the script to put Mozart rather than Salieri centerstage, thereby missing the whole point.)

When one thinks about it--and I believe that this is what makes Shaffer's play so poignant and profound--Salieri is everyperson. Let's face it: most of us are mediocre. We fall somewhere in that great middle zone of "average." We'll never be able to create artworks that express the yearning for beauty that even the dimmest of us occasionally feel.

As if that's not bad enough, the world, as Shaffer demonstrates in his play, is unforgiving of mediocrity when it comes to art. One can work like a demon, as Salieri does, but it's genius that the world wants, genius that the world demands, and genius that the world rewards. Moreover, the creative genius is allowed anything by the admiring world--in fact, the world expects its geniuses to walk to the beat of a countercultural drummer. The mediocre artist, however, is allowed no latitude whatsoever in personal lifestyle.

The paradox of this situation, as well as the horrible burden of mediocrity felt by artists like Salieri (and the rest of us), is the tragic message of "Amadeus." When Salieri at play's end tells us, in his decrepitude and madness, that we can pray to him when we feel the sting of our own shortcomings and he will bless us, most of us ought to shiver. For, after all, we don't want our mediocrity blessed, do we? And yet the tragedy of the human condition is that, blessed or not, it's what we are. And so Shaffer leaves us with this question: how do we overcome our Salieri-like resentment and frustration at not being able to create beauty long enough simply to appreciate beauty when we encounter it?

The best part of the book is the introduction, which tells of the changes made to the script over the years, based on on-going research by the author. I saw the movie and the play, then bought the script in order to compare the different renderings of this amazing story.

Peter Shaffer's award-winning and highly popular play AMADEUS is in many ways a morality play but seen through the eyes of a complicated postmodern villain. The play is called AMADEUS but the chief character of the story is Antonio Salieri. Salieri is the Court Composer for Emperor Joseph II of Austria during the end of the 18th Century. He is held in esteem not only by the Emperor and Court, but by the masses as well. Then Amadeus Mozart makes his way to the Austrian Court at Salzburg and Salieri recognizes in the young man a musical genius superior to anything musical he has ever heard. He becomes enraged with bitter jealousy. Feeling that God has abandoned him and given the talent that he has trained to develop and possess his entire life, Salieri declares a war against God that he will fight on the battleground that is Amadeus Mozart.

AMADEUS is a fantastic play. Author Peter Shaffer has revised the play several times since its first performance in 1979 and this version of the show (written twenty years later in 1999) is in my opinion the best because it is the one that portrays Salieri more than just an evil man, but as a human being that the audience and readers can relate to and actually understand somewhat. A must see play that anyone who enjoys theatre should be familiar with.

Like a newspaper article, theatre has to convey its story with an economy of words.

In this way, great playwriting is a rare skill much like land the penny toss at the carnival and Shaffer is that rare playwriter who accomplishes his task so seemingly effortlessly.

Deftly, Shaffer tosses his Amadeus and Saliere together and in so doing plays each against their type rendering his Amadeus into the simple squeezebox which provides the background for the languid single note of Saliere's mournful jealousy.

What's so amazing is that in telling us the story of Amadeus' art, Shaffer shares important insights about his own. Don't have too many or too few notes but just the right number. Don't be so flashy in being good that people concentrate on the flashiness instead of the point.

And don't become so engrossed in your art that you lose sight of the ultimate ends it was meant to service in the first place.

Whether we are each more Amadeus or more Saliere we can connect with this play.

Small compact paperbook can take with me when traveling. Am enjoying the brevity, but not as much the small print type, but still very enjoyable book.

I love this book. It shows a beautiful example of the artists work in alphabetical order and a great short history of each artist. I discovered a lot of artists I wasn't familiar with. It's a great quick reference and easy/enjoyable reading. It's more than I expected! A must for anyone interested in art/artists.

A bargain at the cover price and even better at the prices listed here at Amazon. I have copies at both my homes and am always referring to it. Would that Phaidon could do the same for music and lovers of great literature.

An excellent mini art history book. It covers the majority of well known artists with a representative work. All this and the paperback is small enough to carry around. I present it to my students for special achievements.

This little book couldn't be any more straightforward or useful. Over the span of 500 pages, each page is devoted to a different artist, with one representative work by that artist and a short description of his or her life and work. At the end, an invaluable 6-page glossary provides short and informative descriptions of the major genres and schools of art (e.g., Fauvism, Constructivism, Expressionism, etc.) that don't require a PhD to understand, as well as explanations of common art materials and techniques (e.g., gesso, fresco, tempera, etc.). It's a great value, and much more inexpensive than almost any other art book this informative. Buy it now!

This product was bought as a gift for a bright 16 year old girl. It was purchased to fuel her interest in PhotoShop without her having to first wade through a ton of dry how to. This book allowed her to see what was possible so that she now seeks out the ways that she can do other more mundane applications of the program. It provided what it was purchase for. A match for a creative fire.

I purchased this book over a year ago, and I'm still using it. You give several examples in your chapters on how to do a certain task, in a down to earth writing style which I find very easy to understand. I've become so much more efficient in Photoshop thanks to your book.
Cheers!

This is a very fun book to work thru. It comes with a CD that has photos to work with. You will install the CD and use the different effects over and over. I find myself going back to the book on many different projects. Most of the effects are ones that you can use in editing any type of photo. I loved the book and recomend it highly. Even beginners will find it easy to follow.

Just got into this book and I love it already. It may help for you to have another book along for tool and palette reference. The accompanying cd-rom is a great help, but i just wish that it had more videos. This book is definitely one of the top PAdobe Photoshop CS2 One-on-One (One-On-One)hotoshop books that I own.

This is an excellent hands-on tutorial in getting the most out of Photoshop CS2, Ostensibly about creating realistic-looking photomontages (though most of the examples wouldn't fool someone who's paying attention), this book is actually for anyone who has struggled to learn about layers and masks and levels. It's accessible and fun.

Tim Harrower provides a very practical guide to newspaper design. The art of newspaper design tends to be very subjective, so this book lays down some facts and guidelines to put to rest some of the indecisive elements of design.

For a beginner, this is a book that will give you the confidence and understanding to conquer page layout.

The CD gives the novice an even more practical guide than the book can deliver.

One criticism is that the book is printed on light gloss stock and is spiral bound. I am not sure how it was survive rough treatment.

Brian Hurst

This textbook is awesome. I've never seen a better textbook. It lays everything out, and makes it simple to understand. It tells you what to do and what not to do in simple language and clear pictures. It's one of few textbooks worth keeping for future use in your career (provided you're going into the newspaper industry)!

When I accepted my first "real" job in journalism as a page designer for a local weekly I was struck by a horrifying thought, I really knew nothing about newspaper design. I had done it before for my college paper, sure, but this was the big time. I needed a refresher course and I needed it fast... Tim Harrower and this spiral-bound book came to my rescue.

Although it was first published in 1989, this book will be relevant as long as newspapers exist, even in this age of computer design. Harrower explains and shows why certain designs are good and bad and he approaches it in a situational, problem-solving format. For example, he explains what should be done when you have to design a page with no art, when you have butting headlines, or two horizontal photos etc. Harrower says that most page designers stumble into the job and from this point of view he explains what exactly, a good design is. This book will always be on my desk.

(I wish my publications professor used this instead of the worthless $105 monstrosity he made us buy (and that we never used by the way).)

So, after some mild freaking out followed by a lot of reading, I can start my new job with confidence thanks to this book.

I ordered the hardbound and got the spiral bound, a product worth $12 less. It was then that I discovered there is no way to express a complaint to Amazon: no phone number, no email address, no human help. All that is available is a maze of pre-written web help, none of which includes "credit my account $12, since I don't want to go through the hassle of sending this book back." What's up, Amazon? Don't you want satisfied customers? I spend literally hundreds here each year. This egregious deficit needs to be fixed immediately. Otherwise, I highly recommend this book.

I am an editor these days.
I came on this book quite a few years ago when I was a sub. It was recommended to me by an old hand in the newspaper game.
Without doubt, it is the single best aquisition I have made in terms of newspaper design.
In the places I have worked, I have been regarded extremely highly for my layout skills.
This book, with a little creativity, is the basis of almost everything I do in terms of layout.
If you are serious about the newspaper game, get it, study it and then apply what you learn. It will help our career enormously.