Bruce Lee Books

This is a poorly written book about two great martial artists. I've been a martial artist and a Bruce Lee fan for over 30 years and have read many books and magazine articles about the legendary martial artist, and have to say this book has been a great disappointment. The book is slow and boring and I would not recommend it to anyone. Better to read one of Jesse Glover's, Dan Inosanto's, or John R. Little's books on the subject.

this is a book that has been needed for a long time now. the early bruce, and a look back at how he developed. there's great stuff here...too bad it reads like a "junior scholastic" teen book! the authors are poor storytellers. this is bruce lee material we have all been waiting for, james yimm lee, jesse glover, wally jay, etc. the early years! fantastic! some great photos...and some not so great maps, copied from "mapquest"? the book reads like a danielle steel movie-of-the-week potboiler...boring. fantastic material, horrible presentation. like a 5-star meal on a paper plate. bruce and james history both deserve a better treatment...5 star material served as 2 star writing! poor publishing from a company that usually puts out quality books. found quite a few grammatical mistakes...so o.k. get a real writer and a proofreader too! maybe they will make-up for it with volume 2.

The first part of this book regarding Bruce Lee's training w/ Gin Foon Mark seems totally bogus ! There is no eveidence Bruce Lee ever met this guy. The book details Lee's father and Bruce himself in NY , even covering in detail their innermost thoughts,and there is no proof of this other than the oral record of this guy who has claimed for years to have taught Bruce Lee. I think actually Lee's fathers last trip to the USA was when Bruce was born in 1940 .

On the other hand the material covering Seattle and early Oakland seems to be on the up and up and very imformative.

This book is just plain awful. I was expecting to learn more about James Lee (who IMHO is the most underated of all JKD practioners).

Most stories are conjecture and out right lies. The authors should be ashamed of themselves. This book does nothing but tarnish the legend of Bruce Lee.

To add insult to injury, it reads like a 3rd grade book report.

If I could write this review in blood and tears, I would.

An incredibly enthralling look at the relationship between two of the most influential martial artists of the 20th century. One now a well-known icon (Bruce Jun Fan Lee), the other just coming into his due (James Yimm Lee). For the first time, in this extensive work we can read about the symbiotic relationship between Bruce Lee and James Yimm Lee (not blood related to one another despite the last name). The book is helped immensely through the participation of Greglon Yimm Lee, James Lee's son, who offers insight into the life of his father and family life previously unknown.

Largely forgotten, or formerly summed up in a few brief paragraphs, James Lee wrote and published the first publicly available serious gung fu books in English. James Lee was a consummate martial artist in his own right, having studied at one of the first public Sil Lum (Shao-Lin) schools in San Francisco (under T.Y. Wong), as well as making it a practice to trade techniques and practice with other martial artists throughout the Bay area. Another famed student of James Lee's covered in this book is Al Novak, a pioneer in his own right.

James Lee was one of the first martial arts men to advocate the practical approach through his books, keeping useful information, and rejecting the notion of maintaining "tradition for tradition's sake." As a matter of fact, if you compare any of J.Y. Lee's early self-published books, you can see the progression J.Y. Lee made from blind obedience to tradition, to creating his own practical tradition. Of course, most of us don't have access to these books--which is what makes this volume, "The Dragon and the Tiger", a treasure.

There are photos and explanations of James Lee's early books, training devices, and classes--and the full story of how Bruce Lee came to adopt many of James Lee's theories and methods. It isn't difficult to see how James Lee's concepts became popularized by Bruce Lee, who adapted many of James Lee's methods to his own needs (as James Lee had intended). Bruce Lee of course, later became legendary for his own practical approach, which was later systematized in his Jun Fan Gung Fu and Jeet Kune Do, influencing contemporary martial arts thought in the U.S. and the World.

This is a book about friendship. About a journey into study and research and human limits that two men undertook together. It provides new information not contained in any other work which makes for an enjoyable read and a hard-to-set-down book. Finally, a book that gives credit where it is due--to James Yimm Lee: teacher, student, and argueably perhaps the greatest influence upon Bruce Lee. You needn't be a Bruce Lee fan to enjoy this book, anyone with an interest in American martial arts history, the Chinese community in America, or American history in general should find this fascinating.

Buddhism & Bruce Lee have nothing to do with Karate. No more need be said on this book. There are a lot of other, good books on the subject of karate available through Amazon.com.

This is a good introduction to martial arts and a primer on Karate; a hand-and-foot fighting method developed in Okinawa from Chinese Kung Fu. The beginning of martial arts, as we know it today, is generally acknowledged to have come to China from India and Tibet 2000 years before Christ was born. Initially, these forms were exercises used by monks to keep their body fit and as protection against bandits. This early form of martial arts practiced and perfected by the monks at the Shaolin monastery is known as Kung Fu.

Kung fu soon expanded into a method of self-defense that would protect the monks from bandits when they traveled. Stories soon got out how various monks would soundly defeat multiple opponents and when the Emperor heard the stories, he asked the Shaolin monks to come protect him in his court and help him fight his enemies.

Karate is ONE form of marital arts but, in this book the authors fail to clearly express this. No evaluation or comparisons between the different martial art forms are made. This would have been very helpful. Since Karate was derived out of Kung Fu the authors do a reasonable job covering its history. Other martial art forms: Akido, Jijitsu, Tae Kwon Do, also get a page or two.

This is a simple introduction that helps you understand how Karate evolved and how it has found its place in our modern world. It has very good photos and a wonderful section on Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris. If you are a young person wanting to get a better understanding of this martial art form then this would be a good book to begin with. Recommended.

This book will especially appeal to both the younger reader and to any student beginning Karate. It does not over elaborate which is a common failing of many martial arts publications. Instead, a good all-round history from origins to present day are covered in a way which keeps the reader interested. This book is probably not as relevant to the more advanced Karate student, but nevertheless is still entertaining. A great gift for any budding Bruce Lee you might know!

The writing is the main disappointment in Hulk v. Thing Hard Knocks. There's not much excitement or tension and hardly any plot. Jae Lee's art differs from his usual atmospheric Milleresque-Sienkiwicz renderings.

The art is the high point and saving grace of this work and justifies its purchase. Pretty pictures, petty plot.

With longtime Hulk scribe Bruce Jones' conspiracy arc pretty much over, the title was put on hiatus for four months to make way for this four issue mini-series. Marvel's two biggest and baddest bruisers face off for the first time in a long time in Hard Knocks, as the Hulk and the Thing of the Fantastic Four have a knock down drag out brawl in the desert. During the fights, both recall their first meeting and the sordid history between the two. Jones is an excellent writer who nearly took the Incredible Hulk to the Peter David-level greatness that it had lacked for years, but his story and script are average at best here. Nothing really compelling, just two monstrous beheamoths beating the tar out of each other. And while that's all well and good, the Jones twist that long time readers expect just never comes, and Hard Knocks ends up being pretty run of the mill. What saves the book however is the art by Jae Lee (Inhumans, The Sentry), who gives both the Hulk and the Thing incredibly grotesque looks, yet leaves them all the more iconic. As a bonus, a copy of Marvel's Giant-Size Superstars #1 is included as well, as new readers can see a classic showdown between the two. All in all, fans of Jones' run on the Hulk will want to check this out, but you're better off waiting for the title to come back from hiatus.

You can't blame this book for not being able to capture Bruce Lee's technique. Why? Because he had no technique.

Alex Ben Block, somewhat known the time, produces a hurried bio on Lee soon after his death, as Dell capitalizes on the death of Bruce and the Kung Fu craze. Block makes several terminology mistakes, which was much more common in the 70s when non-martial artists were largely ignorant of terms and definitions. This is an irritant, but nothing more.

Block tries to get a "feeling" about Bruce Lee's pressures, the events surrounding him, and the Hong Kong movie business - here he largely succeeds. He succeeds in the Hollywood - Hong Kong connection, but largely fails in his martial arts knowledge and those circles where Bruce walked, taught, and associated in.

My biggest disagreement? Block finds Return of the Dragon (Way of the Dragon)to be Lee's worse movie - it is my personal favorite.

The Cummings text is less readable than the Bailey version. Cummings has more detail of the results of studies and Bailey has broader brush strokes. I think this comes down to preference.

I am very disappointed, however, in the poor functionality of the electronic version of the Cummings book. About half of the time that I log on, the eBook doesn't work. I have contacted customer service multiple times and each time they say they're working on it. Eventually I got fed up and asked them if it would be reasonable to have either a refund for the eBook or to have a credit, they gave me the following response. (Buyer beware!)

Dear Chris,

We cannot offer a discount or credit because of technical issues. Per our Terms and Conditions,

3. Exclusions Of Warranties
No warranties of any kind are made with respect to the Elsevier Site, Elsevier Information, or Other Sites.

ELSEVIER DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE ELSEVIER SITE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, WILL BE ACCURATE, OR WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE. WE EXPRESSLY EXCLUDE AND DISCLAIM ALL EXPRESS AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

WE SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE OR LOSS OF ANY KIND ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THE ELSEVIER SITE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DATA LOSS OR CORRUPTION, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER SUCH LIABILITY IS BASED IN TORT, CONTRACT OR OTHERWISE.



We, again, apologize for any inconvenience you may encounter.


When replying, please include a copy of the original message.

Sincerely,
Elsevier
Online Support
1.800.401.9962
[...]

Although the back cover and the online advertising information claim that all chapters have fully explained answers, nearly 50% of questions have multiple-choice answers with no explanations. One chapter actually says "no answers provided". The questions and answers are poorly edited. There are some board-relevant questions in this book, but overall I would not recommend it.

I am an ENT man from Taiwan. This book is an important guide for the board examination. I like this book.

I am one of the few people in my dept that buy each and every edition of this book, but it seems that I can't throw away the older ones, in may subjects it seems to be getting better, specially when you are talking about genes or dealing with cancer, but in other areas it is getting worse, like dealing with vocal fold paralysis or sleep apnoea.

I was disappoited on buying the CD-ROM version of this text. I found it incomplete (ie NO mention on Otoplasty despite being advertised by the authers as the MOST comprehensive text in this field !, and I found it innacurate with plenty of mistakes.
It is otherwise a versatile instrument for reference and revision

There is no access to the authors for feedback comments etc.

This is a very poor quality video of Bruce Lee's Fists of Fury, and who ever is selling this is ripping you off, with the sale that this is a book.

This book is very selective in its scope. Mr. Bax Mentions many of Sijo Bruce's students but leaves out the man who spent more time training with Bruce Lee than anyone else. That man is Sifu Dan Inosanto (who Brandon Lee went to for instruction in his father's art of Jan Fan Gung Fu/ Jeet Kune Do). Any annal of JKD students/ JKD history that leaves out Sifu Dan is absolutely incomplete. I encourage anyone truely interested in JKD history to buy a different book. If you are only interested in learning about the JKD Nucleus group (Who seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding about Bruce Lee's message concerning martial arts and what it means to "Have no way as way and no limitation as limitation") then this book is a great resource. I personally prefer the message of the JKD Concepts group which gives Sijo Bruce Lee credit for what he personally taught, but also embraces the concepts of JKD (which Bruce Lee taught) and continues to evolve and remain vital as the world of martial arts continues to expand.