Robin Williams Books

Robin Williams usually does a superb job - she's fun to read, has a perspective which is easy for the reader to understand and puts information clearly while not talking down to readers.

Not this time. If you want a book which tells you more than the very simplest of info about Tiger, don't buy this one. I'm an intermediate level user and I found that there are many glaring gaps in her lessons. I ran into many snags in getting used to switching over from System 9 and she didn't address any of the problems. Nor was her basic information about how Tiger operates useful in helping me trouble shoot the problems.

I wouldn't recommend the book to a new user either, because it was so superficial.

A minor irritant is that the editor (or somebody) did a very poor job of proofing it. There were a significant number of typos throughout the book.

The best I can say about this book is that the author seems to mean well and writes with a light, fun style. If you're a VERY brand new Mac user AND if you're intimidated by more advanced technical information, this book may be for you. Otherwise, save your money and you'll get better info from the various 'help' screeens on the Mac itself.

It is excellent as far as it goes. I wish it was somewhat easier to use by being more complete.

It's probably too basic and not technical enough for the real "geeks" out there, but for someone who just wants to use their Mac and run applications on it, the book is more than adequate. Very easy to read and it makes a great reference book. Diagrams and color illustrations are excellent.

I like Robins ways of teaching, and her book is great. For me it is a bit confusing as I have to keek refering back to other sections. Otherwise great.

before i purchased this book,i read all the reviews and they helped me out tremendously!!i just purchased my mac and was totally lost! this book takes you step by step which was very helpful for a first time computer user. now i'm excited about my computer now that i know how to use it. if you're a first time user and know nothing about macitosh then this is the book for you.

This is a huge book, but I won't be using it as a doorstop as it has been so useful to me for looking up problems and finding answers.
I'm new to Mac and this book puts an end to the Mac mystique. Mac IS easier to use than PC, but it seems confusing to new users. This book uses everyday language to
help with problems and gives a good overview of "how to".
Mac, like MS, now has it's user's guides online. If you aren't online while working, or if you find it tedious to take notes or print the manuals, this book will handle all your inquiries. It doesn't include specific application manuals, but then what computing how to book does? But there is enough contained within to get you going.

I am new to Macs, and rusty with computers. I needed a good basic book, but even I found this book baby talks way too much. As I work through it, I'm finding it to be very annoying that there are endless instructions to go to another page for continued information. She has me flitting around from beginning to back to middle to beginning, etc. With writing like that, of course there is going to be constant repetition of information. Besides putting you to sleep, it makes you wonder if you've already read that section. You'd need a map and a highlighter to know. I don't have time for this.

I remember a critic once said of a John Updike book, "One, don't buy this book. And two, if you do buy it, don't drop it on your foot." Though Robin Williams gigantic OS X book is quite large, and the table of contents goes on for more than a dozen pages, there seems to be a stunning lack of information. For example, I spent 45 minutes leafing through the book, trying to find out how to restart my Mac without loading any of the startup items. In case you're wondering how, you simply hold down the "shift button," but try as you may, you will not find that very simple --but possibly vital-- bit of information in this book. Strangely enough, you will find sections on how to "shift-click" (as though the phrase "shift-click" is not enough instruction), a section on "When to Use the Return key", and a section called "What your Fonts look like." Now, maybe I missed the whole point. Maybe you are the sort of person who has never ever seen a Macintosh computer before, maybe this will help you. But if you are looking for a book full of nuts and bolts info on how to use your system more fully, this is not the book for you.

I have now read seven Mac OS X books (and reviewed several), and I struggled with how to rate this book. Here's why:

5 stars : if you have never, ever used a computer before. This book will teach you about a "mouse", how to click and double-click "the button" of "the mouse", and even how to do what is called "drag-and-drop". Whole chapters are spent on concepts such as this. So if you've never used a computer before, this will be a great book for you to finally learn.

3 stars : for overall information. Nothing of importance is provided that 15 minutes of clicking around wouldn't. Seriously. I'd estimate over half of page space is used for pictures and descriptions for pictures. If you've already used your Mac for 15 minutes, you know 95% of what this book will describe. And even if you haven't, the Apple site (www.apple.com) provides as much if not more info than this book.

0 stars : for how much use I got out of it. I used a Mac earlier in my career (until 1997, System 7.5), and I'd consider myself a "power user" on Windows. This book literally offered me nothing, not even enough value for a single star.

And thus, the struggle of rating the book. For another type of user, the rating would have been different. But I decided to rate the book as it applied to me personally while providing insights for other potential users.

If you're a user like me, I highly recommend Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Edition instead of this book. Read my review there for more details about that book in particular.

I hope this information proves useful.

As a long-time fan of all sorts of literature--from sci-fi/fantasy and graphic novels to literary fiction and contemporary poetry--I came to this book with high expectations and a definite willingness to suspend disbelief. Also, the raw elements of these two storylines--betrayal, love, and doubt--SHOULD have appealed to me... but they didn't. Really, it's impossible to review this book without breaking it down into four parts.

"The Wood Boy", story: Without spoiling the "twist" ending, I have to say that I was shocked by how cliche-filled and unrealistic this story was! For example, the story opens with a heartbroken, half-starved young peasant speaking in long, lordly sentences! Talk about unrealistic! And the "twist" of the ending is extremely predictable, at best.

"The Wood Boy", artwork: To call this artwork mediocre would be a compliment. The characters look extremely goofy and unrealistic, with poorly disproportioned poses and badly exaggerated facial expressions. For example, there's a scene wherein the main female character (who is supposed to be beautiful, but looks more like a box with breasts) charges someone in a fit of rage. But her face and flailing arms are so badly drawn that I burst out laughing--which drew a strange look from the person sitting next to me on the plane.

"The Burning Man", story: OK, this is hard to write, because I really liked every inch of this story... until the very end, which is frankly insulting and awful. Why? BECAUSE THE AUTHOR FORGOT HIS OWN STORY!! Beware any author who has no respect for his own audience. At the risk of spoiling this, suffice to say that the story revolves around a grieving, exiled warlord who summons a kind of demon to answer a metaphysical question inspired by the warlord's tragic losses and spiritual doubts... a question that the entire story has built up to... which the author then forgets!! This story makes not even the slightest attempt at closure. The demon simply disappears. Did he answer the question or not? If so, what was his answer? If not, why--and when--did he disappear? We don't know these crucial details, because the author just decided not to tell us. Furthermore, the narrator--who up until then was giving detailed descriptions of the entire story--doesn't appear to wonder about this, either! That's such a huge breech of trust between author and audience that the guy who wrote this had better hope he never meets me in a dark alley. I like stories in which the author allows the reader to fill in some gaps, but this author apparently decided to just leave out the whole last chapter!

"The Burning Man", artwork: fantastic! Seriously, the artwork of "The Burning Man" is the ONLY reason to pick up this book! It easily runs circles around EVERY other element of this book, both stories combined!

This "comic" is very good, it has a nice story, very much like other Fiest works (you know, a few fights and near death experiences, throw in a token bit of magic and royalty) and the graphics in this book are amazing.

Personally I felt that they could have been sold seperately so collectors only get the authors work they want, but both stories are good.

Besides that it is very short, takes under 10 minutes to read.

I was not aware that I was buying an Illustrated or Graphic novel when I purchased this. I was greatly pleased at the illustration to go along with the story. I had read The Wood Boy in the Legends Series but to add the illustrations made it come to live. As for the Burning Man, reading this graphic novel urged me to read more of Tad Williams also. I would highly recommend this.

This graphic novel combines two stories that were adapted from two stories that originally appeared in Robert Silverberg's mammoth anthology LEGENDS in 1998.

This graphic novel collects:
Raymond E. Feist's THE WOOD BOY (a Midkemia story) and Tad Williams's THE BURNING MAN (a Memory, Sorrow and Thorn story).

I think that the WOOD BOY actually improves the story, because it adds visual depth to an otherwise rather lame tale. I have not read the story in a long time, but I remember that it was rather average. But the adaptation was very good and I am looking forward to MAGICIAN.

I think BURNING MAN must have been much more diffcult to adapt because it does not have a lot of outward action, but rather a lot of introspection. A lot hinges on atmosphere rather than plot. But I enjoyed the adaption quite a bit. It was very faithful to the text, but also added a couple of lines of dialogue here and there to make the story livelier. I think that worked rather well.

One little caveat though. When Sulis finally asks the Burning Man his question that he so desires to ask, the answer of the Burning Man is left out and the action resumes with the attack of Tellarin. Is that the point where the other two artists took over from Brett Booth? That was an odd moment, and I think that something is missing there.

But it is a nice book. The characters looked "right" enough to me and I would definitely like to see more of them.

Unfortunately, the Dabel Brothers have currently no other Tad Williams projects in the works (as far as I know), but I hope that that will change soon.

Meanwhile, I am looking forward to MAGICIAN, RED PROPHET and THE SWORN SWORD.

This book is half good. Half of the Wood Boy story is really well illustrated, then the second half is drawn by some amateur. Same thing with the second story, the first half looks like the artist took his time to craft a lovely visual, then the second half it looks super-rushed, and half-assed.

Then the production value, filler pages flood the middle of the book advertising another series. ADVERTISTING. In a GRAPHIC NOVEL. Then at the end of the book you get a bunch of low resolution sketches that look like they were taken off a website at 72dpi.

Whoever ran the production and editing on this book should be kicked out of the comic book world until they have a clue how to put a decent book together.

If you like Windows Services, you'll enjoy this handbook. As an entry-level systems administrator, I wasn't exactly sure how I could leverage .Net. I was taught C and C++ for windows services, but not everyone wants to learn, peer review, and maintain that.

As for the handbook, each chapter did a nice job of keeping my attention (that's good seeing as how I'm a generation X'er) and the overall structure, prose, and subtle humor kept me glued to each page.

Visual Basic .NET Windows Services Handbook gave me direction and purpose regarding future .Net services on our company's infrastructure. This handbook is a great tool for setting your sail in the seas of .Net Windows Services.

If you no absolutely nothing about Windows Services, I still wouldn't recommend this book. You can find more useful information from one Google search than this entire book contains. Also, the link to the book's code is incorrect. The code is available via another site but is different than the code in the book. My recomendation...keep shopping!

The book is kept short and precise, very well structured. It fills a lots of gaps currently open in MSDN. It's the only one book you need for writing professional Windows services. Highly recommended.

the first four chapter was very good in explaining
how and when to use windows services
The chapter 5 and onwards was very poor.
I am expriencing non workable programs and i am currently
debugging them. no thanks to the author.
Only the first half of the book is OK. The rest is very shabby.

I read through this book in one go and found that it serves as an excellent reference for those who would like to author windows services using the .NET framework. This book has been well organized, starting from the ground-up, explaining the anatomy of a windows service and goes on to cover advanced topics like threading and installation. A must have for people who would like to write windows services. I hope they would come up with a C# version soon (but C# guys can still use this one as a reference).

This was a huge hit with both our 2 year old and 4 year old. The illustrations work like a comic book, so non-readers can figure out most of the story. Every 2 pages is a single "chapter" with blocks of text under each frame (about 12 frames per page) with narrative and dialogue in the frames themselves. The narrative was perfect for our 2 year old to hear, and our 4 year old enjoyed the dialogue, which was mostly simple humor about the story or frame. It's by far the most accessible Robin Hood we've found, giving the entire Robin Hood story arc rather than just Robin meets Marian, or Robin meets Little John. Candlewick is an excellent publisher and the paperback is pretty sturdy (although we have read ours to pieces, and so I'm looking for a replacement!)

We were searching for a simple Robin Hood adventure story to introduce our children (ages 5,6, and 9) to the whole Robin Hood legend. We ordered this based on the rave reviews we read. What we received, however, was very disappointing -- v-e-r-y tiny text, written on absolutely horrible cartoon drawings. The stories were unintelligible without a magnifying glass and an appreciation for the author's rather lame attempts at humor. This was not the book we were expecting, especially for kids who were unfamiliar with the story and the characters. The pictures were just plain ugly, the text too small, and the storytelling abominable. Not a fun family read!

This book is absolutely fabulous! I was very interested in learning more about the famous tales of Robin Hood, but all the books about him were very advanced and I didn't understand many of the phrases. When I found this book, I read it and I was so pleased beause it is exactly what I wanted to find:tales about the adventures of Robin Hood and I was too happy to describe that I could understand every word! If you want to read about Robin Hood but cannot yet understand the advanced vocabulary of the writers from long ago, then this is the book for you!

He was there with a capacity for idetic imagery.
He knew so much and shares much of it here, definitively.
A very important book.

I had expected this to be an exciting book about spying during the Second World War, and it was about the spies, but not about events, but about the people involved and where they traveled to and the disguises they used in their missions, what colleges they used as fronts, how many books they took with them, etc. - If you are truly interested in the mundane minute documentation about the people this is the book for you; but it's not the book for the general reader. It's too specific and detailed with very little "spy" action. Not reader friendly.

Co-editor Maureen Corrigan book reviewer on NPR Prgram Fresh Air is well worth reading. Lots of valuable info in a very detailed interesting work.

The delivery date was scheduled to be April 2, 2007 and it is May 7, 2007 and I still donot have the item. I ordered it by expedited shipping on March 18, 2007! What is going wrong with my delivery? Similar thing happened with another book I odered scheduled to arrive December 22,2006 but was only received it in february 2007.

Great book to have, especially for mid-level providers (NP/PA). Very thorough and concise. One of the first books I refer to when researching ped. info.

As comprehensive and digestible a review of general pediatrics as possible in a relatively small package. The more common problems seen in community practice are treated sufficiently thoroughly while the less common ones require reading reference sources. A very useful primary text for the student and review text for the resident or practitioner.

The chapter on recording and editing podcasts was useful, but those on iWeb were really basic -- to the point that the book offered little more than what a few minutes using iWeb would have given me. Additionally, I was a bit miffed by the fact that the book is written from the assumption that the reader WILL have a .Mac account -- I don't, and don't want one. I was hoping that the iWeb instruction would be a little more generic, but that wasn't the case. So much of that app's functionality is tied up with .Mac, although there are work-arounds I discovered after reading this book. The author made little attempt to look outside Apple's box.

The author, in my opinion, is a Mac groupie, and most of the book reflected that attitude -- I'm a refugee from Windows, but pragmatic enough to see the thing for what it is: a computer. If you want a very shallow intro to iWeb, some decent suggestions for podcasting, and a boatload of "don't you just LOVE Mac??" presentation, this book is for you. Otherwise, look elsewhere.

Robin Williams is truly the queen of user instruction. She takes the hard concepts and makes them accessible to novices. She's no relation to the actor Robin Williams of course, who has played a queen in the past!

"Podcasting and Blogging with GarageBand and iWeb" is a perfect guide for someone curious about blogging and podcasting. The book requires the reader to have a .Mac account and own iLife 06. Without these two essential components, the book is of almost no use. If you are able to type an email, then you'll be able to blog and podcast after reading this short book.

Unlike a lot of technical books that explain a dizzying array of options, Robin makes the tasks easy and straightforward using the tools most every Mac comes with. This is not a reference guide that gives you tips and tricks. You'll find nothing in this book about using Blogger or Wordpress nor will there be advice on which type of mic to use for a podcast. She uses strictly iLife '06 and .Mac. This is a step by step how to guide for someone who has never used a Mac or blogged before can be up and going within less than an hour.

Typical of Robin William's books, she assumes no prior knowledge of anything but Macintosh basics such as moving the cursor and opening applications. Each step contains a screen shot of exactly what to expect with outstanding layout and flow. Some readers will complain that she doesn't give the reader enough options as to how to create their podcast or blog. However, the goal of the book is to get the reader to create a blog or podcast as quickly and easily as possible. Once the reader feels they want more, then at that point they should buy an intermediate book. If someone has already created a podcast or blog before, then they probably don't need this book.

Overall, a great book for people curious about trying to create their own podcast and/or blog using software that comes with most newer Macs

Pros: Extremely easy to understand, requires no prior knowledge
Cons: Tied to iLife '06 and .Mac, offers few tips if you aren't using those told

This book should be titled differently as the emphasis it has is on podcasting using Apple GarageBand, rather than on blogging using iWeb. Still, this does not result surprising or dissapointing, because the level of depth and quality of the illustrations and instructions provided make it impossible for the reader to miss a beat, leading to great results when using GarageBand to create podcasts. Also, it makes sense to a certain degree, because iWeb is most definitely not the most popular (or recommendable) tool for blogging, even if you are working on a Mac.

In general, it's a good book if you are looking for a reference on podcast production. Otherwise, if you are looking to blog with your Mac, for the best book on the topic out there, consult "Dispatches from Blogistan".

A 2007 summer reading list mini review.

I have been an ardent fan of the humor of Robin Williams equal parts manic and cerebral since his debut on Happy Days some 30 years ago. So, when I saw this book at my local library, I checked it out thinking that I would be treated to some of his crazier routines like this one from Mork and Mindy:

Mork: (reporting to Orson) They even have a religion that worships O.J. Simpson.
Orson: The Juice?
Mork: Yeah, and the gentiles too.

What I got instead was a biography that after a good glimpse of his childhood years focused too much on the obvious and also on unneeded periphery from his work.

Examples of this are an approximately two page plot synopsis of Mrs. Doubtfire, and a penchant from listing at least 3 other films for each director Williams ever worked with. Aside from unnecessary, some of the periphery is also inaccurate. When speaking of the immense popularity of Happy Days the author tells us that Laverne and Shirley ran for 4 seasons, it ran for 8.

I will have to give the author, Jay David, some credit. It takes a certain kind of talent to write about such a colorful figure as Williams and make it come out dry.

It is difficult to write a biography that only goes for 200 pages unless it is the Reader's Digest version of the person's life. Jay David essentially has written a stripped down biography of Robin Williams. After reading the book, I feel I have only scratched the surface of this talented actor/comedian's life and talents.

Much of Robin's early life is cited from previous interviews with other sources. While this is acceptable, it makes the early part of the book seem like a "cut and paste" job. The book journeys into his early career and family life with similar techniques. When the book arrives at the point where Robin Williams' career really takes off, the author becomes consistent with the layout of the chapters. The first part is how Williams came to work on the movie/project with various antidotes. The second part of the chapters is a documentation of the critical reviews of the movie. I felt a lot was omitted from the book. Nothing is mentioned about his hosting Saturday Night Live. Similary, little is mentioned of his stand-up work or Comic Relief. I would have thought they would have included more of Robin Williams' humor in here since the book is called "The Life and Humor of Robin Williams".

The book does have strong points. I did learn about Williams family and marital life. Few people are aware that Williams came from a privilaged family background. I also believe that the insight provided on many of the movies is well documented. One must keep in mind that the book was printed in 1999 so it is not entirely up to date. With this being said, fans of Williams will enjoy learning about the development of his career. Despite being an easy read, the book has too many weak points to be enjoyed by the casual reader.

well, this london connection will come to an end in about 5 minutes when i finish it. i've read mr. hunter's three quarry's stories one after another and still couldn't get enough of it. it's shame that mr. hunter has to let the sleeping dog lie low and cut off after quarry's third adventure, but what can i say? it's a good run and it's a good time to stop right here. I just wish there would be more publishers who could write good stories like mr. hunter (so far, well, none, i think) i'm gonna try to collect these three books into my treasured ones that always give me pleasant memories just by looking at their titles and certainly would bring joy back right away. you are another god send great writers from england. bless you and wishing you all the best for years to come.

Some of his other work is much better. This book seams rushed, almost like the author did not want to take the time to really develop either the story or the characters. Because of the light development it does not hold your attention. I just did not believe the characters. I kept waiting for it to get better which is why I toughed it out to the end, but I was disappointed overall.