X Books

Piggyback Interactive, a guide company in the UK, is known for making some high quality guides. Their extraordinary guide to FFX is just one of several great guides to be produced by them. This guide is jam-packed with tons of secrets not found in the BradyGAMES guide, and an in depth walkthrough that's not just for beginners, but for experts as well.

The game begins with the basics entitled "How to Play". Here they detail the battle system, the menu and everything you need to know to get started in FFX. They also point out a few basic tips that any soul gamer probably wouldn't have tried out.

The section about the sphere grid is nifty, but this brings me to my first thing to point out. This FFX guide, is for the INTERNATIONAL version, as well as the standard version. America got the Standard Version and Europe got both versions. So there is also detail on the Expert Sphere Grid. It isn't as BIG as the one in the BradyGAMES guide, but you can still use it.

Each character section is also detailed with how that character should act in combat. I would've really liked to have seen what they're section of the sphere grid looks like though, but I could do without.

The walkthrough is VERY detailed, helping you to get everything. The maps, for those who are curious, are about the same as they were in the BradyGAMES guide. But the walkthrough brings details to your attention that you would've never known. The walkthrough does tend to digress though, and they always feel the need to bring you up to speed. What does that mean? Plot spoilers. Quite a few of them too, but seeing as how I've already been through the game, I don't care. The boss strategies are very helpful, but again, there were some things BradyGAMES did that this guide didn't. BradyGAMES told me how much damage I had to do to get an overkill in the walkthrough, this guide forces you to flip to the back of the book. BradyGAMES also showed overkill AP you'd receive. With this, you have to flip to the back of the book.

The Bestiary in this guide is more complex than any other guide. Easy to use, but the info is all over the place. The most basic of basic info points itself out, but some of the other things you might want to know (AP you'll receive, etc.) is somewhat tucked away at the bottom of each monster.

The Blitzball section is about the only major problem I had with the guide. It goes so into the game it isn't even funny. You should be able to survive a pop quiz on blitzball after reading this book. The problem is, they don't say anything about the characters. Who can I recruit? What benefits come from recruiting them? In the BradyGAMES guide they told me the stats for EVERY player.

Lastly, the secrets. There are actually quite a few secrets pointed out here that the BradyGAMES guide didn't tell us. For example, if you want to know how to unlock all the monsters in the monster arena, and what their stats look like, then this guide is the one you want! You'll go into every battle prepared, and they give strategies for some of the harder monsters. They also give you a nice little AP trick that'll help your characters gain sphere levels faster than you ever thought possible.

I must remind you again, this guide also covers the INTERNATIONAL version, which had more secrets and goodies than the standard version. This guide talks about all the "Dark" aeons, and a hidden boss named Penance. In the standard American Version the Dark Aeons and Penance DON'T EXIST! So the guide isn't "giving out wrong info", it's just for a different version of the game.

Is it better than the BradyGAMES guide? Yes, for the sake of the monster arena alone. If you truly want to find everything FFX has to offer, then pick up this guide instead. You'll have to import it though, and that'll cost you a hefty amount. Still an awesome guide.

This is a awsome sound track, since it is in it's orginal language, you can hear what it sounds like..

I was looking for a book that would truly be a "101" type of explanation of all of the ins and outs of stocks, mutual funds, IRA's, etc. and this book does an excellent job of doing just that.

This book is perfect for those who have always been intimidated by the world of finances and money management but have a desire to understand all of the terminology, pros and cons, and options available to start successfully planning for your future. It's easy to read and understand and will make you say "SO THAT'S WHAT THAT MEANS!!!" over and over again!

Actually this book never got published. The publisher, Coriolis closed prior to printing the book. The Fireworks 4 f/x & Design book though will run out of stock since it won't be reprinted.

I have completed the Fireworks MX book and it will be an e-book as soon as I can get the layout done. I'll be updating Fireworks 4 to MX as time permits. Check the e-book listing or my website. Since I can't put URLs in this message. Just use my name and initial to find the site for updates.

Thank you so much for looking.

Fernando Castro's 1977 Five Rolls of Plus-X is a seismic reverberation of
Carlos Oquendo de Amat's 1927 Five Meters of Poems.

The Hanging X is just a good rousing read! After having read everything written by Louis L'Amour and Max Brand (and all Brand's pseudonyms), I was looking for something comparable though I hate to "try out" a new author. Horton has not disappointed me. Gail Landon, whose mother married a man who could not accept the son of her firat husband, leaves home at 16 at his stepfather's urging. Gail is too feisty to settle down to the demands of ranching and seeks adventure, falling in with an outlaw bunch that robs a bank cum saloon. He receives word that both parents were killed in a wagon accident, leaving him the ranch, and he gladly leaves the outlaw trail to go home. There he has the assistance of the sheriff, the town banker, and the town lawyer and Gail needs all the help he can get because both his past on the ranch and his past on the outlaw trail are coming back to haunt him with a vengeance. Throw in a rustling-on-the-side ranch foreman who thinks Gail is still too wet behind the ears to manage a ranch, an outlaw bent on blackmail, and some crew members who may be untrustworthy, and Gail has enough to keep him awake nights. Then he renews acquaintance with Doris, a childhood friend from the adjacent ranch for whom the adult Gail discovers an attraction, and Gail has so much on his plate that it starts to fall off the edges. This is a very good read and one you will find hard to put down once you start. Begin on a Friday and plan for an allnighter . . . it's that good! And Horton maintains the action-filled suspense down to the last couple of pages. Don't miss this one.

I love this book, and I really like Dr. Liptzin as a writer, he's quite talented himself. This book is a labour of love, and also a very good introduction and overview of Yiddish literature. I know a little bit about it, but still learned a lot from this book, and his descriptions of the writers and their visions are exquisite.

Just when you thought you had every treatise about the edgy painter of confrontational imagery from the brush of Francis Bacon, up pops this well designed and written book on just how this amazing artist approached an image, an idea, and carried that to completion. Written by Bacon scholar Hugh Marlais Davies and including an interview with the artist that to my knowledge finds its first publication in this volume, this small but impressive book served as a catalogue for the exhibition FRANCIS BACON: THE PAPAL PORTRAITS OF 1953 presented by the Museum of Contemporary art of San Diego in La Jolla, California in 2001.

The exhibition, and this accompanying catalogue, was powerful in that it focused on eight studies for the papal series (emphasizing the response to Velasquez' popes) that Bacon painted in three weeks time in 1953. Here is all of the energy and agony, the distillation of Bacon's view of the Church and the Universe, and the opportunity to scrutinize Bacon's technique of drawing to painting that makes these portrait studies so important to artist, scholar and art lover alike.

As in the exhibition, the portraits are ordered in a circular fashion in the main hall, and this installation is reproduced well in this volume. Then each portrait study is individually presented with the exceptionally educational essay by Davies. One leaves this books the same way the exhibition impressed the visitors - informed, appalled, fascinated and moved. An important document in the books on the life and works of Francis Bacon. Grady Harp, March 05

Twenty years after he left the U.S. Senate and 17 years after his death, many people have forgotten Idaho's Frank Church. In his day, Church was a nationally recognized U.S. Senator. In this book, Bill Hall looks back at one of the milestones of Church's career, his late campaign for President in 1976 in which he won five primaries and caucuses.

For those who like politics, this book will take you behind the scenes of Chuuch's Senate office and campaign structure. Hall worked for Church in '76, and he recalls in detail the hopes, dreams, egos, conflicts, ambition, and exhaustion that are a part of any bid for the nation's highest office.

Besides Church, interesting figures explored in the book are his wife and great supporter, Bethine, longtime friend and political aide Carl Burke, and his Senate chief of staff, Verda Barnes, one of the most powerful women on Capitol Hill during that time.

We are fortunate that the Frank Church campaign is documented as it has been here.

With "FIRENDS", Ralph Moore lends years of insight as a father, pastor and mentor to the way to reach the heart of Gen Xers. His advice is timely and admonition is based on a proven track record of seeing Gen Xers come to faith and Christ and be rapidly mentored and released into fruitful leadership.
More than a "how to" book, Ralph explores the "whys" behind what is happening on the spiritual landscape of this generation.
This is a must read if you are beginning to delve into the world of Gen X and post modernism as it relates to matters of faith.
Especially take note of the chapters which relate to mentoring. There are very few people who have been as successful with raising up and releasing leaders so consistently from this generation.