Archives Books

This was the first book I started with when I decided to use coloring as a stress reliever. It really works!! Now I have my granddaughters sitting with me and coloring the beautiful women and gowns with colored pens and pencils. I recommend over 10 though, some gowns are quite extensive.

What a lovely book! The range of dresses depicted spans several years, the images are beautifully drawn and highly detailed, and the descriptions that accompany the illustrations are quite informative. I actually purchased this thinking that I would color the images -- but the book is just much too pretty to use!

I've been over the moon with fashion paper dolls since I was a kid. Discovering Dover Pictorial Archives coloring books was like Christmas morning for me!

Godey's Fashions Coloring Book is a dream you can make come true with gel pens, crayons, colored pencils -- whatever suits your mood and interpretation of the project.

Frame it or cut it out and incorporate the image into another crafts project! There's lots of fun here!

This book is wonderful. The fashions depicted are truly lovely. I'm enjoying it already. Definately a keeper!

I just purchased these Dover COloring Books for my mother and she loves them. The detail is out of this world and the variety of colors you can use are only limited by your inagination. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

If this comic came out today in the same form it would be ridiculed by the comic critics. However, this seriest started over 60 years ago and at the time was revolutionary. When you read this book you should not be looking for an intellectual thrillride, you should go slowly and enjoy the fantastic artwork and coloring, and revel in hos simplistic good vs. bad used to be. I recommend reading this over a period of days, no more than two stories/day. If you read the stories one after the other they will blur together into one. Like the Flash!!!

A short introduction in the beginning, and five tiny biographies of Flash artists at the end, mark the total text found in this book. Almost the entirety of the book is filled with Flash comics from Flash Comics #1 (January, 1940) through #17 (May, 1941)! The covers (even if they include someone other than the Flash) and comics are reproduced in their original size, and in a simply fantastic clarity. I am simply astounded at how good these look!

Here you see the origin of the Jay Garrick (Earth Two) Flash, and watch him kick the butts of more than a few baddies (actually, he preferred to turn them into human tops!). This book is a mite pricey, but it is a fantastic addition to the library of any Flash fan.

The "Golden Age Flash Archives" is another great volume in DC's Archive series featuring one of the first "specialty" super-heroes with only one power. After inhaling fumes of "hard water," college student and slowpoke Jay Garrick discovers he has super-speed. He becomes the Flash, the fastest man alive.

As the character appeared early in the super-hero genre, its easy to see the experimental qualities of the Flash. Writer Gardner Fox wasn't as worried about convention as he would be later. The most obvious example is that Garrick didn't worry too much about who knew that he was really the Flash. He demonstrates his powers openly, going from bench-warmer to college football star. People approach him specifically for the purpose of his speedster help. Criminals fear him as both Garrick and Flash. His girlfriend Joan is actually quite strong-willed, as opposed to later super-hero paramours. As the series progressed, however, Garrick started to keep his other identity on the QT.

Unfortunately, this early volume is a little disappointing because there isn't a single story that really stands out. As with most of the golden age mystery men, Jay didn't have much of a rogues gallery at first, instead beating up on gangsters and corrupt officials. However, Fox was very good at devising clever uses for Flash's power, e.g. humiliating enemies, spying on people at super-speed, and the like. So, while this is an entertaining volume, it leaves general impressions of fun rather than memorable story-telling.

E.E. Hibbard's art is a little more detailed than your average golden age fare, which comes in handy for the various displays of speedster prowess Fox wrote. Hibbard, while still employing the cartoony style common to the era, had a talent for some solid line work that does stand-out from the work of most of his peers. He's no Jack Burnley or Will Eisner, but his style is distinct and pleasing to the eye.

DC is finally coming out with the second volume of this Archive series, so this isn't a "fast-tracked" series (pardon the pun), but so long as we get more Jay Garrick adventures, I'm happy.

This is a wonderful book to read if you're a Flash fan. In it, we get the reprinted adventures of the original Flash Jay Garrick. It lacks detailed characterization, and the stories are simple. But, they leave you entertained.
A must-have for Flash fans!!

its a great book for the jla lovers and the flash i reccomond it to everybody who likes comics

There are three great novels about the Latin American dictator and all of them are very different. Miguel Asturias' Mr. President deals with a backwater banana republic where the president for life's presence itself is minor. What occurs instead is the lethal working out of a hideously unjust system which crushes and destroys all who resist and those who are caught in its clutches. Then there is Gabriel Garcia Marquez's The Autumn of the Patriarch, an example of high modernism at its most brilliant. In sentences of increasingly serpentine length (in the end consisting of the final chapter of forty-five pages) Garcia Marquez deals with an aged dictator who has ruled for centuries and is capable of every iniquity (such as serving up a cabinet minister for his treacherous colleagues to eat) while living in a world of pretend power and real submission (he has to sell his country's sea to pay off the Americans). This book is also high modernist, but is very different. Instead of the fantastic elements of the Autumn of the Patriarch we have here the story of the founder of Paraguay, Dr. Francia. Dr. Francia consolidated his country's independence by creating a regime of isolation and absolute power. He expelled the Jesuits and set up his own Catholic Church so it would not be beholden to Rome. He was utterly ruthless and the result, according to E. Bradford Burns was an autarky that probably benefited the masses more in terms of literacy and nutrition than any other Latin American country of the time. Its fate, however, was to be crushed by the surrounding countries in the great war of 1870-73 where the male population was almost literally devastated.

No venal tinpot hack, Dr. Francia appears as a man of frightening sincerity, in an account that is of direct revelance to the fate of Castro's Cuba. I, the Supreme begins with a proclamation in which the dicators calls for the decapitation of his corpse and the lynching of all his ministers. It continues with tales of prisoners forced to live in boats travelling down the rivers of Paraguay without ever stopping. We read of Francia's dialogue with a sycophantic Vicar General ("How long did the trial of the infamous traitors to the Fatherland last? As long as it was necessary in order not to rush to judgement. They were granted every right to defend themselves. In the end every recourse was exhausted. It might be said that the case was never closed. It is still open. Not all the guilty parties were sentenced to death and executed."), who then goes on to condemn his priests for siring dozens and hundreds of illegitimate children. Like Lenin and indeed Stalin he rants against the jungle of bureaucracy that he himself has created, he outsmarts the greedy surrounding oligarchies who wish to absorb Paraguay, he reminds his civil servants not to express and exploit the Indian population. We read reports of how school children are indoctrinated to see their great leader ("The Supreme Government is very old. Older than the Lord God, that our schoolmaster...tells us about in a low voice.) The book is a masterpiece of polyphony, filled with many voices and viewpoints, combined with a richness of metaphor and incident and a complexity of moral vision that have few competitors this century. Writing for a country that has possessed only brief and shadowy vestiges of liberty, Roa Bastos deals with its pain in a way that should be required reading for all who care about democracy.

if you want to understand power get this book.

A sublime book with fabulous ideas and use of language. Very much worth buying.

In what has to be a fictional note at the end of the book, the author claims that he is not such, indicating that he merely copied parts of historical documents, writings and tales, thus the real "author" of this book is history itself and not him, who he says is merely the "compiler." The work is indeed true to history; the history about José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, the controversial Dictator of Paraguay between 1814-1840 who used to sign his official decrees not with his name but the sentence that is the title of this book. This is a wonderfully complex book; not easy to read. Sometimes fascinating paragraphs are unexpectedly cut with some note form the "compiler" indicating that the rest is illegible because the page is partly burned, which lets you to think that it was indeed copied from an old document; while at other times you read fascinating dialogs and monologues which you would think had to be fictional; but it is not as simple: You cannot tell truth from fiction because the truth seems fictional and the fiction tells truth. Truth that comes to you in the form of insights about the state of mind of a dictator, about absolute power, and about the soul of a country that owns its independent existence to its first dictator's determination to be its supreme ruler. It is an utterly fascinating book.

This is a wonderful book, by a great writer. The catch is that very often it will be misunderstood, and associated with the group of fantastic south american writers, like Garcia Marquez. Instead the story is basically for real (the story of the last years of Paraguay dictator Gaspar Francia, who ruled the country from 1813 to 1840), and most of the mentioned documents are authentic, or at least plausible. Roa Bastos has played on the borderline between history and fiction, but most readers will not know this, and take for fiction what are very important and interesting historical facts, that would deserve a different approach and attention. This is the only (but rather painful) fault I find in an otherwise beautiful work.

I just purchased this book because it was full of pictures I had not seen before, probably since they were shot by the Daily Mail british press. I like collecting picture books of the Beatles together and solo because they make good coffee table books and great books to just peruse through while you're chatting with someone about them. I collect the biographies as well; both go great together. If you like picture books, check out May Pang's new book "Instamatic Karma"; it's full of pictures taken during John's "lost weekend". The picture of John signing the document that would officially end the Beatles is worth the price of the book alone. Anyway, "Unseen Archives" is a great book to add to your Beatles/John Lennon collection. I do think Cynthia should have chosen another shot of John to use as the front cover of her book, "John", instead of the same one used for "Archives". But that's just my opinion....

So many Beatles-related books trot out the same photos, again and again. You all know the ones I'm talking about. But this book is decidedly and refreshingly different. I have many Lennon biographies in my library and this book contains many previously unpublished photos of John, especially ones from his childhood and in the period 1975-1980. The paper quality in the book is exceptional and is thick, glossy material which results in a stunning display of black and white vibrancy. The text is incidental but adds flavor and gives you the year each photo was taken.

The photos of the Beatles are a little weaker, and contain many previously known shots. But the individual pictures of John are outstanding. Consider the beautiful profile view on the cover of the book, taken in 1967. This is just a sampling of what this treasure trove has to offer. There are many other such nuggets within the covers. Any serious fan of John Lennon will adore this book and get many hours of pleasure perusing these photos of a great cultural and musical icon. John himself would scoff at such a description, but it's oh so true.

I'm a great fan of John Lennon's work and this, almost behind the scenes, book shows me how his life really was like. It wasn't always perfect like people think it could be. The photographs tell a story in themselves with the short captions helping you along the way. The easy to read context makes it that more interesting.

I just recieved this book a few days ago. Its filled with hundreds of black & white photos and descriptions. I highly recommend this book to anyone... you cant go wrong with the price...Stock it up for gifts!

Hey I just got this book for my birthday and it's really good, I am a huge Beatles fan and a pretty good sized lennon fan and this has TONS of good pictures in it, it's a great book and a lot of the pics are with the Beatles lol a lot without the Beatles too, It's a great book!

Fantastic. These books are the best I have found to find pictures to use as templets or stencils for designs to paint on silk.

I bought a few coloring books, but this one is my favorite so far. The pictures are easy to color. I like the little explanations on the flowers as well.

The images in this coloring book are well drawn and well thought out. The variety of flowers is quite nice. This will be a pleasure to color and give hours of pleasure to kids and adults alike. Top notch, well worth the purchase price.

Once again beautiful pictures that any adult would love to fill in and frame. If your child loves flowers then this is the book for them. Very mature, beautiful drawings of elegant flowers.

I just purchased these Dover COloring Books for my mother and she loves them. The detail is out of this world and the variety of colors you can use are only limited by your inagination. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I remember when I was young how much MAD Magazine used to make me laugh. The satire was wonderfully organized in a way that both kids and adults could enjoy it. Much like the Warner Brothers cartoon shorts did when they shown to audiences at the theater.
In the 70's and 80's MAD magazine would do special issues that contained mini color comics of the original color comic book when they started with EC Comics. I found that these comics were just as funny and sometimes even stranger than some of the current artists from MAD at that time. Much to my delight
DC comics took the original six issues and placed them in a fantastic large hardcover book.
This is one of the most beautiful reprinting works I have seen. The colors and the paper quality of this book is designed to last a lifetime. If you truly enjoy classic comic books, classic MAD Magazine or an adult who adores film parodies, then you must own this book.
This is just not a comic book , but a piece of history and how parody became a part of the mainstream. Remember that back in 1952 when these were first published, the idea of reading comic books was for children or the working class. This was not considered good adult reading material by literary standards yet.
But yet these teams of adult writers and artists took the first steps in changing the concepsts of literary humor that we now live with today.
At only 10 cents an issue, people who had a taste for off beat humor,horror stories, or science fiction picked up EC comics. This was a perfect outlet for teens as well of the 50's who loved movies of a simular nature. The comic writers refect that same love of TV and film through their parodies of Superman,Tarzan, and the Lone Ranger.
DC just now needs to release the other issues past #6. I was lucky to read so many of those mini re-prints and some of those stories still make me laugh when I think about them today. These orignal six issues don't even cover how funny MAD eventually grew up to be as a comic. But you can kind of tell since this little comic survived and one day became a beloved magazine.

I'm guessing that DC is printing the MAD archives in an 8 1/2" x 11 format for a reason. If the first four volumes reprinting the comic book MAD sell well enough. They will continue by reprinting the magazine in archive format for the first time. So even though I've bought this material in numerous reprints before, I will support this project. Just think. If sales justify continuing the series, volume five will be all of the Kurtzman edited issues of the magazine. 'nuff said.

I am now working in printing and desktop publishing because of MAD. When I was 9 years old my Grandmother gave me about ten of my Uncle's old MADs from the early days. I was drawn into the crazy world of those amazing drawings and the funny dialog. Every day after school I would copy the drawings from MAD, which is what led me into graphic arts. Over the years I have been collecting old MADs, which my 13 year old likes to read from time to time.

I understand what it takes to produce any type of publication, and I have often wondered where the original artwork or the negatives from the first MADs ended up. Unless I am totally wrong, I think this book was printed from the original art or the original film. I am very impressed with the care with which this book was produced. The detail and color is first rate, and the printing is excellent.

I now own a perfect copy of the first six MADs produced. For someone who is interested in art and printing and comic book history, this is a must. Very cool!! I look forward to the next set.

Even though Mad was always considered a "juvenile humor" magazine, the writing is hilarious and often riskier than anything out there today, and the art is top-notch. Just look at all the gags going on in the backgrounds -- you probably couldn't have made half of them out when the comics were originally printed on cheap paper -- and you'll be glad you bought this book. DC really needs to publish the remaining volumes!

If you have ever been a fan of mad magazine any point in your life you need to see where it all began. From the page of The Mad archives vol. 1 you will see the first six issues of mad EVER. Social comentary, gross humor, at best a critical eye at the golden age of EC comics and comics everywhere (the thinly veiled superman parody is worth the price of the book alone) Despite appeal to comic fans (wally wood, and some of the best golen age comic artist to grace one single archive), every one who understands the phrase "What me worry?" READ THIS. you wont be disapointed. Only question WHEN WILL VOL 2 BE OUT????????

So much of what is in here has been so readily available over the years since the 1950's ended that the novelty is a little bit lost. I actually wish Mad had made these earlier 50's issues accessable to late 20th and early 21st century readers but a little less than they actually do. Still the great comic book satires are imaginative and alot of fun to read (even for the fifth or sixth time or more).

Sure, I read New Yorker and with a Martini in my hand can picture myself in John Cheever's 50s. I've read Time. I learned to read, and ended up employed for a while as a television programmer, because of TV Guide. In terms of cultural significance, they are all piffles next this giant mountain of cultural commentary.

The issues in this volume are where its original creative team caught their wind and set sail for the very heart of satire and deconstruction. The earlier volume is great, but this one is a molotov cocktail handed to the young and open-minded of post-war America to assault complacency. The roots of nearly anything great the baby-boomers did (the Beatles read Beano, Zimmy read this) lie here.

As soon as i received Vol 1 of Mad Archives and went through it , I immediately ordered Vol 2, the reason being the first edition of Vol 1 was out of print and I had to wait 12 ( that's TWELVE ) whole months to receive the second edition. Both volumes are a comic lovers delight, especially from a historical perspective. The artwork and coloring is so fresh and eye catching; good job of restoration, not to mention the layout and binding... all for only USD50. Will definitely become a collectors item very soon, if it hasn't already. What you waiting for? GO FOR IT !

Well, at long last...Volume Two !!!
The Mad Archives: Volume 2. This One contains Issues 7 thro 12 of Mad Magazine. Almost everything here was written by the Creator of this American Instution of Lampoons: Harvey Kurtzman. The Artists featured are Bill Elder, Jack Davis, Basil Wolverton, John Severin and The Great: Wally Wood.

For me, Mad really hits it's stride here with Great Spoofs on Comic Books: "Bat Boy & Rubin", "Starchie", Newspaper Strips: "Little Orphan Melvin", "Flesh Garden", Movies: "From Eternity Back To Here", "Sane", and TV Shows: "Dragged Net", and even a Stab into the Heart of Edgar Allan Poe, with: "The Raven".

Born into the EC Comics Company run By Bill Gaines, Mad was the only Comic Book Title to Survive the great Comic Book Witch-Hunt of 1953, when Senate hearings labeled Gaines', Horror Comics as corrupting America's Youth and he had to cancel all of them.

But, Bill Gaines had a Winner on his Hands with "Mad", and an Publishing Empire was Built around this Little Comic Book. The Influence of Mad Magazine is HUGE, and along with: "Playboy" it is considered One of The Fore-Runners of Sixties Pop Culture that would change the way America viewed her Values & Morals. Sex and Humor got us out of The Nuclear Cold-War Years and everything was about to be very Different.

Right here in these pages, it is Hard not to Laugh at loud at: "Woman Wonder" and "the Lone Stranger". These Stories hold up as American Folk-Tales more than Fifty Years on, the Art is too Good to be believed. from those Weird Creatures of Basil Wolverton: "The Mad Reader" to the Sexy Broads, drawn by the Fantastic, Wally Wood in "Flesh Garden", this is a Feast for the Eyes.

Again, this is The Comic Book that CHANGED America, and let us Laugh at ourselves....My Highest Recommendation.
Let's hope we don't have to wait another ten years, for Volume Three !!!

If you're reading this review, then you're probably already a MAD fan and are wondering if you should buy this book. If so, then rest assured that if you do, you won't be disappointed. Contained within these pages is a priceless slice of comic book history from the 1950s when a humor magazine that took the mickey out of other popular titles was a novelty and when legends like Bill Elder, Jack Davis and Harvey Kurtzman cut their teeth and in the process, forged the template for hundreds of followers in the decades since. The best part of this vol (and Vol 1) is that you can re-read the stories again and again and still find something funny you'd have missed in previous readings. The humor is straightforward funny - whacky, zany and maybe even slapstick at times. But I'm sure that almost every MAD fan will find them all entertaining. Well worth the investment.

The recent publication of a biography of Green encouraged me to revisit his books, which for years have been grossly and inexplicably neglected. I started with this one.

Nothing is based in London in 1948 and concerns two former lovers, John Pomfret and Jane Weatherby, who find their two children, Mary Pomfret and Philip Weatherby, are engaged to be married. Complicating things are Liz Jennings and Dick Abbot, the pair's current lovers. Jane still loves John and hatches a subtle plan to wreck the children's engagement and win him back. Things work out nicely in the end for everyone except poor Arthur Morris. Like almost all of Green's books, Nothing is about love.

One of the most curious thing about it is that it consists mainly of dialogue. It is almost a play rather than a novel. There is little descriptive narrative, unlike some of this earlier works. Happily Green gets the dialogue right. He has an extraordinary ear. Nothing is reminiscent of Evelyn Waugh (circa Vile Bodies) and Anthony Powell (A Dance to the Music of Time). John and Jane are by far the most attractively rendered characters. I found myself particularly drawn to the latter.

Green is an absolute master. In addition to Nothing I would recommend the rest of his books, especially Loving, Party Going, and Pack My Bags.

With a little patience, the reader will quickly adjust to the rhythms of one of English literature's most unique, and until recently, nearly forgotten novelists; and in the process enjoy an utterly and unabashedly charming and delightful novel. Years after having an affair that almost ruined their respective marriages, Jane Weatherby and John Pomfret are reunited when their children decide to get married despite questions regarding their possible kinship and the fact that they have almost no money to their name. Afraid that Mary Pomfret and Philip Weatherby are destined for the working-class, Jane and John attempt to stall the development of the wedding plans by having endlessly witty conversations about, well, nothing. This gives Jane -- a shrewd, resourceful widow -- the opportunity to embark on a scheme to lure John away from his current love interest. As the plot advances through discussions filled with misdirections and omissions, Green demonstrates that there is nothing like the spoken word to conceal one's true intentions, yet at the same time reveal everything. One of Green's final novels, Nothing is a worthy addition to the varied tradition of English literature that includes Virginia Woolf and Evelyn Waugh. Fans of Austen, Forster, and Wharton should also be rewarded. Green's masterful description of the novel's centerpiece alone -- an as-if-you-were-there party -- is worth the price of purchase.

The British writer Henry Green's literary skill went far beyond a comedy of manners, which this book appears to be on the surface. Dense with meaning, "Nothing" is a short literary gem, which forces the reader to read a million nuances into the witty and yet deeply dense conversations which make up the entirety of the book. The story is set in 1948 and follows John and Jane, now middle aged but still reminiscing about an affair they had many years before when they were still married. They both have new relationships, Liz and Richard, but still see each other frequently for meals or for tea. Their respective children, Mary and Philip, are now grown and want to marry. But of course there are complications.

The world that the author creates for the reader is a very British one. The dialogue is precise but filled with hidden meanings, as what is unsaid is often even more important than what is said. There's a wonderful symmetrical balance in each of the conversations as well as in the structure of the book. The characters speak for themselves, with very little description, and, through their words alone, the twists and turns of the story emerge, the sounds of their voices echoing on the pages. The question of what really happened and is happening is always just beyond our reach, and the even though the characters might be moved around like chess pieces at the author's whim, they never do change or gain insight into their behavior. Surprisingly, this is still an amazingly satisfying read, as if is the reader himself or herself who gets to experience their world and gain insight into the inevitability of the conclusion. This book is a delightful read and a real treat. I highly recommend it.

With a little patience, the reader will quickly adjust to the rhythms of one of English literature's most unique, and until recently, nearly forgotten novelists; and in the process enjoy an utterly and unabashedly charming and delightful novel. Years after having an affair that almost ruined their respective marriages, Jane Weatherby and John Pomfret are reunited when their children decide to get married despite questions regarding their possible kinship and the fact that they have almost no money to their name. Afraid that Mary Pomfret and Philip Weatherby are destined for the working-class, Jane and John attempt to stall the development of the wedding plans by having endlessly witty conversations about, well, nothing. This gives Jane -- a shrewd, resourceful widow -- the opportunity to embark on a scheme to lure John away from his current love interest. As the plot advances through discussions filled with misdirections and omissions, Green demonstrates that there is nothing like the spoken word to conceal one's true intentions, yet at the same time reveal everything. One of Green's final novels, Nothing is a worthy addition to the varied tradition of English literature that includes Virginia Woolf and Evelyn Waugh. Fans of Austen, Forster, and Wharton should also be rewarded. Green's masterful description of the novel's centerpiece alone -- an as-if-you-were-there party -- is worth the price of purchase.

The recent publication of a biography of Green encouraged me to revisit his books, which for years have been grossly and inexplicably neglected. I started with this one.

Nothing is based in London in 1948 and concerns two former lovers, John Pomfret and Jane Weatherby, who find their two children, Mary Pomfret and Philip Weatherby, are engaged to be married. Complicating things are Liz Jennings and Dick Abbot, the pair's current lovers. Jane still loves John and hatches a subtle plan to wreck the children's engagement and win him back. Things work out nicely in the end for everyone except poor Arthur Morris. Like almost all of Green's books, Nothing is about love.

One of the most curious thing about it is that it consists mainly of dialogue. It is almost a play rather than a novel. There is little descriptive narrative, unlike some of this earlier works. Happily Green gets the dialogue right. He has an extraordinary ear. Nothing is reminiscent of Evelyn Waugh (circa Vile Bodies) and Anthony Powell (A Dance to the Music of Time). John and Jane are by far the most attractively rendered characters. I found myself particularly drawn to the latter.

Green is an absolute master. In addition to Nothing I would recommend the rest of his books, especially Loving, Party Going, and Pack My Bags.

Outstanding work with clear illustrations and examples of how to improve your library research. I learned more about library research in this book than in all my years pursuing a doctorate degree.

A MUST have for anyone who spends time in the library. You do not have to be a professional researcher or academician to get useful tools from this book. My kids have read the book as well, and their research projects for school improved dramatically.

I strongly recommend this book is you plan any research projects in the future.

Dr. Mann really pulls out the stops with this excellent reference guide. After 18 years at the LoC he knows the tricks!

The third edition of Thomas Mann's "Oxford Guide to Library Research" is an indispensable friend for students and scholars, or anyone in the general public who has a hobby, a pet project or just the desire to know, and wants not only to improve their research skills but to learn - and take full advantage of - all the resources available to the library researcher in the Computer Age. When the second edition of the "Oxford Guide" was published, all the way back in 1998, computer programs in libraries were pretty much limited to a catalogue of a library's holdings, a smattering of databases perhaps, and Internet access, maybe. Dr. Mann unfolds the riches that may now be found at library workstations and the new ways to find the best on its shelves.

And you can't hope for a better guide. A reference librarian in the Main Reading Room of the Library of Congress for 25 years, Dr. Mann's firsthand experience in helping patrons get the most out of their library experience is evident in this book. While some would consign libraries and the outmoded technology they were built to house (known as books) to the dustbin, Dr. Mann reveals how computers have done more for library research and serious scholars than for the search for general, often disorganized and unreliable, "information" on the Web.

In the early days of computerization there was a popular acronym for the uncertain results of Internet searching, GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out). It has been supplanted nowadays by the kinder, gentler "I feel lucky" or, for the happy-go-lucky, the "sloppy search." Use these methods, whether on a search engine or a library computer catalogue, you'll likely lwind up with thousands of hits. (Good luck.) But here's Thomas Mann to the rescue. In his chapters on subject headings, on keyword searches and on Boolean combinations and search limitations, he sets out to help you define your subject concisely and precisely, and choose the search methods that will get you to the best sources for your project, instead of settling for what is "good enough." (Is it?)

In "The Oxford Guide to Library Research" you will learn how the indexed subheadings in a subject browse on the library computer catalogue can turn up unexpected sources - instant bibliographies, so to speak - that are just right for your topic, as well as how to negotiate such as the electronic databases with full-text articles from thousands of journals and newspapers. The rest of the book is devoted to the range of print and electronic resources: the specialized encyclopedias on topics that you would never imagine have encyclopedias of their own; microform and CD-ROM databases; online programs that can locate books in a more distant library if it turns out that what you seek is not available in your local branch. An innovation in this edition of the "Oxford Guide" is facsimiles of the actual search pages of major databases to illustrate examples in the text. His invaluable chapter, "Hidden Treasures," has grown by half again from the one in the second edition, now noting print collections that are also available in online databases, as well as a selection of collections exclusive to the web.

Dr. Mann's major goal is to get you to the sources you want, and ones you don't yet know you want, in the most direct and effective way; to make you think, not like a librarian, but as someone with a specific personal research goal, and to give you the knowledge and skills to accomplish it. He peppers the book with anecdotes from his firsthand experiences with researchers, the college student, the accomplished professor and the weekend scholar, while relating information in a conversational, descriptive fashion with sparing use of professional jargon. With "The Oxford Guide to Library Research" at hand when you get to work on your next project, you may discover that doing the research for it is half the fun of getting there. Or, maybe, all of it.

This is a terrific book for anyone interested in books and finding information. The author works at the Library of Congress, and has extensive experience looking for information of all kinds. he uses both print and electronic sources, and both to great advantage. His tips on using ordinary sources are exceptional; for example, did you know that the AMERICANA often prints important American speeches in their entirety? If you are a book lover, this is a useful guide, which you will use for a long time.

Besides being packed with information that will aid research at any level, it is an enjoyable read as well.

This is a book that I have waited 45 years for! Ray Harryhausen: Master of the Majicks is absolutely the most in-depth book on the master of stop-motion animation.

Page after page, revealing photographs journal not only the movies but the processes that Ray used throughout his career to mystify and amaze the moviegoers. The book is filled with personal insights from many people who worked directly with Ray directly over the course of his career.

It would be hard to say how important this book is to the animation field itself, as well as its importance as an accurate chronicle of Ray's talent and artistry. I can't imagine the bookshelf of any animator, effects artist, visual artist, etc. being without this volume. It is massive in text and photos, and without a doubt the most detailed account of Ray's work from Mighty Joe Young (1949) up to his first color feature, Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958).

Ray has always been an inspiration to me, and was a key factor in my pursuit of animation as a career. I have closely followed Ray's work, and have nearly all that has been printed on him. Yet, there were SO many photographs that even I had never seen before. Ray even told me he was amazed at the number of pictures that even HE had never seen before.

This amazing book is guaranteed to not only please...but to excite!

What more is there to say? "Majicks" is the definitive biograpy of Ray
Harryhausen that I've always waited for. Volume 2 covers my favorite
period of his career - the 1950's! It simply overflows with facts and
photos which I had never seen before. In this age of over-saturated CGI
and FX films done by armies of technicians, it's refreshing to encounter
a book dedicated to the life, art and craft of a single individual. This
book will bring years of pleasure and interest - I can't wait for the
other 2 volumes!

As a young boy growing up in rural Nebraska of the early 1960's, my contact with Science Fiction and fantasy was limited to the few black & white TV broadcasts of old 'Monster' movies, (when there were only 3 channels to choose from), 'Famous Monsters of Filmland' magazine, and the occasional 'new' movie shown at the tiny theater in a town of 1100 folks. But, it was there that something truly remarkable happened. I remember the moment that changed my life forever. I was sitting in that theater, watching the amazing and astounding events from "Jason and the Argonauts" come to life before my eyes. There was a loud creak of metal-on-metal followed by the words, "It must have been the wind." Then it happened. 'Talos', the giant bronze titan turned his head and with hollow eyes looked directly at me, and only me. The rest is history. Anyone and everyone reading this must have been similarly 'awe-struck' by one or all of Ray Harryhausen's incredible creatures. Reading this new book has recaptured that moment for me. It offers inside stories, never-before-seen photographs, testimonies, and the proverbial 'kitchen sink' of everything you ever wanted to know about the work of 'The Master of Modern-Day Stop-Motion Animation'. The words 'Must Have' echo loudly from the canyons on the 'Isle of Colossa'. I've read it cover-to-cover and worn it so that a second copy is now needed. Don't read any more of this.....buy it....read it....relive the experiences of youth and share it with everyone you can.
Truly a work of passion by the author, Mike Hankin, and the publisher, Ernest Farino. That naive little boy from long ago is alive again and just can't wait to receive volumes 1 & 3. Thank you gentleman for this truly wonderful homage!

Though I have to agree with my fellow reviewer, (who notes Harryhausen's career has been intricately covered and reviewed in other books and TV specials) this book seems to have been created with hardcore fans in mind. The expected photos and stories are here, but they are supplemented with hundreds of new images, and perspectives from co-workers and other writers close to the subject. A note on the book: this is the second volume (released first) of a proposed three volume set, the third of which will cover the British period of films, including "Jason and the Argonauts" and "Golden Voyage of Sinbad". The audience for this book is out there, and you know who you are. Handsomely bound and lovingly detailed, it's probably best suited to Harryhausen completists, who should be delighted. Nice touches include a tribute page to Kerwin Mathews, whose recent death saddened many "Sinbad" fans, and a surprising chapter of cheesecake shots of all the "Harryhausen babes" like Kathryn Grant, Joan Taylor, and Paula Raymond.

This is a book for those who think that when it comes to Ray Harryhausen they've seen it all.

At a point when "Done To Death" might be considered Ray Harryhausen's middle name, I'm delighted to say that this breathtaking volume is much more than a worthy supplement to Harryhausen's two wonderful books, AN ANIMATED LIFE and THE ART OF RAY HARRYHAUSEN. It stands on its own as a major contribution to fantasy film history by recounting the perspectives of the many artists who have worked with the effects master over the years.

It is obvious that the powers behind this book were familiar with what had come before and made a huge effort to go in a different direction. The result is a book that no owner of Ray's earlier works will put down with a feeling of deja-vu.

Everything about this book screams meticulous research. Mike Hankin has interviewed pretty much everybody you can think of (including, sadly, several who have passed away since he began his research) to bring us the ULTIMATE Harryhausen reference work. Virtually every line of text reveals some new fact about Ray and his films. As I read this book, I was blown away by its incredible amount of detail.

The physical dimensions and number of photos are remindful of the previous Harryhausen books. But this is just the first of THREE volumes planned by the publisher and writer. When you consider that this volume covers seven, count 'em, seven movies in the Harryhausen canon, from MIGHTY JOE YOUNG to 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, you will appreciate all the more the incredible effort invested in this overall project.

Again and again, as I leafed through the sumptuous pages, I confronted a new photo or an unheard-of piece of information. I'm tempted to drop some "factoids" in this review, given how much I learned, but I think that saying anything specific might take away from the fun you'll have perusing this treasure trove.

This book is an ABSOLUTE MUST-HAVE for any Ray Harryhausen fan. Believe me, you will NOT be disappointed even if you've read everything else out there.