Design Books

This is a terrific book for a novice who is facing the scary job of picking a contractor, then working with that contractor, to build a house. There are so many things I didn't know, and wished I'd known, but there was no one to ask. This book is written from the buyer's point of view, and so it covers the questions only a novice would have, like 'why does the foundation look so funny?' This really is a peace of mind book, and it should also help you save some money because you know what the contractor is suppose to be doing, and paying -- and you can question what doesn't look right. I sure didn't know, but you will with this book.

I loved this book! It took all the fear out of building a new home. I loved the cautions and special beware's....they will save me lots of headaches. This author really knows how to make life easier!! Anyone getting ready to build a house should have this book in his back pocket at all times!!! A real Keeper!

Blythe Lipman

I have never found a more useful book when it comes to getting a house built. It is the ultimate guidebook and it's worth 200 times it's price! This should be a required purchase for everyone who is building a home...it will save them thousands of dollars!

Wow! The book really took my fears away about building a custom home. It went through every single process in detail and now I know what to expect. It also gave tips on how to save money. My wife and I are now actively looking for land to build our new home.

Although I only plan to build a large garage with granny flat over it this book was a great help. I tend to be a bit of a know-it-all and this book went way beyond what I thought I knew.
I have found it to be very helpfull in about 100 ways beyoud just the simple construction of the structure.

Regards, John V. Southern California.

I wrote my review a second time because I thought I'd done something wrong and you weren't going to post it. Please delete the review dated October 23 and leave the later version. Thank you.

Gardener's Soul is my first read in the Chicken Soup series. Had I an inkling that the series could evoke that cozy-fuzzy feeling, like a purring kitten warming your lap, I would have been reading them all.

Paula Silici's Nona's Garden stands as a fine example. I could smell the beef, garlic and tomatoes simmering in the kitchens of my childhood as I read of the life's lessions learned from her grandmother. I have more hope for the future after reading Beth Pollack's Planting Day,especially considering that such words of wisdom came from a 16-year-old. Good job,young lady! And A Bedside Story by Pat Stone reassured me that I'm not the only gardener who talks to plants.

No wonder the publisher has the name Health Communications. When the mind is calm, the body is better able to heal. This book is a fabulous choice for anyone feeling blue or for just anyone!

A truly good book evokes cozy images and sensations from the past. And this is a very good book, one that teaches us to stop and consider how wisely we spend on this earth.

Among my personal favorites was Nona's Garden by Paul Silici. I could almost smell the delectably heavy garlic, beef and tomatoes slowly steaming in my grandmother's kitchen, and felt a tug on my heartstrings when she shared the story of her grandmother's lessions in life. Planting Day filled me with hope for the younger generation when I saw that sixteen-year-old Beth Pollack had written such an insightful essay. It was good to learn in Pat Stone's A Bedside Story that I'm not the only person who talks to their plants.

There's something for everyone in CS for the Gardener's Soul.

I am a great fan of the Chicken Soup Books. They are a wonderful way for me to start my morning. Being an avid gardener, this one was truely special. Although many of the stories left me teary-eyed, the messages relayed were always positive and uplifting. -- Highly Recommend

This heartwarming, soul-satisfying collection of stories is a beautiful testimony to the special knowledge held dearly by every gardener, regardless of if they are first-timers or veterans. Even the smallest gardens have the ability to uplift our lives with the magical, unique understanding that they are living reminders of the potential beauty of the world.

Sharon Galligar Chance, Times Record News, Wichita Falls, Tx.

At first I was hesitant to purchace Fun with PhotoImpact 4.2 because I had just upgraded to 5.0, but there was so much I didn't know I ordered it anyway. I have never been so happy with a graphics book. Features and tools of the program that seemed so complicated were explained in plain english and Stephanie Baker-Thomas guides you each step of the way. I had no idea PhotoImpact had so many "hidden" goodies. The mini tutorials are wonderful and the lessons learned in each give you the understanding needed to apply them to any other PhotoImpact project. This book is a must have and I am eagerly awaiting the release of Fun with PhotoImpact 5.0. Stephani Baker-Thomas is a true Diva of PhotoImpact.

If I had this book when I first started using PhotoImpact, I would be miles ahead of where I am now, after many months of trial and error learning. The text is very clear, with many screenshots and great hints. My favorite parts are the 'learn by doing' exercises at the end of every chapter...they really make the techniques you learn stick. A great book, and the only one in English for us PhotoImpact lovers.

I had my doubts about purchasing this book because I have Version 5 of PI. Now that I have the book I don't know what took me so long. This book is so well written and easy to follow for novice to intermediate user. It is very applicable to version 5.

Even with the $7.35 duty that I had to pay because I am Canadian, it was the bargin of the century! I received it just 3 days after ordering on a Friday.

Great Book!

No doubt about it, digital imaging can be a fun and rewarding endeavor, but contemporary imaging software is as daunting as it is powerful, and many budding digital artists may be too intimidated by the wealth of options and features available in a top-notch program like PhotoImpact. Fun With PhotoImpact 4.2 takes the novice or intermediate digital artist by the hand and leads them through the basics of the wonderful world of PI. With the knowledge and experience of the author for guidance, the reader can approach this exciting technology with a minimum of apprehension and feel confident that a new world will be opened before them. I highly recommend this book, and I am looking forward to the author's sequel on PI 5.0.

While the book may be of some use to folks who are completely unfamiliar with PI, I was a bit disappointed. It reads almost as a restatement of the PI user's guide ("this button does this...") rather than as a guidebook to innovative use of PI ("In order to get this effect, use these buttons and filters in this sequence . . .") that the title rather led me to expect. To be sure, the author does have an excellent and thorough web site with exactly that kind of hands-on "how do I do this?" data, but it was a bit of a let-down to find the book contains virtually nothing of the sort.

Spectacular Photos and what an athlete. His death was a loss, but he lives on in these images

this book was amazing, the pictures are stunning, and the stories about him are almost unbelievable. I highly recommend this book for fans of photography or anyone who loves the outdoors.

This is more a short biography with too few of the beautuful photos this talented outdoor photographer made. I would have like to have seen more full page photos and more of them.

If you are familiar with with the work of Galen Rowell I don't need to elaborate on the beauty and quality of his work, if you aren't familiar with this man and his work it will be a valuable addition to your knowledge and enjoyment of photography. Galen Rowell had an unfortunate and untimely death
after a very active life of globe trotting for photography that transcends
the material plane. The book presents many of his best works in a lovely format. A coffee table book that will get noticed.

If you have every looked at Galen's photos and wanted to see more, this is it. With his life cut short, at least we still have archived material that can be released in a book this nice to bring us more glimpses of his world. The color is amazing, the subjects grand, and Galens storys bring it all alive in my livingroom.

any book by Ralph Steadman requires serious and not so serious reading. his perspective on life is truly unique and worthy of consideration.

I'm very pleased with my purchase...It arrived promptly, well packaged, and in stellar condition. A flawless venture.

I love his work, have since he did the cover art and animation for Pink Floyd The Wall. This book is worth grabbing if you respect the artistic value of total insanity and the furthering of freedom of expression.

May the ghost of Hunter S. Thompson come down and become the next President of the United States - and may Ralph Steadman be his Art Director!

Having had, as many people did, my first taste of Ralph via Hunter S Thompson's books, I found this to be a great introduction to the Hyperactive and frantic style of a dude who is probably my favourite artist. This has a forward by Hunter, gives great colour examples of his works in the realm of Gonzo, and also has many written, poetical works, and songs. My fave piece is 'Stand up and be counted.' IE: The maverick beast will ALWAYS raise his head in the crowd. A perfect definition of Gonzo.

Is your question, "After reading this book, will I be able to start and run a successful business doing decorative painting"?

My opinion? This book follows through on what it promises! The focus here is learning how to start a business in Faux Painting/ Murals, and make money in the Decorative Arts Trade. This book gives facts, and proven successful business practices and technique, needed by Right Brainers, Artists, and those blessed with Creative Genius. If you need some help with how to go from being a hobby artist, to making real money with your talent, Rebecca has written your instruction manual. This book will save you time, money, and a ton of first time business owner headaches!

Rebecca's book (manual), puts Art and Business together in an easy to read format. It can springboard the Artist/ budding Business-Person into starting a viable business with their artwork.

I found this book easy to understand, well written, clear, and to the point. It will appeal to Artists who want to take their Art to the next level; start a business, market your art, and make money selling it! Don't we all want to do what we love and have the money follow? This book can make it happen for you!

I have been painting murals and doing faux finishing, decorative paint, etc. for 11 years myself, and this is the first book that isn't laden with pretty pictures...it has the nuts and bolts of a business. When I started out professionally in this business I was 19 and had no idea how to run a successful business. Sure, I could paint anything I was asked, but that's not how you become a success, alone. Understanding the labor and customer service skills required, the marketing techniques and time management, those are the pitfalls of many artists, like myself. I learned the game as I went, but I made many mistakes. Reading this book gave me some clarity on my own business issues, and gave me some insight on how to tackle them. Most of us looking into purchasing this book are talented artists of some sort, usually people like us aren't the type to run a business too well, until you learn the ropes. Ever heard of a starving artist? WIth this book you will no longer be one!

The first thing I learned from this book is that I'm NOT ready to start my own faux/mural painting business!! This book is chuck full of information from someone that has been there. The author really explains scenarios well, and prepares you for, from what I can tell, every situation. In the back of the book she provides sample forms, and check lists, etc. I really feel that this is a true gift for anyone interested in this field. Even people that have been doing it for a few years might get some good tips here. Great job!

I bought this book for my brother who is an artist and he loves the book.

I read and re-read this book then handed it over to my sales and marketing manager. A MUST for a faux business owner.

A well written very informative book, very helpful for someone just starting out. For myself I didn't find a whole lot of new information but I would have loved to have read this when I was first setting up my website.

The author has a good no-nonsense presentation style that doesn't overwhelm you with jargon.

While the information is, for the most part, laid out in an easy to follow, linear style. My only complaints:

He starts out in chapter one diving right into technical details about digital certificates, web hosting, shopping carts and so on.

I would recommend that the current chapter 2 be moved into the chapter 1 location, while the current chapter 1 becomes chapter 2. This would enable the reader to get a good dose of the foundational material before proceeding to the gory technical details.

However, don't let that put you off buying it. Bruce Brown has great communication skills, and is able to break the material down Romper Room style so that anyone should be able to understand. Yet, he doesn't just gloss over the details, he just makes them easier for a layman to understand.

This is a great 1st time starter for small business. Anyone who's planning on starting an online business should definitely read.

This book is a really must-to read for brand new internet entrepreneurs like me. I'm quite happy about this purchase. I recommend.

I have been in the internet marketing scene for many years and I wish I had this book when I was just starting out. It would have cut my learning curve down a bit.

Having said that, the book does contain a lot of information that if you HAVE been doing this a while, you may find a bit elementary. It's still a very good read and very informative.

It's a great addition to your internet marketing library.

I bought this book based on the raving reviews I read on Amazon from other users, but when I received it I found some MAJOR issues. This book is a true and utter disappointment for any intermediate or low-intermediate designer.

The Good
- This book is very comprehensive and good for TRUE BEGINNERS as it covers the basics of html, xhtml, php, javascript, and image editing.
- The only mildly useful bits for the hobbyist web designer are the PHP and Javascript chapters... but you can find the same, or better information on the basics of these two technologies posted for free on the net. You don't need to pay 40.00+ bucks for this info.

The Bad
- This book is extremely, extremely outdated. Most of the design tips date back to the time when IE 5.5 and 6 were the cutting edge, and the examples are aimed at IE and Netscape Navigator users! Hence, the tips & techniques are virtually useless now that IE 7 is standard, IE 8 on the horizon, and FFox 3 about to be released.
- This book is filled with statements such as "PNG-8 and PNG-24 formats have only recently received FULL support from the most used-browsers, Netscape Navigator 6 and Internet Explorer 5"(pg 290). THAT's how old this book's tips are.

DO Buy This Book...
- If you have NEVER built a web page before
- If you want the basics to build a personal web page, a hobby web page, a static site with less than 10 pages and no functionality other than a mailto form.
- If you don't mind building your site for primarily for IE users.
- If you don't mind your web page looking like the Geocities Sites of back in 1999.

DO NOT Buy This Book.
- If you know how to style a paragraph using CSS.
- If you have ever used an editor like Dreamweaver, or Adobe Golive, or even FrontPage.
- If you want a site with any sort of interactive functionality like wikis, blogs, discussion boards, etc.
- If you are aware that the world has moved on from Netscape Navigator 6.

In summary, I found this book to be a giant pile of rubbish. In the future, I would strongly recommend NEVER buying a Web Design book that has been published more than 1 or max 2 years before your actual date. Its 2008, DON'T buy anything written prior to 2006 in order to learn basic web design. You'll end up wasting your time, as I did.

This book is outstanding. It covers everything you need to know about web design. It was highly detailed, explaining everything you need to know. And it's well written.

Inside the chapters are small sections that they refer to as Tips, such as Explaining the Uses of a Table as a layout tool. With the tips, it makes it a lot easier to go back and look over something you forgot or don't understand.

Overall, exellent book, and I highly recommend it as a resource

A friend of mine recommended this book to me. I read it in about a week. It was very simple and understandable. Plus I learned some very intresting things I never knew about CSS.

The best coverage of PHP that I have found. Excellent discussion of tweaking server, appl, and session variables. Security discussion was very easy to apply.

I found this book to be excellent. It is very rare today to find a computer science book that is thorough, logical and well organized, yet brief and to the point. This can be said for all of the chapters in this book. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about web programming.

Do you need help with your photography skills? If you do, then this book is for you. Authors David Pogue and Derrick Story, have done an outstanding job of writing a book that is designed to serve as the iPhoto manual.

Pogue and Story, begin by covering buying, using, and exploiting your digital camera. Then, the authors cover the fundamentals of getting your photos into iPhoto. Organizing and filing them, searching them, and editing them to compensate for weak lighting. Next, they cover the many ways iPhoto can present those photos to other people. Finally, the authors cover a miscellaneous potpourri of additional iPhoto features, including: turning photos into screen savers or desktop pictures on your Mac; exporting the photos in various formats; using iPhoto plug-ins and accessory programs; managing Photo Libraries; backing up your photos using iPhoto's Burn to CD command; and, even getting photos to and from camera phones and Palm organizers.

This most excellent book provides an invaluable grounding in professional photography. Perhaps more importantly, this book gives you all you need to know about digital photography!

Some say lightening can never strike the same place twice. The Missing Manual series proves that wrong. David Pogue and the O'Reilly gang constantly hit the mark and spark creativity and knowledge in a variety of programs.

IPhoto 6 covers absolutely every aspect of digital photography on your Mac, leaving few stones unturned. In order to make sure you get the great photos you need and minimized the editing needed in iPhoto, Derrick Story and David Pogue make sure you buy the right digital camera for your needs and tells you the basics of lighting and composition. After reading that chapter, I looked at my own iPhoto library and understand why I liked certain shots and why others ended up on the digital darkroom floor.

After explaining how to buy a camera and create great photos, the authors take you through the steps of using iPhoto in logical order: importing, managing, outputting and of course backing up. More technical manuals need to do this. Instead of taking you through the features, they take you through the workflow.

The writing was typical of the series: clear, understandable with plenty of screen shots to explain the concepts. While I consider myself an expert on iPhoto, the book was full of subtle tips and tricks to shave hours off my digital photo management.

The strength of the book was definitely the extensive chapters on what to with your photos after they are in iPhoto. Photos are meant to be shared, not locked up in your hard drive. He went over not just the specifics of all the printing options such as photo books and calendars, but also using iMovie, iWeb, and iDVD to share the photos with the world.

The final chapters covered some more advanced options such as AppleScript and Automator. Unlike other Missing Manual books that simply point you to the website to download utilities, Pogue and Story explained some of these programs and how they can help you expand your iPhoto capabilities. The Appendix was definitely the icing on the cake handling practically every iPhoto error and it's solution, as well as walking you through the basics of every iPhoto menu command and its implications.

My only complaint was somewhat weak coverage on desktop printing of photos. I always get confused about the way to feed the photo paper and how to configure settings to get the proper output. iPhoto, the printer's software, the printer, and Mac OS X must all be in alignment to print properly. These days, I simply upload it to the drugstore website and print it there. Printing to services other than Apple's wasn't really covered either.

While iPhoto basics are simple and quick to learn, "iPhoto 6 the Missing Manual" helps you become the hands down master of digital photos on your Mac. Others will tremble in fear of your massive knowledge after reading this book cover to cover.

Pros: Covers every aspect of digital photography and makes everyone an iPhoto wiz.
Cons: Needed more coverage of desktop and third party printing of photos.

ANY question you might have, any project you might conjure up.....this book has all the answsers in the most easy format. A must have if you have an iMac and a digital camera!

As a beginner with digital photography,there is a great deal of iPhoto that is intuitive;however,there are so many options and errors that can be made,at least in my limited experience,that this book is a constant reference guide. I previously purchased "Switching to Mac,The Missing Manual",and found it so valuable that I bought this "Missing Manual".This series of books has been both informative and entertaining.

Might not have much for experienced power users - but for me as a Mac newcomer it did the trick. iPhoto is easy to use and most things you can figure out by yourself, but this book is a big timer saver in doing so and has also some tips that you otherwise might not have figured out

I love this artist and am always inspired by this book. I first bacame familiar with this artist through a series of greeting cards made from his art. When my mother found this book we both had to have one. It is a nice shelf size, with full page and double page images. There are also excerpts that are blown up to show detail, sketches to show initial concept and process, and clever writing to keep you engaged in each piece. I was delighted as I read the book to find out just how much symbolism he uses. It makes his pieces much deeper than the common fanciful fantasy art. It was a real pleasure learning more about James Christensen. No matter how many times you look over these pictures, they will never get boring. You'll always see something new.

I love this book! I am an artist and illustrator. When I need inspiration to open my own creative juices, I study the pages of this book. Christensen's images come from a pure expression of the inner creative child blended with the quirky imagination of a "Renaissance" painter gone wild!

I got this book as a Christmas gift along with a painting by the artist. He's a good artist. Make no mistake about that. But you'd better be an ardent gamer to really enjoy his subject matter.

There's really no way to tell what James Christensen's art is like. It's as unsatisfactory as trying to describe what chocolate tastes like to the person who's never tasted it. It has to be experienced to be appreciated.

This is a wonderful collection reproducing almost all of Christensen's earlier work. It includes some "serious" works of which the artist clearly is a master, but his fantasy art is unlike anyone elses. It takes flights of fancy and works of whimsy to completely new heights. The person who can go through this delightful romp among a truly creative genius' works and not find themselves smiling for most of it is suffering from an atrophied sense of humor.

If you like fantasy, get this book. If you like art, get this book. If you have a sense of humor and the willingness to use it, get this book. Warning: you may have to take this book in small doses, or your smile may suffer from overwork.

This book causes you to see through the eyes of a child again, playing with reality and delighting in possibilities. It gets your "imaginative juices" flowing to where you won't look at ordinary, every day objects in the same way again. The artist provides the reader with insight into his whimsy, while at the same time providing a magical feast for the eye!