Games Books

This is a must-have for anyone who loves bookbindinding and/or is a fan of Shereen LaPlantz' terrific work. There are some excellent structures and lots of great information. It's too bad that such a terrific book had to be marred by poor editing, but it is still very much worth owning. It is extremely relevant to this review to note that corrections to the book are available at http://www.laplantz.com. The book and website taken together deserve FIVE stars.

I just received this the other day and all I can say is WOW!!!
I also own Cover to Cover, but I like this one just as much or better. The samples are just to die for and are very inspiring, and this book has different types of stitches and other books .
If you own Cover to Cover, you need this one too!

I bought this book to get a feel for the basic small bookmaking process. It is very straightforward, with directions that seem easy to follow, and many diagrams & photographs to help guide you to a finished product. It has some beginner, intermediate, and advanced projects, so essentially there is something for anybody who wants to learn about the craft of handmade books. I wouldn't recommend this for a young crafter -- it's definitely written for a person with at least a small knowledge of paper craft who is looking to expand, and the directions would be too difficult, I think, for anyone younger than high school age.

"The Art & Craft of Handmade Books: New Ideas and Innovative Technique" is such a great book on creating/making your own handmade books and journals. The book is full of amazing photographs to give ideas and inspiration, the instructions are comprehensive, and the added diagrams guide you through the process of page folding and binding stitches.

All in all, this book is fantastic!

Great for starting into book making. The majority of the projects in the book are more about folding paper to make structures but the structures in themselves make books like the accordion fold books, star books, tag books, tunnels, signatures within accordions, etc. For me this was perfect. The book starts with a glossary so you can get the vocabulary down and then starts in with techniques for sewing and scoring. The majority of projects use the accordion fold book as the basis but there are lots of varieties and terrific photos of completed projects to inspire. The instructions go step by step and also have 3-d line drawings showing you where to fold and such. The book builds from very simple booklets to more complex ones where you use the Coptic stitch to create more traditional books. I love the variety and it was just at my level to build confidence along the way as I learned the vocabulary and techniques

As did some of the other reviewers, I checked this book out of the library first, and soon decided I wanted to have my own copy for reference. It's a shame this book is out of print and appears to be the author's only book.
There are many collage books out there, and this is one of the best. The writing is clear and concise, and the photos are wonderful. I've experimented some with handmade paper and collage, and this book inspires me to explore further.

Particularly interesting is her section on surface design by embossing. She shows how to lay the wet paper over found objects, or onto a intricate raised design created by a glue gun, or onto a shape cut from illustration board. I can't wait to try this.

In the Projects section, handmade paper shapes and the wrapping paper collage also look fascinating. This latter collage is formed on freezer paper so that it can be removed when dried, complete with irregular, free form edges.

Her chapter on collecting and organizing materials are also quite useful, and provide all of us with justification (if we need it) to collect and hoard a rich selection of materials.

The author somehow manages to provide enough guidance for the beginner to learn the techniques and get started with the projects provided, at the same time encouraging creativity and moving on to independent work.

I just bought this book on Amazon after checking it out from the library. It is excellent and I know I'll find it very useful. I thought the title could perhaps turn some folks off (as it nearly did for me,) since it leads with "The Art of Handmade Paper" and adds "and collage." I do a lot of art work and making paper is something I probably won't add to the list but collage is something I do in one form or another all the time. If I wanted to make paper, I would certainly find those instructions very useful. However, the bulk of the book is using those papers in collage - and this is the part I am finding particularly useful. There are a number of ideas that I hadn't thought of - and since handmade paper is readily available for sale, that part is easy enough to take care of. Actually, I have been working with painted and dyed paper towels, and realized that the texture of my paper towel sheets is almost identical to the handmade paper sheets in the book. A million great ideas for using my "altered" paper towels immediately came into my mind as I read through the book. I am very pleased to have found it and look forward to having my copy arrive in the mail so I don't have to give it back to the library.

As an artist myself, i have always been fascinated with the wide range of possibilities that come from making your own paper. When I picked up the book i already knew the basics, and had been making paper by hand for quite some time. I really liked the way she included many ways to push the papermaking process a step further (ie. watercolor dyeing, embossing etc.) to actually transform the paper into something more "artistic". The projects outlined in the book i saw as really great STARTING points for my own work. I felt that many of her final projects had a Martha Stewart quality that didn't really appeal to me. My suggestion? Make your own templates for the projects instead of using hers in the back of the book. Your final product will be much more rewarding if it's your own creation.

I saw the ads for this book in Somerset Studio (coincidently this book is very like their style of photos and intructions), and had to have it the day it was released! The Photos are glorious and illustrate the authors points well. You will love this book if you are a begginer or have been pack-ratting and collaging for years!

This is the best collage book I have ever read. I love the look of collage, but have always had a hard time getting started. The beautiful artwork and advice here have helped me to create many masterpieces.

The author starts out by taking you step by step though the papermaking process. Materials used include mostly common household items and scraps. Making a mold & deckle is also demonstrated.

Next, many interesting surface techniques are covered including wet/dry embossing, glue-gun embossing, coffee overdyeing, watercolor dyeing, & crayon resist. The collage section has tips on collecting, sorting, arrangement, & materials.

I loved the many unique projects that followed including making envelopes, greeting cards, fabric motifs, paper sculptures & kaleidoscope collages. There are also some templates and a great list of suppliers in the back

This book brings together articles from all aspects of digital audio from a multitude of authors into one volume. To find the same information you would have to dig through countless journals and troll the web, thus this book's first service is saving time for the researcher. Most books on digital audio focus on one particular audience - the programmer, the signal processing professional, or the recording professional. This book has a variety of articles from all of these fields. Thus it is likely that not every article will be interesting and useful to everyone, but the book should have enough articles of value to make it worthwhile to anyone interested in this fascinating field. The author himself cites Andrew Glassner's "Graphic Gems" series as an inspiration, and you could indeed rename this series "Audio Gems" and not lose any meaning by the retitling.

Of course, there are articles on the basic science of sound that should be of interest to anyone starting out in the field such as "Understanding the Decibel" and "Sound Propagation". Those interested in signal processing and programming of algorithms will enjoy Perry Cook's "Introduction to Physical Modeling" which condenses much of the material in his book "Real Sound Synthesis for Interactive Applications" into one digestible introductory article. Included are some of Cook's programs that assist in physical modeling, but he saves his real contribution to this field, his Synthesis Toolkit in C++, for volume two of this series. Likewise Albert Bregman's extensive research on the subject of auditory scene analysis is condensed nicely in the article "Perceptual Organization of Sound" and acts as an accessible introduction. My personal interest is in synthesis and signal processing, thus from my perspective I found the article "Timbre Trees: Integrating Sounds and Images" to be the most interesting article of the bunch. It explained a fascinating concept I had never heard of before involving an integrated approach to motion and sound. The entire concept is not explained in this one article, but there are references to other sources of information if you want to learn more details. This is the whole purpose of this book and its series - to introduce the reader to a topic in digital audio via a clear article, and then refer the reader to more in depth material outside the scope of the book should you need to know more. I highly recommend this book to anyone involved in the field of digital audio.

Like Greenbaum's previous work in this series, this book is packed full of articles on all phases of audio processing and synthesis. It is to the audio processing world what the "Graphics Gems" series is/was to the graphics programming world. Continuing the tradition from the first volume, this volume presents additional processing techniques, explores new areas, and teaches some basic concepts.
The book begins with a section of tips on how to make good recordings in various environments. The next section goes into the technicalities of sound synthesis, more precisely oscillator control and subtractive synthesis. Section 3 is a continuation from Volume 1, in that it continues with a discussion of basic signal processing operators like filters and transforms. A particularly interesting paper in this section is the concluding chapter, on integer arithmetic-based fast Fourier transforms.Section 4 is about spatialization. It doesn't exactly reveal what happens inside your Sennheiser Toltec processor, but it covers the basic ideas. Low-level must-know techniques, such as circular FIFOs and framing, are covered in some detail in section 5. Section 6 presents some popular tools, such as the SoX library,which is the swiss army knife of sound processing programs, and the wonderful synthesis toolkit by Perry Cook which is featured in his own book, "Real Sound Synthesis for Interactive Applications". It was a surprise to see a page on the QED package. QEDesign is an easy-to-use, multi-platform advanced digital filter design package. It is completely menu-driven and user intuitive, affording almost a non-existent start-up and learning curve. it is neither unique nor the best, but it's just a page out of the entire book. Music theory is the topic of section 7. This may be a foreign language for many engineers, as well as a foreign approach. For example, the authors explain what consonance and dissonance are, and how they fit in the sound scale, but there is no discussion of what physically happens, or, to be more precise, what psycho-physically happens. Auditory displays and auditory feedback are central to section 8, on sound design. The final section, section 9, reads almost like a Scientific American article on sounds in nature. It is very instructive. A very useful glossary of audio terminology concludes the book.
I highly recommend this book as a supplemental reference to anyone involved in the fascinating world of audio processing. However,this is really not for recording engineers, as there is much mathematics, signal processing, programming, and even some music theory involved.
I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents, so I do that here:
Preface ix
Introduction xiii
1. Field Recording 1
A Quick Field Recording Primer for the Adventurous Sound Effects Recordist Mike Caviezel 3
Holding on for Dear Life: Recording the Automobile Mike Caviezel 13
A Brief Introduction to Binaural Recording Gordon Hempton Ken Greenebaum 23
2. Synthesis 27
Ambient Synthesis with Random Sound Fields Hesham Fouad 29
Band Limited Oscillators Using Wave Table Synthesis Phil Burk 37
Subtractive Synthesis without Filters John Lazzaro John Wawrzynek 55
3. Signal Processing 65
Finite Impulse Response Filters Stuart Allman 67
Infinite Impulse Response Filters Stuart Allman 79
Replacing Analog Filters with DSP by Using the Bilinear Transform Stuart Allman 93
Floating Point Fast Fourier Transform Hal Chamberlin 101
Fast Fourier Transform Using Integer Math Hal Chamberlin 127
4. Spatialization 141
Spatialization with Stereo Loudspeakers Hesham Fouad 143
Spatialization with Multiple Loudspeakers Ville Pulkki 159
5. Computer Techniques 173
No Need to Shout: Volume Controls and the Digital Sound Convergence Ken Greenebaum 175
Count in Frames! (Not Samples or Bytes) Ken Greenebaum 183
Introduction to the Ring Buffer FIFO Queue Ken Greenebaum 193
Wrapped I/O Ken Greenebaum 209
6. Computer Tools 225
SoX Sound Exchange Library Chris Bagwell 227
The Synthesis ToolKit (STK) in C++ Perry R. Cook Gary Scavone 237
The QEDesign Filter Design Package Chris Bore 255
7. Music Theory 257
Basic Music Theory: Notation, Scales, and Chords Benjamin Tomassetti 259
Basic Music Theory: Rhythm and Meter Benjamin Tomassetti 289
8. Sound Design 303
Designing the Auditory Narrative: A Methodology for Sound Design Maribeth J. Back 305
Sound as Information: An Introduction to Auditory Display Rob Tannen 329
Auditory Feedback for Computer Devices Linda A. Roberts Cynthia A. Sikora 341
9. Nature 361
Brainwave Entrainment through Binaural Sound Jeffrey Thompson 363
Introduction to Bioacoustics Jeffrey Greenebaum 375
Glossary of Audio Terms 395
Contributor Biographies 429
Index

Ken Greenebaum, who co-edited this book with Ronen Barzel, and wrote some of the articles, indicates in the preface that his motivation for putting Audio Anecdote together was to get the book he had wished for when he was starting out in digital audio. What he came up with is a wide-ranging collection of 25 articles on various aspects of sound--what it is, how we hear it, how it affects us, how it can be produced and altered, and how it can fool us. Some of the articles are rigorously scientific and technical, while others really are anecdotal and personal. Most significantly there is a wealth of information about the manipulation of sound, and there is some history of the development of our understanding of sound.

Most of the material is aimed at people who have an intense interest in audio, and audio reproduction and development, and who already have some knowledge. However this book also works well for a rank beginner (such as myself). The articles are clear and well-presented with many black and white illustrations, tables, diagrams, and mathematical formulas, not to mention programming code! There is a glossary and there is some overlap in the "anecdotes." For example, after a brief overview of the book, Greenebaum begins with an introductory-like article on what sound is and how we measure it. This is followed by a more technical article by Hesham Fouad entitled "Understanding the Decibel." This in turn is followed by Greenebaum's essay on "Sound Propagation." His exploration of the physics involved is clear and easy to read.

One of the many things that I discovered is that "When we speak on the telephone, a portion of our voice output is intentionally played back to us through the earpiece." Derek DiFilippo and Greenebaum explain in their article, "Perceivable Auditory Latencies" that "If we didn't have a clear sense of hearing ourselves speak, we would tend to talk louder and louder because we [would] assume that the listener on the other end...[wouldn't be able to] hear us either." (pp. 74-75)

I also learned (from Oscar-winning sound director Randy Thom in his article, "Designing a Movie for Sound") that the wise film maker should make his movie with sound in mind pre-production, not as something added on afterward. As Thom points out, in the great cinematic experiences, "the visual and aural elements are working together so well that it is nearly impossible to distinguish them." (p. 406) He mentions the opening of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) and the bird attack scene in Hitchcock's The Birds (1963), and the opening of David Fincher's Seven (1995) as examples. And I can't help adding the striking opening sequence from Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter (1973) as another preeminent example of how sound can be as important, or even more important, than visuals in making a scene a lasting experience.

Included with the book is a CD that you can listen to with examples of sounds keyed to the discussions in the articles. The effect of latency ("the time between human input to a system...and system output," p. 65) and many other sound phenomena are demonstrated in the most effective way possible--by hearing them.

Special mention might be made of writer Adrienne Ross's personal contribution, "Understanding Hearing Losses and Hearing Gains...," which truly is an anecdote, beautifully written about her discovery of a hearing defect that she had lived with most of her life without realizing it. The fact that she had compensated for the defect by using her other senses, dramatically demonstrates how our experience of sound is not isolated from our other sensual experiences.

Professonally compiled and deftly co-edited by the team of Ken Greenebaum and Ronen Barzel, Audio Anecdotes II: Tools, Tips, And Techniques For Digital Audio is a handy manual of tips, tricks, and techniques especially for professionals in the digital audio field. Volume two includes a variety of articles by expert authors concerning field recording, signal processing and filters, spatialization, computer techniques such as wrapped I/O and the ring buffer FIFO queue, music theory, sound design, and more. A glossary of audio terms will help those new to the lingo understand the more advanced essays, an index allows for quick and easy research, and an enclosed CD-ROm features demos, source code, and examples. A superb reference, resource, and research tool highly recommended for anyone applying digital sound to computer-created projects, including musicians, game developers, and software producers, Audio Anecdotes II combines expert knowledge and analysis with a straightfoward instructional style for effective communication.

This book is a great book for anyone that works with digital audio. Audio Anecdotes introduces us to the practical side of audio. Just take a look at the Table Of Contents to see that there are papers on a wide variety of topics. Each of the 25 papers are written by experts in their respective fields, and each provides practical tips for creating great sounding audio. These tips aren't ideas that are obvious even to those with years of experience in the field- many of them come from years of research. In addition to the tips and techniques, Audio Anecdotes is filled with example code so you can play around and hear exactly what the authors are writing about. The CD-ROM comes with demos and explanations for most of the topics as well as the software to compile and run each demo. The software includes Caliper (a custom, text-based program used for controlling demo parameters), Flavor (a language, based on C++ and Java, great for multimedia applications), Octave (a language similar to MatLab), the PortAudio Library (a C library for audio I/O), and STK (Synthesis Toolkit- a set of C++ classes used for audio synthesis and processing). Whether you're going to use all this software or if you're simply looking for some practical mixing tips, I recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn more about the practical side of digital audio.

If you like the art work of Gorey you will love 'Baby's First Mythos'. Perhaps not so much for children as for the adults who share their love of mythical history in reading to their children. The drawings are wonderful and the sense of humor amazing.

My girlfriend has this on her desk, and she handed it to me to read. (My age is over 50) I really chuckled when realizing so many connections to movies. Cthulhu is a very ancient creature - and it was rather funny to realize the 'Davey Jones' character in Pirates of the Caribbean was basically like Cthulhu.

Our eldest daughter is a comic creatrix and I gifted her with one of these books because she likes Gorey so much. I also bought a copy for myself and our now 1 year old granddaughter to share with her later.

IF you love gorey, lovecraft, mythology, and graphic novel type books, this will not only be enjoyed but will be come a collectable.

This book is spectacular, I can't wait until I have a baby to read it to!

This is funny stuff. It gave me a real chuckle.
The new edition with the hard pages is fantastic.
I use this with the 'Call of Cthulhu' roleplay game.
I recommend it for anyone who is in to the mythos.

Very well done. The poems sometimes stretch a bit, but then, it's sometimes hard for find words to rhyme with Nyarlothetep or Cthulhu. The drawings, though, are wonderful. If your intention is to twist your child, much like Wednesday Addams, then this book is essential. Personally, though, I prefer to twist myself, and this book does that very well.

The idea of parodying the typical children's ABC and 123 books by illustrating them with Lovecraft's Elder Gods just tickles my funny bone. Every little snippet of writing, including the author and artist bios, is subtly clever, and the ink drawings are perfect for the subject.

The best part is...I thought I knew a bit about it, but the book actually taught me plenty I didn't know about the Lovecraft mythos. The only complaint (and a slight one at that) is the binding looks the kind that's going to crack and fall apart after not too long, which is a pity, because I'd like it to last long enough to show my own future spawn.

Every Lovecraft fan should get one.

Lots of useful info and background, particularly useful if you are trying to run a campaign on the magnificent world Babylon 5 created for all of their fans.

It is a pity all the game supplements are so hard to find, I would love if someone reprinted them.

Lots of useful info and background, particularly useful if you are trying to run a campaign on the magnificent world Babylon 5 created for all of their fans.

It is a pity all the game supplements are so hard to find, I would love if someone reprinted them.

Lots of useful info and background, particularly useful if you are trying to run a campaign on the magnificent world Babylon 5 created for all of their fans.

It is a pity all the game supplements are so hard to find, I would love if someone reprinted them.

Lots of useful info and background, particularly useful if you are trying to run a campaign on the magnificent world Babylon 5 created for all of their fans.

It is a pity all the game supplements are so hard to find, I would love if someone reprinted them.

This sourcebook is very important if you have any EF personell as characters. Furthermore, it adds more equipment, skills and charactaristics. More importantly, it includes the Starship combat system for the Babylon Project. I like this system, although I have not had a chance to play it yet. It is fast, easy to understand and tactics are important. Moreover, it is one of the very few starship combat systems I have seen where ships obey the Newtonian Laws of Motion (except gravity drive ships, of course). The weapons chart was accidentally omitted from the book, but it can be downloaded from Chameleon Electric's web site and it was included in the Gamemaster's Screen, below.

I've played pool for more than forty years and was born in bank pool territory--Cincinnati, Ohio. As a former Cincinnati Amateur Champ, I thought my knowledge of bank pool ran deep. Not so. Freddy Bentivegna's book taught me lots of things I didn't know, especially since I stopped playing pool for 26 years during my Air Force career. Freddy's tips brought me back up to speed in bank pool play. He's also a terrific commentator on Accu-Stat tapes and DVD, supplying background information that's interesting and informative. I hope one day to get to Chicago and play him a few games. I'll need a spot, of course.

An excellent tool box of well-kept tricks and practical secrets for a more-than-average player who wants to get to the next level. No waste, easy to read and understand and worth every penny.

A great read for any level of pool player. By far one of the best books on pool i have ever read. The book will pay for itself in no time.

This book doesn't go over the many techniques used in banking systems, rather it takes that you know this and then tells you how you can more accurately antipate 'collision-induced-throw' and manipulate banks that wouldn't otherwise work (by using different cuts and english).

The books take on an aiming system is well thought out, it takes some getting used to though, and requires an aiming system as a guide. I've used the aiming system, on canned shots, and can see the techniques and it works for me. I will still require many hours to master this book though.

How many times have you read in some book, some method or another that claims to improve your banking? Then you get to the table and it doesnt work reliably enough that you use the method long term? The "mirror" system is a classic example of useless banking info imo.

I am happy to report that Banking with the Beard actually has info that will improve your banking. You will learn how to gauge english when it transfers to the object ball, you will learn how cutting across the face of the ball on a bank imparts english and how to compensate. You will learn what Freddie calls "Automatics", banks that are dead from certain positions.

One shot that I will in particular bring up is Freddie's "Side Step Bank", a bank shot where you hit the ball with inside english and it shortens up the angle of the bank. The beauty of this shot is that you hit the shot with some firm speed and as such its alot easier to make under pressure. Once you practice this shot, the make percentage goes up towards 7-8/10 or higher :-) I can tell you personally that this shot has saved me the cheese on more than one occasion and easily paid for the book many times over.

Banking with the Beard also has alot of great gambling stories from the legendary pool room Bensingers in Chicago, Illinois. If you enjoy reading about big dollar action and the interesting shots that came out of those matchups, then this book is also for you.

The book was sent in a very timely fashion and was in very good condition. I am sure my husband will love it as it also has a cd tucked inside

This one is hit right out of the ballpark.
Take a simple song, and dissect it fully and with love!
Not only is this a great and complete book, but the quality of the publication is so nice you can smell the Cracker Jack!
Great unseen photos and memorabilia that will astound any baseball fan.
The CD is cool, too!

Is this the nation's number one song behind Happy Birthday?

and a great deal about baseball as well.

In 1908 Jack Norworth wrote "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" on some scrap paper on a train ride into Manhattan, New York. He gave the lyrics to Albert Von Tilzer who composed the music. The York Music Company published the song later that year and a baseball classic was born.

(Incidentally, some of the other wonders of 1908 are brilliantly described in Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History by Cait N. Murphy.)

This book is the story of the song, which is sung during the seventh inning stretch at nearly every ball park in the country. Norworth actually wrote two versions of the lyrics -- the major difference is that Katie Casey becomes Nelly Kelly in the 1927 version. Norworth wrote over 2,500 songs, including "Shine On, Harvest Moon", and several other baseball songs, but didn't attend a major league game until 1940.

Harry Caray gets credit for singing it first at a ball game in 1971, "because I think it's the only song I knew the words to!" In 1976 Bill Veeck installed a secret microphone in the broadcast booth so everyone could hear him and sing along. Veeck explained: "Harry, anybody in the ballpark hearing you sing 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' knows that he can sing as well as you can. Probably better than you can. So he or she sings along. Heck, if you had a good singing voice you'd intimidate them, and nobody would join in!"

This book is a wonderful history of the song and many of the ballparks where it has become an institution. Despite critics one might add; Pitcher Larry Anderson: "In the seventh inning fans all get up and sing 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game,' and they're already there. It's really a stupid thing to say and I don't know who made 'em sing it. Why would somebody that's there get up and sing take me out to the ball game? The first person to do it must have been a moron." [Anderson was a journeyman pitcher and part of one of the worst baseball trades ever -- Anderson for Jeff Bagwell -- but witty -- "Why do you drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?", for example.] [Win-Loss 2-3, 23 Strikeouts, ERA 5.66, 3 seasons.]

If you love baseball, you'll certainly enjoy this well written history. I learned a great deal and will sing the song with increased gusto Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium. The excellent CD included with the book may even help me stay in tune!

Robert C. Ross 2008

If you are a baseball fan, this book is a must read! It is very easy to read and has a lot of great info. I especially enjoyed learning the traditons at each of the MLB ballparks!

This book includes just about everything you would want to know about baseball's anthem. Backgrounds on the song's authors Jack Norworth (lyrics) and Albert Von Tilzer (melody) are included, along with numerous historical photos, and what baseball was like in 1908. Take Me Out to the Ball Game is the third most listened to song after Happy Birthday and The Star Spangled Banner. Songs about baseball rank only below songs about love in our nation's history. A listing of all commercially printed music about baseball in the Library of Congress' collection is also provided. I didn't see the song entitled The Umpire recorded in 1950 on the flip side of Take Me Out to the Ball Game sung by Tommy Henrich, Ralph Branca, Phil Rizzuto, and Roy Campanella along with the Carl Yastrzemski song listed. The rendition by Henrich, Branca, Rizzuto, and Campanella is in my collection from my childhood and is an excellent version. My favorite rendition of the song, however, is the version by Carly Simon from Ken Burns' Baseball special included on Ken Burns' CD. It includes the entire song and is first rate. The three authors list their top ten baseball songs. In addition to the game's anthem by Carly Simon I like It's A Beautiful Day For A Ball Game, Gee, It's A Wonderful Game, The First Baseball Game, Van Lingle Mungo, There Used To Be A Ball Park by Frank Sinatra, and Talkin' Baseball by Terry Cashman. The CD that accompanies this book has sixteen tracks, but none of them add anything of significance to the book. However, if you are a baseball fan I would strongly suggest you add this book to your collection.

I have several chip carving books; however, this one is my favorite, because it tells me everything I need to know as a beginner. She could improve the accuracy on her illustrations; however, I still like the book and recommend it to all beginning chip carvers.

I am a newbie to chip carving - and have purchased 2 Wayne Barton books to get started. They had great pictures as inspiration - but do nothing for the beginner who has no technique to make these sophisticated cuts.

This book reminds me of learning to play the piano. You start with basics like chop sticks and gradually learn to add parts til you're playing beautiful music. It starts with basic exercises and real projects with basics and expands gradually with each chapter - expanding on the basic cut toward more difficult cuts. i.e. cutting simple triangle - to more complex straight patterns / to curves - and projects to tie them all together. It also covers basics like creating and laying out a pattern onto a piece of wood - which isn't mentioned in my Barton books.

I'd highly recommend this for the beginner or anyone who finds themselves questioning basics of technique for various cuts.

Jake

I cannot give this book enough stars, and it is worth 5 times the price they are asking for.

This is a large book, A4 sized, it is packed with useful photos and diagrams, approx. half the photos are glorious colour, essential for carving (to get a good idea of the depth and form).

Chip carving has always been a bit of a mystery to me, within 2 minutes of opening this book it was completely clear what the diagrams meant (I did not realise they were indicating depth of cut) ... the book is a series of projects, each of which builds upon your skill and grows more complex, covering all aspects of chip carving.

I cannot imagine a book on chip carving being better than this. If you are looking for one, get this one, and good luck.

I have several of Wayne Barton's books on chip carving. Although nicely done they pale in comparison to Pam Greshams works. Although she does not claim to be a trained teacher this lady does it better than anyone else out there. She will have you carving the basic chip in about 30 minutes. And best yet, she explains each movement and how to do it clearly and with great aids.
I can't say enough good things about this book. I only wish there was a companion video to go with it. If you are interested in chip carving don't be afraid to buy this book. It's worth every penny.

I'd give Pams book 6 stars but the selection box wouldn't let me. Pam's book is an excellent step by step, add on, and expand upon set of exercises. She goes into detail on explaining how to with everything, from layout, how to draw all of the designs in her book; how to hold your knife in the basic positions and each lesson builds upon the last. Every progression is done step by step. She is outstanding in holding your hand and guiding you through all of the steps of the exercises. Wayne Barton's books are excellent. Unfortunately, you have to have some basic knowledge on design and technique and carving expertise. For experienced chip carvers his books are really great source books. His video is excellent for seeing chip carving technique at it's very best. Worth the purchase. Most important of all is using razor sharp knives else you'll be very frustrated and disappointed in the results. Get Wayne Barton's ceramic stones and a good leather strop with some rouge to rub on. Your blade will have a mirror finish.I glued some old pieces of leather to both sides of a 10 inch by 2 inch wide by 1/4 inch thick piece of wood. One side for rouging, the other to polish. When I've layed off for quite a while, I always pick up Pam's book to get my hands and fingers in shape and go through the basics. At 75, my fingers tend to stiffen up a bit. She got me my first blue ribbon at a craft show for my chip carving designed tool box back in 1993. Pam is not very good with computers but she is in a class by herself when she designed this truly outstanding do it yourself chip carving text.
Grampa Joe

I have been coaching girls basketball for the last several
years and am often looking for suitable books to give my
players to help them work on their own to further develop
their skills. This is the best book I have seen for a junior
high or high school player. I covers every aspect of the game,
not just skills, but also physical training.

When I started coaching girls basketball (3rd-9th graders) 3 years ago this was the second book I picked up. Now I have about 35 books and 20 videos but I use this as the central reference for my playbook and training manual in coaching fundamentals. Some of the skills may be too advanced for younger kids but they will grow up and adapt to it when they return to you a little older and better skilled thanks to this reference. It should be used in conjunction with the videos by the author (available also from Amazon). If Nancy Lieberman-Cline ever sponsors a clinic I will be on the first plane to get there. As a player-coach-teacher she is the best for girls basketball!

A really good book for a select audience. For younger players or those not motivated enough to focus their energy and effort at this level, I highly recommend the two companion VHS tapes on offense and defense/rebounding. However, if you are a middle or high-school player who really wants to raise your game, you can't go wrong here.

Being a girls basketball coach, this book is a very beneficial tool for helping young women understand the game more completely. The variety of drills make it easy to design an off season workout schedule. This book is a must buy for anyone serious about the game, whether coach, player, or a serious fan!

I love this book! I think it has great drills and advice in it. It helped me out a lot in my basketball career. If you are serious about basketball and you are a women you should buy this book!!!!

I have not had so much fun in my life since the Kennedy-Nixon debates. Rock on, J. Baxter!

Did I remeber to say that J. Baxter Newgate is very clever?

I solved most of these puzzles, but some were so clever I had to cheat. Great stuff, very clever. I loved the book.

J. Baxter Newgate's Puzzles are some of the most creative and challenging puzzles I have ever seen. Keep them coming!

J. Baxter Newgate is right up there with Merl Reagle, Will Shortz, and the late Eugene Maleska for creative and funny puzzles. When is his next book coming out?