Works Books

The Feynman Lectures on Physics is a classic that must belong to everyone's library. This edition is very well designed, but the paint in the cover keep getting off into my hands. The cover of my Volume I is already totally ruined. You don't buy a book if you do not intent to read it. Disappointing.

Not much to say. I bought this set for my boyfriend for x-mas and he loves it!

Caltech had unbelieveable foresight in knowing how good Feynman would appear to future generations. The teaching techniques are still unbeatable. Worth spending six months reading these.

My background: An engineer with an aspiration to learn more physics.

It has been over 3 years since my last college physics class, and having heard from friends and reading online about these lectures, I finally bought them here instead of spending twice as much at the local bookstore. I own a copy of Serwey's physics book, and the difference between the two is remarkable.

I can read Feynman's book with excitement. He writes or lectures in a way that keeps me engaged with what he has to say, and he also provides excellent examples of interesting cases. For instance, in his treatment of gravitation, he numerically calculates the trajectory of the earth given an initial velocity and position. I knew it was possible to do such a thing, but the fact that he provided a table of numbers and just went ahead with the calculation without skipping the detail brought me great enthusiasm. I don't even remember my astrodynamics book covering the simple calculations of such things from the fundamental principles in such detail.

Aside from the nitty gritty, his reading is enjoyable. I pass out when reading Serwey's book, simply because it isn't written in a very enthusiastic and engaging way.

However, Feynman's lectures are good for refreshing your understanding, not doing problems. I imagine that someone with a copy of Feynman's lectures for the understanding and Serwey's problems and examples for the nitty gritty, who works the problems, will understand physics well enough to continue studying more in-depth subjects on their own. That says a lot about both volumes.

Feynman doesn't just teach physics in these books: he teaches you to think like a physicist should. One complaint I've heard is that there's not enough math in them. "Too many words." (Kinda reminds you of Armadeus.) There are plenty of books that have the math. These books offer insight -- something that is very hard to come by in formal physics education.

The introductory material in Volume 1 is highly quotable. You can get your money's worth right there.

When I started Volume 2, I'd had undergraduate electricity and magnetism and found it dry and boring. After Volume 2, I was so pumped, I wanted to teach the subject.

I read Volume 3 when I was starting graduate quantum mechanics. My first final was oral, two-on-one. The professor had a second prof sit in with him to quiz each student. They opened with a few questions on the uncertainty principle. I started rattling off some of the insights I'd gotten from Volume 3. These guys must not have read it, because they were blown away. They'd ask a question and I'd answer and then follow with a hook to keep them coming back. I spent an hour of the two-hour exam on the uncertainty principle! Talk about getting off on the right foot with a new prof!

These books have been an inspiration to me for the last 40 years. Whether you're a student or a Ph.D. -- and especially if you teach at any level -- you must not be without them. They will improve your understanding of physics, and they'll equip you to better communicate it.

I realize that I've sounded a little over-the-top in this review. If I said less, I'd be understating my honest opinion.

Tim Naff, Ph.D.

Not only did I receive this product faster than expected, it was brand new and it was one of the most amazing books I have ever read with some of the most exquisite photography I've ever seen!

if you believe in God or not, i dare you to look at this book and not be in awe of nature. my husband and i enjoy looking at this book any seeing God's wonderous creation. anyone who has children should get this book. they probably won't read every word, but they will learn a lot from the pictures.

I have not had the chance yet to review this product. I'd thought I'd purchased the dvd set for this same title, so was surprised to receive a book. I decided not to return it, but I know I will enjoy it.

BEAUTIFUL BOOK TO HAVE. NOT ONLY IS IT INFORMATIVE, BUT THE PICTURES ARE TRULY A PIECE OF ARTWORK.

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"The authors of [this] book (producers of the [Planet Earth TV] series) are extremely grateful to the [TV series'] production [the production team consisted of almost 25 people], post-production, and camera teams [the camera team consisted of more than 55 people] for their talent, dedication, and determination. The result of their hard work on this challenging series is not only obvious in the television programmes but in these pages. The stories they unearthed and the trips they organized were the inspiration for much of the text, and many of their unique images [or photographs] illustrate this book."

The above is found in the first paragraph of this book's acknowledgements section. According to this book's cover, it is authored solely by Alastair Fothergill, one of the TV series producers. However, according to this book's title page, there are five more co-authors (all producers of the TV series) making it thus authored by six people altogether.

This book (a "New York Times" bestseller and endorsed by Oprah Winfrey) is supposed to be a "companion" to and a "mirror" of the TV series which "took four years to make [and was] filmed in more than 200 locations worldwide." However, don't get the idea that this book is simply a rehash of the TV series because it definitely is not.

This book consists of two outstanding features:

(1) exquisite, revealing, and unique colour photographs (of which I counted more than 360 captioned ones)
(2) text (which is quite comprehensive and informative)

To give the potential reader a "feel" for this book, I will give the chapter titles and a brief description. Note that the first chapter should be read first and subsequent chapters can be read in any desired order:

(1) The Whole Earth (Gives a general overview of the entire planet and orientates the reader.)
(2) Frozen Poles (The ultimate places of extremes, the Artic and the Antarctic.)
(3) The Great Forests (Between the poles and the equator lie huge tracts of forest. These forests have great effects for both the wildlife living there and for the health of the entire planet.)
(4) The Great Plains (These plains cover more than a quarter of the planet's land. They support the greatest gatherings of wildlife anywhere on Earth.)
(5) The Great Sands (Deserts are the hottest, most arid regions of the world. Only the hardiest of plants and animals can survive in these areas, each with a special repertoire of tricks.)
(6) Mountain Heights (Mountains epitomize wilderness--remote high-altitude places, where only the hardiest of animals survive the cold.)
(7) The Underworld (Caves are the least known environments on land, are home to some of the strangest animals, and offer unique landscapes and thrilling experiences. **This is my personal favourite chapter.)
(8) Fresh Water (All life on land is dependent on fresh water. It is the most precious resource on Earth.)
(9) Rain Forests (Reliable year round sunshine and regular rain downpours result in a rich rain forest with a variety and complexity of life unmatched by any other habitat on Earth.)
(10) Shallow Seas (These are by far the richest parts of the ocean. It's in these seas that you find the coral reefs, the sea grass beds, the kelp forests, and 90% of the world's commercial fisheries.)
(11) Open Ocean Depths (The deep and open ocean covers more than 60% of the Earth's surface. It regulates the climate, conditions the atmosphere, and contains some of the least known and most extraordinary animals on Earth.)

Finally, there are some problems with this book. Note that these problems in no way affect its readability but are irritations (at least to me):

(1) In the book's front material is a world map with the names of the continents, oceans, selected seas, and other selected landmarks printed directly on it. (This map is not indicated in the table of contents.) As well, there is a numbered list of almost 55 features whose numbers are printed on the map. This map is untitled and there is no explanation of how it's to be used.

When I first came across this map, I assumed that it was unimportant and forgot about it. It was not until I was well into the book that I discovered accidentally what it is and how it's to be used.

This map is a locator map. The idea is that when you come across a place, feature, etc., in the main narrative, you look it up on the map. For example, if you came across in the main narrative the Himalayas, you then go back to the map to see where these mountains are located.

The numbered list of selected landmarks is used in the same way. For example, the list of landmarks indicates that the Great Barrier Reef is #52. When you come across this reef in the main narrative you are then supposed to find this number on the map to discover the Reef's exact location.

I think this is a good idea since this actually adds another dimension to the book. However, I found another problem. The reader is not told when to refer to the map. So what you end up doing is guessing if a particular place, feature, etc., is on the map. I guessed wrong many times and thus became frustrated.

My question is why is there no instructions on this map of how it`s to be used? As well, in the main narrative, why isn't the reader told when to refer to this map?

(2) The same problem goes for the photographs in the book. The reader is not told when to look at a particular photograph. You either have to read the entire narrative on a page and then look at the photograph (many pages have more than one picture per page) or you have to guess when to look at a photograph when you come across the name of a particular animal, feature, etc., in the main narrative.

(3) Much of the material in the text gives some highly specific detailed information. Why isn't there any credit given as to where this information was obtained?

(4) All the back material (most notably the index) in this book is not indicated in the table of contents.

In conclusion, this is a fascinating book where you truly get to see the planet "as you've never seen it before." I leave you with the final paragraph of the book's Forward (written by (Sir) David Attenborough):

"This remarkable and beautiful book should stand not just as a revelation and celebration of the wonders that our planet retains at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It surely must also be seen as an eloquent rallying call to all of us who care for the Earth's welfare to redouble our efforts to protect those wonders that still survive."

(first published 2006; foreword; locator map; 11 chapters; main narrative 305 pages; index; copyright; names of some people that made the television series possible; acknowledgements; picture credits)

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It is an amazing book. When I get money I will buy the other book from this collection.

This colorful guide book to the reef fish of Florida, the Bahamas, and the Carribean is an excellent reference. Fish are shown in beautiful color pictures with information on size, shape, where to find them,and how they are likely to react to divers.
All the usuals are of coures here but so are many less commonly seen in guide books. Written information also includes descriptions of common variants.
An all around excellent book for the semiserious to serious snorkeler or diver who enjoys identifing what they see.

As book reader and Diver, I just love this book, It gives me all the pictures and characteristics for an accurate evaluation of the creatures I found under water. Great pictures, and outstanding charcterization of fishes.

At one time I was the head of a volunteer organization in WPB, Florida that assisted Palm Beach County with their artifical reef program. Part of the qualification was to get training in a variety of related subjects (like fish identification) sponsored by the Florida Oceanographic Society. This book served as our fish identification "bible." I no longer live in FL, but when I go diving in the Caribbean I stil take this book with me. If you need to (or just want to) know the fish of the Caribbean, buy this book.

This is a reef fish identification book. This sounds obvious, but that really is the focus here. It's not a book to teach you about fish behavior, biogeography, community ecology, or population trends. Author, diver, captain, photographer, and attorney (!) Paul Humann took most of the 670 photographs in this book, a real accomplishment for any diver, since the result of a blurred or indistinct photograph of a fish is to... go get another.

The organization of this ID book is by fish shape. He's got 12 "identification groups":

- disks and ovals (colorful)
- silvery
- sloping head and tapered body
- small ovals
- heavy body and large lips
- swim with pectoral fins, and with obvious scales
- reddish and big eyes
- small, elongated bottom-dwellers
- old-shaped bottom dwellers
- odd-shaped swimmers
- eels
- sharks and rays

Any fish watcher would see the "logic" of this organization, although it could make some ichthyologists squirm with these sets of artificial groupings.

The book is spiral-bound so that the pages, when opened, stay open. And the clay content in the paper makes it more resistant to water dripping from your wetsuit or your hair. Just make sure you wipe it off, pronto.

Now the photos... They are very high quality, and Humann is to be commended for taking, or selecting from other photographers, pictures that really pull out the details of the various fish . For example, the Sergeant Major has the delicate yellow along the base of its dorsal fin, and those frogfish must be viewed in both a camouflaged condition and in a setting where they are contrasted with the background.

Any amateur photographer will soon discover the difficulty in getting a full, close-up and lateral view of a fish. They tend to swim away from you as you get close, giving you a great view of the tail sweeping away. These photos are the result of a truly amazing amount of patience.

In an appendix, he throws in some sea turtles and dolphins or good measure, as well as a checklist for keeping track of the reader's sightings.

My ocean diving has all been in the Pacific, and it was interesting seeing species related to my own "friends." If I get the opportunity to dive in Florida, the Caribbean, or the Bahamas, this will be the book I throw in my dive bag... in a zip-lock bag, of course.

All I can say is Spirit Horse's is just Breathtaking. A beautiful book,I would recommed it for any horse lover.

This is one of the most beautiful books that I have seen of horses. Very well done. If you know somebody that loves horses, this is the book to buy.

The best art photography I've seen.. A must for horse lovers.

The photo book Spirit Horses is an must for every horse lover. The photo's are incredible and create or catch a mistical atmosphere as I have seldom seen. The captions are inspiring. Not a book to read but one to pick up once a week for half an hour meditation. Highly recommended

Misleading - Linda Kohanov only wrote the Intro.
Repetitive photographs and sparse text.

This is an unusual book, strange in so many ways I'm going to have trouble listing them all. I'll try, though. I will say that at some level I enjoyed this book, and if you can overcome the shortcomings that I'll list below, you may enjoy it more than I did.

For one thing, there's the issue of the author's name. This *isn't* the Michael Collins who was the first president of Ireland (of course not, he's been dead for 80 years) though the author was born over there. He's also not the astronaut who stayed on Apollo 11 while Armstrong and Aldrin wandered around on the moon. And he's also not Dennis Lynds, who has a series of detective novels featuring a one-armed private eye named Dan Fortune, and who writes novels under the pen name Michael Collins. This is the other other other Michael Collins. Very weird.

The plot of the book is pretty complex. All of the plot takes place in the late 1970s, a strange choice for the author. It works at some levels, though. Frank Cassidy is a small-time next-to-nothing, working at a burger joint, married to a woman who is at first a dispatcher for a trucking company. They have two kids, though the older one is from her previous marriage. Frank gets word that his uncle has died, and he decides to return to his hometown for the funeral. However his cousin and the cousin's wife are very angry at this.

This is where things begin to get strange. It turns out that Frank's wife, Honey, was married before, and her husband killed two people and is now on Death Row. She beats the son she had with the first husband. Frank, meanwhile, steals cars and money in order to finance their trip back home. As the novel progresses, there's not a single solitary character in the whole plot who's truly honest, good-hearted, and/or selfless. Everyone's out for themselves, dishonest, and nasty. It's sort of a cross between American Beauty and The Grapes of Wrath.

One point I think worth making is that the author isn't an American. You've got to wonder what these guys are thinking (I'm thinking of the guy who wrote American Beauty) when they move here in order to write stuff and tell us what jerks we are. I wonder if an American could move to Britain or Ireland and write a novel like this, and get it published, let alone receive awards. Needless to say, all the gushing blurbs on the back of the book are from British and Irish newspapers, which all insist (of course) that it reveals "America's long malaise".

The author *can* write, though. There's not that much of a plot, unfortunately. Instead, we get a bleak, desolate account of Middle America a quarter century ago. While the author isn't positive about anything, it's interesting to watch the characters wander through the plot. The mystery angle isn't (as is traditional) important to the book, and the solution, when revealed, seems rather forced and quick. Luckily, as I said, it's not that significant.

I enjoyed this book within these parameters. I might recommend it, but you've got to be aware of how annoying it can be at times.

This is where things get weird, however.

This book is a pleasure to read. The writing style is effortless - Mr Collins is a skillful and inventive writer.

The story follows a 1970s family who return to the Frank Cassidy's hometown for his dad's funeral. As the mystery around the death unfolds, other themes are also addressed. In a couple of generations Frank's family has moved from primary industry, mining and farming, into the service econony (flipping burgers). The novel shows the impact on families, on men and women and their ideas of their place in the world. Some people can survive in the modern world of corporate farming, of colleges which free people from their tie to the soil. It is not an easy journey but the ability of people to survive shines through, especially when the benefits of education are used to change for the better. In the background the impact of a war fought overseas is also in the air.

Ultimately, a novel about hope. Perhaps even an update of the American dream? Great book, deserves more recognition.

The hero is a pragmatist in a Godless world. The protagonist, Frank Cassidy, had not had a day off in two years when he quits his job in New Jersey to go the the Upper Peninsula, Michigan for reason of a death in the family. He steals a car and later robs a man named Melvin. Frank's brother-cousin and his wife, Norman and Martha, dread the arrival of Frank and Honey and Robert Lee and Ernie, the children.

In the boarding house where they stay there is a hint of opulence. It is learned that the body of the deceased uncle, Ward, is being held by the authorities. Honey feels they should try to get jobs in the town. Frank works as a security guard and Honey in the business office of a college undergoing a transition from a community college to a four years residential college with a Great Books curriculum.

For Thanksgiving it is decided to eat at Cedar Lodge and stay there through the long weekend. Listed winter activities are ice skating and ice fishing. In a telephone call Frank learns that his cousin Norman is collapsing. Norman upended the sheriff's car when served with papers of foreclosure. Frank and his family go to Norman's place where it is discovered the dairy herd has been killed. In the end Frank uncovers and clarifies mysteries that have always surrounded his boyhood. The atmosphere created by the author matches the subject of the search for meaning by being indeterminate, foggy, bewildering. The children are presented in interesting realistic detail.

~ Frank Cassidy learns in a newspaper of the death - possibly, murder - of his uncle, and goes back to North America to investigate any possibility of inheritance; to find out why his uncle died; and to sort out loose ends left in his head from a fire at his family farm in his childhood...

This book starts off quite promisingly. The writer evidently knows the mechanics of how to write well. But the book lacks sufficient plot after about the first hundred pages (of a 360-page book) to keep the reader very interested in continuing with it. The journey to the end of the book becomes boring, too unstimulating, too slow, too drawn out, with too much description and detail just for the sake of giving description and detail, too much describing of humdrum life, with the reader wondering if the book is going to go anywhere sufficiently interesting to be worth going on turning the pages. The characters in the book aren't made particularly interesting in themselves. The story ceases to be interesting. The reader is left in the dark for too long as to where the book is heading to, or why all the details are supposed to be interesting, or what the point of the book is supposed to be. Whilst what really happened many years before, in Frank's childhood, is revealed to us in the last fifteen pages of the book, by the time the reader gets there, he will probably have lost interest in the tale anyway.

A few specifics in the plot that didn't really seem to fit together well:
1. It seemed odd for Frank just to dump Juniper, the family pet, in someone else's car, and for that action then just to be accepted by the rest of the family.
2. It seemed odd for Frank to go back home with specific personal missions in his mind, but yet then never actually to get round to meeting up with Norman and Martha face to face for the whole time he was up there.
3. It seemed odd for Norman and Martha just to run away without saying more to anyone, after their herd was slaughtered.
4. Why Chester Green was suddenly being referred to as 'the Sleeper' didn't seem to be explained.
5. It seemed odd for Frank, not rich, not to want to salvage any possessions from either house before they were bulldozed.
6. It seemed odd and too convenient for Frank suddenly to be interrogating Baxter, his new co-worker, for information, which was forthcoming, as soon as he met him.
7. It seemed odd for Frank just to be allowed to be left alone with Chester Green in a hospital unsupervised, particularly in later visits after he had already been suspected of trying to harm or interfere with Chester Green earlier on.
8. Why Baxter suddenly ended up in the sanatorium following the window-smashing incident and ended up getting ECT treatment wasn't very clear.
9. Frank suddenly realising his mother had died in a fall many years ago, by listening to tapes, didn't really ring very true.
10. The detail at the end of the book (page 357), of Frank killing the paralysed 'Chester Green' in the sanatorium, seemed to be a detail borrowed straight out of 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest', where the huge red indian suffocates the comitose Jack Nicholson at the end of that film. That conclusion seems to be borne out by a reference to 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' in this book, just a page later (page 358).

All in all, this was not a very satisfying book, for a variety of reasons - mainly lack of interesting plot and lack of interesting characters.

Frank Cassidy lives on the fringes of society in a succession of demeaning jobs, a wife with an ex-husband on death row in Georgia, an angst-riddled stepson waiting for his father to be executed and an innocent pre-schooler, obsessed with his toy dinosaurs. Frank's edge-of-desperation lifestyle can be traced back to his childhood, his father and mother killed in a fire that erupted on the family farm when Frank was five-years old. His memories of that time are dim, shaped by the overwhelming presence of his uncle, who raised him as one of his own, and the psychological evaluations the doctor hoped would unlock Frank's fragmented memory of the night of the conflagration.

As soon as he is old enough, Frank leaves the farm behind, along with all family connections, to make his way in a hostile world with no patience for an emotionally damaged survivor. His life since then has been a series of misdemeanors, an anti-social approach to the rest of mankind. Frank views his occasional petty crimes as the natural evolution of a careful society, like car theft, his deeds "preordained statistical probability", but refuses to believe that "stupidity and desperation equate to evil". When he reads of his uncle's murder, Frank gathers his family and heads for the past, a dark trek from New Jersey to the vast, empty cold of the far north in Michigan.

Along the way, Frank telephones his cousin at the farm, arguing about the purpose of the trip and the resolution of a shattered history. For Frank, this journey is like poking a stick at a bad tooth, as painful memories surge, taunting and confusing his every action, his haunted youth returning with savage intensity. He makes his way back to the kind of town nobody would willingly return to unless called by tragedy or loss. People here live in despair, inhabiting days frozen in minimal needs and obligations, waiting to thaw. At each phase of his odyssey, Frank is beset by images and memories, the flickering light of a television screen in a starless night, black and white reruns the backdrop for a tragedy buried in his subconscious that fills him with a vague sense of guilt, a mistrust of his own motivations.

Thirty years after the traumatic events that stole his childhood, Frank is called back into the chaos of his youth, the self-destruction that has defined every rebellious action since. Both distressed and comforted by a suffering family he can barely provide for, Frank plunges into what remains of his world, forced to redefine time and place, to make a stand in this frozen wilderness, drawing courage from his own need for resolution and the love of his dysfunctional family. He does so with consummate grace, a tragic character cart-wheeling through free-associative hell on a collision course with the truth. The prose is shadowed and disturbing, a painful view of the underbelly of American life, where the have-nots gather around a burning trash can in hopes of warmth in an indifferent landscape. Luan Gaines/2005.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare is an ingenious play. It is spontaneous and hilarious! If you're into Shakespeare, you'll love it. If you don't care for him because he was the reason you failed high school English, you'll still love this play!

I have seen productions of this play several times and each time it's hilarious! Now reading it I realize what geniuses the Reduced Shakespeare Company are - especially the writers Jess Borgenson, Daniel Singer and Adam Long! The book is worth it's price just for the footnotes. Their clever, witty, and yes - bawdy (Shakespeare would have been proud!) humor is priceless!

I am a high school drama teacher, and we bought copies of the Compleat Works of William Shakespeare Abridged for classroom use. They have been delightful to use, and perfectly correllating with the Reduced Shakespeare Company DVD that we have enjoyed in the past. The best part of all is how the kids retain the recognition of lines and scenes, even when we are viewing or reading other versions of his works. They love getting in front of the class and working up these zany parodies of the classics. I rate it 5 out of 5!!

Absolutely Hilarious! I would love to go see this play, however the book has annotations that are priceless, so you won't want to miss this either. You won't be able to put this down.

I bought this to decide whether or not to audition for a part in a local theater group performing the play. I didn't audition because I was on the opposite side of the atlantic ocean at the time, but five stars without question. The Reduced Shakespeare Company does a hilarious job of telling every single shakespeare play faster than ever before. Read this play!

A very good start to any day...Max has a way with words that reach down deep...Get a copy.. you won't be sorry!

This is an excellent inspirational daily devotional reading by Max Lucado. He speaks directly to you and always manages to inspire me.

I searched for a book that would give me the necessary words to start my day right and this is truly it. I like to do a short meditation before I leave the house each morning and this fits the bill just right. I'm always amazed how often the daily reading seems to talk directly to me.

I am a manager in a faith-based organization and this is a great book to use for daily devotionals with staff.

I recommend this book to everyone! I have had this book by my side everyday for the past 3 years and I can tell you this is a fantastic start to the day. It is filled with inspiration, love, hope... Even on a bad day, I'm able to smile and find hope through the words of Max Lucado. I also recommend In the Eye of the Storm and When God Whispers your name, both written by Max Lucado.

The best place to get a pet is from a shelter, and if you read this book, you will learn why. I have always gotten my pets from shelters, but did not know the behind-the-scenes story until I read this (and a few others). Ms. Hess writes for the general reader, and is a bit less introspective than I would have liked, but her information is sound. In fact, I would recommend this book to teenagers, precisely because it is not too high-brow. Today's kids are tomorrow's pet owners, and it is important to educate them in the realities of pet overpopulation, puppy mills, and the fact that pets are not designer accessories, but living beings who require more than some kibble and water.

I highly recommend this book to anyone considering a pet. It makes you think about what repercussions are possible if you obtain a pet on a whim and do not dedicate yourself to training and caring for it. It shows the results of our society's "throwaway" mentality, the lack of education on the effects of pet overpopulation and the way our declining economy has added to the problem by not allowing many citizens the money to afford proper pet care and sterilization.

This books shows a cross section of a typical animal shelter and the fact that there are many not so happy endings, mostly because of humans and their failure to do right by their pets.

I've volunteered at the animal shelter in my town for a few years now, but have never had quite as much insight as this book provided. I get the feeling the shelter in the book has a smaller volunteer base than the shelter I have dealt with based on the details they were willing to share with her. This was a very uplifting book that explained a lot about why shelters work the way they do (ie rules about who can adopt, what happens when they get lost pets, etc.). Unfortunately, it is most likely to be read by the people that already understand these rules and why they exist.

Once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down. I'm among those who do know what kind of responsibility it takes to own a dog. I'm the happy 'Mom' of 2 terriers, one of which is a rescue dog. It is true about rescued animals - they know they've been given another chance and will give you their love many times over.

Elizabeth Hess was down to earth in showing the trials and successes an animal shelter goes through. If you know someone who's not sure about getting a pet, I highly suggest they read this book. It'll make them think twice. If you know someone with misconceptions that all shelter animals get homes, give them this book as a wakeup call! A pet can take up as much or more of your time than a human baby, but the human race has made dogs, cats and other animals disposeable. There are happy endings as well as sad in the book, but it's worth buying. As the kids would say, we give it a 2 paws up!

This book was so good I could not put it down. A realistic yet compassionate look at shelters today. A must read!

This book is a great tool for anyone, pastor or lay person, who wants to enhance their methods for studying the Bible. Even if you fell like you already know all there is to know about Bible study, you are sure to find some valuable techniques within the nearly 400 pages of study discipline that this book presents.

The many reviews on this book are already excellent, but I would like to add my own experience both with the book and with Prof Hendricks. I remember reading this book a few years back then had the privilege of having Prof in class last Fall in 2007. He teaches just like the book he wrote with his son, Bill. In a time when the majority of books simply tend to give you content or fluff, this book not only gives you foundational methods, but gives you priceless examples of how to put these methods into a consistent practice. Prof supplies us with biblical passages to test out these methods for doing personal bible study, which is three-fold: observation, interpretation, and application.

I cannot fully explain what it is like to learn from a man of the Word who has taught bible method and exposition for more than 50 years. The command he has over the subject, the illustrations and examples he conjures up, the accessibility he gives the listener/reader to the scripture is priceless over and over again. In a school like DTS, where it is easy to get caught up with everything BUT theological method and life applications, Dr. Hendricks shows how invaluable bible study method is for every Christian, whether a professional minister/pastor, a layman, a scholar, etc. This is something we were all meant to do and to be engaged in. Growth is accomplished by learning how, through the power and filling of the Holy Spirit, to engage in the foundational bible study methods of observation and interpretation, which are then to be lived out through daily application. This is a must-read for every Christian to grow and mature in their faith.

I'm not a member of any church and I don't consider myself religious but I've always been interested in what the bible says. However, I found it hard to make a start reading the bible when I really know nothing about it. I found this book invaluable in helping me get the most out of my bible reading. It taught me lessons that I can use not only with my study of the bible but with study of other literature as well.
My only problem with the book is that the authors sometimes fail to distinguish thier dogmatic beliefs from what the bible really teaches but, thankfully, the indepth lessons they include in the book will help anyone to see these errors for themselves.
I also didn't like the "one interpretation, many applications" rule. Some of the scriptures quoted in the book and then interpreted by Hendricks ended in conclusions I just could not comprehend. I think the bible can be interpreted many different ways and it's up to us to be able to discern the true message of what we're reading. With the interpretations I didn't agree with I just completed my own study following the rules set out by Hendricks and it gave me a whole new light on what can be found in one simple verse - and what can be lost if even one word is misinterpreted.
I can honestly say that this book is essential to anyone wanting to learn more about what is really in the bible. And it would also make a valuable contribution to any student wanting to get more from their everyday reading.

Living By the Book: The Art and Science of Reading the Bible -- At Last! Someone who knows how to read the bible and is willing to reveal his secrets to us. Why don't church bible studies start with this book? This book should be the first book of the bible study curriculum. I praise God for finally leading me to Howard Hendricks book.

Howard Hendricks is outstanding at revealing how exciting reading the Bible can be, but even more important was how he explains how to accurately determine what the writers were saying to the original hears, but also to us now. His directions reveal tried and true methods to "rightly divide the Word of God" that many other books on how to read the Bible just never see. I have been reading the Bible for more than 30 years and have seen truths that I missed over and over, just like when Sherlock Holmes looks a crime scene and understands all kinds of details that the untrained just can't see.
Reading this will open up the Bible and God's revelation like never before.

The quality of the photography and printing are really outstanding. When ever I want to alleviate stress, the pages of this book are my solace. It makes me mindful of the miracles of nature found in the rainforest. The book makes a nice gift.

This is a book of fabulous pictures. We bought it to inspire paintings and other artwork for my brother. He absolutely loved it. You will look at it over and over. It's big, heavy, so colorful, and great for all ages. A good book to leave sitting out to inspire conversation, fill time, or appreciate the world around you.

Even people who aren't as avid about nature as I am have found this book to be simply spectacular. It was given to me as a Christmas present and promptly got passed around the room. People who only take a glance have bought their own copy! The large, professionally printed photographs will take your breath away, and the captions and stories are just as entertaining. This book is organized neatly into chapters, and its layout is stylish and modern.

Worth more than what you will pay, the images are pristinely clear, colorful, large, and just plain amazing. I am giving it to my 11 year old animal-loving son for Christmas, but I must confess, I want my own!

A perfect gift for that hard to shop for person on your list, or...the person who 'has everything!' This beautifully illustrated and timely piece of literature uses imagination, intoxicating photographic talent, and intreague creating this work of art, with everlasting beauty for all ages. The distinguished global vastness pulls the reader into its clutches and keeps them craving for the next page. The accompanying CD highlights the haunting sounds of the Rainforest and echos it's melodic and transcendent voice, escorting the listener to the very heart of the...Rainforest! A+++ Highly recommended.