Richard F West Books

This book is extremely poor and unclear. I would not recommand it to anyone, from beginner to software engineer.

If you are a complete beginner to C and programming in general this is the book for you. It gently holds you by the hand and takes you down the merry path of discovery. First off it introduces computers and leads on to cover all the main topics in great detail including complete coverage of what is 'good programming practice'. This was my first programming book and now I am entirely fluent in 4 major programming languages - 2 years later. In 6 months you'll be a C guru. It'll be your bible for many many moons. I loved it. I still use it on occasions as it is also a fantastic reference. As a self taught programmer I really recommend this book.

A brief look through the book is an invitation to read it.

There are plenty of figures and programming examples, followed by consistent explanations. The most important definitions and remarks are highlighted and there is enough room to make personal notes.

At the end of each chapter the reader will find Tips and Common Programming Errors, Key Terms and a Summary, in addition to Exercises, Problems and Projects.

My experience of using this book in the classroom has shown that students can easily understand it. During the last academic year, 159 students out of 173 agreed that "text and other reading materials were appropriate and useful".

This book gives you all the elements to understand C well. It gives excellent examples and shows you many implementations of C coding. This book is a must for anyone who is just begginning C programming. If you don't understand pointers or are getting confused with them you will know them very well after using this book. The Author spends three chapters explanning them in all the different ways to use them. There is a short introduction to link-list and data structures but as most authors leave you hanging these two boys do not. They have another book to follow this book called Data Structures: a Pseudocode Approach with C. Once again this is an excelent book for about the same price. This is the best $56 you will ever spend, You will not be dissapointed. Get the Book.

As a beginning C student, I found this book extremely difficult to follow. The book is poorly organized and there is little continuity or consistency in the examples.

There are typographical errors as well as syntax errors in the examples. Many of the examples are fragments only -- I spent many hours trying to understand the concepts and many more hours trying to make the code work.

One example: the concept of pointers is difficult enough, but there is relevant and important information regarding pointers in chapter 9 that should have been introduced in chapter 4! I had to struggle with pointers for 5 chapters, and as a result, was not able to successfully complete course assignments due to incomplete comprehension of the pointer concept.

I do not recommend this book at all.

"Wanderings in West Africa"&where does one begin&
Well, for starters, perhaps the book should be more aptly titled Wonderings about West Africa.
Perhaps ones impression of the book depends on what one expects. I expected a traditional travel/adventure narrative, not a commentary about Euro-African politics, African culture, ethnography (incredibly racist by the way), geography, etc., that could have easily been written from Sir Richard Burtons study, with access to a moderately well-stocked library. Indeed, there is very little evidence from the book itself that Sir Richard ever even visited the West African coast that is how detached the actual words are from what he must have actually encountered.
According to his own narrative, Sir Richard never stayed in any one place more than 24 hours, yet in his writings he expands his writings on each of those locales to 50+ pages! While the book is titled Wanderings in Africa, nearly half of the entire first volume is about his preparation for the trip and getting to Africa making the reader wonder if he will ever read about Sir Richards magnificent wanderings in Africa at all.
Besides all that, Sir Richards arrogance, nationalism, and outright racism is painfully evident throughout (e.g. I believe the European to be the brains, the Asiatic the heart, the American and African the arms, and the Australian to the feet of the man-figure. &in the various degrees of intellectuality, the Negro ranks between the Australian and the Indian&).
Annoyingly enough though, while considering the French manifestly the inferiors of Englishmen, he nevertheless feels it necessary to pepper his narrative with numerous French quotes to demonstrate his sophistication (which the editors have very helpfully refrained from translating) he did after all consider himself a man of the world. The book is also filled with numerous and very long footnotes, sometimes right in the middle of a sentence or a thought, making the reading very choppy and difficult.
From the perspective of the entertainment, as well as the intellectual value of this book, I give it one star out of five&a waste of intellect, time, paper, and ink&

Richard Burton's world travels are not unique. From the paleolithic onward documentations of man's trekking have been found. Capt. Burton writes much about his travels. Personal commments about the topography and people and their customs reflect the prevailing attitudes of the society from which he comes. Some observations are uncharitable, but others are of interest. Burton's eye for detail makes for fascinating reading. The intelligentsia of that period used foreign, mostly French phrases, i.e., au contraire, en passant, or other languages, Spanish, some Greek and or Latin. Many times the usage is incorrectly used, it illustrates a person of learning. That this work shows the beginning of European colonialism, the true value of this author is fascinating adventure.

Note: I am resubmitting this review so it will not be anonymous...

One must come to Burton's "Wanderings in West Africa" with the understanding that there are not a lot of primary (first-hand) sources of information about Atlantic coast Africa in the 19th century. Furthermore, the majority of books about Africa of this era (mostly by explorers and missionaries; few or none by Africans) are long out of print and can only be accessed in mjor libraries. Given that, Burton's work is a valuable and readable account of a voyage along Africa's West Coast, as far south as Fernando Po (Equatorial Guinea). (We should be thankful for the publisher.) His text is direct and readable. The account is chronological, port by port. Burton describes the the places and people and whatever catches his interest. His opinion is always present. Burton goes into many details--trade, early colonial administration, rulers, languages, etc.--and it is unlikely that any one reader would be interested in all of it, but most students of African history are likely to find something of interest. There is no index. It should be noted that Burton has plenty of scorn and disdain for many of the Africans he encounters (as well as for many Europeans); this is typical for Burton, but may upset a reader who is new to this writer.

Many of the names (of places, tribes, etc.) are antiquated so a good reference book is a help.

Overall this is not Burton's best book, but it does have a place along with his other books on Africa ("First Footsteps in East Africa", "The Lake Regions of Central Africa") and it adds something of value to the reputation of the great writer, explorer, traveler, and translator who produced "Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Mecca" and "The Arabian Nights".

In WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA, the future Sir Richard Burton starts out with his departure from Liverpool and his arrival in Madeira, stops briefly in Tenerife (Island of the guanches in the Canary Islands) then heads down the coast (still onboard the A.S.S. Blackland), around Cape Verde and Goree, to Bathurst on St. Mary Island off Cape St. Mary near the mouth of the Gambia, then around the hump of Africa, past Elmina and Cape Coast Castle, and eventually reaches the island then known as Fernando Po (named after a Portuguese officer, Fernao do Po - now Bioko, a part of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea) near the more familiar islands of Principe and Sao Tome. Along the way, there are many vivid descriptions of people and locations.

At Tenerife, Burton provides a short account of the conquest of the guanches and describes them as being dark-complexioned [curiously, Peter Russell, in his excellent biography PRINCE HENRY 'THE NAVIGATOR' which recounts the beginnings of European involvement in West Africa, describes them as "probably fair-haired" based on descriptions in primary Portuguese sources].

At St. Mary's, Bathurst, he impugns Mungo Park, a well-known explorer, disparaging the latter with phrases such as "[s]o Park calls the Bomax," referring to the term "bentang" - even though a "bentenki" tree plays a role in the Lion of Manding in Courlanger's A TREASURY OF AFRICAN FOLKTALES. He also refers to Mumbo Jumbo (also mentioned by Francis Moore), which Park didn't come across until further from the coast, and coffles of slaves as "genius," implying they are fictional - notably, he fails to mention that Park wrote before the British interdiction on slave trading. The entire attack is sadly reminiscent of Burton's actions and statements in relation to J. H. Speke in Alan Moorehead's THE WHITE NILE. Here, we are also introduced to his rather curious views on Africans - (1) the "noble" race which includes Berbers and Mandingos, (2) the "ignoble" race which includes "pure-blood" or typical Africans and (3) Kaffirs or others he thinks may also be biracial. Later, we are treated to something of the history of the establishment of El Mina and Cape Coast Castle as well as the cruel type of slavery practiced by the Efiks of Calabar - a comparison with slavery in the contemporaneous South of the United States being quite to the benefit of the latter!

All in all, the work is highly entertaining if frequently superior and derogatory to any and all with whom Mr. Burton disagrees or whom he dislikes; however, where neither Mr. Burton's desire for glory nor his prejudices come into play, the book appears to be generally accurate and informative.

One must come to Burton's "Wanderings in West Africa" with the understanding that there are not a lot of primary (first-hand) sources of information about Atlantic coast Africa in the 19th century. Furthermore, the majority of books about Africa of this era (mostly by explorers and missionaries; few or none by Africans) are long out of print and can only be accessed in mjor libraries. Given that, Burton's work is a valuable and readable account of a voyage along Africa's West Coast, as far south as Fernando Po (Equatorial Guinea). (We should be thankful for the publisher.) His text is direct and readable. The account is chronological, port by port. Burton describes the the places and people and whatever catches his interest. His opinion is always present. Burton goes into many details--trade, early colonial administration, rulers, languages, etc.--and it is unlikely that any one reader would be interested in all of it, but most students of African history are likely to find something of interest. There is no index.

It should be noted that Burton has plenty of scorn and disdain for many of the Africans he encounters (as well as for many Europeans); this is typical for Burton, but may upset a reader who is new to this writer.

Many of the names (of places, tribes, etc.) are antiquated so a good reference book is a help.

Overall this is not Burton's best book, but it does have a place along with his other books on Africa ("First Footsteps in East Africa", "The Lake Regions of Central Africa") and it adds something of value to the reputation of the great writer, explorer, traveler, and translator who produced "Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Mecca" and "The Arabian Nights".

This is just TOO much, TOO soon for people just entering law school. EXTREMELY dry, and way too much info before the previous concepts have been explained clearly enough. Some chapters are better than others, but overall it's a headache. Perfect for law profs and treatise writers, confusing for the regular 1L.

This was my casebook for my first-year Civil Procedure class, and although I was not thrilled with the prospects of spending a year sorting through the quagmire of the F.R.Civ.P. this book made life and the rules much easier. If you have a choice as to which casebook to use, I would recommend this one.

This book is a comprehensive look at Texas politics which in itself is somewhat confusing, but the style of the book tends to cloud the issue even more. It sometimes uses examples that are not exactly on point and if you don't live in Texas than you may not fully understand the point of reference it comes from. Overall though, it is a detailed and comprehensive. The book offers some great study questions at the end of each chapter. This book tends to really very frank with it's criticism of the Texas political machine and on occasion it leans to the right somewhat, but heck, this is Texas, what did you expect.