Q and A Books

Great content, friendly Q and A format, but with a copyright of 2000, outdated. In light of recent developments in this area, (Napster lawsuit, iPod, etc.) a revised edition would be most welcome.

Jay Lickfett's MP3 FYI: Digital Music Online is a superb guide to getting started with MP3 as it surveys the legal issues involved, explains how MP3 is changing the music industry, and shows how to find free MP3s quickly on the Web. MP3 FYI: Digital Music Online will enable the reader to take full advantage of what MP3 has to offer, set up their computer system for MP3 music, promote their own music using MP3 technology, and even learn about portable MP3 players. If you have questions about MP3 and how to utilize it, begin with a careful reading of Jay Lickfett's MP3 FYI: Digital Music Online.

This book is worth the price for the Colorado Fruit Tart recipe alone. The avocado dip is really good too. I only gave it four stars because I tried the Hazelnut cheesecake and the Balsamic Scallops and they are only "ok". I intend to keep trying the recipes and will report in when I find other winners.

This cookbook contain family favorites of Bob Bowersox. I like the family history associated with each recipe. The recipes are are great and seem easy to prepare (especially the Italian Wedding Soup). It is a collection of family favorites.

I love this book, not only cause i love My Little POny, but the pictures are great and I grew up loving them. It brings me back to when I was little and watching the tv show and playing with my toys.I will keep my memory alive.

My Little Pony was one of the most beloved toys sold in the 80s. Hasbro made over 300 of them, not to mention TV shows, books, pony clothes, playsets, and many other things. This book is about firefly and the other little ponies at the beach. One day, two children come and play with the little ponies, all except firefly who doesn't like the children. She flies over the sea and gets caught in a storm. firefly's wings get wet and she falls into the water. Soon, Medley and the children arrive and rescue firefly. She then becomes their friend. This is a cute little book with a cute little story.

It was a splendid idea for Whitman to combine Jefferson and Buffalo Nickels into one guide as it is a logical progression from one series to the next (usually in reverse order). The beauty of this book is that it is that it breaks down each year in the series with a the kind of data that one really cares about; strike quality in the case of Buffaloes; Step data for Jeffersons; major die varieties in both series. This book is small enough and helpful enough so that one would not feel self-conscious taking it with him to a coin show for helpful consultation. I am less familiar with Buffs than I am with Jeffs so I'll confine my criticism to the Jefferson discussion and that is with the frequency data of 5 and 6 Full Step coins. I find this data to be far too generous for the following reasons: 1) The number is a hypothetical count on freshly minted coins and the reality is that most of the coins in the issue will not have countable full step cartridges due to wear; 2) Authors do not take into account hits which render the step count meaningless. In other words, in the real world one is simply not going to find full step coins, free of hits and bridges at the rate the editors claim. It is helpful, though, that the editors of this guide quote heavily from Nagengast which until now has done the most exhaustive published study of Jeffersons. I feel confident relying on the Whitman guide knowing that the editors of it studied Nagengast. As to the values charts that accompany each coin, these are definitely helpful if not dispositive but should be used in the context of the coin market at time of publication. Price swings are dramatic depending upon whether the coin market is doing well or poorly. All in all, this is a top notch guide and actually the best one on nickels I've encountered precisely because of its compact size, good coverage, dual coverage. There are better Buffalo books out there, Lange's third edition comes to mind, but for the money this is definitely top of the food chain.

A Guide Book of Buffalo and Jefferson Nickels is the eighth entry in the Bowers Series of numismatic references: while general-interest holdings might find it too specialized a reference, any library strong in coin collecting must have this. Fine historical background accompanies detailed high-resolution enlargements of coins and discussions of mintages, market values in different grades, and even a reference to error coins. The chronological arrangement and discussion lends not only to quick identification, but to quick assessment of background history and values, making for a 'must' any serious coin collector needs.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Concentration is the key to success in all aspects of life. This book is a practicle guide for increasing your power to concentrate.

Why a book on concentration? Well, there are countless self-help books which just encourage you to pursue your desires, some of them with specific advices in some domains. However, the basis of all this is your innate power - and such books try to make you aware and get you to DO instead of thinking about it. This book isn't different in this regard, however, what is different is the explanation that the power to pursue your ideals comes from the power of concentration, for such pursue is the focusing of your bodily, emotional and mental abilities on doing that, a concentration power which can, needs and should be awakened through training. Concentration is of utmost importance, for without it becomes difficult to follow what such other books teach. This is an important lesson - master your mind and all the world is yours, and the way to get there is to train it. My comment - this is after all the purpose of such practices as yoga - mind control, your own mind, this is all that matters.
Most of this book deals with aspects on how concentration could help you every way of life, why you should do it, you are encouraged to go ahead, pursue your desires, enhance and strenghen your mind. Once you have made that decision, you will start to control your life, and maybe other people when you become skillfull enough. Opportunities don't come to us, we must seek them, not give up. The second part provides practical exercises on getting there gradually.

Books are good only to awaken you, to make you aware of your innate power. Look for good things, for you will get back what you offer. Positive thoughts attract positive outcomes, reverse is also true. My comment: this seems to be same as the Karmic law in Asian spiritual traditions.
If you want something, just go ahead and do it, for this is the only way to get it done, no one will help you until you start helping yourself. The greater the task, the greater your reward will be. The men that suceed don't have more talent, they have more will to pursue. Is your manager better than you? Do not give up; obstacles that can be here today, might not be here tomorrow, or some that aren't today will appear next month; but just keep on doing, and you will succeed. For sure, being afraid of obstacles is much more overwhelming than fighting them somehow, for the greatest thing to fear is fear.
Everyone is capable of some concentration, for without it wou would be unable to say or do anything - what is different is the duration of the concentration on some subject or thought. Don't take anyone's opinions about what you can do (by perservering) as granted - they don't know what you can do. The truth is, you don't know what you can do until you try it. When you say "I can't do it", you actually say "I won't try".

Will power is a better asset than money (this is an important lesson). The mind that cannot concentrate is weak; same for the mind which cannot draw itself from a subject or thought (e.g. thinking about work issues at home). Slowness in making decisions (this is me!!!) means weakness of will power.
When you eat, concentrate on eating, when you walk, concentrate on your walk, when you listen to music, concentrate on music, etc. Master all your daily minor activities, so that you are prepared and able to master your demeanor when important things happen in your life.
Control your body movements, for everything you do is controlled by your mind - before you move your arm, you think about it with your mind (focus a part of your mind on that thought). Learn to listen, not talk - listening is more difficult to master and much more rewarding. Control your talking, use it wisely, because it consumes some of your mental energy, which could be used toward accomplishing your ideal. My comment: there is a similar concept in Tibetan tradition, where "energy" and "speech" share the same word. Those that are impulsive, excited, or very emotional waste their mental energy. Everyone has the same power, but those who focus it on one or a very limited number of subjects are able to accomplish much more. Successful people don't do many things, but instead focus on only some - read their biographies. Try to cultivate friendship of people with character, at least until you are strong enough to not be influenced by others.
It is just as easy to surround your life with what you want as it is with what you don't want - it is to be decided by your will. What you have today is the result of what your will decided in the past. What you will have in the future depends on what you think and do now. Sure, it won't be an easy trip, but if you are confident and pursue it you will succeed.

Dumont talks about the benefits of powerful concentration in all walks of life: gives mental poise, can overcome bad habits (concentrating on its opposite), gets business results, provides the courage to do, gives you wealth and so on.

The second part of the book - the exercises - disappointed me somewhat. Maybe this means I didn't learn the lesson - answer is not reading more doing (cultivating the intellect), but doing exercises, cultivating the will, and pursuing my ideals. Still, there are probably enough exercises, ranging from controlling your body, your movements, going to focusing on some subjects. However, in my opinion they aren't that gradual, and actually he doesn't suggest a plan, and this is exactly where such book would have been more helpful. The book was published in 1913, and in this age, people need exact strategies.

Overall, this is a helpful book, and it has some interesting ideas, that's why I give it four stars (I wanted to give it three, for what I've explained just before). I would say the "why" part is much bigger than the "how" part, he actually says that you could make up your own concentration exercises and do something. This is an rather old book, so AFAIK it has no copyright, thus you can find it on the web.

One more thing: he says that in order to summarize books or articles in very few words, you need power of concentration. As you can see from the length of my reviews so far, I'm just a beginner :). Good luck with the concentration exercises.

Great book if you want to learn about Q. One of the few sources out there to learn this great research technique. However, the book makes things out to be more complicated than necissary. If you want to learn about the method its a good starting point, but I would recommend finding a live source to help explain it.

Bruce Mckeown and Dan Thomas strike a remarkable blow into the way we analyze the world around us. Mckeown in particular is probably the best kept secret in the very private world of Qsorts! We should thank him personally for the outstanding job he has done in investigating this phenomena! I HIGHLY recommend this book! WOW! What a great book!

Compiled and then written by a serving RN Officer after WW1 it is full of a mass of relevant detail about Q ships, the men who manned, the actions they were involved and the history of there commissioning and dates invairably of there de-commissioning. For the person who wants this nautical/war information they will be very pleased by the amount of detail provided by his book and for the very many pictures in it as well - it is well worth the cost from which ever part of the world/AMAZON empire you buy it from. E. Keble Chatterton certainly knows and understand his subject totally.

Edward Keble Chatterton was born on the 10th September 1878, at 76, Rock Street, Sheffield, and between 1902 and December 31st, 1945, when he died, he had written 76 books, plus pamphlets, magazines, and reviews. Q Ships and their story was first published in April 1922 by Sidgwick & Jackson, and it contained many first hand stories of a small part of the war against the U-boats of WW1. It is, as with most of his books, excellently written, and I would consider it essential reading by any student of this period.

Chatterton, like Basil Lubbock, was one of the few authors of his day to record the maritime history of Britain at its height, ie from the turn of the century to the end of WW2.

His books are eminently collectable, easily available, and reasonably cheap. I can pay the man no better compliment than to own his books. Today, 50 years after his death, they are as readable as the day they were published

Terrific book with detailed instructions for creating very different and unique quilts using the same blocks. The colored photos are a great guide for completing the quilts.

I love this book as it gives some great new ideas on using the old classic 'storm at sea' block. The color pictures provide lots of inspiration and the instructions are written so that quilters of all levels can understand them. A great addition to any quilters library.

Quilts: A Beautiful History by Zaro Weil is one of the best books I have read on quilt history. IT is well researched and nicely presented. I have reccommended it to the museum where I work as a must have. Quilt blocks have so many different names, there are no right or wrong names. I would have liked the print and the pictures to be bigger but perhaps the size of the book made it more affordable. There are so many quilt history books around that confuse quilt history with quilt traditions, folklore and myth and just not likely, that this book is refreshing and gives a nice survey of AMerican quilting history.

this is a nice little book, a good choice for a gift to a quilter. the gallery contains photos of a nice array of quilts, some of which have been published elsewhere, others that have not. the small dimensions of the book make close ups of the quilting impossible, which is a great shame, especially for the amish quilts pictured.

the prose is another matter. when it isn't turgid, it's purple. there are errors of history and block names. the author may love quilts, but she doesn't seem to know that much about them.

if you don't know what to get a quilter, this, as i've said, would be nice. after all, most quilters are also bibliomaniacs, too, so any book is a good book. as a reference, it's nearly worthless.

This book did not really tell me a whole lot that I didn't already know. Why, then, did I give it 5 stars (you ask)? Well, it's because I know a great many people who would gain a lot from reading Levine's book.

Unfortunately, the people who would benefit the most from this book are also the least likely to read it. Most of the people I know who are guilty of the most egregious social practices that Levine details are also COMPLETELY oblivious that they are doing anything wrong. Sometimes it amazes me how some people are consistently so thoughtless, yet they never give a 2nd thought to their words or actions.

It is a quick read, even quicker than what it looks [thanx to several mini-quizes]. That is a good attribute of a Self-Help book. It means that it is focused on discerning tangible problems and finding tangible problems. Self-Help books that are 600 pages long frequently meander around so much and try to solve all the world's problems @ once. In doing so, they many times leave the reader dumbfounded as to what he / she just read. Not so this book. The length is adequate to what Levine is trying to accomplish.

In Plato's APOLOGY Socrates said that "the unexamined life is not worth living." In saying this he was not just talking about philosophers. One need not have a degree in philosophy to do some introspection and learn how to become a better person.

To that end, this book is highly recommended to the general populace. The more you think you don't need it, the more I would recommend it anyway. Even if you find that your life's practices are equivalent to what Levine writes, it's good to know that you're on the right track.

This book is great. It not only tells you how certain situations should be dealt with, but it also has short quizzes to show whether or not your social IQ is up to speed. Deals with topics from friend and dating issues to life at the office.