Games Books

I love starting the day with this, eveyone wants my old ones when I finish. I think Dilbert seems to relate to every office.

This daily comic helps to relieve the stress and tension in my office. Scott seems to have his finger firmly planted on the pulse of corporate America with Dilbert, Asok, the "pointy-haired guy", Dogbert the evil HR guy, Catbert and more. If you need a therapeutic laugh to make it through your sometimes insane days at work, this is the calendar for you.

You'd think Scott Adams would run out of material. Sadly, today's workplace seems to provide plenty of fodder. Good calendar.

i look forward to getting to the office a little early, tearing off yesterday's sheet, reading today's calendar sheet, and laughing out loud. i use the old sheets to write notes for colleagues (instead of stick-it notes), which usually are apropros to the office goings on that day. i love adams' creativity - the ironies and utter stupidity are something that we all can really relate to at work! for the amount of laughter that this calendar has given me and my colleagues, it was well worth the price and i'm destined to purchase it again next year!

I've had this on my desk the last 3 or so years. This time around I ordered the desk diary by mistake.
I tried to persuade myself that I could use that one, and do without the daily, but I caved in, and ordered this again. Makes the working day get off to a routinely funny start, always a chuckle. A great gift too.

I can't fault it.

With the exception of "Royal Flash" and two of the stories in "Flashman and the Tiger", I give all the Flashman stories 5 stars. They are that great. However, for sheer twisted brilliance of plot, I rank this one up there with "Flash for Freedom". In those two books, George MacDonald Fraser puts his protagonist through the most hilarious, yet unbelievably sadistic situations you could possibly imagine, and just when you think our (anti) hero has finally escaped the jaws of death, GMF delightfully trips him up and throws him back to the wolves. This ending of this particular novel is pure genius and would alone be worth the price of the book, even if it weren't preceded by some of the greatest historical fiction and humor ever written. Who ever thought the Indian Mutiny could be so much fun?

All of the Flashman novels have a great many things to recommend them in terms of witty asides, sardonic observation, historical accuracy,and (what would now be considered PG-13 rated) erotic escapades, but this is the most engrossing and plot driven novel of an already exceptional bunch. Flashy gets into and out of a lot of bad situations throughout his campaigns and career, but this is the first novel where I felt a personal identification with our spineless "hero" and the lengths he would go through just to come out alive on the other side of the tunnel.

Flashman novels so uniformly entertain that it's hard to single one out as the best. But the unremitting action and focused detail of "Flashman in the Great Game", set in India during the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, might qualify it. American readers may know as little about this as they do about the Crimean War, the subject of Flashman's immediately prior adventure. But there is no better way to fill in our gaps of understanding about the British Age of Empire, than to accompany Flashman on his escapades.

Unwilling as always, Flashman is sent to India by Lord Palmerston as a secret emissary to the troublesome Queen Lakshmibai of Jhansi. Flashman is mesmerized by the beautiful and powerful queen, one of the most memorable of Flashman babes, but an assassination attempt sends him into hiding. Disguising himself as a tribesman he enlists in the colonial army, where troops are tense with rumors that they will be given taboo rifle cartridges. They revolt with horrifying violence against British cut off in remote areas with small garrisons. Flashman repeatedly escapes from a frying pan only to find himself in a hotter part of the fire. He witnesses events as synonymous with "atrocity" to the British public of the 19th century as September 11 or Beslan are to us today. Flashman escapes one incident more harrowing than the next. He never loses hope that soon he'll be able to lay low and shirk the rest of his mission, but his hopes are repeatedly dashed until he suddenly finds himself back before the intoxicating Lakshmibai, wondering, with his life on the line, if in fact she actually loves him.

Scrupulously showing colonialism's warts, Fraser depicts brutal British reprisals and suggests with postmodern egalitarianism that each side's violence somehow offsets the other. But in my old-fashioned, post-9/11 opinion the savagery provoking those reprisals was far greater, with barbaric atrocities committed against women, children, surrendering soldiers and the like. Executing a rebel is not the same as hacking a child up with a sabre.

Throughout the Flashman series our antihero's cowardly and bigoted selfishness provide black humor in all manner of grim situations, yet the gravity of the Mutiny necessarily mutes that side of Fraser's writing. The unrelenting violence of this episode limit even Flashman's capacity to be a jerk; he is forced, more often than usual and despite his best intentions, to be noble. As Fraser recreates the Raj in all its glory and inequity, we sense the surreal quality of a few English soldiers controlling a subcontinent with hundreds of millions of residents, and what happens when the resulting powder keg explodes.

Midway through his memoirs of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, Harry Flashman ruminates: What beats me is the way people take it to heart -- what do they expect in war? It ain't conducted by missionaries, or chaps in Liberal clubs, snug and secure. But what amuses me most is the fashionable way views change -- why, for years after Cawnpore, any vengeance wreaked on an Indian, mutineer or not, was regarded as just vengeance. Now it's t'other way round, with eminent writers crying shame, and saying nothing justified such terrible retribution as Neill took, and we were far guiltier than the n-gg-rs has been. Why? Because we were Christians, and supposed to know better? -- and because England contains this great crowd of noisy know-alls that are forever defending our enemies' behaviour and crying out in pious horror against our own. Why our sins are always so much blacker, I can't fathom...

Sound familiar? It's exactly the sort of rant that we hear every day in reference to Iraq, and that coming from a sputtering red-faced right-winger makes me gnash my teeth. But wait? How are we to take this, coming from Flashman, by his own account the most selfish, self-centered, self-justifying scoundrel in British annals? And then, although we tend to forget, Flashman is a made-up character, a figment of his author's whimsy. Can it possibly be that Flashman's cynicism and racism express George MacDonald Fraser's own thoughts?

Flashman is the ultimate in "undependable narrators" of his own life, precisely because he maintains such a mask of candor. Is his self-mockery sincere, or another of his many poses? Was he really such a craven coward, or is he pulling our legs in some cantakerous old man's jesting? If he was really as indifferent to the suffering of others, so narcissistically lacking in empathy, then why did he suddenly choose to liberate the unknown mutineers, at the end of the book, telling them to scurry home and not get caught again? Is Flashman lying about his lies?

It's a tribute to Fraser's art that I ponder the true nature of his fantasy poltroon. This book, the fifth in the narrative, portrays the Flash as a far deeper psychological enigma than the earlier volumes, in which he was merely a comic blaggart. It's in this book that Fraser truly hits his stride as a descriptive writer, also. The depiction of mayhem and slaughter is vivid to the point of horror. Whatever the overlap between the author and his creature, this ranks as one of the most powerful anti-war novels I've ever read. Human nature is senseless slaughter, and those who release it, from whatever motives, are guilty of hellish crimes.

Harry's erotic adventures in The Great Game are less bawdy, less laughable, than in previous volumes. His tryst with the Rani of Jhansi is almost a perfumed love affair. In that way, I suppose some readers might be disappointed. Fraser's humor is spotted more stingily in this tale, also. What humor there is is rippingly funny, but the ghastliness of the Mutiny overshadows it. I have to take sides here, and declare my faith that Fraser fully intended this book as a resounding condemnation of the British Empire and its ravaging of Indian humanity. I hope I'm right. I'd hate to enjoy his writing so much if Fraser meant what Flashman says.

'Flashman in the Great Game' takes our man Flash to India just as the Great Mutiny (aka Sepoy Rebellion) was about to get under way in 1857. Flashman soon goes to ground to hide from the arch-fiend Ignatieff. The readers gets something of an insider's view of the rebellion, albeit through Harry Flashman's eyes. Harry finds himself in an unsual number of tight spots and even falls in love, well, as much as Harry can do.

Fraser is really in top form here. I've read about half the Flashman books and this one is topped only by the original.

Highest recommendation.

Is it an action-packed, edge-of-your-seat thriller? No. But it is a story of young love and learning to help each other through issues you can't control. If you are looking for a nice break from adult romance with a side order of time travel then this is the book for you.

I'll definitely look for other books by Sherryl Jordan.

This book is about a girl who partnered with a shy artist, uses thought to convey messages to him to draw what she sees, They end up going through time in a sorts, back to the time when woman were persecuted for being "witches" This book is a great read and i really enjoyed it. I picked it up when i was in middle school from the library (im going into college now) so my memory of it is a bit warped. But the title of the book and what it was mainly about has stuck with me for so long its in with my favorites, and if i ever come across it again i will be sure to pick it up.

I first read this book in 6th grade and instantly fell in love with it. It was one of the very few books I was not only able to get through, but couldn't put down. I woke up early to read it during breakfast before school, I read it during recess, and then hurried to the library after school to read it in privacy. It isn't the kind of book I can go back to now as a college student and enjoy as much, but at the time I was happy to read it over and over. It really is a very imaginative story with many interesting subjects intertwined. I would especially recommend it to girls in 6th - 9th grade who are interested in history and the fantastic.

I picked up this book from this book sale, and from the sound of it, it seemed pretty exciting. But once I started reading, it didn't sit well with me. ESP and medieval 'time travelling' is great and all that, but it didn't have the emotional aspect of it. The 'link' Juniper and Dylan shared weren't exaclty expressed properly. Overall, it wasn't what I was expecting. You may like it, but it wasn't my type of book.

I bought and read this book about eight years ago. I still have it and have read it many times. The mind is a wonderful tool and this book was one of the first pieces I ever read that had anything to do with the ways of the it, and the ignoring of the norms associated with the use of the mind. Spirituality and mind and body energies are essential to many people today. I fell in love with the personality of the characters... I have since reading this book, made a promise to myself to name my first daughter after Juniper.It is a great book for any ages.

Most of the planes in the book were very easy to fly, and the children had fun making them. I also liked the extra activities and information included to help them learn more about flying.

My son just turned 8 and has really been having fun with this book recently. He got it as a gift when he was 5 (despite the recommended age range of 9+) and would always get frustrated when he tried to do one himself because he couldn't fold it as precisely as required and then it didn't turn out right. So he lost interest in it, but discovered it again recently - now he can do all of the airplanes himself and is having great fun. He does like to make paper airplanes out of just about anything, but this book has neat patterns and different shapes to try. Fun for littler ones too if they don't mind a grown up helping (and if you don't mind if they squish it after all your hard work!).

this was a Christmas gift for my 11 yr. old grandson. We have had so much fun doing this together and his father joined in to add even more fun. Winter has flown by much faster with this FAMILY TIME craft project. We are looking forward to logging our flight distances as soon as the weather warms a bit. Quiet time together becames lots of laughs and individual creative juices began to flow. who knew paper airplanes could be so much fun.

They have some planes with preprinted pictures that I would have prefered they left out like a vampire and ghoul. I don't know why they have to make stuff which doesn't need to be scary.

The paper in my printer has been stolen, all the loose paper in the house has gone the same route. Flying through the air and landing in various places like behind the couch, under the tables, into the closets, and onto the bookshelves.

At 43 years old I too was wondering if this was just for kids, but it definitely is not. It opens your mind to move beyond the following the step by step instructions in most all the other books out there. One must remember the kit was called Mindstorms for a reason, so you can develop your own ingenious creations. This book helps you do just that. As for the story, it is written in a mature fashion and is integrated perfectly to hold your interest, adult or child. My mind drifts back to those old movies with the Mummy, and pyramids and tombs. Hootloads of fun!

did you really write this book have not read it yet but it's being shipped to my house.

I bought this to introduce my grandchildren to science projects. Their ages are 7 and 10. We have no special contest or competition to enter. Not sure exactly what I expected but I was not disappointed. This has awesome potential for learning. Actually, my grandkids were impressively advanced in what they could accomplish. The suggested robot to build was fairly complicated. My 10 yo took charge, with the 7 yo taking his turn. When completed I could not get close to the control computer. They took over!!! The kit could use some better instructions. I recommend one of several additional books to get a better feel for it. Next we will try the programming. Good way to spend lots of quality time with your kids. Just make sure you have big blocks set aside! Love it!

This book is a wonderful introduction into program and design with the NXT, and yes, we've been using the RCX as well. The book is well laid out. The story is engaging and gives the tasks purpose.

I really like the templates provided in the book. It gives anyone a method of organizing their thoughts, so they can go ahead with the building and programming and know they're headed down the right path.

I bought this for my children because I have no interest in robotics or programming, and I've enjoyed it as much as they have.

The value of this book is not in the number of documented designs, but how it teaches you the process to come up with your own designs. It even does it in a much more entertaining way then my engineering classes did. Understanding the design process allows you to create any number of robots that do what you want them to do and this is an invaluable life skill. That is what this book teaches you. It allows you to try to come up with the solutions on your own, or build the solutions the author came up with. My son and I plan on going through the book a second time and using the processes taught come up with our own solutions. This book is definitely worth having.

I came into the Mego world a bit late as a wee lad in the early 1980s. But I still remember having the Batman, Stretch Spidey, Dukes of Hazzard, and Incredible Hulk Mego action figures. This book really takes me back to those glory days!

This book is a Mego collector's dream guide! Full of charts, checklists, rare photos and more. Extremely thorough and well researched, if you are a Mego fan, THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU!

A good looking and very informative book full of great photos of the Mego super-hero figure toy line. It's a must for any Mego toy collector and well worth the price of admission!

Simply put this is a fantastic book. It is a walk down memory lane for Mego fans who had the pleasure to grow up with these wonderful action figures in the 1970s. The photographs are splendid and bring to life Mego's WGSH line. The author's attention to detail cannot be matched by any other book out there that purports to touch upon this fine line of Mego action figures. If you are debating between Mego books to buy, please don't pass this book up. It is a decision you will regret a year or so from now when you are trying to track down this book from online auction sites, etc. For anyone looking for a wonderful trip into the past, jump on and enjoy the ride!!!

I had all of the items shown in the book as a kid so paging through it was a big trip down memory lane. It reminded me of a lot of fun times.

This book does not cover everything Mego, but its a wonderful collection of photos and important information. I recommend the book for any Mego collector.

hi all,

i have read the first one of the three and i haver just start reading the green book, i think they are very useful to starting players because he aproximate us to the mind of a poker player.

he knows how to take the attemption of the reader and you can read it very fast because it is very easy to read and very interesting.

Excellent three book set that starts Black)with a beginners guide. The Green book is or will be a classic. Blue present problems and solutions. A great read.

For begginers and expirience players!

The black book: Begginers

The green book: Expirienced

The blue book: Professionals

This box set will cover the absolute beginner up to a fairly strong player. Gordon writes in an engaging and lively style and admits his bad moves when he plays them. Like the titles say, these are little books, so they are quick reads. Great for reading a few pages before bed. That does make them a little less dense with helpful information--combined with writing style and size, Harrington's books seem fuller. The green book is probably the one that you will be refering back to the most as it deals with core play, with the blue book a close second for information on particular situations. Like most books out there, it focuses most of its ink by far on tournament play. I wish it had more information on shorthanded and low-stakes cash games. The black book does touch upon low-stakes games, but really glosses over strategy there.

BTW, if you are living abroad, this box set is a great deal. Not only do you have a bigger discount than buying the three books individually, but also the box set counts as one item when shipping, not three. So saved ten dollars on shipping.

I have won a number of important hands after reading this book. It let's you know what the pros are thinking. I know a lot of ambitious amatuers have this book. Pick it up, read it and apply it!

This book was hard for me to put down. I wanted to read a chapter per day but was hopelessly drawn into the book so much so that I finished it in a couple of days.
As a player, I could identify with some of the characters. Great story about Danny Basavich. May he be around a long, long, time.
There's talk about making a movie. Let's hope that the studio isn't short-sighted and it comes true.
Hey, "Delicious," if you need background players, lemme know...

This book is probably as accurate as you will find for the life of the beginning pool player. The fact is, unless you are a "Trust Fund" kid, you have to have a job, a wife that works, or you better be very good!

Big-H

Kid Delicious' story is moving -- at times tragic, heroic and beyond belief. He's part manic depressive, part obese food addict and part ultra-talented pool shark. His dedication to the game gave him solace from a world (New Jersey suburbs) that didn't have much sympathy for a fat, homely, smart-aleck kid with a sharp mind.

Kid Delicious (Danny Basavich) comes to dominate the pool hustling circuit, and you can't help but admire how he pursues/embraces his true love in spite of his profound psychological struggles. His success is a testament to putting everything you have into something you love, and his failures make him human and sympathetic.

If you like books like Playing Off the Rail or Positively Fifth Street, you'll love this one. Wertheim's research is very thorough and he writes like a true billiards fan, with a detailed understanding of the cadences of the game and the sundry characters who populate the dark, dank pool halls across our country.

Danny Basevich's life has certainly been a roller-coaster ride, and Wertheim captures its energy admirably. A phenomenal read.

A good read for players wanting a peak into the recent past of life on the road for money players, and an interesting character study of Kid Delicious. Fun for those who follow the pool scene these days. A revealing picture for those who don't. Doesn't exactly make me want to throw a cue in the trunk and head off for glory.

I may not be a pool enthusiast, but there is much to like in Running the Table: The Legend of Kid Delicious, the Last Great American Pool Hustler by L. Jon Wertheim.

Danny Basavich is the most unlikely of heroes. A native of Manalapan, NJ, Basavich was an over-weight kid who suffered from bipolar disorder. He was repeatedly bullied by other kids, which led to a pattern of switching from school to school. Finally, he dropped out and got his high school diploma through an alternative program before he turned 16. Not having anything to occupy his time, he started hanging out at a local pool hall. The locals liked this amiable kid who had a natural talent for pool. After taking him as far as they were able, they then drove him up to Chicago Billiards in West Haven, CT--considered to be the "finishing school" of pool players. Here, Basavich learned to progress from pool player to a "pool thinker," allowing him to visualize a game of pool like a game of chess and thus, always looking toward future plays.

At Chicago Billiards, Basavich met Bristol Bob Begey. Together, they decided to take to the road and try to make a living hustling pool. Much of this book details their travels together, as well as Basavich's solo road trips. This is a fascinating lifestyle as they traveled all over the country. Sometimes, Basavich would make $5000 on a set of pool, and then make another $10-15,000 on side bets. But pool hustlers also tend to be compulsive gamblers, and they could lose the dough just as fast on cards, casino games, and other bets. Wertheim also talks about what makes a good hustler. Often times, Basavich would intentionally lose a game early to win a big pot later on. Once Basavich became fairly well known as a pool hustler in almost every state, he had little choice but to turn professional. Wertheim gives a short history of professional pool, which can best be described as unorganized, low-paying and dysfunctional. Basavich made much more money on the road than in any professional pool tournament.

L. Jon Wertheim is a writer for Sports Illustrated, and he writes in a style that shows off his love of sports (even though he knew little about pool when he began Running the Table). He describes players who worship at the felt green altar and who have "a mutually held belief in the truth and romance and righteousness and dignity to be found in hitting six-ounce balls across felt-covered slate into a half-dozen unforgiving leather pockets. That and a shared restlessness, a natural tropism for adventure and unpredictability."

Although I'm still not much of a pool fan, I found Running the Table to be totally enjoyable.

The pictures in this book are HILARIOUS !!!! This is a very funny, upbeat book with a bit of a vegetarian theme in a light-handed way. After reading it, our 5-yo looked back through the pictures and said "I think she bought some pets !!!" We borrowed it from the library but I am going to buy a copy to own just because the pictures are so funny...and the way the lady looks at the end of her shopping trips is *exactly* how I feel after shopping with our kids !!!

We first saw this book at our local Children's Museum. After reading it, I had to have this as part of our home library. The illustrations are so original, as is the funny story. It makes us laugh each time we read it together. Plus, the final soup is made of lots of different kinds of vegetables--a great healthy meal reinforcement for your preschooler.

My grandmother used to tell me this story and now I can pass that on to my grandchildren who unfortunately do not live in the same state. It's a wonderful story (with lines I still quote as an adult!) and terrific illustrations that will make you laugh right out loud.

The juxtaposition of the photograph-like mishmashed black and white backgrounds with the colorful illustrations of characters and key items make this book fun and interesting to look at. The twist on the nursery rhyme is hilarious and easy for children to identify with. My child loves to point out the different animals and vegetables and always laughs throughout the story (a lamb hanging out in the diswasher, etc gets lots of giggles). Makes vegetables fun.

We just love the cadence of the words, so fun to read. And the art is so unique, mixing photography with drawing of the characters. My 3 year old picks this one over and over. GREAT gift for a vegetarian friend! (the lady in the book gets so fed up going to Market and managing the animals and fish she has purchased, that she finally gives up and makes veggie soup for everyone~animals included) We are not vegetarians, and this book in no way was preaching Veganism...but it would be appreciated on another level by a Vegan I think. Just buy it...its great.

ISBN 0763607525 - Lift the flap books, in general, suffer from one flaw - the flaps themselves. If you decide to buy a used copy, it's a good idea to make sure that all the flaps are intact, since they tear off fairly easily. That aside, this book is a great one for little budding readers.

The reader is told that Maisy is going to hide (it shows her picture, so you can identify her, in case you're one of the five people in the world who don't know what she looks like and couldn't spot her on the cover). On the following pages, you look for her in various places by lifting flaps - and finding all of her friends before finding Maisy!

The illustrations are admittedly not world-class stuff, but they ARE standard Maisy. They are basic but full of bright colors and, combined with the lift-the-flap aspect, a lot of fun.

My daughter is now 17 months old, ever since she started being interested in books (as early as 11 months) she has always loved this one. She gets more and more excited as we get closer to the end and she loves looking behind the door. I noticed all the little kids at the daycare also just stopped whatever they were doing when I read this book to them once. The best 'Peek-a-boo' type book we've seen.

If your child loves Maisy, they will love this book! My 20 month old never tires of "looking" for Maisy under the flaps and will sit for 15-20 minutes at a time "reading" this. Even her older sister enjoys it!

Both my son and my daugther LOVED this book from the age of 6 months on. It keeps them in rapt attention, and my daugther loves to "knock" on the door.

My daughter loves these books. They are simple, quick & colorful. She turns the pages & loves it. She is under 1 yrs old & has been reading theses with me for about 6 mo. Stays focosed since it is so fast, not so wordy!