Trading Books

though i dont have this book my friends say its an excellent book and I've seen it for my self and it is definatly a must buy

It so good it has tempted me to buy alot of Magic cards

Richard Garfield is the creator of Magic The Gathering card game. This book gives the reader an in-depth look into the game and shows the beautiful illustration that each card contains. This is a must have for all players and collectors of the card game.

I collect the cards and I don't know how I would have known if they were rare or common cards if I hadn't found this book. It's the best!

If you are a mtg collector, you definitely need this book. Although it is much "thinner" than Volume 1 but it's still a must for any serious mtg collector

I am another person who bought this book who doesn't even play Warcraft but is just a lover of Fantasy art. I've always loved the Warcraft universe, which seemed like an expansion of/variation on the fantasy universe first created by Tolkien.

When I got this book I was surprised by just what a hefty volume this is. This is a very thick book printed on the finest quality heavy-duty stock.

Not only did this book live up to my expectations, but I found that the great variety of styles and artists included has also helped me to clarify my own tastes in Fantasy art, and has even introduced me to some great new artists I had never heard of before.

The spectrum includes everything from the breathtaking photo-like hyper-realism of Clint Langely (check out his great new solo book "The Art of Clint Langely" by the way!), to the brilliant use of colour in the works of Jim Murray (very Bisley-esque) and Michael Komarck, to well-established artists like Todd McFarlane (--why are both of the pieces credited to him signed as "Greg Capullo"???) and Udon Studios, to the cartoony cuteness of the works of the book's editor Samwise Didier (sorry Samwise, but just gotta say YECH~!)

It was also interesting observing the differences in the variety of mediums used (--I found I preferred good ol' non-digital art.) And a few pieces of preliminary sketches are also included to give us a brief taste of the process from concept to finished work (In some cases I found I liked the initial sketch better than the finished product. Samwise Didier, you ninny, what were you thinking? [...])

The book is organized into sections according to Warhammer race of the subject of the painting. And in the back it also includes indexes of the works by title and by artist, making it easy to look up other works by an artist you may find you particularly like.

I am happy to highly recommend this book, and look forward to further volumes in this series (this book says "Volume 1" on it, hooboy!). I really feel like I got my money's worth with this one. Well done people!

And to all you publishers out there, I hope that other series of trading card art will be made into beautiful art books like this. (--Hear that Wizards of the Coast?) It's such a waste just having it on those tiny little cards. It deserves to be enjoyed properly like this!

And to you people over at Blizzard, how about some art books for Diablo and Starcraft too? I love them too!

I bought this as a gift. The person who received it just loves the book. He really enjoy the art work. So if you need a gift for someone who plays world of warcraft I'd recommend it as a good gift.

This is a wonderful book, and any fan of fantasy art, or Warcraft, would absolutely love it, I've had it for over a month, and i still open it up and just stare at some of the wonderful artwork. Just buy it, you won't be disappointed.

I am not a World of Warcraft gamer, but the beautiful art in this book drew me to it the moment I saw it on the shelf in my local book store. This book is filled with page after page of gorgeous renditions of highly stylized creatures and monsters that entrance the viewer. Discovering some of these artists for the first time was a treat for me, so much so, that I had to go online to find out more about some of them. This is a wonderful book with some great art in it. I highly recommend it for both WoW gamers and non-gamers alike!

I was looking for the perfect book to display the beautiful works of art I had seen in the world of warcraft franchise. This book certainly delivered. There is nothing low quality about this book. It included many of the pictures I'd already seen on the internet and many beautiful paintings I had never seen before. I'll let each buyer see for themselves, but the book is organized in a very simple and interesting way. It is so full of paintings, even after a month, I can look through and find a painting I'd never noticed before, and as an amateur artist, I find plenty of inspiration. A valuable book for any fan of warcraft or fan of fantasy art.

This book is the third Steve Weber book I have read, the first two being "The Home-Based Bookstore" and "Plug Your Book." I was quite enthusiastic about both of Steve's earlier efforts because they were extremely helpful and Steve wrote both well. Those comments apply to this book also.

The marvelous thing about this book is that it starts with the basics and works up to advanced techniques and clever strategies. When I say basics, I mean the kind of information that someone new to eBay would find helpful. What do certain words mean? How do I, and fill in the blank. Steve covers everything you can think of as a newcomer to eBay. Yet, Steve moves quickly and someone going from occasional seller to wondering about setting up a business can move past the basics easily.

What more is there to learn? Steve provides great advice on where to find more stuff for your eBay business. He also provides guidance for evaluating quality and describing your merchandise. All this advice keeps in mind the need to satisfy customers so that they will give you positive feedback and keep coming back.

Just like those popular television commercials, this is the point where I say, but wait, there is more! Steve discusses how to track stock and where it is located. He reviews several software options to handle an expanding enterprise. Included in his advice are options for the most cost effective method of shipping. Steve then provides a lot of detail on how you can expand your customer base through various techniques for advertising your business. I think there are at least half a dozen techniques for getting your business exposed on the internet, including how to fare well with Google searches.

I am touching on just a few of the numerous topics in the fifteen chapters in this book. There are at least 140 sub-headings in this book covering more topics than I had considered when thinking about selling on eBay. With all this powerful information, Steve did something more amazing; he included input from others. [...]

As with any purchase you make, what you want to know is whether this book is worth buying. If you fancy yourself expanding into eBay as a business, or expanding a current eBay business, or you just want to know how eBay works, then this book is worth far more than its price.

One thing I always notice about self-published books is how well they are written. I was unable to find a single grammar error in this book. Therefore, not only is this book full of valuable information, but that information is nicely organized and reading about that information is a pleasure.

Self-help books often seem like they need help themselves. I have read many self-help books by people claiming to be experts in their particular field of endeavor. When you read these books, you quickly realize that the book babbles on about trivialities or the organization is poor. Worse, some of these books have errors that even a novice recognizes. To find a well-written self-help book by an author who has successfully used the techniques in that book is always a wonder. "eBay 101" is such a book.

Enjoy!

Note: The author provided me with a review copy of this book.

This book not only is a great introduction to eBay, it's the best reference book to selling on eBay I've seen because of the extensive glossary, index and guide to those odd acronymns. It's also a realistic guide to selling -- no rose-colored classes. There are not too many illustrations in here but the ones there are a big help. This book is a keeper, I'm going to keep it within arm's reach. From the books I've seen, this one is the most up-to-date also.

I started selling at eBay in 1995 when there were just 1200 items for sale and only two categories. And I thought I knew everything. Ha! Steve Weber's book has everything. And as a past teacher trainer at Ohio State University and other institutions I can say that Steve wrote this book in the perfect style--large type, space between words and lines, and easy-to-read pictures of eBay screens.

My only advice to the reader is to realize that selling at eBay gets harder and harder as the years pass. Steve makes eBay selling sound like a sure bet. Believe me, it isn't. Of course, he is so much more successful at it than I ever was. Hmmm-I think I'll go back and read the book again and take notes.--Sam Yulish, author of "Where Have All the Hippies Gone?" and many publications for teachers.

This is one of the first books out with the newer format on ebay. Easy reading, easy to understand. I recomend it.

Great book! Very insightful and readable. I've been selling on Ebay for 6 years and found this book to be both helpful for the beginner and the "Seasoned" Pro. All the Tools you'll need you be successful selling online.

I've been looking forward to the publication of this book for months, ever since reading about the author's work in Dr. Elder's book. This book did not disappoint, it is something really rare and special in a couple of respects.

First of all, it offers something that is seldom seen in the world of technical analysis -- a way of extracting something new and valuable information from the same price and volume data we've all been looking at for years. It's so clever you wonder why no-one has thought of it before.

In principle, in some ways, the effective volume method reminds me a little of Edwin Land's Retinex algorithm for image processing, as used by NASA on satellites ... you just take the data and divide it into different layers, then compare the layers, and suddenly the picture becomes clearer. The active boundaries approach complements it nicely and is an interesting approach for those who use tools like Bollinger bands, etc.

Secondly, and just as importantly, the author's approach to sharing his method is highly refreshing. The fact that Mr. Willain is a good guy is the main reason we have access to something like this, which would otherwise go straight to the inner quant rooms at Goldman Sachs for big bucks. He is in favor of sharing the method widely and encourages the formation of a community of traders to be part of the process of improving it. Best of all, as the methods evolve, plugins are being made available for platforms like TradeStation, AmiBroker, etc., for a small contribution, and all contributions are being donated to a foundation that helps handicapped orphans around the world. What a great thing to do with your life, to come up with something like this and make it a contribution, to independent traders and to needy children around the world. Well done.

Pascal has written a very thorough, analytical work explaining new technical analysis methods, indicators, and techniques he has come up with -- most of these are for examining large money trading volume versus small money. He has done this away from the normal "Wall Street" world in Belgium, and has come up with indicators never seen before. Pascal's engineering background has served him well in applying a "scientific" approach to chart following. Most of the best technical indicators for trading are not widely followed, and it would be advisable to read this in-depth book to "stay ahead of the trading curve".

Moby Waller, Portfolio Manager, Advanced Options Strategies
BigTrends.com

I agree with earlier reviews that this book is a hidden treasure and worth its weight in gold. I came across Dr Elder's review on this book by chance while searching for trading books on volume. I was impressed by his glowing review (plus Tim Ord's review on the back cover) and ordered the book. Since then, other reviewers have rated this book highly as well.

The author certainly does not disappoint. Although the book is not easy to digest (at least for me), this is because he covers new concepts in analysing volume and trends, and new ways to track supply and demand in stocks and sectors. Each chapter is well-written and Willain's research on effective volume, active boundaries and divergence analysis is insightful. As the new indicators in his book are currently unavailable on most trading platforms, I have been using his free website to access those tools.

Overall, I am very satisfied with my purchase. I hope those who are contemplating to order this book have benefited from my review, as I have from Dr Elder's. I also appreciate Willain's sincere efforts to spread the message that new TA tools are required to improve our analysis and trading in the ever-changing market environments.

I wanted a book to better aquiant myself with volume (I'm a fan of Wyckoff). Suprisingly what I found was a hidden treasure. Willain developed Effective Volume. EV is bound to become a classic in market reading.
You know how you always wanted x-ray vision glasses as a kid? Read the book,you will have those x-ray vision glasses and see into the market.

Who would have thought that an interesting breakthrough in technical analysis would come from a trader who lives in a small European country wherein the principal language is French? Stock trader Pascal Willain realized that the traditional concept of accumulation/distribution oscillator was incorrectly based upon a uniform volume distribution over different prices. In "Value in Time: Better Trading though Effective Volume" Pascal, in lay terms, presents the accumulation/distribution oscillator corrected for normally distributed volume over different prices. He calls his method Effective Volume. Effective Volume contributes to the unmasking of the smart money, allowing the average stock trader to see the actions of the major market players. And who wants to trade against the major players? Willain's evidence is both interesting and compelling: the genius is in the simplicity. I suggest that to become a more profitable trader, you should understand the effect of volume on price action. VIT is an excellent contribution to the trading literature in understanding volume.

It is funny how I was glancing at the books and this book Voice XML caught my attention. I was looking for a book like this. This is a great resource for Voice XML developers like me. The book covers wide range of topics. The book is an excellent hands on guide to build voice applications with Voice XML 2.0. I liked the VUI design tips throughout the book. Great job!

This book is an excellent resource for a VoiceXML developer. It covers a wide range of topics in detail and has some excellent VUI design tips. I love the cross reference of voice technology companies and the services that they provide.

This is the best VoiceXML book I've seen. Most VoiceXML books try to do too much: talk about voice hardware, telephony, the history of voice, tts, as well as be a VoiceXML reference. The weakness of these books is that one or more of these sections reveals that the authors do not really command the knowledge needed to make these sections useful. This book also attempts to do these things, but for the most part is able to carry it off.

If you're looking for a reference, this is the book to get. The reference section is current VoiceXML 2.0 (October 2001), which is an advantage in and of itself. But the real strength of the reference section is its depth. Each element, (e.g., , , ) has an entry for syntax (how to invoke the element), a description (what the element is used for), a thorough discussion of its attributes (that is, a description of the attribute), a usage statement (the elements parents and children), and an example (a snipet of complete code that uses the element). The examples and discussion of attributes really set this book apart from its peers.

There is a brief discussion of the architecture of a VoiceXML app, and a couple of paragraphs discussing the differences between VoiceXML 1.0 and 2.0.

The book also gives, contrary to my expectations, a history of the voice industry, a history of VoiceXML, and a discussion of players in the industry. What makes this book's treatment of these topics unusual is that the authors (particularly Kunins, I suspect) actually know these fields. I don't normally want these sections in a reference book (it just adds bulk around the section I really want) but I found them quite compelling here. I learned quite a bit from reading them.

The book also contains sections on Dynamic VoiceXML, Security, Voice App Life Cycle, VUI Design, the Future of VoiceXML, and a case study. I haven't read these sections yet, so I can't comment on them. I do know, however, that the sections I have read are sufficiently superior to make this THE VoiceXML book on their own.

If I were to criticize the book, I would fault the authors' lavish praise of TellMe (this is minor and not unexpected) and the examples in the reference section. The examples are quite good for someone learning VoiceXML, and the authors are commended for including them. The fault (albeit a minor one) is that they are fairly vanilla. So, while I would have preferred more examples, I concede that such examples would make the book much larger and the inclusion of "advanced" examples to the exclusion of "canonical" examples would have made them less useful to developers learning VoiceXML.

Overall, if you are going to own one VoiceXML reference, THIS should be that one.

This is a summary of the full review available at:
http://voicexmlplanet.com/reviews/vxmlbook.html

In short, this is the VoiceXML book I wish I had written. The authors have produced a comprehensive title that includes gems that could only have originated from masters of the craft.

My only complaint is that the book is a bit too biased towards Tellme (one of the authors is an employee), but this can be forgiven based on the quality and depth of the content.

My judgement is that this book is the most well rounded in-depth book on the topic that's been published to date. I am very happy with the mix of content, summaries of important concepts such as linguistics, speech recognition, and speech synthesis, as well as the in-your-face examples and complete reference. In fact, I liked it so much that I will probably be using it as a standard reference in my company's VoiceXML training course.

I was mislead by the accompanying great reviews for this book. Having bought and read the book I find that it serves more as a reference than to illustrate how VoiceXML can be used through example applications. But I should admit though that this book does a good job of serving as a reference. I also bought "VoiceXML: 10 Projects to Voice-Enable your system" that helped me to come up to speed to do a VoiceXML project.

If you only read one legal thriller by John Grisham, I strongly urge you to choose The Client. It's a remarkable book that will reward your patience, pique your curiosity, and keep you guessing until almost the very end.

The client has to be the most unusual legal thriller every written. The book's indomitable hero, Mark Sway, is an 11-year-old with a lot of guts and a desire to do the right thing. John Grisham takes that premise and pushes it to the limit by teaming Mark with the only lawyer that Grisham ever wrote positively about, Reggie Love. In the process, Grisham entertains with the petty foibles and vanities of the legal "powers that be" in a way that will make you wish that nice people worked at the law.

Enchanting books have heroes and heroines who intrigue and inspire us. Mark Sway and Reggie Love are well designed for those purposes. Mark is that wonderful combination of scamp, optimist, and idealist that Mark Twain first imagined in the character of Tom Sawyer. Reggie Love is a composite of the loving concern of everyone's favorite aunt combined with the toughness and smarts of Perry Mason.

The Mafia characters are bozos. The FBI agents are cretins. The other characters fade into the woodwork except for Reggie's favorite judge.

Have a ball!

This is my 3rd John Grisham book and is the best so far. I liked it so much, that I ordered 3 more of Mr. Grisham's books.

John Grisham always seems to present ideas in the most refreshing way. His descriptions of otherwise normal events leave you turning the pages expectantly as if reading a thriller (and this time it is more of a thriller). This novel has the same suspenseful anticipation, whether it is a court room proceeding or a mob hit-mans hunt for "the Client".

The young man involved, Mark, is a totally believable witness caught between the mob and the legal system. His ally in this adventure is Reggie Love (granted her name may be a little much), who has only been a lawyer a short time but who gives everything to "the Client".

Without giving anything away, if you love Grisham you will not be disappointed with this book. Of course, there is the usual legal wrangling and a lawyer as the hero, but the reliable Grisham style and wit also abound here. And he dabbles more in the excitement of a thriller than some of his other legalistic tomes.

Sam Hendricks, Author of "Fantasy Football Guidebook" and "Fantasy Football Almanac"

I actually saw the movie version with Susan Sarandon before
reading the book but the book is a fun read about a boy
from New Orleans who witnesses a terrible crime.

What I love about John Grisham novels is that they are
appropriate to read anytime of the year. Some books are
only good in the wintertime and other books are only good
in the summer but Grisham doesn't have that problem. The
only problem with his work is that he's written so many
good books, it's hard to keep up. I've only read three
and they've all been excellent. Also, a good read for
knowledge about the law too.

After reading the bestselling paperback "The Firm," I fell into the habit of reading John Grisham's novels. Of the half dozen titles that I read, this is probably the best of the lot. I would rate it as being better than several of his other better known novels.

What made this book stand out in my opinion is the fact that the lead character is a minor. The legal system can be a bewildering labyrinth for most adults. How much more terrifying can it be for a preteen?

The youngster in this case had the misfortune to witness the suicide of a crooked criminal defense attorney. The drunken shyster spoke to the boy before his death and the unfortunate kid soon finds that he is a target for a team of Mafia killers. The dead man knew too much and the mobsters do not want to take the risk that the eleven year old may communicate any incriminating information from the mouthpiece's dying declaration to the authorities.

This is one of Grisham's better efforts. It is a good book filled with suspense. John Grisham is a former state legislator from Mississippi and an attorney, so he knows enough about the practice of law to provide the necessary details. Sometimes, I found it a trifle incredible that the Mafia has suddenly departed New York and New Jersey to set up sattelite offices in the rural South.

As an aside, I have to confess that I gradually tired of Grisham's writing. His approach became overly familiar and formulaic. Many of his books read as if the author was planning for an immediate movie adaptation of the current novel (the Stephen King Movie of the Week syndrome) while he was writing. As a consequence, I simply stopped reading his subsequent books. Grisham can produce page turning prose with the best of them, but after awhile the repetition became monotonous for me. After reading six of his books, I stopped cold.

It was not so much a case that Grisham was not entertaining, he was, but as a reader I had the sense of having been there and done that. Some gifted authors have a talent for writing books that always seem to be fresh and new, even when employing the same set of characters, while others seem to fall into a predictable, if profitable rut. Someday, I may check out another Grisham book to see if I was incorrect in my original assessment.

The purchase of the book was easy and its delivery was prompt, even with the Amazon offer of free but relatively delayed delivery.

This is the second book of John Ehlers, a well-established pioneer in cycles and trend analysis for the technical analysis of stock price behavior. It is for advanced analysis, and it is a sequel to his classic book of "Rocket Science for Traders". You do need a math aptitude and some programming experience to get the maximum benefit of both books. John also offers eratta and corrections for minor typos in the formulas as well at his Mesa website.

Those who find this book of interest might also check on John Bollinger's classic book "Bollinger on Bollinger Bands", Steve Achelis' book on "Technical Analysis from A to Z", Steve Nison's book on "Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques", and Martin Pring's "Technical Analysis Explained", Paul Murphy's "Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets", and "Technical Analysis of Stock Trends" by Edwards and MaGee. This is not a complete list, but a good start.

Remember that no single book offers the Holy Grail of investment. Stay objective to balancing your background, because investing mistakes can be the most expensive education you will ever have.

This is a book clear and very easy to read, for me as physics research, and to my development is very useful.
Strongly recommended.

The computerization and digital signal processing development let improve classical indicators essentially due to application of modern methods of information processing to prices. Indicators began to smooth better and to delay less. However . First, the prices are non stationary, i.e. the characteristics of filters are varied during the time. Second, as different from technical problems, the kind of a signal and noise distributions for the price are unknown, i.e. nobody know what to filter actually. Third, being filtered by means of Fourier and similar methods prices change the previous values to the addition of the new data: we receive ideal trends under a history data but we can only trade them from right hand to left hand.

Fourier transformation is based on representation of initial series by the infinite sum of sinusoids with a various phase, amplitude and frequency. Recently wavelet transformations was widely adopted in various areas of data processing in which initial series are represented as the sum of some locally defined functions named wavelets. They are constructed by shifting and vertical and horizontal scaling of certain the prototype function. Wavelet transformation, in essence, is fractal that allows the effective using it in the technical analysis. First, it allows to carry out the multiscale analysis of prices, objectively identify trends on various scales by duration and amplitude, separate traders to various groups: scalpers, day traders, swing traders, position traders and long-term investors. The multiscale analysis can be interpreted as the analysis on various time frames. Second, it allows determine noise as the insufficient for reception of the profit amplitude and frequency movement of the prices that effectively allows filter the price series simply subtracting the lowest scale wavelets from it. Third, the additional filtration of white noise without delay is possible. Fourth, long-term trends are defined objectively. Fifth, wavelets do not contain optimized parameters in construct to standard indicators. Sixth, the used wavelets type is adapted to deal with the time ordered data and does not distorted on the last price values. Seventh, the used wavelet transformation is very effective computationally that allows use it in real time for the large massives of tick data. Eighth, it is effective to use wavelets as input data for neural networks and other methods of forecasting and recognition.

John Ehlers newest title is sure to make even the brightest of brain surgeons quiver for fear of closing the renal artery prior to completing the operation. Other reviewers may diss this author but his latest book truly reaches for the stars and makes it. The chapters while short, are to the point and exquisitely illustrate the concept being taught. If you are new to trading systems the shortness of the explanations may be too short but for experienced traders and developers of trading systems they are long enough.

Aspects of many indicators are reviewed with fresh insight added for several new systems not talked about in print before. Removing the lag is the traders dream. Many of the indicators shown do work although errata in the code does spoil some of the implementations given. Ehlers has provided for the keener updates on his website that corrects the mistakes, kudos here for doing the right thing.

Overall Ehlers has done it again and this book should be a staple in any traders library. As for the wannabees wanting all the answers and sure fire methods, choose brain surgery as your career option. No one said trading would be easy but Ehlers has given more toolsets that a successful trader can use in a concise to the point book.

I have been trading for nearly 10 years now and have spent countless amount of time and money on books, systems, software and must say this the best book I have come across. With little creativity one can easy adopt ideas from this book to come up with a profitable mechanical system.

Here's a little time travel for you. I first got my hands on this book when I was a little baseball-loving kid, back in 1974. This book scared the hell out of me back then.

Thirty years later it turned up again, and this time it blew my mind. It's one of the most creative, touching, thoughtful, mildly mean-spirited works of literature I've ever come across (And I read books for a living.)

Here's the backstory on the book. It's the early 1970's in Boston, and two witty, profound, slightly geeky local bookstore employees decide to rummage through their childhood baseball-card collections and write a book about their love of the game. Please note: this book **isn't** about baseball or even about baseball cards (here I'm citing the authors in their preface), it's a book about childhood as recalled through the prism of baseball cards.

This book isn't for everyone. It's for grown-up men who loved baseball as boys, weren't very good at it (as the authors admit about themselves), and were probably picked near the end in gym class when teams were being chosen.

This book is probably best (and most mind-blowing) for people who grew up during the late 1950's and early 1960's, as the authors did. But the generations of childhood baseball fans ever since will also find great pleasure in this entirely irreverent and clever book.

"GOOD NIGHT, SIBBI SISTI, WHEREVER YOU ARE." When I read this line in the book back in 1974, it gave me the willies. Now I just grin.

Beautiful, brilliant and witty. Once you have the book, you'll never forget it, and you'll probably keep wanting to show parts of it to fellow fans. However, in the name of humor, the book is a little cruel to some players -- for example, "Hal Griggs was to pitching as Wayne Causey was to hitting -- that is to say, nothing." Even as a kid I was made uncomfortable by things like that. But, some of those things, I just LOVED, like the teasing about how ugly Don Mossi was and about how lousy a hitter Hank Aguirre was ("...I mean to tell you, he couldn't even come close..."). So, where should they have drawn the line? Heck if I know. Also, the book seems to show a bias toward players from Boston and Philadelphia, giving them more space than they deserve, and a lot more kindness. But actually I enjoyed that, since, as a New Yorker, I've always been embarrassed about the disproportionate attention that is usually given to the Yanks and Mets. It's nice to see a couple of other towns getting their turn.

I received this as a Christmas gift one year and was initially disappointed. I had only heard of a few of the guys that were showed on the cards and I set it aside, figuring on sticking it up on my bookshelf with the other boring books that I had and never bothered with. Several days after Christmas we went on the annual family gift return, a day I truly hated. In desperation I grabbed this book off of my pile and took my accustomed place in the back of the station wagon. For the rest of that day and night the only time I put the book down was to eat, and then only briefly. This is a completely irreverent look at baseball as a whole, and the thing that really sealed the deal for me was the card of Whammy Douglas and the comments made by the author. I tried to get my dad to read it because I figured he would get more out of it than I did, (I'm 41 and consider myself to be on the trailing edge of those who might "get it",) but he wasn't interested. Maybe I'll try again. This book might have a limited range of interest, but if you have fond memories of baseball in the 50's and 60's, I think you'll fall right into that range.

This book is a treasure. I think if I had to pack one bag of books for a long stay on a desert island, this would be one of the first ones included. Like one of the other reviewers, I have worn out more than one copy and find myself puzzled why it's been allowed to go out of print.

"The Great American Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Card Book" has three principal sections. The first, "Where Have You Gone VINCE DiMaggio" is a warm and very witty recollection of the co-author's childhoods in the 1950s and the central role that baseball cards played in them. Part two, "This Kid Is Going To Make It," is a look at how the baseball card business operated circa 1973, the date of the book's original publication.

As entertaining as these openers are, the best (and largest) part of the book is the one simply called "Profiles." Reproduced in full color are hundreds of cards from the early 1950s to the late 1960s, accompanied by the author's observations about the players immortalized on them. You'll find greats on these pages, like Richie Ashburn, Stan Musial and Ted Williams...but the real joy is the rediscovery of the men on the fringes of the game's glory...."immortals" like Chris Cannizzaro, Frank Leja, Foster Castleman, Clyde Kluttz and Coot Veal. It's tempting to quote from the book at length, but that would spoil the fun. Just to give you a sense of the flavor though, I opened at random to the page featuring Hector Lopez, poor-fielding third baseman for the Yankees and Kansas City A's. After judging Lopez not to be just a bad fielding third baseman for a baseball player, but for a human being, they declare, he did not "simply field a ground ball, he attacked it. Like a farmer trying to kill a snake with a stick."

This is a wonderful book for any baseball fan, and should especially be treasured on those short, cold winter days when the crack of the bat and the warm blue skies and green grass of summer seem oh-so-far away.--William C. Hall

Each of us occasionally has experiences that are so vivid that they make immediate and permanent imprints upon the memory. For example, I can still remember my excited first day of kindergarten, as well as my first glimpse of Three Rivers stadium, as our family car approached it along the jumbled, congested streets of the North Side.

Believe it or not, I can similarly remember my first experiences reading this book, as though they were yesterday. I was in grad school in California, and a friend was visiting me with this book in tow. As he spread out a sleeping bag and nodded off to sleep, I curled up with his magnificent book. I can still picture that entire scene, my old apartment as it was then, and even one particular page on which I lingered in fascination (the Joe Fornieles profile.) The feeling of reading it was that electric, that hyper-engaging.

A book has got to be good if reading it is remembered as a formative experience.

Let me try another way to explain how much I loved this book. When I couldn't find this book anywhere (it being out of print), I directed a nationwide book search to try to find it for me. They did, a flawless hardback edition that I still treasure, and still maintain in carefully guarded, pristine condition. Mind you, I was a starving grad student when I did this, and could hardly afford such luxuries.

As you can see from the other reviews below, this book takes that type of hold on those who love it.

There are three major sections in this book; one covering the sensory atmosphere of a 1950s suburban childhood, one on the baseball card industry as it existed in 1973, and one a series of profiles of players as depicted on samples from the authors' baseball card collection. The first and third of these are the great ones.

I adore the opening chapter, which brought childhood back to me even though I didn't grow up in the same era as the authors. But some things are universal I guess, including the way that childhood memories exist as scraps and floating debris of the odd popular cultures through which we guide our children.

Boyd and Harris's childhood world will be recognizable to anyone who grew up in America -- a world of advertising jingles, cap guns, yo-yos, Pez, and of course, baseball cards. A time cycle in which the kids learn to break down the interminable flow of their school year according to the changing weather, the holidays and favorite activities of each mini-season. And even those of us whose childhoods weren't so innocent nevertheless cling to those small fragments of memory of a time when we had no responsibilities and the world was a fascinating and wondrous place. I once wrote a newspaper review of this book in which I referred to this opening chapter as Marcel Proust in Levittown, and I think it still fits.

But the real core of the book is the "Profiles" section. This is a procession of baseball cards, one after another, two per page, each of which triggers a particular set of memories from the authors. Many of these, if not most, are really funny. But others are poignant.

Not all of the little capsule profiles are about the players themselves. Sometimes the authors take the opportunity to laugh over the baseball card itself -- a goofy pose, a bad airbrushing job, an inexplicable caption, an ill-considered description on the back.

It's an exquisite feeling, thumbing through their card collection with them. You feel the pang of reverence for the Ted Williams card. You snicker over Choo-Choo Coleman and the lousy catchers collected by the New York Mets. You ponder how it could be that Charlie Smith was traded straight up for Roger Maris. You nod knowingly over the author's continual confusion of Mike de la Hoz and Bob del Greco.

The visual design of the book is central to its power, which is why I particularly treasure my hardback edition. One page of umpire cards has a colored backround on which is stamped,simply, "Boo, Boo, Boo, Boo. . ." A page with the cards of Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente contains no commentary, just a respectful black background (each had recently passed at the time of the book's original publication.)

Somehow it all seems to mean something, even without seeming to try to mean anything. And therein lies the book's genius.

I know of no other baseball book like this one. It defies categorization, and despite my poor effort above, it really defies description. Buy it, hide it, shut the door and turn out the world, savor it, ponder it, laugh at it, love it.

Have a good time. It's meant to be fun, you know. Let's play two.

This book is clearly written and user friendly. Biafore gives links to information sources, making it easy for the reader to get more information on each of the hacks. These links alone are worth the price of the book.

I've been trading for over twenty years, including a period as a floor trader on the Chicago Board of Trade. Even with that experience there are tips and tricks in this book I found useful to the point where I employ them daily. To be complete as a reviewer I will say there is a lot of pretty basic stuff from my point of view, but still well worth reviewing since some of it I had forgotten.

Well written, easy reading, well organized

Online Investing Hacks is an excellent introduction to the world of investment. Though the title does contain the word 'Online', I would say that the general information the book provides on investing is not limited to the online realm.

Overall, I was very happy with the book, and found it incredibly useful. Though I do have several investments (401K, some stock, mutual funds etc) I would hardly consider myself an authority on the subject. This book provided very detailed explanations and tips on various forms of investment, from CD's to Index funds, and everything in between. While the experienced investor might not glean much from reading this book, anyone just getting started will find it an excellent reference, and resource.

The format of the book is similar to the other books in the 100 * Hacks series published by O'Reilly. There are exactly 100 hacks, or topics, which are spread across 9 chapters. Each one is an individual entity and can be read and understood without reliance on any of the other hacks.

One minor annoyance I had with the book is that it is geared toward those of you who, for some reason or another, run Microsoft's Windows OS, or have access to Microsoft Excel. Luckily, of the Excel examples that I played with, Open Office's Calc program handled them with minimal tweaking.

I can easily recommend this book to anyone who wants to invest, but is unsure of what to invest in, or needs some tips on making the most of preexisting investments. Those of you who enjoy research and building your own stats and graphs will also find parts of this book rather intriguing, as it covers data acquisition and manipulation with Excel in great detail. It will make an excellent addition to my reference shelf, and I have a feeling it will be well thumbed through in a very short time.

It seems like everyone is involved in investing in some form or another. While I always felt like I should be investing too, it was never clear to me how to begin this process. After all, it's my money. How can I be sure I'm investing in something that will provide some sort of reasonable return? This book is an excellent resource in answering some of those questions and putting the new investor on the right track.

This book is written in the same format as the other "hacks" series by O'Reilly. This format is very easy to read, and the format makes it very easy to find answers. Rather then having to read the book from cover to cover, the reader can pick out topics they are dealing with, read the answer, and move on. Since many of the people interesting in a book of this nature will likely have little time, the book's format works to its advantage.

The book begins with some basic introduction to the stock market and tips for selecting appropriate stocks or mutual funds. The whole middle section of the book deals with data analysis. The author discusses how to understand a company's balance sheet (e.g. what that P/E ratio means), how to spot companies in financial trouble, how to pick a good stock, and even how to trade. There is also a good discussion on minimizing the effect of taxes on your little return on investment.

The author even goes further and gets into a discussion on financial planning. In addition to discussing debt reduction, the author also talks about IRA plans and different strategies for saving for your child's education expenses. I think my favorite part of this book was the discussion on different education savings plans. The author discusses the ins and outs (as well as tax consequences) of each of the plans, and provides some examples illustrating the fact that it's better to start saving earlier than later.

This is an excellent book, not just for its investing advice, but also for its sound financial planning. This is a great book for anyone who is interested in increasing their wealth, saving for a rainy day, or simply saving for future financial goals.

Online Investing Hacks by Bonnie Biafore (O'Reilly) is one of those books that can pay for itself in short order, as well as over and over.

Chapter list: Screening Investments; Hacking Excel for Financial Analysis; Collecting Financial Data; Analyzing Company Fundamentals; Technical Analysis; Executing Trades; Investing in Mutual Funds; Managing Your Portfolio; Financial Planning; Index

I worked at Enron from 1998 through 2001, and spent plenty of time during that dot.com era following my stock portfolio. I watched my Enron stock value go from incredible value to a point where it cost more to sell the stock than it was worth. I won a few bets (face it, that's what they were) on a few dot.coms and lost many more. What could have been an incredible nest egg, isn't. This book would have been a lifesaver if I had read and paid attention to it a few years ago. Biafore shows you how you can analyze and invest wisely using a variety of tools available to everyone.

If you're an Excel user, you'll find it an invaluable tool for analysis. She'll show you how you can use it to create financial charts (#13), calculate compound annual rates of growth (#26), and use rational values to buy and sell wisely (#36). #39 - Spot Hanky Panky with Cash Flow Analysis (using Enron as an example) would have literally saved me hundreds of thousands of dollars had I known about it. Even if you don't care about the investing tips, the hack on downloading data via Excel web queries (#7) was something I didn't know how to do (or that you could even do it!). The book has a little something for everyone.

As with all Hacks titles, you probably won't be interested in every single item. Some may not be applicable to your situation or may be too complex for what you care to handle. But all it would take is one hack to work out and change your investing for this book to pay huge dividends. If you do your own investing, you owe it to yourself to get this book.

If you like origami boxes, you need to own a book by the queen of origami boxes, Tomoko Fuse. This is a good one to start with because Quick and Easy Origami boxes can be summed up by the title...quick and easy. It's also nicely packaged in a box with about 25 sheets of origami paper to get you started.

Directions and illustrations are big, bright, bold, and easy to follow. The book is spiral bound which is extremely handy if you're trying to fold and keep the book open at the same time.

The book has SQUARE boxes with several design variations for lids. It has TRIANGLE boxes with lids. It has HEXAGONAL (6-sided boxes) with lids. It has nesting boxes.

The first time origami folder will breeze through the beginning folds of most of the boxes. The final steps of the boxes are a bit challenging and will take the new folder a while to figure out. In other words, the end steps where you fold the flat paper up into the 3-D side of the box can be a bit confusing.

That's typical of most origami books. Often the final steps are NOT detailed enough, and you find yourself looking at the picture and folding this way and that. Then EUREKA, you discover you've figured it out!

If you can't find this book, Fuse's book ORIGAMI BOXES is excellent. The hexagon boxes (my favorite) in that book are easier to make and stronger than the ones in this book. Also, ORIGAMI BOXES contains the 8 sided octagon box. While it isn't spiral bound like this one, it's one of my favorite origami books.

This book is probably the single reason modular origami continues to gain new fans. Pick up this book, and fold the beginning boxes... In no time, you'll be hooked and want to fold every box, shortly after that you'll want to experiment with different papers/colors/patterns/etc. This book, (while fundamentally simple..the charm of modular...) has a wealth of great boxes. The best part is, when you are done, the boxes can be used as gifts, or gift boxes, and look great for any celebration. I highly recommend this book to all origami fans, but not too people who are only interested in finding difficult models.

Why buy this book instead of one of Tomoko Fuse's full size books?
-- makes a great gift to a new folder,
-- slips into your purse or pocket for folding on the go,
-- these simple boxes are remarkably satisfying.

I already owned a bunch of other Fuse books, and loved them, when I found this little kit. I felt a little silly buying something so simple, but it was so cute. I have not regretted the impulse. I love these boxes. Sometimes I don't want a challenge that will take half an hour, I want immediate gratification -- and this is the book.

The folds are simple enough to work well with 3 inch (75 mm) paper. And if you have fancy paper, these relatively simple boxes will show it to good advantage.

Being new to origami boxes, the title caught my attention, and didn't disappoint. The book is only 62 pages, however it teaches as much as most other bigger books do. It is spiral bound, so it lays flat during the folding steps (if you already do origami, you know how important this is). The boxes are very easy, some requiring only 10-12 steps to fully construct. The designs of the boxes are beautiful for being so simple. The folding illustrations are very, very clear and easy to understand. It is also a plus that the book comes with enough paper (60 sheets in 6 bright colors) to make each box.

Of the 15 or so books I have on origami, I would put this in the top 5, as one that I will use over and over again.

What else should I say .. it's the best ! really