Papers Books

Needed some fresh ideas for paper crafting. Saw carols' book at a book store and thought it was very interesting and offered an assortment of ideas. I came home and found it at a GREAT price on Amazon. Wonderful book and a must-read for paper crafters.

This is well put together book, neat, sometimes the projects did not show how to get to the finish, but use your imagination. If you have the skill, rather beginner or experienced, I believe you will enjoy doing these projects. I can't wait to get stated.
JP

I WAS SO HAPPY TO GET THIS BOOK. IT GIVES SOME BASIC REVIEWS OF THINGS AND YOU'RE ABLE TO REALLY CREATE WITHOUT ALWAYS COPYING.

Carol Duvall's new book is like meeting up with an old friend. I was a regular viewer for years and years, and I really miss seeing her show. I still don't know why she was taken off the air (boo! to the network), but I hope she is doing well. This books has many of her wonderful craft projects as well as hints and tips from "THE SHOEBOX" ! There will never be another craft show like hers - she can't be replaced. Write more books Carol!

When my mom heard this book was being published, she shopped all the local craft stores for it, so I was happy to be able to purchase it for her for Christmas. She and I both agree that many of the crafts in the book can be found on the hgtv.com website in the Carol Duvall show archives, but it's great to have them all compiled.

My special favorite is the project for decorating a wrapped gift with a stand-up/pop-up diorama. Although much work is required to put it together, the surprise factor of receiving a gift so lovingly created would be well worth the effort. I also love her idea for storing rubber stamps and put it into implementation immediately.

This is a beautifully designed book. Makes a great gift item. The ecclectic collection of scrapbooks is sure to inspire anyone interested in scrapping.

I loved this book because it provided a glance into lives of scrapbookers who are not the stereotypical "soccer mom" type of scrapbookers. It was truly a breath of fresh air to see scrapbooking pages from strippers, a woman in a rock band, tattoos, and a woman in a burlesque show. Another great thing about this book is that not only does it have a wide variety of scrappers showcased, but it also relies on creativity of the scrappers rather than "cutesy" embellishments and other mass produced scrapbooking products. I would definitely recommend this book because you can see layouts from "conventional" scrappers and the not-so-conventional scrappers all in one book.

This book is really fun and funny to read, and opens creative doors in your mind. IT's time for a scrap booking book that isn't about "beautiful people" living in perfect suburbs! I like the different lay out and art ideas. My critique is that I wished for better "how-to's". This is a compilation of pages and suggestions from the scrappers who made the pages, and their stories are interesting. The pages are not shown step by step, like in other scrap book books, and some additional guidance of achieving the art effects would have been good. Overall, an inspiration to make scrapbooks that are about more than my own face or my kid's first tooth ;-)

Remember those really cool kids in high school? I mean the REALLY cool ones, the ones who weren't afraid to do their own thing and go their own way? Here's your chance to peek at some of their scrapbooks!

What I really like about this book is that the artists aren't concerned with being "on-trend". The lay-outs are cool and vary so much from artist to artist, it refreshes your brain after seeing the magazines where it's hard to distinuish one artist from another. The variety inspires me to do things my way and encourages me to shake things up a bit.

Bravo!

(Disclaimer: If in high school your main aim was to be exactly like everyone else, this might not be the book for you. But you should give it a try, you just might see something you like. :-)

I am a non-traditional scrapbooker. Don't fit the typical scrapbooker demographic whatsoever. I live in a huge city, have no kids, eclectic interests, and somewhat of an alternative lifestyle. I tried, and tried, and tried to get excited about other idea books, magazines, etc... but could never really relate to the layouts and themes featured within. I saw "Scrap City" on a rack of idea books in a store, opened it, and was immediately taken with the colors, the themes, the textures! And more than anything, the way I could totally relate to the themes of the layouts and other projects. Finally an idea book that resonated with my soul and validated my love of scrapbooking by showing projects and layouts I could truly relate to. Aside from scrapbook layouts, the book features other projects, including handmade books, altered art, and more. At the back of the book there is some good information on the basics of scrapbooking, techniques and tools and the like. And ideas on how to inspire your creativity. Definately the book I will be referring back to most often to spark my creativity and inspire new ideas.

This book is beautiful. The projects are fun and entertaining. This book provides wonderful, wholesome activity for the whole family! It is well worth the price, and makes an excellent gift for any age.

I don't own this book--yet-- but I know this author's work. I frequent her site, and she is so very creative. Her artwork is a refreshing throwback to a long past era, with modern and beautiful colors. I LOVE that her site allows your to sample some of her brilliantly simple ideas. They are engaging enough to entertain middleschoolers, yet simple enough that my six year old can do many of them. Very awesome. Her sweet little fairies and beautiful cornocopias, the flowing swirls on the candy canes and fun "marble mice" and such from the site are reason enough to support her creativity and buy this book!

Even old people like me can put these paper toys together, even if it means taking extra days to figure them out. I simply love these toys, and the people I make them for enjoy them. When she first brought the toys out online and I tried cutting them out and putting them together, it was difficult, as I am not a smart little one, so I asked her to put directions with the pictures, so dumb old men could figure out what went where. Since then I have made many of her paper toys. I encourage people of all ages to buy the book and make the toys. Even those with arthritis.
This is a great way to enjoy the little things in life.

Making toys, boxes and knick knacks out of sturdy cardstock, with pre-printed illustrations, used to be how my grandmother and her siblings passed their free time when they were children. My grandmother said they would spend hours building entire cities out of paper, and I can see why - there's nothing quite so satisfying to a child as being able to play with his own handiwork.

That's where this book comes in. Mrs. Scott-Waters' book is unique both in content and in presentation. Her artistic style reflects 1920s and 1930s style line-art and water color, finely detailed and filled with little embellishments. The pictures found in this book are whimsical and delicate all at the same time, and the finished products are, to a child's mind, extremely practical. Children love having boxes and things with mysterious compartments, and the toys and contraptions that result from this book's projects don't disappoint in that regard.

Most of the included projects are so simple to put together that any child old enough to handle a pair of scissors can at least help out, and with a little help, most anyone can bring forth a relatively sophisticated end result =) But they're so intricate-looking and there is so much detail in the artwork and the mechanisms that even adults will find them interesting and entertaining. They're definitely a breath of fresh air for parents or caregivers seeking to do a worthwhile, enriching arts-and-crafts project together with children!

My only complaint is that on her web site, Mrs. Scott-Waters has a brilliant paper-doll-driven fairytale about otters, a carousel, fairies and a flying fish car on the way to a toymaker's ball. This needs to be published in a second book! It's at least as amazing as the projects in this one!

I do disagree with other reviewers that it's fun for "a" rainy afternoon - it's impossible to do all of them in one sitting, and it's just as well. You will want the fun that this slim little volume contains to last a good long while.

I tried to print the free paper toys from the website but the quality is mediocre compared to the book. Great fun for a rainy day-even for adults!!The artwork is magical and printed on nice card stock for building toys.

Just like the title, this book is a great guide to "Academic Legal Writing." Step by step, the author takes you through the process of writing a publishable legal article. Every aspect is covered: from how to form a thesis to how to publicize and publish your finished product. Every law review student should read this book while writing his or her student Note.

Former clerk to the Supreme Court and Professor at UCLA Eugene Volokh has given a remarkable gift to the legal community that would be a bargain at twice the price. It delivers pragmatic and thoughtful advice in a remarkably clear and lucid style. Moreover, it is not simply clear for law books--frankly, a low bar to pass--Volokh writes for the ordinary public daily on his eponymous blog (where you can read the first chapter of this book), and the skills required for that task manifest themselves in this work.

Academic Legal Writing is also extremely systematic. Every aspect of the paper is taken into consideration, from the approach to research, to avoiding off-putting humor or politically charged language, time tables for submissions, and so on, even including how to draft letters to professors and law reviews asking them to look over your work and to consider it for publication.

Academic Legal Writing is really in a class by itself. That said, perhaps I can indicate its greatness by invoking a few other names. Academic Legal Writing is a perfect companion volume to Bryan Gardner's The Elements of Legal Style. It is as clear and concise and accessible as Marvin Chirelstein's Concepts and Case Analysis in the Law of Contracts, and it deserves to be as ubiquitous and is certainly as valuable, thoughtful, and comprehensive as Joseph Glannon's E&E Civil Procedure and Erwin Chemerinsky's Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies. If you know these books, you should be going "wow." If you don't, and you are going to law school, I advise reading all of them. (Also Getting to Maybe, which I never found compelling, but am in the distinct minority view on.)

I read Elizabeth Fajans and Mary R. Falk's Scholarly Writing for Law Students, which is also good and which Volokh recommends. Academic Legal Writing appears to be a very conscious next step beyond that book. In a perfect world, buying and reading both would be advisable. In the real world, I read Scholarly Writing once, Academic Legal Writing many, many times. Academic Legal Writing is your desert island pick.

Please do yourself a favor and read this book. If you don't, you will simply be doing all of your competitors a likely unrequited kindness.

One final note: Professor Volokh is a conservative of the thoughtful and sober variety. I am a liberal of the sort who avidly studies the Endangered Species List to see if "Thoughtful Conservatives" have been listed yet. This is not an issue: Professor Volokh's political beliefs are discernible in this book only by the most careful parsing: in some of his examples, he points out the misleading use of statistics in gun violence, an academic preoccupation of his. You could then do the math and figure out that he has at least one conservative leaning. Otherwise, his politics would be utterly inscrutable. And, frankly, this book would be on my bookshelf even if Professor Volokh had say, written a memo arguing that the Geneva Conventions were outdated and pointless. John Yoo, your path to redemption is clear.

I didn't participate in law review or any other extracurricular activities. Since I didn't want to work for a big firm or a judge, I figured my time would be more rationally allocated by reading books on trial and appellate advocacy. I've read most of F. Lee Bailey's books on how to investigate and try various cases, I've attended several trial skills CLEs, and I've studied the closing arguments of the greats. I've also read just about everything by Bryan A. Garner.

Thus, going into my last semester of law school, I knew a lot about persuasive and analytical writing, but almost nothing about scholarly writing. I had avoided "paper classes."

Unfortunately, my desire to take a certain class was outweighed by my aversion to academic writing: I was in a class where the entire grade would be based on one paper. Thus, I turned to Volokh's Academic Legal Writing.

The date my paper was due severe formatting glitches caused me to lose 4 - 5 pages of text - the guts of one of my "Roman numeral" arguments. I spend several hours fixing the formatting that could have been spent doing final polishing. Although able to fix the footnotes, I never recovered that lost text.

Nevertheless, I earned the second-highest grade, missing the top score by only 2 points. In earning this grade I bested several law review editors, and many of the top 10 students.

Had I not read and employed the principles in Academic Legal Writing, I am confident I would not have done so well.

One principle I learned was to demonstrate to the reader early in the paper why the paper is necessary. The best way to do this is to show that your paper picks up where another article left off, or that your paper covers an issue previously ignored. Thus, I began:

"Although the federal bribery statute's scope is sweeping, covering conduct well beyond the "the most blatant and specific attempts of those with money to influence governmental action," it has been given scant attention. Legal scholars and political scientists are, in Professor Lowenstein's words, guilty of "sins of omission" for ignoring bribery. Little has changed since Professor Lowenstein's 1985 article. Thus, this Article seeks to fill one of the many gaps."

To those of you familiar with scholarly writing, making this point would seem obvious. But it was not obvious to me. Volokh's book taught me many things I did not know, and I suspect even experienced writers will learn something worth the investment of time and money in his book.

It's also likely that those of you fluent with academic legal writing learned things piecemeal. Volokh's work is systematic: You will fill in gaps of our own knowledge.

Go buy a book here.

Succinct, straightforward, info not available elsewhere (as easily), time-tested advice. Clearly worth having.

Former clerk to the Supreme Court and Professor at UCLA Eugene Volokh has given a remarkable gift to the legal community that would be a bargain at twice the price. It delivers pragmatic and thoughtful advice in a remarkably clear and lucid style. Moreover, it is not simply clear for law books--frankly, a low bar to pass--Volokh writes for the ordinary public daily on his eponymous blog (where you can read the first chapter of this book), and the skills required for that task manifest themselves in this work.

Academic Legal Writing is also extremely systematic. Every aspect of the paper is taken into consideration, from the approach to research, to avoiding off-putting humor or politically charged language, time tables for submissions, and so on, even including how to draft letters to professors and law reviews asking them to look over your work and to consider it for publication.

Academic Legal Writing is really in a class by itself. That said, perhaps I can indicate its greatness by invoking a few other names. Academic Legal Writing is a perfect companion volume to Bryan Gardner's The Elements of Legal Style. It is as clear and concise and accessible as Marvin Chirelstein's Concepts and Case Analysis in the Law of Contracts, and it deserves to be as ubiquitous and is certainly as valuable, thoughtful, and comprehensive as Joseph Glannon's E&E Civil Procedure and Erwin Chemerinsky's Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies. If you know these books, you should be going "wow." If you don't, and you are going to law school, I advise reading all of them. (Also Getting to Maybe, which I never found compelling, but am in the distinct minority view on.)

I read Elizabeth Fajans and Mary R. Falk's Scholarly Writing for Law Students, which is also good and which Volokh recommends. Academic Legal Writing appears to be a very conscious next step beyond that book. In a perfect world, buying and reading both would be advisable. In the real world, I read Scholarly Writing once, Academic Legal Writing many, many times. Academic Legal Writing is your desert island pick.

Please do yourself a favor and read this book. If you don't, you will simply be doing all of your competitors a likely unrequited kindness.

One final note: Professor Volokh is a conservative of the thoughtful and sober variety. I am a liberal of the sort who avidly studies the Endangered Species List to see if "Thoughtful Conservatives" have been listed yet. This is not an issue: Professor Volokh's political beliefs are discernible in this book only by the most careful parsing: in some of his examples, he points out the misleading use of statistics in gun violence, an academic preoccupation of his. You could then do the math and figure out that he has at least one conservative leaning. Otherwise, his politics would be utterly inscrutable. And, frankly, this book would be on my bookshelf even if Professor Volokh had say, written a memo arguing that the Geneva Conventions were outdated and pointless. John Yoo, your path to redemption is clear.

I,m sixty-one yrs old. My heroes have always been the WWII veterans. I'm stocked with books, video tapes and dvd's of WWII. But my favorite is Tom Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation". I gave my 31yr old son a set for Christmas, when they first came out. I hate to see them(WWII vets) go. There will never be another quite like them. No, never! Through out the universe, we can not fathom what they went through, for US. My greatest memory of a WWII veteran, is when I was aboard the USS Lexington. I was a tour guide when it opened as a museum in Oct '92, in Corpus Christi, Tx. I was wearing my Viet Nam veteran pin. He extended his hand to me and said Thank you! I was perturbed for a minute, but then he said, "for your service in Viet Nam". Those are the men Tom is talking about. It had been twenty-five years since Nam. That was the first time anyone thanked me for my service in Viet Nam. 1st Mar Div. 1st Shore Party Battalion, '67,'68. And proudly served my Country. Porfirio Moreno.

Very down to earth description from the men that were there on that date. Worthwhile read.

Being a baby boomer, I have not truly experienced war, albeit was born during WWII and have never failed to be impressed by its stories of bravery, of sacrifice, of unrelenting determination to pursue the glory that awaits those WWII heroes who have not died in vain, for all of us, and for our country. I have only read the book reviews but I feel that I have read the entire book. I also fully concur with my fellow book reviewers that the WWII veterans are, perhaps, not the most recognized, to this writing, as opposed to those veterans of recent wars. Some of the WWII veterans have long died, as well, such as those from the Bataan Death March, waiting to be recognized in vain. This is what truly hurts the most.

Characteristic of Mr. Brokaw's deservedly multi-awarded journalistic style, he has, and continues to impress on the whole world how vital and necessary it is for us to love history (as does this Filipino-American journalist reviewer with all of my strength, my mind, my will, my heart, and my soul so much so that it runs in my veins).

The book is a must-read for all future journalists. I cannot but add it to my personal library.

Brokaw provides another moving tribute to what he refers to as the "Greatest Generation." Many of the letters included here are quite emotional and touching. This book also includes timelines for the war in Europe, the Pacific, and the homefront, as well as the depression, and also touches on areas not addressed in the two earlier books. There is also an abundance of period photographs and copies of documents, submitted by the letter writers. These help to put a human face on the various stories.

I found this book while searching on Amazon.com for gift ideas. I have not read the book but it seems to be just what I need to finish a gift for my father. My parents grew up during the Great Depression and as a result saved everything. Last year I cleaned out the attic of the family home and sorted through bags and boxes of what we now refer to as disposable items such as bags of pencil stubs (did they really think they would use them again...especially if they are stuffed in the attic?). However, being the child of "savers" has paid off. I am preparing an "album of memories" of the original letters that my father, Roger Griffith, a WWII Navy veteran, sent to his parents during the war. I plan to buy Mr. Brokaw's "An Album of Memories" as a companion to the my album. Mr. Brokaw has again made gift giving easier for the older and greater generation. Thank you.

A fascinating look into the man behind such a creative literary & scientific mind! He is quite 'bare bones' about himself. Also suggested bio.: "The Lost Notebooks of Loren Eisley" ed. by Kenneth Heuer.

Thoughtful writing, and interesting, but Eiseley sure was a bitter and despairing fellow. He held grudges forever and never forgot a slighting, even from childhood. It appears that he wrote this at an advanced age, when his friends and associates were dieing off seemingly all around him, and he wasn't very happy about it and his own mortality. Interesting, but definitely a downer.

An excerpt from 'All the Strange Hours'

"...Oncoming age is to me a vast wild autumn country strewn with broken seed pods,hurrying cloud wrack,abondoned farm machinery,and circling crows..."
Frankly I lost my reference notes.But this is a wonderful read.You enter deep into the thinkings and passions from the heart of one man.Eiseley will invite you into his thoughts and observations about life and people like a quite and unassuming gentlemen.These stories bring you deep into the core of the Midwest cast of mind.
Great Read

There are few books written today that I don't want to rewrite. All the Strange Hours is one of them. This is the real thing- forget "Magical-Realism" and forget all other memoirs. This is unlike any memoir, or book I've ever read before, and should be getting out to a larger audience. You don't need to be into science, archeology, or even know who Eiseley is to appreciate this work. His writing is so good that it doesn't matter.
He also doesn't delve into the mundane things that most writers would- in fact, you go through the entire book, and you don't even know his wife's name. If I met Eiseley, I'd feel that I'd know little about what he likes to eat, or what kind of music he enjoys, or if he's a morning or night person. But none of that matters- because I feel like I know him on the inside. People who knew Eiseley say that those who read his works often knew him better than those who knew him in person. I'd list Eiseley easily as one of the greatest writers of all time, and at minimum I'd put him in the top 3 of great prose writers. Check him out, and you'll see. You won't be disappointed. Trust me- - I don't like most contemporary stuff, and if you don't either, this is great literature for you.

This is a beautifully written personal meditation on the impermance of life against the passage of time and the attendant sense of loss by a deeply compassionate existentialist who searches for the meaning within the design of nature. There is a palatable sense of both truth and despair. There is also a consistant thread of both awed respect and admiration for the immensity of "the terrible beauty" of existance. If you are looking for a book that balances the invisibly fine line between the light and the dark of insight from the perspective of a honest man who grasps both, this is your book.

Enid Starkie's biography of Rimbaud, published nearly forty years ago, still stands as both the definitive narrative of Rimbaud's life and a model of literary biography.

Rimbaud was a rebellious, enigmatic, brilliant, and inscrutable poet who, in just four short years between the ages of sixteen and twenty, wrote the poetry which has made him a figure of mythic proportions, not only in French literature, but in the literature and history of Modernism. Starkie, in brilliantly lucid prose and with loving attention to every detail, tells Rimbaud's life story and connects that story to the writing of the poems and the evolution of Rimbaud's views on poetry and the task of the poet.

Influenced by his studies of Kabbalah, alchemy and illuminism, and writing in the long shadow of Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs du Mal", Rimbaud precociously enunciated his attack on the then dominant Parnassian school of French poetry at the tender age of sixteen. Starkie examines Rimbaud's original aesthetic doctrine in great detail; in her words, the poet must discover a "new language . . . capable of expressing the ineffable, a new language not bound by logic, nor by grammar or syntax." In Rimbaud's words, the "Poet" must make himself a "seer" by a "long, immense and systematic derangement of all the senses."

From this initial position, Starkie brilliantly details Rimbaud's turbulent relationship with Paul Verlaine and his descent into what one reviewer has aptly described as a "perpetual roister of absinthe, hashish and sodomy." Starkie painstakingly relates Rimbaud's poetry to his experiences with Verlaine in London and Paris. In particular, Starkie convincingly demonstrates, through careful exegesis of the poems and their correspondences with Rimbaud's letters and other biographical materials, that the "Illuminations" (perhaps Rimbaud's most brilliant poems) were written over several years preceding and following "Une Saison en Enfer". Starkie then goes on to demonstrate that the latter prose poems were hardly intended to be Rimbaud's "farewell to literature in general, but only to visionary literature." In other words, "Une Saison en Enfer" represents the rejection by Rimbaud of his original mind-bending iconoclasm--the liquidation "of all his previous dreams and aspirations"--in favor of a rational and materialist aesthetics. Of course, after completing "Une Saison en Enfer", Rimbaud's life moved in completely different directions and there is, unfortunately, no existing evidence that he continued his poetic endeavor after the age of twenty.

Starkie's biography captures the details of the remainder of Rimbaud's life--he died at the age of thirty-seven--with fascinating and attentive detail. And the remainder of his life, as related by Starkie, is a biography in itself--vagabond in Europe, sailor to the East Indies, gun runner and (slave?) trader in Abyssinia, and mysterious cult hero of the emerging French symbolist movement. Indeed, in 1888, more than fourteen years after Rimbaud's known literary career had ended, he received a letter from a prominent Parisian editor: "You have become, among a little coterie, a sort of legendary figure . . . This little group, who claim you as their Master, do not know what has become of you, but hope you will one day reappear, and rescue them from obscurity." Starkie scrutinizes all of these events with scrupulous attention to detail and accuracy.

This is truly a classic of literary biography! (One additional comment: Rimbaud's poetry and letters are quoted extensively in the original French. If you are not fluent in French, you should have Wallace Fowlie's English translation of Rimbaud's Complete Works and Selected Letters by your side as a reference.)

By the time Arthur Rimbaud had reached the age of nineteen, he had already composed dozens of fiery, visionary poems and prose pieces that shattered French concepts of style and content and exerted a vast influence over the role of the artist in the popular imagination. At twenty, however, he had burned many of his poems and had vowed never to write another line. He began to wander Europe and Africa, becoming a gunrunner, a slavetrader, a construction foreman. He was a rebel in the truest sense of the world and his motto could well have been "too fast to live, too young to die."

Rimbaud is a remembered for his outrageous behavior as much as for his amazing literary work. Drunk on absinthe, he would insult priests, other poets, casual passersby. He was both unkempt and anti-social, to say the least, but his influence on surrealism cannot be denied and such works as A Season in Hell have exerted tremendous influence over the literary community. Rimbaud's experimentation with language and with imagery is so astounding that the reader is left bewildered and amazed.

Rimbaud, in fact, established a new approach to writing. In a letter to a friend, dated 1871, he wrote, "the Poet makes himself a seer by a long, immense and systematic derangement of all the senses." Rimbaud's systematic derangement released all future poets from the bourgeois bonds of the good and evil of conventional morality. For the first time, perhaps, poets felt free to explore the powerful, unarticulated, subconscious regions of the mind. As Rimbaud, himself, wrote in "Alchemy of the Word," "I boasted of inventing, with rhythm from within me, a kind of poetry that all the senses, sooner or later, would recognize. And I alone would be its translator...I began it as an investigation. I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable, I wrote down. I made the whirling world stand still." And so he did.

Enid Starkie, who devoted much of her life to the study of this fascinating young rebel, tells us that Rimbaud was disgusted by those who approached poetry as a hobby or a social activity only. These writers, he said, had the soul of a banker or and accountant. "The soul must be made monstrous." Rimbaud believed this with all his heart and he stated it in no uncertain terms. "I say the Poet is therefore truly the thief of fire!" Rimbaud, truly a man possessed of Promethean prowess and stature, also suffered endless torment. He was an outcast, rejected by society, but, though seemingly frail at times, he was really possessed of superhuman strength. It was this emotional strength that allowed him to produce poetry that was both astounding and lasting.

Starkie describes how Rimbaud, with his mentor and lover, the poet, Paul Verlaine, became the sensation of both Paris and London as he attacked and insulted poets of the day for, as he put it, murdering the language. He engaged in debauchery of the most astonishing kind, but it was a debauchery that led to a sublime state of artistic creativity seldom achieved.

Enid Starkie's biography is wonderful and eminently readable. It stands as the premier chronicle of Rimbaud's life and work. Anyone seeking to understand this complex young man and his equally complex work should read this book. It is, in fact, essential.

Although this is the only Arthur Rimbaud biography I've read, it seems to me very well-written and true to his life. Enid Starkie is perhaps the leading non-French expert scholar on Rimbaud and this long seminal work is very readable and comprehensive. I learned a lot about the life of the man who was one of my favorite poets in my teens. It's amazing when you consider that he wrote all his stuff before he was 20, and that he then suddenly stopped writing altogether. He became lost to literature in his quest to make money and become a successful business man (trader in Africa). One of the most intriguing things in the book is how it talks about "La Chasse Spirituelle" which Verlaine calls Rimbaud's masterpiece, and which has since been lost. I wonder what happened to this work, and it's a great pity that we will never be able to read it. One of the other many things I found interesting was that Rimbaud apparently changed his view on God when he was on his deathbed, as his relgiously devout sister Isabelle pleaded with him to be converted. The cocky and rebellious kid who tried to use alchemy and occult magic to become as powerful as God, who as a 16-year-old punk used to write (...) on the church door, was now in his late 30s a humble, broken, and resigned man who turned to God for comfort and salvation. That may have been important to the fate of his soul, but what is important to us is his written words. And even though Rimbaud only wrote for about 5 years of his life, his contribution to poetry is timeless.

(...)

The Enid Starkie biography is a moving and remarkable work. Nevertheless , it has some serious mistakes that the readers and mainly the lovers of Rimbaud must know. Starkie stained the memory of Rimbaud accusing him of having done slaves traffic. Detailed studies have proved that this was absolutely impossible. (You can read the books of Alain Borer, Graham Robb, Charles Nicholl...)
Starkie wants to show us a rimbaud that failed in Abyssinia. It seems that he deserved a punishment for having left the poetry. The truth is that Arthur Rimbaud was an excellent trader that made a little fortune.
A few moths ago I went to Charleville. There, the Rimbaud's museum has a place where important studies about Rimbaud are shown. In spite of the Starkie's play is very well-known, it has not earned a place there.

There is no doubt that Rimbaud presents a complex, almost contradictory metaphor for the life of the "Literary Voyant." He is embraced by various communities who identify with certain aspects or should I say phases of his life. I have read many essays, books, and bits and pieces on his life, poetry. As a lover of Rimbaud, I feel Starkie has captured the poet as no other. She looks into his mind and sees what others cannot see. This is the real Rimbaud, as real as we are ever going to know him. When I read this book, I always think of how Starkie closed her bio, with a little boat tossed drunkenly on the waves. Don't miss this book. It's what a literary biography should be, unbiased, thoughtful, and intelligent.

As young teenagers, my friend and I laughed and laughed over this book. I have now paid $65 (if you can imagine) to buy a copy for my daughter and expected grandchild.

I wanted to buy the one we read as kids but my friend says they must have thrown it away. How sad.

I have read the review comments & was surprised that everyone seems to think this Eggbert & Eggberta was published in 1975...I was pregnant in 1969 & a friend of mine gave me the paperback book of this to read..I remember laughing with tears in my eyes, as this book was soooo funny..

I remember reading this book in the early '70's. One day while shopping with my daughter in a used book store, I spotted it in a stack of books. I did not remember the name just that it was really funny. While checking it out I notice original price was 75 Cents. I paid $1.25, after looking on the net, I see I got a real bargain. A Great Book.

I have a copy of both 'Eggbert' and 'Eggbert & Eggberta', and we read them everytime my wife is expecting. They never stop bringing the laughs. I remember reading them at my grandmom's when I was little (before I was supposed to be reading them, I'm sure)!!

Wonderful reading, everytime.

I remember reading this back in the late 70's and I was only a child at the time. The pictures and captions were great. It is still fresh in my mind. Wish they would reprint it.

I am not very knowledgeable about Theatre and certainly not about Theory of Theatre. I found this book quite abstract and difficult to understand. Its opening sentences sets the tone for the whole work.
"I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. An actor moves across this space while someone is watching and a piece of theatre is engaged."
This would seem to detach Theatre from local trappings and customs.
The book consists in an effort to define four kinds of Theatre, the Deadly or Conventional commercial theatre: the Holy Theatre based on sacred repetition , the Rough Theatre that of people in the steet, and the Immediate Theatre, the flowing transformative Theatre which Brook himself is trying to do.
As the author is considered one of the most revolutionary and important of modern Theatre directors I believe the book might be of value to those actually involved in 'doing Theatre' more than it is to the general reader.

Before you read anything else on theatre, you should read The Empty Space.

What is great about the empty space is that Peter Brook's theory is relevant to all art forms. The four theatres he describes are basically categories in which all art falls into. This seems odd at first until you see what he is describing. What turns most people off is the idea of over-categorizing art. But Brook's theatres tend to be more or less critiques of individual performances, or what the effect of that performance is on the audience. This is also easy to read. Too much theatre philosophy gets bogged down by either melodramatic thespian writers, or rambling philosophies from those who have not trained themselves to ge good writers. With Brook, it is pretty straightforawrd, not always easy to understand mind you, but straightforward. If you are at all interested in the arts then this is a must read.

This book, along with Uta Hagen's "Respect for Acting" and any Stanaslavski, is the motherload of theater expertise.

This is an essential read for anyone interested in the creative and performing arts

With this highly-illustrated nonfiction text, Dickinson intends to prove the existence of dragons: gigantic, firebreathing, flying reptiles. Through popular and historical descriptions of the beasts, he theorizes everything from dragon lifecycles, to dragon slaying, to the necessary connection between a dragon's form, firebreathing, and flight. He often draws on quotes from his sources, and Anderson's illustrations provide visual interest and help depict the mechanics of the dragon body and flight. Although Dickinson's arguments are often circular and his evidence is self-serving, the straightforward writing and novel theory make this an interesting and thoughtful read. Although neither fiction nor fantasy, it is also entertaining. This book is faulted, but I still recommend it.

Along with the book's good and bad traits, it was also, personally, a piece of nostalgia. I read this book as a child, and it withstands the test of time: Dickinson's theories are logical, fairly presented, and well-evidenced, and sound reasonable even to an adult reader. Pulling from everything from ancient Chinese myth and the story of Beowulf to modern authors such as J.R. Tolkien and Ursula K. Le Guin, Dickinson pulls his description of vampire behavior and ability direct from historical myth and popular culture. He then uses these excerpts to build and to prove the mechanics of the dragon, everything from lifecycles to flight. His theories on dragonflight (the chemical reactions of dragons blood produced gas, which were stored in huge internal chambers, allowing for flight; dragons belched fire to expel excess gas) is of course the highlight of the book (and the only similarity between the text and the movie of the same name). It is also the most reasonable, scientific, and convincing argument in the book. Here, Dickinson shines: he is well-researched, scientifically-minded, and very convincing.

Unfortunately, these qualities are not universally present. Often, the evidence is selected to fit the facts, or else the arguments are sustained by other arguments, not by evidence. Dickinson discards descriptions that don't fit his theories, instead justifying only what he can reasonably justify, and arguing that the rest is impossible--but never justifying the fact that his sources seem to be both reliable and unreliable in a single breath. He relies heavily on limited, specific sources. In a book of this length, he does not have the space to go into detail assessing any one source, making his choices seem arbitrary. In all, there are various faults and in the research and the proof, and Dickinson's theories are by no means factual, or provable, or even solid.

But what matters in this book is not what Dickinson fails to do, but rather what he manages to achieve. He brings dragons alive: not my vivid descriptions, not by stunning visuals, but by thought, reason, and research. Even though he fails to prove the existence of dragons, he succeeds in proving the possibility. This makes for a fascinating and, in many ways, invigorating read. Dickinson appeals to both imagination and rational thought, and he does so through a text that is easily readable and convincingly argued. I greatly enjoyed and highly recommend this book, despite all of its faults.

I am nine years old and i think this book is COMPLETELY cool. Even though I suspect it was meant for older kids (or even adults) I would definitely reccomend getting it, even though it's expensive. This books has lots of interesting theories and puts a lot of imaginative ideas in your head. In addition, it has amazing pictures! My favorite part is when they use a diagram of dinner plates and bricks to discuss a theory of how dragons flew. I have more to say, but must restrain myself to only two words: "must buy". Ben Z.

This phenomenal book from 1979 attempts to show how Dragons could really have existed, and sets about solving all the "fantastic" issues surrounding them through "scientific method": breathing fire, flight, caustic blood, why no remains have ever been found. It's a good companion volume for Faeries by Froud/Lee, Gnomes by Hugen/Portvleit, Dwarves by an author I cannot recall cause it's been out of print so long. The information in this book is the source for the excellent video, Dragon's World, by Discovery, as well as much of the content of the recent Dragonology series.

This book breathes new life into the world of fantasy. It is a compelling read, but backed with scientific evidence and explanation to make it credible. Also, it is a beautiful book with lots of full-color pictures and illustrations. Whether you believe in dragons or not, The Flight of Dragons is interesting and a wonderful conversation-piece. The book deserves more recognition than it has gotten in the U.S., and I consider myself extremely lucky for having found it in a second-hand bookstore and picking it up there. I had never heard of it before, and have never seen another copy, but I haven't been disappointed. And, by the way, I am NOT interested in selling mine!

Okay, let's set the record straight here. "The Flight Of Dragons" _has no plot_. Some of these reviews are referring to the wonderful characters, amazing plot line, etc. Obviously, these people haven't read the book. This book is a scientific view on how dragons could have actually existed. It gives theories on how they breathed fire, flew, lived, etc., drawing on evidence from story lore and legend. Now, for those of you who are thinking of the _movie_ "The Flight Of Dragons", yes, the movie was based on this book. But it was only based on it in terms of how the dragons were designed. The (very) basic plot and the wonderful characters were taken from Gordon R. Dickson's amazing book "The Dragon And The George". But the book "The Flight Of Dragons" is much different from the movie. For one thing, Peter Dickenson views dragons as lethargic beasts with a dull intelligence. He included a chapter on dragon-slaying, which, to me, was something of the last straw. Also, some of the pictures done by Wayne Anderson are horrific. I especially "enjoyed" the photos in the back of art from around the world----one had a picture of a troll-like "dragon" eating a man's head! . . . Now, don't get me wrong. This is a good book. Some of the pictures are fantastic. And most of Peter Dickenson's theories----especially the one about why there are no fossils of dragons------were really neat. And I love his saying: "Remember. The dragons live. Inside us." It's a decent book. But I spent nearly a year trying desperately to get my hands on a copy, and while it is interesting and a valuable addition to my collection of dragon lore, I was disappointed. But maybe I shouldn't judge something on my own expectations (obviously). But I did want all to understand . . . the book and movie are very different. If you want to re-meet the characters of "The Flight Of Dragons" from the movie, read "The Dragon And The George", an excellent book. And give the book "The Flight Of Dragons" a try. Just don't set your expectations too high!