Conferences Books

As global warming becomes a household word and something the mainstream is waking up to, Whose Common Future provides a remarkable and useful explanation of the world's accelerating environmental crisis. The authors trace the crisis to the usurpation of locally- managed resources such as streams, forests, street space and even radio wavelengths, by state governments and big business. The destruction of local communities to remove their power to conserve local resources, the authors asset, is the true tragedy of the commons.

I have done the "churchy" retreat thing before. It was OK but the Wild at Heart Boot Camp experience really is awesome. If you can't make it to the retreat in person this truly is the next best thing.

However, nothing compares to living it out and experiencing this event in person. This cd set is a good reminder for me but it does not capture the full experience. My recommendation is read the book first then listen to the sessions. If you are able, by all means spend the weekend in Colorado with the boys.

I bought this book to see how Wurman handles information and graphics. There are lots of ideas to be gleaned from it. The information in it was of secondary importance to me. Wurman knows how to clearly illustrate interesting problems.

I know people complain about the setup of this book, but as a designer and someone who creates information graphics, I love it. I look to it for inspiration for new ways to represent data.

"Understanding USA" is a unique publication...a "...celebration & a visual demonstration of questions & answers leading to understanding." Brimming with data, this book answers questions many readers might never have even considered.

Utilizing many different and distinct presentation formats, "Understanding USA" offers readers an interesting way to learn facts and figures related to the USA as of the date of this book's publication (1999).

The data, however, is not organized in the most straightforward manner, so I found this book more of a "browsing" publication as compared to a more traditional "reference" publication.

I recommend this book for the curious reader...for those readers interested in data on the United States in well-referenced and tabulated numerical format, I recommend an additional resource: Statistical Abstract of the United States 2007 (Hardcover): The National Data Book (Statistical Abstract of the United States).

No table of contents.

No index.

No good.

A great topic, credible contributors, plus an eye-popping cover all led me to believe this was a "must have". After an hour of UNDERSTANDING I realized this was a hoax.

UNDERSTANDING fails as a design reference and data resource both: some designs are more complex than the data they're communicating; layouts and print quality are often so poor they render the information unreadable; errors of all kinds riddle the pages, from typos to missing digits to transposed characters to uncited sources.

You'd think a bunch of people (who are) invested in design would be sticklers for clarity, accuracy and quality; UNDERSTANDING proves otherwise.

If you agree that good design facilitates understanding, look elsewhere. Edward Tufte, Nigel Holmes, Alan MacEachren and Robert Harris come to mind...

Jesus is true original man and god. Jesus is pronounced Yeshua in jewish. Which is the actual way of saying his name. It means Yahweh saves. Jesus is Yahweh. He's adonai. No one made Jesus. He always existed. Jesus is emmanuel. God with us. The holy ghost ,the deity of God made the Virgin Mary pregnant. God created his own infant body in Mary's womb. God humbled himself in being one of his own creations ,and came as the promised messiah. Mary is pure. She is sinless like her son Jesus. Joseph is Jesus' foster father. He's of the branch of David like Jesus, Mary, Elizabeth whose Mary's elder sister, and Elizabeth's son John the Baptist. Jesus was born in the city of David, Bethehem. Where the messiah would be borned. Jesus perform miracles by healing people, bringing back people from the dead, feeding people, controlled the elements, walked over the ocean, taught his own good true motives through his own ministry, has the authority to forgive sins, knew of those that would betray him before the betrayal, died for the sins of all humanity, a debt that only Jesus can pay for us, especially that it should be us tied on that cross and not him, proof of Jesus' resurrection three days after on easter sunday, etc. The proof is in the New Testament part of the holy bible. The disciples of Jesus are his eye witnesses ,and authors of the New Testament. The prophesy came true 2000 years ago. Jesus will come again to judge both the living and the dead. When the earth is so currupt that it can't bare anymore. That will be the end of those that are evil and unrepentant. It will also be the fate of the old serpent Satan ,and his demons as well. Jesus will govern the whole earth ,and there will be no more suffering of any kind. It is stated in revelations in the New Testament. Truth the messiah is none other than god himself, Jesus Christ. And yes Jesus goes by alot of titles as the rabbi, the teacher, the father, the son {the word}, the holy spirit, the lamb of god, the priest, the king of the jews, the king of kings, the prophet, the son of man, the son of david, the first and the last, the alpha and the omega, etc. Jesus loves the Jews as much as the gentiles ,and he wants to save us all.

I have not read this book, although I intend to do so. But, as I read these notes it seems like you're all Zealots, and people trying to prove their own side. That's ok, because people believe what they're taught to believe and rarely change. As a non-religious Jew, though, I have some comments.

For Jew and Gentile alike, all I say is this: If G-d made the Jews His chosen people, the pact Jews made with G-d (follow His way and you will proliferate and exist to the end of time) had no time limit. It would be a BREAK OF THE PACT to convert. Pure and simple. If others should convert, that's another story and I have no feeling about that one way or the other.

For the non-Jewish faiths, all I can say is missionary efforts are a direct contradiction of the directives of the Old Testament. Please realize that I cannot seriously consider the New Testament until I believe in it!! Pure and simple. The Old Testament says (per Rabbi Hillel): Do not do to others what you would you would find distasteful to yourselves." Christianity has perverted that by putting it into the action phrase now commonly known: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." In other words, the essence of Judaism is to put yourself in another's shoes. (Golly, isn't that the essence of Jesus?) Jews would not try to convert others. Reverse the positions, and it would be extremely distasteful to have that done to you. Many other faiths, Moselms and Christians included, have used this revised interpretation of the Golden Rule to do terrible things to others, and FORCE others to act as they would wish. That's not a very good advertisement for their religions. As another writer here pointed out, Jews discourage conversion to make sure it's "real." If I were to consider becoming religious and choose a religion, I would look to those people whose LIVING EXAMPLE shows me the beauty of that religion's thought. Christian and Moslem arrogance over "the only way" continuously drive me away. Hmmm, maybe Zen Buddhism??

It would seem that the arguments have not moved on since Isaac Troki's `Chizzuk Emunah' first appeared in Spanish in 1621.

However, virtually all of these objections have been ably rebutted by:-

1. Michael L. Brown in: `Answers to Jewish Objection to Jesus':
Vol.1: General and historical objections (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000),
Vol.2: Theological objections (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000),
Vol.3: Messianic Prophecy objections (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2003),
Vol.4: New Testament Objections (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007).
[Vol.5: Traditional Jewish Objections (still in preparation)]

2. Eric V. Snow in: `A Zeal for God Not According to Knowledge: A refutation of Judaism's arguments against Christianity'. 2nd ed. (Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2005).

While I respect the scholarship of Rabbi Kaplan and recommend his books, I think V'Da Mah SheTashiv: Know What To Answer (To Missionaries) A Thorough Jewish response To Missionaries is more direct and to the point

Shalom "~Chaim"!

I do not want to offend you; Howevever, I want you to consider something... And this is something all opinionated religious folk would do well to consider, whether Jew, Christian, or Muslim. This is a grievious thing that is done under the sun; A man only seeks to justify his own position and applies one standard of evidence to his own beliefs and yet another to the beliefs of others. Let me ask you, if you were a Jew, what would you think about the following statement in response to your belief in Moshe:

"ANSWER: Where is your proof for this? Where is your proof that Moses ever did any of this? From 5 CONSPIRING books with an agenda to prove Moses was sent by G_d to Israel? From these agenda-written books that state he did? It is so painfully obvious when we read the Torah with an open mind, as you want us to do, that they were written to pursuade by men decades (MAYBE CENTURIES?) after the events supposedly took place. When that happens, it's very easy to make someone seem 'super-human' or in this case, someone 'Whom HaShem knew face to face'."

As you gather all the proofs in your heart as to why you believe that Moshe was sent by G_d and did all the signs in Egypt, consider that Christians, too, have similar proofs. Both person's lives and works are "improveable" outside of the context of their writings and the collective memories handed down through the ages.

I personally respect any Jews right to not believe that Jesus is HaMaShiaH. And, although convinced personally that Jesus is indeed, I do understand the "counter arguments" and the reasons that, were I a Jew, I might be reluctant, to say the least, to embrace him as Messiah. However, let's use better arguments than this, OK??

If you are a software project manager and would like additional insight into the software development life cycle (SDLC), then this is the book for you. It gives a conceptual overview on each phase of the SDLC as well as in depth knowledge that will help you determine how best to proceed with your project.

I only gave it three stars because it is formatted more like a text book, which gives it an eerie feeling, but that is of course relative.

I used this book for an introductory course on software engineering. Although the book gives an expansive view of the field, there isn't enough detail or in-depth examples to make it anything more than an academic treatise. I don't feel that I could use much of what I've learned in an actual project - I would have to resort to more specific references.

Now, the premise of having an entire book on software engineering may be more to blame than the clarity or presentation of the material. But software engineering is a practical field, and a software engineering text that doesn't provide practical information isn't useful. For this reason, I cannot give the book a passing grade.

This book is an encyclopedic volume of knowledge about Software Engineering, and proceeds from the beginning of the process to the end, with tangents being in the last few chapters. It has the feel of a textbook, with exercises and Key Points at the end of each chapter.

That said, it isn't very entertaining and if it hadn't been my course book, I would have chosen a different Software Engineering text. This book is a great supplemental reference to get more detailed information. I keep it on my shelf at work as a handy reference.

I used this book in a 400 level college course on software engineering, and found it to be exceedingly shallow in its coverage of the topic. The work is a worthy attempt at providing a broad overview of the discipline. However, in my estimate it covers too much material in too little space and presents too few practical examples of the type that might be applicable to a "real-world" software project. Further the text only gives lip service to the wide array of tools now available. In all honesty I don't see how any one could give this book more than three starts (apologies to the other reviewers), especially considering that the book is now in its sixth edition.

I was at the used book store recently and had the good fortune of acquiring Stephen R. Schach's excellent book: "Software Engineering with Java." If you are a college professor looking for a course text, I would highly recommend taking a look at this book.

This book tries to cover way too much information in such a small space leaving topics overly vague and generic.

Further, the author does not use American English, which is fine - when you don't attend an American university. Words such a "modelling" and general sentence structure makes the text distracting and confusing in ways it shouldn't be. If I am going to have trouble reading it, let it be the material and now how the material is presented.

If the book isn't forced upon you by a university, you should consider a different software engineering book if you want details.

Of course, I won't even go into my professor who is using this book - yikes.

What a disgrace to the country's finest football conference. Ernsberger may as well be cheeseburger...Calling Kevin Faulk "Marshall" doesn't give this book much credibility. Besides, it reads like a TN alum wrote it. If you're into the SEC like I am try "A Tailgater's Guide To SEC Football". It's a good read on the entire SEC. Again, Ernsbeger should be drawn and quartered for this sacrilege. Go Gamecocks!

I cannot believe the typos and errors in this waste of time book. The writer apparently can`t distinguish Ole Miss from Mississippi State and I still wonder how he flew in and out of "Hartsville Airport". Hartsville, SC is a rather small town in Eastern SC and during my last trip through I failed to notice an International Airport.I have been attending SEC football games since the 50`s and find the lack of research that went into this nonwork very offensive. Readers would do better to spend their time reading "Southern Fried Football".

If you're already a fan of SEC football, most of what you read will not come as particularly insightful; although it is interesting to read passages regarding Alabama's recruitment of Albert Means, which may have played a part in the NCAA's investigation. There are some factual discrepancies here and there, but if you're looking for an introduction to SEC football, this is a great place to start...for those of you that are already big fans, there may not be much here for you.

To the guy in Bradenton: Before you start ranting about the author's lack of geographic knowledge, you might want to do some fact finding of your own. Hartsfield (not Hartsville) is the name of Atlanta's (international) airport.

Ernsberger might as well have written about women's volleyball in the SEC since he's got at the very least 10 factual errors that I uncovered. Calling Kevin Faulk "Marshall" Faulk twice and Nick Saban "Lou" is unforgivable and that is why he gets a big NEGATIVE from me. I am a big Bama supporter as well and I found his commentary regarding the Capstone to be orange-biased.
Maybe Mr. Ernsberger should be wearing convict orange on the cover? Don't bother folks. Save the $ for tickets.

The author, and many others, will argue that the SEC is *the* conference for college football. It is a conference of strong rivalries and tough attitude. It's also, as Ernsberger looks at, a conference of athletes who happen to be students, rather than the collegiate student-athlete. He brings up the warts - problems with recruiting, low graduation rates, questionable ethics with athletic departments overseeing athlete tutoring. But these are more of a bookend to the story - a story of rivalry, of politics, of winning above everything else. This is where the heart of the book is, and where Ernsberger comes across as the privelaged observer, rather than someone with an axe to grind. He's not in awe of everything, but he's not out to rip back the veneer of college football either.

Arguably, the book does have it's leanings. Only about half the conference is really explored with many of the schools getting the short shrift and barely a mention. But if you have never been to a big SEC rivalry game, he tries to capture the mood both inside and outside the stadium. You see the lead up to the Auburn-Alabama game (though strangely, he never seems to refer to it by it's common moniker of the Iron Bowl), and the Cocktail Party (Georgia vs. Florida). One of the strengths of the book is that he spends time with all level of participants in this spectacle - the players themselves, the caching staff, the boosters, the administration, the fans and the alumni. The picture drawn shows that everyone is partially to blame for the state the conference is in.

As a passive spectator of the SEC especially after moving to Atlanta, Ernsberger drew together a lot of what swirls around into a coherent package. Everything you need to know? No. A damning expose? No. An interesting overview - yes. This is why you want to read the book.

Racism has been an impediment in living up to our ideals as a democracy. It will continue to be a sensitive and volatile issue here in America unless we make an effort to eliminate it. The authors have done a formidable job in reframing the problem in a way to help us trancend it, come together and work toward a solution to what W.E.B. DuBois called the problem of the 20th century. It's a difficult book but well worth the effort!

Because it's the best book about race relations in America since Ellison's masterpiece of fifty years ago. By "race relations" I mean blacks and whites, as Ellison would have meant the words. But The Miner's Canary is about much more, it's about all-minority-cultures and whites in America. And in direct opposition to the color-blind solution the Supreme Court has decided the Constitution requires, the book's authors esteem and celebrate and find strength, including political strength, in our separate cultural identities -- including the separate (non-oppressive) cultural identities of whites.

When I put The Miner's Canary down, I wished I had read the Acknowledgments first, then the chapter "by" Torres. This is a difficult book, it has many authors, and the voice I identify as Ms. Guinier's seems sometimes to address junior high school students and other times to address law professors. So the book has many levels of analysis, and it treats its central topic -- political race -- from many angles. These are not shortcomings, but they add up to a very demanding book.

The book's real-life examples, however, are all wonderful and all one -- compelling and utterly elucidating. And the long illustration of how Greek democracy in action would look if it followed American districting and apportionment rules is simply surpassing wonderful.

Then there's the book's immediacy. The Nobel Prize winning econometrician Robert Fogel has emphasized the roles of technology and religious activism in America's movements for social justice, relegating progressivism to the status of an adjunct to the latter. The Miner's Canary, on the other hand, puts the struggle for social justice squarely within the politics of progressivism. This is not necessarily inconsistent with Fogel (whatever one thinks of the validity of his argument), assuming Fogel's subject is movements in the past before about 1980 when the Big Sleep set in -- which it is -- and assuming The Miner's Canary is describing developments since about 1980, which it is. The book says something new has been happening, and it started being more than unrelated occurrences about twenty five years ago. This new thing Guinier and Torres call political race.

The ambition, originality and insights of this book far outweigh its difficulties due to multiple voices and an "un-ironed out" presentation. I give it five stars.

A bold call for bringing people together and transforming society. If you are class conscious and anti-racist read this book, it will be worth the challenge.

I know that professors from Harvard and UT are smart, but do they really feel the need to express this in their writing? The entire first chapter of this book is nothing but fluff, using nearly incomprehensible $5 words. The authors do not get their point across in a clear and concise manner and the rest of the book suffers because of this. Do not buy this book.

Guiner and Torres write pedantically with little organization or cohesion. Although the anecdotes were interesting, the authors' arguments reek of indolent emotionalism rather than theory and sound policy.

I realize this is a critical review. I try to be fair to all viewpoints, but this vacuous work warrants these harsh words. Gerald Torres was a visiting professor at Harvard, where his indifferent attitude to his own class and examination live on in infamy. He is not proficient at conveying information.

In short, while Torres and Guiner intended to write a mentally stimulating book, this work is instead mind numbing. Spend your money on another book. For alternate reading on race theory, try "Unequal Treatment: A Study in the Neoclassical Theory of Discrimination" by Lundahl and Wadensjo.

Since I work with a wide variety of ages, upper elementary through adult, I found this book to be a valuable resource. A lot of the activities are geared more toward the adult side, but I have very successfully adapted several of the activities to the younger aduience. The section at the beginning of the book with the How-To's for facilitators presents some excellent advice. The activities are categorized very nicely, and the lay-out of the activities themselves is very similar to an educator's lesson plan, which I also think is a big plus.

Although there is a lot of information packed into this book, I was very unimpressed with the layout and visual design. It looks like it was typed up in 1970. The graphics are ancient and the layout is just one big binder with no cross-referencing or indexing available. To find a useful game, you have to sift through hundreds of pages. It really is a shame, as there are some clever games here to loosen up an audience.
Frankly for this price, I expected something a bit flashier and filled with reproducibles that I would want to copy and hand out. The way it looks now, and with it's unwieldy format, it's going to sit on my shelf.
If I hadn't spilled water on it, I would have sent it back for a refund.

This is a great tool of Trainers. Keeping your trainees engaged throughout the training is always a challenge. This tool give creative ways to assess retention of information. The games are great and the administrative forms and suggestions are wonderful.

The best thing about The Complete Games Trainers Play is its sheer size. Actually, it isn't nearly as big as some reviews imply. It is really around 1000 pages, not 2000+. And for some reason, a significant percentage of those pages are left blank. But even with that caveat, this is still a sizable resource.

If you are willing to devote 30+ minutes to finding an activity, you are sure to find one (or five) that are ideal for your training event. The fact that individual "games" can be removed from the ring binder is also helpful. This allows you to use the activities without carrying the whole book around, and to easily photocopy sheets for individual participants as some activities require.

However, there are some significant downsides. There is no real way to find appropriate activities without flipping through virtually the entire book. A large number of the activities aren't very good. And, most of the book is in a strange "typewriter" typeface that makes it look like it came from 1972. (Oddly, there are some pages which are randomly sprinkled through the book that use a different, more recent-looking typeface.)

To really upgrade its usefulness, Games . . . would benefit from taking a leap into the computer age. In other words, along with the printed book, a computer CD should be included. This could feature a good, searchable index, which is now lacking. It would also make it possible to print out games, and modify handouts on the computer to your organization's needs.

I've never bought any other resources like this, so I can't say if this is better or worse than others. I can say that in spite of the steep price and the drawbacks, I'm definitely glad I purchased it. It was very useful to me, and will be again in the future. However, there are a few simple steps the authors and publishers could take to greatly improve it.

People love playing games a lot more than listening to lectures; this is indisputable. I didn't like all of the games listed here, but so what. Several I found helpful and intend to use.

A stated in some of these other reviews, you will not get anything from this book that you could not easily access online. I was hoping for some information like a quick reference to icons on WebEx, how to set up and save polls, etc. Nothing like this there. You could write this book after spending about 2 hours reviewing online materials.

My company signed on to webex. I figured I should know a little more just in case people need help.

Overall it's a decent book. It will give you a back ground on the product and it will walk you through the steps of setting up a meeting. It explains the tools such as white boards that are available.

The book even breaks the meetings into types such as training, sales and and product marketing.

There is one chapter for administrating it which I am not sure it was needed as the admin stuff is rather small.

One thing I thought was odd was a chapter on the top 10 question for tech support and then there was a FAQ. Seemed like a duplication of information.

Overall its a good book but I am not sure it's needed especially as a reference. Webex has many online resources and even offer training that covers much of the information presented.

This book could answer questions about webex, especially if you are considering it.

I purchased this book because I was scheduled to do online training through WebEx. This book was absolutely no help at all. It essentially gave a brief exposure to the WebEx system and interface and then filled the rest of the pages with a bunch of nothing.

This is typical of every "for Dummies" book I have seen. My recommendation for anyone planning on using WebEx as a trainer or a student: Don't waste your time or money on this book. You'll do far better downloading WebEx' online training resources.

The only reason I bought this book was that it is the only book on WebEx I could find. I just wish someone had warned me not to waste my money as I am warning you.

Webex is a fantastic tool, to be sure. But this book is a waste of time. The online learning tools at webex.com are a lot better that this book. It reads more like an ad for the product that a useful reference guide. The product is so easy to use that this book is really unnecessary.

Now, if you REALLY are a dummy, this book might be helpful to you in some ways (so I gave it 2 stars). But I'd recommend you use the online tutorials at Webex, or join one of their online live meetings.

This book was great. I'm new to WebEx, in fact new to web conferencing. I was a little intimidated at first, but got through my first few web conferences without any problems. (The Webex interface is really simple and intuitive.) What this book did was empower me with the knowledge of how to run really effective meetings online. Yes, it covers the basics well, but the real value was in learning all the additional capabilities Webex has available. For example, I learned about the integrated audio conferencing controls, the simple integration with outlook and some awesome video conferencing capabilities. As with all the Dummies book, its a quick read (gotta love the big font size and pictures).

I recommend this book to anyone who has purchsed Webex or is is close to a web conferencing purchase.

This guide is written by dozens of volunteers who actually hike the sections of trail they report on each year. This is the only AT guide that has first-hand knowledge of the trail every year. If you want second-hand, outdated, and fictional information you should use Wingfoot's book. The Companion lists all the services along the AT, not just the ones that have paid a fee to be listed. Get the Companion, it's the complete guide!

The Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiker's Companion appears each year in late winter, just in time for it to be used by those planning extended trips on the Trail. It is a joint effort of two fine hiking organizations, The Appalachian Trail Conference, and The Appalachian Long-Distance Hiker's Ass'n.

Updated, improved, expanded, and fact-checked each year, the Companion contains vital information for those planning to spend serious ammounts of time on the A.T., and is incredibly useful for those contemplating, or actually preparing, a thru-hike of the entire Trail.

In a concise, easy to use format, the Companion covers the Trail from Georgia to Maine, containing information on Trail features, highlights, campsites, shelters, water sources, points of interest, and natural and local history. In addition, the Companion contains detailed information on Trail facilities and services, including road crossings and access points; location of stores and re-supply opportunities; lodging places catering to hikers; restaurants; outfitters; medical clinics; banks; ATM locations; etc. Do you want to know where to get camping fuel along the Trail? How about an inexpensive motel or an all-you-can-eat restaurant? Need to know where to get your gear fixed or replaced? Internet access possibilities? How about where you can receive mail from home? Information such as this, and much more, can be found in the Companion, as well as updated maps of principal Trail Towns. All of this makes the Companion incredibly useful for those planning their trips, and wondering about where to stop, where to camp; where to re-supply or take a break; the book also comes in incredibly handy DURING your trip, as it tells you what lies ahead on the next stretch of Trail.

Another great advantage of the Companion is that it is put together annually by a dedicated group of long-distance hikers who all have extensive, recent experience of the sections they're discussing; most of the book's editors have hiked the Trail in its entirety in recent years, which gives them great authority in discussing conditons on the Trail, and how it has changed over the years. The information contained here-in has been gathered and checked by contemporary hikers who are superbly qualified to share their experience with others.

I am presently planning my seventh traverse of the entire AT. Both before I leave, and after my journey has started, I would not consider hiking without this book; the Companion improves each year, and in appearing improved, and appearing on time each year, it has clearly established itself as THE book to have if you're planning any serious ammount of time on the A.T.

This is the best guide for A.T. hikers period.

I am thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail right now (today I'm resting in town and using a computer at a church). I started with this book and found that it did not work well for me on the AT. It has lots of stuff that just isn't needed by a thru-hiker which makes it sooooooo heavy and it is hard to follow. I switched to wingfoot's handbook, which is more condensed and to the point. I got criticized by some people who were using this one, but it's one of the best things I have done to make my thru-hike successful so far. I threw my companion away and haven't regretted it. Get a handbook!

The Companion has a lot of information, but most of it is designed for people who are interested in things that are in towns or off the Appalachian Trail, not for thru-hikers. It is harder to follow than the other guides, and is sometimes confusing in that it rates places based on only a few people's feedback it seems. If you are planning to do a thru-hike and want to do mostly hiking and not touring towns, then I would use The Thru-hiker Handbook by Wingfoot. It is easier to follow and doesn't try to tell you everything, just what you need as a thru-hiker. I traded my Companion for Wingfoot's book and never regretted it.