Alexander Technique Books

If, like me, you stumbled upon this book thinking it was a companion to "Concrete Mathematics" (CM) by Graham, Knuth and Patashnik, you will be disappointed. I was interested in getting a book with more examples and problems to work with along the lines of CM. Since this book was published in 1973 and CM in 1989, I should have made the (lack of) connection. :-)

That said, this seems like a fine book; it arrived this afternoon and I have leafed through it. It's intended purpose is, like CM, to present the reader with concrete, i.e. non-abstract, methods for dealing with various mathematical topics. It does seem to cover some of the same topics as CM but in an entirely different way.

Once I've worked through the book a bit more, I'll revise this review.

To reiterate, if you're looking for a companion book to "Concrete Mathematics", this is not the book you are looking for.

I have only just begun to teach children from the age of 6 and up, so I am always looking for useful information and, more importantly, step-by-step instructions for them to follow. While this book isn't a step-by-step book, it does give a good overview of projects in a variety of mediums and that is certainly a great resource for me. It is a book that I will pull off the shelf time and again to refresh my classes as it has plenty of suggestions that inspire multiple projects.

While this is a very good document, it isn't the ART book I had hoped it would be. As an artist, I learn far more visually than I do from all the talking. I wanted a book of plates with some discription. I got a lot of expensive discription and not very many illustrations and even fewer close-ups and details. If you are an illuminator, this may not be the book you want it to be. If you are looking for a history book, I'm sure it will be a nice addition to your library.

The author seems to have no idea of real practical management and intercultural issues of China today. Moreover he uses a very academic, abstract way to explain his quiet strange assumtions how to handle management issues in China.

QUOTATIONS FROM ACADEMIC REVIEWS OF THE BOOK

1. QUOTATIONS FROM "ASIAN BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT"

"We have a work that far surpasses most of the 'Art-of-x-Management' genre in a most important and fundamental aspect: providing empirical testing of theoretical statements with rigorous attention to validity and reliability. As such, it is a standard to which few of this rather impressionistic-based genre have ever aspired." (p. 132).

"The theoretical background and interpretation are exemplary cases of the use of statistical analysis for the generation and testing of hypotheses. The strongest feature of this book is the detailed quantitative analysis and explanation of the author's hypotheses. In effect, Professor Schlevogt's entire thought processes are exposed to analytical gaze ?" (p. 132).

"The book is a remarkable attempt at synthesizing and theorizing one particular 'management culture'." (p. 132)

"Schlevogt's unique contribution in this field is two-fold. First, he has synthesized a great deal of thinking on management culture in general, and the Chinese data in particular. Second, he has put that analysis on a firm quantitative and statistical basis, and helped bring about an approach that generates testable hypotheses from the often rather 'fuzzy' and impressionistic data and analysis more commonly provided in books of this type." (p. 132)

"The scope, of the target audience as well as the material, makes it a mine of information, and, as the author intended, potential basis for a variety of future research efforts. Second, the analytical paradigm, though it has its flaws, is a useful and energetic (if I may use the term) business tool. Third, it illuminates and compresses apart of business that is often ignored or, in the Western view, made marginal." (pp. 133-4).

"Schlevogt's slant, which departs radically from the disinterested bureaucracy model, is thus both thought-provoking ('nepotism' is bad, we learn from Weber; 'family enterprise' is solid managerial practice, we learn from Confucius and Schlevogt) and refreshing." (p. 134)

"If indeed, as Schlevogt claims, the most successful businesses in China are based on his Chinese management model, then it behoves any businessman in China to read this book with great care." (p. 134).

"Knowing how Chinese enterprises work, and how cooperation and competition with them is to be managed, is a useful tool in any businessman's kit, and the book offers many useful guidelines in that direction". (p. 134)

All quotations from:

Book review by Michael Ashkenazi. 2004. The art of Chinese management: Theory, evidence and applications. Asian Business & Management. Vol. 3, No. 1 (March), pp. 131-134.

2. QUOTATIONS FROM "ASIA PACIFIC BUSINESS REVIEW"

"Professor Schlevogt has put together a comprehensive guide to Chinese management. The book is one of the most important works written on the subject. Academics, students, and practitioners will find the text intriguing, inspiring, and informative."

"Much of the strength of the book comes from a writing style that integrates academic reasoning with journalistic writing. I have greatly enjoyed reading the many eye-catching textual highlights that appear throughout the text, like 'China is the ultimate test ground for leadership skills and a company?s ability to excel in other nonstructured situations? If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere!'"

"The book offers many useful managerial implications (see ?The Ten Golden Rules?, p. 209-237). The discussions, though brief, about the key success factors in different regions (p. 242-245) are particularly valuable. ?The government is king in the north? (p. 243) and ?Networks are the name of the game in the south? (p. 244) are among Schlevogt?s advice for succeeding in the Chinese market."

All quotations from:

Book review by Fang, Tony. 2003. The art of Chinese management: Theory, evidence, and applications (by Kai-Alexander Schlevogt, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. xiii, 398 pp.), Asia Pacific Business Review, 10(1): 112-114.

The author seems to have no idea of real practical management and intercultural issues of China today. Moreover he uses a very academic, abstract way to explain his quiet strange assumtions how to handle management issues in China.

This is a repositioning of Dr. Schlevogt's dissertation (published by dissertation.com) and also available on amazon.com. The great bulk of this book, including data and theory dates from 1999.

The book covers some interesting theoretical ground and applies contingency theory or understanding "fit" between success in China and organizational structure.

It would have been nice if some of the implications for success were developed further -- indeed, the advise given, such as "adaptability", should prove successful for organizations anywhere, not necessarily Chinese! Yet, the author also argues that this idea of adaptability is one that has been exported from China to the West! Also contingency theory is almost a dead avanue of study. The author's use of cross-sectional surveys is even more questionable as the book looks at change.

One thing I found disturbing is that the author took several concepts from "New Asian Emperors", (Haley, Tan and Haley, 1998), include action-driven decision-making and experience-based planning, yet gave no credit to this classic study of Overseas Chinese business practices. Indeed, many of the author's management ideas are presented far better in this book!

This book also appears schizophrenic, swaying wildly between gushing about China's great contribution to Western philosophy, and attempts at a more academic tone with data and statistics. I found self-congratulatory statements such as "These findings allow for groundbreaking, statistical generalizations previously unknown in the field" particularly irritating. It would have been helpful if the author had been more honest, or more thorough, in the presentation of his literature survey.

Pass on this book. I would recommend John Child or George Haley as alternative auhors who cover the same terrain with less gushing, more practical implications and a more balanced approach.

The work provides a plethora of survival techniques to be employed in hostile natural settings. i.e. deserts, moist zones and frigid
areas

The work explains how to construct underground shelters to withstand decreased temperatures and bad weather. Sample survival
foods are cited. i.e. Acacia, agave, baobab, date palm, amaranth,
wild gourd, carob and prickly pear. The book cautions against
the dangers of wild snakes like the venom of a mojave rattlesnake.
The author cites a number of tropical plants which are ideal for
consumption; namely, mango, nippa palm, sago palm, sugar palm ,
taro and the water lily. The work would be helpful for anyone
planning to live outdoors for any extended time period. The
information content would be invaluable for city dwellers
generally unfamiliar with comparative outdoor environments.

This book is pretty bad. For one thing, while the pictures are interesting (pictures always are) they are incomplete, not showing the details one would need to understand how to implement them. Examples like, on the snares, the trip mechanisms are just impossible to see and he doesn't explain them well. Put it this way...if you were lost and had this book with you, you'd starve, freeze to death, or dehydrat by the time you figured out what he was trying to tell you.

The pictures associated with finding true north using your watch and the sun for example, he has (as far as I can tell) juxtexposed the one for "if you are in the northern hemisphere" with "if you are in the southern hemisphere" which would make you go exactly wrong...either the text is wrong or the pictures.

This is like this all over in the book. There are sentences that are confusingly written, sometimes obvious sections where he just left the sentence dangle...like in "surviving natural disasters/ tornados/action/inside there is one sentence all by itself (with a bullet) "If you are in a mobile home or trailer."
That's IT!

This is a terrible book. It could even be worse than not having any book. It tries to cover too much (which I wouldn't hold against it if it had made up for it with good information, well written for generalities. The sections on navigating is unfathomable and I KNOW some techniques.

The author should have gotten an editor that could read, and they should have given the book to a novice, or even someone with some experience and gotten feedback.

There are a few tips in there that are interesting and useful. But this book really is not usable as it is.

If the author thinks because he includes every climate zone and briefly touches each subject makes his book an encyclopedia he is dead wrong. The information is very basic at best but includes nice drawings. Reading the section on primitive firemaking for example I doubt the author ever did it by himself (I did). He mentioned a lot of friction methods but omitted (as usual) the important details for success. If you want a real encyclopedia John Wiseman's SAS Survival Book would be a better choice.

Even at this low price, the book is a huge disappointment. As a previous reviewer wrote, the book is spiral bound and all of 32 pages but it is good quality paper.

There are some nice clear pictures but there are multiple pictures on each page. So each picture is too small to be worth much.

If you are looking for a book with a very shallow introduction to various painting and drawing techniques, this is just OK.

If you want a book with a lot more substance, I recommend that you look elsewhere.

This brief introduction to the topic is informative and well-made, but some parents may want to take a look before buying for their kids.

When I opened this I was pleased to find that, as I'd hoped, the publisher had indeed made some effort to print this book well. Witness the spiral binding that allows the pages to lie flat, for instance. Pictures look great, and the paper has a good, sturdy feel.

The layout does get a little crowded here and there, but generally things are explained well, and many subtopics are covered. So I was very enthusiastic to find such a book at a bargain price, but there is one editorial decision that potentially upsets the whole apple cart.

One page shows a 15th century trompe l'oeil ceiling painting from an Italian palace. As one looks up toward the ceiling, one gets the impression of looking up past a series of balconies and ledges, to the sky somewhat distantly above it all.

Since it was the 15th century and all, the painter perched several little boy cherubim (angels) on some of those ledges, wearing wings -- but no clothes. And since we're below them, we're looking straight up at their... well, just figure it out.

The author was careful not to describe them as angels (thus removing complex Renaissance religious notions from the discussion). But he evidently did not think young readers would notice, or snicker over, or otherwise get distracted, by the unusual and unexpected view of those little angels', um, equipment.

In fact, the book's designer was so enamored of his Photoshop skills that he chose to print that painting *twice* on the same page! The second, and closer, view is part of an elaborate, somewhat cutesy and unnecessary "illumination" of the page's heading text.

One doesn't want to be unnecessarily prudish, especially when discussing art, after all. But there is a lot of "fine art" that one might not want to share with a kid until he/she is in the upper reaches of grade school or middle school, at least. So, perhaps we'll have to put this book away for a few years, or find something else to replace it.

For parents bold enough to ignore those concerns... the text in this book is probably accessible to a third grader and up, if a grownup is nearby to explain some of the longer words. The pictures are, of course, interesting to look at by themselves. So I'd think that parents might be able to share it with children of nearly any age by reading the text to them, then turning the kids loose.

A very, very short book with very, very few words, and very, very many pictures.

If you having Alexander lessons from a real a teacher, this book MIGHT be helpful. If you want to know what the Technique is about, and why having lessons is a very good idea, try Chris Stevens' "Alexander Technique," Michael Gelb's "Body Learning," and/or Frank Pierce Jones' "Freedom to Change."

i'm a second-year D.O. student right now, and we were required to purchase this (very overpriced) book for our OMT class.

it's nice to have a full-color atlas of techniques, but the pros of this book stop there.

in nearly every lab, we are told about another omission or typographical error. not all of the techniques that we are required to learn are in the book. to make it even more confusing, the techniques are organized by type instead of region. this makes no sense since the labs are taught by region. it's much easier to understand the progression from a muscle energy technique to an HVLA technique if you don't have to flip 60-some pages and try to find the next technique. also, some of the explanations of the techniques are a bit confusing.

finally, there is no explanation for how the techniques work. there is a little blurb at the beginning of each chapter to explain some basic principles of the type of technique (e.g. for muscle energy, PIR vs reciprocal inhibition), but it would be much more helpful to explain with each technique exactly HOW it is improving the dysfunction (i.e., which m muscles or joints are being engaged)

this book has the potential to be good, but it needs to go through a few revisions first.

An example of fluff would be his treatment of the carpenter, mercury 7 flight. There was more to it then "as he twirled around in space....his fuel began to run out". Read carpenters book, "for spacious skies", or slayton's "deke!'. don't pay attention to chris craft's "flight".

This book was such a disappointment and misleading. It does NOT explain how to apply the Alexander Technique at all. It says you MUST go to a practitioner. It is one long advertisement. The cover shows positions and says 'A step-by-step guide'. Wrong, totally wrong. I find it unbelievable that a publisher would publish this. Don't waste a dime on this practically worthless book.