Sports and Hobbies Books

I have been an independent scrapbooking consultant and informant for over 3 years now. I own over one hundred punches, and have been doing punch art for over 2 years. I also own almost every punch art book available on the market. In my opinion, Punch Your Art Out 3 offers more quality and useful content than any punch art book published yet. The book contains great information, beautiful and vibrant pictures, and examples which are exciting and easy to follow. This book is worth so much more than I paid for it. It is definitely a keeper. I just can't seem to stop picking it up and looking at it over and over!

I love Volume 1 of this series. It has simple, easy to create products. This volume contains much more time intensive projects. Even my avid scrapbook buddies agree that this book is definately not as good as the first one.

I have been an independent scrapbooking consultant and informant for over 3 years now. I own over one hundred punches, and have been doing punch art for over 2 years. I also own almost every punch art book available on the market. In my opinion, Punch Your Art Out 3 offers more quality and useful content than any punch art book published yet. The book contains great information, beautiful and vibrant pictures, and examples which are exciting and easy to follow. This book is worth so much more than I paid for it. It is definitely a keeper. I just can't seem to stop picking it up and looking at it over and over!

I have enjoyed paper crafts for some time now, but one thing I thought I would avoid is using punches. I thought that they may be complicated to work with or I didn't know how to get mroe out of them. This book is SUPER about showing all sorts of ways to decorate with punches. My favorite feature is "One Punch" pages, where a single punch is shown used several different ways. A must buy for paper crafters!

Ship Modeling from Scratch: Tips and Techniques for Building Without Kits
A very good supplemental book for building a model ship from scratch. It has detailed suggestions that aren't found in many other books or articles. Edw. Leaf knows his stuff and covers all major topics in modeling w/o a kit. He does provide "tips and techniques" as the subtitle says, just not quite enough to start scratch building w/o several other sources that go into more depth in important topics/skills.

I am new to scratch boat building and this is a basic book about it. It has many helpful hints that are very usefull. It is a beginners book. Easy to read and understand.

There are a lot of forums on the NET that describe in detail on how to scratch-build, but I was looking for something basic.

An excellent book.

I find the book a good introduction to the concepts, but a bit lite in detail.

I purchased this book several years past. This Amazon.com reviewer is an avid ship modeler. I use this book nearly constantly. I give this book five stars.

Now, this book was written in 1993. So, there are no web sites for reference nor is there a more recent write up. If a person is interested in making a scratch built ship they should surf onto the steelnavy.com web site. Steel Navy is known as one of the best web references for ship building. Museum quality ships from the world have pictures on that page. If you want American warship plans then surf to "Maryland Silver". They have nearly all of the ship plans of the modern Navy. Furthermore, they have plans for most of the pre-1880 (modern Navy) ships. Last, a fair source of ship plans is Ebay. One vendor on Ebay sells quite warships and Great Lakes vessels. If you are making a modern ship and need fittings the web sites to check out are H&R Products, Blue Jacket Ship Models, and The Scale Shipyard. All three web locations have lots of fittings for ships.

Now, back to this book.

This book covers all necessary steps for a ship modeler. The first chapter is on getting correct plans. If your plans are off then what is the point? The second chapter covers making the keel, ribs (frames), and then planking the ship. The rest of the chapters follow in logical progression. The chapters vary from rigging your model if you have a sailing ship to building a superstructure for a modern ship. Note, there are two complete sets of plans in the back of the book. One for a sailing ship and another for a simple cargo steamer. I didn't build either because this modeler makes battleships.

Speaking of battleships, the book gives quite a bit of information on constructing a South Carolina class battleship. The South Carolina class is semi-famous in model circles. The first ship of the class, BB-27, the USS Michigan, has extensive model construction articles written about it in this book. Now, the chapter on Cage Mast Construction is about the only major book that has been published that covers this topic. Cage Masts were found on every battleship made in the USA from about 1910 to 1920. Cage Masts are seen on many of the battleships, like the USS Tennessee, at Pearl Harbor. So, it's very good that a major book tells how to make a cage mast. Note, the chapter on Cage Mast construction will advise a builder to make a jig for the mast. Furthermore, it's advisable that no cage mast be made that is smaller than 1/144th scale.

The book also gives advise on the cutting of wood, plastics, and metal. Furthermore, there is suggestions by the author on what type of wood cutting machines to buy, such as a table saw, and what sort of finishing tool to purchase. The hobby of ship modelling is a lot easier if you have a Demel tool.

The book had lots of little helpful items. It give basic instructions for making a deadeye. Port holes, very necessary for a making a convincing ship, are covered in this book. If you don't want to follow the advise you can get fair portholes from either H & R Products or Blue Jacket.

The only thing that isn't really covered in this book is making a boat radio controlled. You'll have to get another book if you wish to RC your beloved museum quality ship.

I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have. This book should be studies by any body who wishes to make their first scratch built model. Note, there are no large scale commercial models of Great Lakes steamers or Pre-WWII battleships. So, if you want to build a nice model battleship of the USS Florida you'll have to get the plans from Maryland Silver, the fitting from H & R Products, and read this book to learn the knowledge necessary for making that model.

Best wishes, fellow ship builder, on reading this book. You'll enjoy your purchase. I look forward to hearing about your question on steelnavy.com .

This book is worth all five stars.

I used this Klutz instruction book for a "Women's Group" activity at my clinic. It gave us easy to follow instructions and great visual aids that helped to spark creativity. The project turned out very good and we all had fun! Now I am pressing flowers at home with my grandchildren!

This book is really cool! It has basic information on pressing flowers and leaves and a whole lot of good ideas for using your flowers once you have them all pressed. One example: using flowers and leaves to make letters and spell out your name. The photos are excellent, and the book is full of color. It is written in a fun, conversational tone, although some of the instructions are slightly more complicated than they really need to be. My only complaint would be that the book doesn't seem to be quite long enough. I got to the end and wanted a little bit more. Besides that, this book is inspiring, fun, and entertaining, and a great introduction into the world of flower pressing!

This is more of a what to do with the pressed flowers than a how to press flowers book. There are many great craft ideas and materials to get yo started. The actual press limits you to two sheets of pressings, but is a good start for kids.

This book is verry enjoyable. I think kids as well as adults would enjoy doing this.

my three year old son loves this book he wants to know who all the characters are and he loves to tell them back to you. this book has been wonderful!!

I love Batman the Animated Series. When I heard of this book, I immeadietly bought it. You'll data on every character from the series and what episodes they first appeared in. Some of the pictures are photo shots from the series. Great for Batman fans.

I grew up watching this series, and fell in love with Batman because of it. The moment I saw a preview of the pages for Nightwing and Harley Quinn (my favorite characters) I rushed to order this. However, I was a bit disappointed. I'm used to the "Ultimate Guide to ---" Books and was expecting this book to be just as detailed. It is very thin, and not very specific. This book is great for people and kids who know very little about the series and want to get acquainted. For true fans, its not even necessary. Only major characters are covered. I would have been more impressed if a character like Rupert Thorne's accomplice Candace would have gotten a page. I don't see why not, she appeared in multiple episodes. However, in this book, Rupert himself only get a paragraph on the "Other Villians" page. An episode guide would have also been nice. The most you get here is a list of where each major character first appeared. I hope a more detailed book will appear in the future.

My title is not taken in vain. Beckett's is the essential authority on the subject of football sports cards. Released updated every year it provides the latest price information required to maintain either one's collection or inventory. Eric

I needed a new price guide and I wanted a very recent one. I figured I could wait until 2001 but I desided I would get it now(this guide is great quality and has all of my cards listed in itand I have tons of cards!).

The Beckett Guides are the most popular guides in the world, bar none. And what I've always liked about Beckett is the depth of information contained in his guides. With this one, you get listings of sets from as far back as the late 1800's to 2001. Now please note before I go any further, if you buy this guide and by chance your card or set is not listed, it does not mean your card(s) are worthless, it simply means that what you have may not currently be receiving alot of market activity, or may be a card or cards that aren't currently known to exist. You must realize there are virtually thousands of sets on the market and newer ones coming out every week by various companies, so it is almost impossible to keep up with every one produced. So Beckett concentrates on sets that are both known to exist and have heavy market activity. Oh and one more thing, if you have rubber bands around your cards, please get rid of them. Go to your local card shop or go online and get some card holders. Condition is a key element in a cards worth, and rubber bands can cause severe damage to cards. Now, as for this book, Beckett has sets listed in ABC order and lists the individual cards of the set. So if you are putting together a set, and you see yours listed in this guide, you have the perfect checklist to keep up with what you do and do not have. For each set listed, there's a little bit of information included, and there may be production numbers included in the trivia. Beckett shows you how to collect, how to preserve your cards, how to determine condition, shares football card terminology, and has other interesting facts about football card collecting. Ahh to go to a game and load up on hotdogs. Collecting football cards brings me back to the time when I was in high school and went to the games to pull for my home team (and yes, I ate a lot of hot dogs then too). Collecting football cards make me think about the times when me and my dad would watch a game together, screaming at the players to run run run. So as I'm sure you already know, collecting football cards for most people is more than just an investment. And when I look through this Beckett guide, I see lots of cards that came out when I was younger, and they bring me back to a time(The late 60's, The 70's, and early 80's) when playing football was one of the things I loved to do the most. Beckett guides have remained the most sought after guides since the 80's and are used the world over. Some of the brands of cards you will find in this edition include Fleer, Upper Deck, Topps, Score, Playoff, and Donruss. Again, there are many other brands listed in the guide, but these are some of the most heavily traded ones. This book is a valuable tool for any true football card collector.

My 2.5 yr old loved this product. The pages are thick and hold up fairly well to the abuse of a toddler. Very colorful pages. Great product for toddlers to practice their motor skills. It is also nice because the book is bound and you do not have to worry about loose pages.

This is a classic lace-up book. Amazon recommends it for ages 4 to 8. I think ages 3 to 5 will be more appropriate. A typical eight year old is going to find it a real "baby" book.

The Klutz line of books are wonderful. I highly recommend them. They encourage development of artistic skills and are great for development of fine motor skills.

I once brought this book with me when I was babysitting the neighber's kids and OMG did they have a ball with it! They loved being able to create art with their finger tips! The only downside is that the ink stays on your fingers for a few days. It was a little embarressing when I went to the school dance and all my fingers were green! Oh well though I still had a blast!

This book and the others like it keep my 37 month old son occupied (no, thrilled!) for quite a long time. He really loves them.

The inks wash off really easily - so don't worry about messy fingers.

First off, this book is mistakenly categorized under age range of "baby-preschool" - the book clearly reads "age 4 and up" on the back. This is a nifty kit for drawing funny cartoon people using thumb prints. There is a little stamp pad and pen and a spiral flip book. The page flips up so that on top is a demonstration page showing how to make a thumb print into a muscle man, or someone half-under water, or Frankenstein- then there is a blank page underneath so the child (or child-at-heart) can try it. The book is small and would be good for kids who are traveling. I bought it for a boy who is reluctant to draw and I thought this might peak his interest.

Good book, good illustrations
But the illustrator of the book is Bill Beavis, not Bill Beans.

It took amazon four weeks to deliver this book. I am very reluctant to do business with amazon again

This is a great starting point for a journey into knot tying. It just contains the basics and a little on splicing. I would recommend it to any begginer

This book will be a five star if I ever become better, but I thought this was going to be more ready with the hints and work you up in levels.

Simply the best cross sums I've ever done. Cross sums (Kakuro) fans will be positively giddy with this collection! I was sorry it came to the end.

very well thought out book of kakuro puzzles. the table in back
is an exhaustive set of combinations for every number of squares.
puzzles are challenging, perhaps not a good first book of kakuro
as the 243 puzzles are challenging (even the beginning ones), as
the title says.

This is a good book to help you devise your own system and not necessarily tell you how to do it. It has very good discussion on bank roll management, and you can use this book to accentuate and validate a system you have devised yourself.

I have searched and searched for a book which describes how to generate a winning betting strategy. This book tells you about the reality of sports betting and not the fact that you will win 70% of your games. It is a practical explination of all the steps and mathmatical calculations to help you understand what sports betting is about. I wish I read this book prior to my first sports bet. It explains how to research the wager and all the backend work that you need to do to evaluate a value bet. If you wanted to understand the mathmatics behind the process of betting then this is the book for you.

As a sportbettor for the better part of the last 8 years this book has more of college statistics text book feel to it.. I have a Bach in civil engineering and took classes covered these very same topics in great depth.. this book could be way over the heads of a lot of people with little to no statistical background.. i was dissapointed as it is mainly aimed to soccer and Money lines, which is hard to apply to my 2 most bet sports, (hoops and football).. i have been attempting to learn MLB and risk analysis of future wagers and this book has helped clear a few things up.. THIS IS NOT A HOW TO HANDICAP BOOK, but it does help you point out 'value' bets out, which should be included with capping a game... so in short if you love excel and statistics this book is for you.. if you gamble by feel or are just looking for a niche this book is not for you...

Great data and usuage of stastical modeling