Personal Pages Books

I wish everyone had a copy of this book. It's witty, insightful, and uplifting. It has quotes from Virgil to a Navajo song. Many quotes from woen are there, which I also enjoyed. There are many great words of hope and inspiration, in an easily readable form (one quote, per page).

This book really help me to know about myself better than ever before

From getting organized and learning how to prioritize to categorizing time categories and learning how to handle and allot both idle and busy times, SUCCESSFUL TIME MANAGEMENT comes from The Sunday Times' Creating Success' series and packs in solid specifics on the entire process. While SUCCESSFUL TIME MANAGEMENT is a top pick for business libraries at all levels, it also crosses well into the general-interest public lending library, where it will attract any who would learn better time management skills.

This book is great it teaches you all kinds of easy tricks that actually work! Like Nose Breaking!

This book provides a wonderful range of inspirational stories from amazing people who have incorporated balance, mindfulness, living in the present and exercise into their life. The author brings many insights designed to help people work on the emotional and spiritual side of their lives. He discusses meditation, purpose in your life, listening to the heart as well as concepts of manifesting what we want in life.

This is a perfect bed time reading for those times when we need to nurture the soul. There are practical ideas, funny stories, passionate tales from some of the most fascinating people. Please consider giving this gem of a book to your friends, your boss or employees who you care about "having the best in their life."

There is no doubt that James Page is one of Canada's top landscape and wildlife photographers. For this book he set out on a year-long journey across Canada and the United States, photographing prairies through the four seasons. The result is a magnificent document, illustrated with exceptional photographs, some of which will take your breath away. This is a threatened landscape, treated with love and passion. Page's written commentary provides a highly readable accompaniment to the photographs.
As Candace Savage writes in the Forward: "There is a fierceness in his work that I admire, and a fearlessness. He has to be some kind of fool, perhaps a holy one, to be out there with his camera in the half-light of dawn, in the glare of lightning, in the bloodless glow of winter. The wild prairie matters in these images."
As a photographer myself, albeit an enthusiastic amateur, there are few photography books that I have been this impressed by, and I recommend it very highly.

If you're looking for a daily set of life-enriching ideas, look no further than A Year to Enlightenment: 365 Steps to Enriching and Living Your Life. Here are Buddhist meditation principles which are nondenominational in principle and presentation to appeal to a wide audience. Each page holds insight, reflections, meditation and a few 'personal journal' lines. While libraries may not find this completely appropriate - write-ins may occur - any who want to purchase a clear inspirational guide will find it a wonderful collection.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

OK, I'm coming to rails late. I've played with Ruby on and off for about a year. I though it was a bit of a "kitchen sink" language until I got a good kick in the head by Neil Ford.

So this week I picked up this book (version 2) and I started reading it. It is, as far as technical books go, a page turner.

It gives a basic overview and the walks through an example as a tutorial.

I recommend you learn a little Ruby first (not necessary but makes working through the examples more focused on Rails rather than Ruby and Rails).

If you want to learn about Ruby on Rails and get an idea of what web development should be, read this book. THEN, the next time you need to start working on a site for a customer, sit down with them and start developing the site in real-time.

If they don't like Ruby, call it an "executable requirements description". Eventually, they might even think that the solution is good as is. If not, you still have a better explanation of where to go.

After Rails, I'm going back to RSpec and story tests and examine the maturity of developing a Ruby solution using TDD. I'm pretty sure it's already being done, so I just need to get on that learning curve.

This is a GREAT book. Get it, read it, TYPE in the examples - ok maybe download the CSS's and the style-sheet.

WARNING: the material related to OS X installation is a bit out of date. Use macports and install mysql, rb-mysql, rails, ruby (and I'm probably forgetting something), change your path to point to where that stuff got installed (probably /opt/local/bin/) and you'll be good to go - once you get mysql setup. There are some chicken scratchings here: http://schuchert.wikispaces.com/Ruby.RailsConfiguration.OSX, or do a google search. It'll be October 2008 before I actually put up good details, but it'll happen.

Not only is there a great framework to this textbook will introduce you to, but this is written in the perfect balance of interesting style and serious technical content along with compelling example that I've ever seen in any book. I give this book my very highest recommendation and I give the rails framework five stars as well for being an excellent easy to use and very functional framework.

This book seems to cover everything that I'm interested in and is able to adapt to different levels of knowledge that I'm able to arrive at in programming in Ruby language. The book does not insult the reader and while it challenges the reader doesn't over challenge or overwhelm any point. I can only recommend it for my particular demographic of rails newbies, but I think this book will work very well for anyone else who might be more familiar with Ruby and the rails framework.

This book is a great intro to Rails, very readable and easy to understand. It also seems fairly comprehensive. The only downside to this book is that it's not Rails 2.0, so a number of the examples are outdated or don't work with the latest versions of Rails (there were significant changes). I was taking a class in Ruby on Rails, and since we were using Rails 2.0, we had to get "The Rails Way" which covers Rails 2.0 but sucks in comparison to this book. "The Rails Way" is a good book for learning Rails if you already know Rails.

I love the framework, the Agile philosophy and I love how the book is structured: straightforward, practical, easy to follow, programmer-oriented.
I truly recommend it for anyone willing to begin in the Rails universe.

This is THE book for Rails. Top notch...only WAIT to buy it. As others have said, there is a new edition coming out soon that covers Rails 2.0. Of course...if you can't wait, go to the publisher's web page. They are selling copies of this edition for 50% off, while supplies last. But, some of the code in this book will not work anymore in Rails 2.0. Still, a great book and well worth it even for a quick introduction to the Rails world while you wait for the new edition. Once it's updated, though, for sure, GO FOR IT!

A good book for beginners.

I bought this book without any previous knowledge of ASP and it has been a great help to me.
In the first part of the book, it discusses the code and gives examples for almost all of it.
In the second part, it uses nearly all the code discussed in real world examples - which is really necessary if you want to throughly understand how the code is used or could be used.

Once or twice I ran into a very minor piece of code that was not addressed.
The unexplained code was not very vital, although I still would have appreciated an explanation.
However, this was the only issue I can think of.

As a rule, the "For Dummies" books give a lighthearted approach to subjects and this book is no exception.
It presents its material with a great balance of instruction and humor.

Shortly - If you do not have any previous knowledge of ASP, then this is the book for you.
It is well worth it.

I think you can develop almost every type of web application using this book. It is perfect for starters and intermidiate level programmers. I run a software development house and this was in fact the book that opened different spectrums for me and I felt very easy with proramming after that.

Firstly, I needed to know what is involved with Active Server Pages. What do I buy? How do I use the computer? Etc. This book answered my questions, in a nice humourous style.

Secondly, I needed to know how to think about ASP. This book helped me there too - at least for beginners. If you are a Web technology pro, forget this book. And why are you looking at a Dummines book??

Thirdly, I'm a great believer in "having a go". This book provides examples apt for an appropriate exercise at the "dummies" level.

My complaint is more a recognition of the fact that I have progressed with ASP. There is much more involved with ASP than what this book touches on. I find this book assumes that I have some intelligence to work this out for myself.

If you are new to computers, I advise you get other books to help you with this topic. Successfully explaining Active Server Pages is reliant on the reader being relatively familiar with computers, the Net, and the development mindset and culture. The latter two are the keys to securing a measure of success with ASP.

I doubt I can write a review that is precision tuned with your situation. That said, if your gut instinct is that you need the treatment of the "Dummies" brand, buy this book. Here is a brainy reason why you'll likely need the "Dummines" book as well as another: It appears impossible to train yourself on ASP with one book alone.

For those who don't want to be dragged into the new .net world. There is still asp...however, 2.0 is the old version, at least get 3.0

I have experience with PHP and Perl-based CGI programming. I needed to learn ASP in a hurry to get started on a new project. This book was suitable for my circumstance by providing an inexpensive, easy-to-read introduction to ASP.

If you are already familiar with some form of web-based programming (knowing Visual Basic also helps), this is a great way to get started quick with ASP. It provides a clear, concise explanation of the essential ASP classes (Session, Request, Response, redirecting, etc.)

If you are a beginner and know nearly nothing about creating dynamic web pages, there is a steep learning curve. I would also recommend getting Sam's Teach Yourself Visual Basic .NET if you are unfamiliar with Visual Basic programming, because there is a lot of VB in ASP.

"ASP for Dummies" does not cover .NET, but that is not really important, especially if you already have another reference book such as for Visual Basic .NET. ASP is well structured and I doubt there will ever be much urgency to change your code for .NET. For those of you unfamiliar with .NET, it is a series of classes and methodology that sometimes can make your programming easier.

The cheap shots at humor could make this book annoying at times, but it does put you at ease while you're learning. The style of this book may also be inadequate if you intend to use it for reference alone.

i ordered Up from Slavery because I thought I needed to read it. However, I found I wanted to read it. I recommend it for all Americans. It was truely inspirational.

Booker Ts story really inspires. It just shows that with positive thinking and motivation, tremendous difficulties, odds and challenges are beatable. It's a message many of us would gain from if we would just stop complaining and blaming others for our lot in life, and just get moving on up!

I've reviewed the CreateSpace edition, ISBN 1438268165. It's a clear, easy to read version, well designed and the print and binding are excellent. Highly recommended!

Wow! What an amazing story! It is fascinating to read Booker T. Washington's account of a childhood in slavery followed by his rise to national prominence as the founder of the Tuskegee Institute.

While some may argue that Washington was naive and overly accomodating, I was amazed at his ability to forgive and see the best in people. He did not nurse grudges or let others bring him down. Whether or not you feel that he should have spoken up more for judicial equality, you have to admit that he was a strong, dedicated man of character.

Everyone: white, black, brown, or any other shade, can benefit from reading the autobiography of this great American.

Washington's relentlessly positive message is encouraging but at the same time too perfect for believability. The reader desires that Washington would once take off the mask of cheer that he appears to be putting over some parts of his autobiography and tell us what he really thinks.

His optimism extended to the political status of African-Americans and their future integration into American society. As the constant threat of lynching and KKK-ism continued throughout most of the 20th Century, even as positive steps were made in racial integration, it appears his optimism was at best proven wrong, or at least premature. And it is easy to understand the criticism by other contemporary black leaders like W. E. B. DuBois for his easy optimism.

But on the other hand, until and unless I read otherwise in a well-researched biography, perhaps Washington's optimism isn't a front or a mask to cover deep bitterness, but is true and sincere, and indeed, nothing in his story hear reads as if forced or fraudulent.

I purchased this book at the small National Park bookstore at Booker T. Washington's birthplace in rural southwestern Virginia. The setting still matches the quiet and isolation that Washington describes, and lends credence to his tale of self-reliant optimism. I also purchased a National Park Service pamphlet Booker T. Washington: An Appreciation Of The Man And His Times, which makes a nice short companion to Washington's masterpiece.

Up from Slavery, autobiography by Booker T. Washington, is a true classic in African-American literature. Washington opens Chapter 1: "A Slave Among Slaves" with his vivid recollections as a Negro child growing up in the South: a slave on a plantation in Virginia, a white father he never knew, illiterate and living in horrid conditions. After the emancipation of slaves, Washington's family moves to West Virginia where he labors at the salt furnace and in the coal mines. In his precious few moments of spare time, he learns to read and gains enough confidence to leave everything behind to journey to the Hampton Institute. Later, because of his success at Hampton, he is given the opportunity to start Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Tuskegee Institute is successful partly due to Washington's extensive travel to the North to solicit funds for the school. The students at Tuskegee, in addition to the day-to-day traditional class work, are expected to learn an industrious trade and to work at mastering that trade. Based on his own life experience, Washington believes that the most prudent way the Negro race will persevere is through this combination of education, hard work and service to others. He believes that the White race will come to appreciate the Negro race only if the Negro people prove their worth to society. Because of his passive stance, many, such as W.E.B. DuBois, et. al., labeled Washington as "The Great Accomodator." In other words, accommodating those who were the enslavers instead of advocating for the rights of those who were enslaved. You can get a sense of this in Washington's most notable speech, the address to the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition of 1895:

"The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than artificial forcing."

This speech brought national acclaim to Booker T. Washington and, at the time, placed him in the forefront as one of the leading authorities of his race.