Arthur Books

This is the book i highly recommend for middle school students to increase their vocabulary. It has words that are higher level, but not outrageously so. It just concentrates on vocabulary words, not words a student needs for multiple subjects...just high-use words. The activities are good reinforcement and practice. Try this book first and don't waste your money on others for this this age group.

2 of the reviewers used the word "learnt"!!! Think they should learn that's not a word... apparently not covered in the book :)

I homeschool my son and this book has been very helpfull, would recomend it to anyone who needs assistance with spelling.

My ESL teacher uses this book. It is a good one. You must like it.

This is the best book I have ever read! I read it over and over! A must read!

Perhaps the best introduction to the Confucian philosophy. Extensive footnotes and explanations of key concepts. Language slightly archaic but still clear. Wade-Giles romanization.

I listened to this book on tape...or I THINK it was this book. What I AM sure about is that it is worthwhile to read Confuscius---Why? His teachings teach us to be "better people". For example, as I wrote above in the title, Confucius taught The Golden Rule: "Do not do unto others what you would not have them do to you." The above maxim, and others, makes reading this early Chinese philosopher worthwhile. When I get this actual book that I just ordered, I'll update this review. But, once again, Confuscious DOES have something to say to the modern world! If you don't buy this actual book, I recommend you look into SOME book with his teachings.

I have been re-reading "the classics" lately and so I set out to read The Analects again after a 5~10 year hiatus. The first time I read the Analects, I used Leys' translation and while it was a good "beginner's version" because it was easy to read and modern, this time I wanted to do a more thorough examination of the available translation options. After comparing different versions (including Lau and Legge, although I haven't had a chance to look at the version by Ames & Rosemont which gets good reviews on Amazon), Waley's proved to be the consistently better option. Don't get me wrong: I think some translators translated certain passages better than Waley, but from start to finish Waley's was the best. Waley requires a little more focus--his copious footnotes and endnotes, his writing style emphasizing accuracy over beauty, and the fact that this translation is now 70 years old will be turnoffs to some readers--but ultimately I felt this all allowed the closest contact to Confucius' original ideas and intent. This is not fortune cookie philosophy here: Confucius' teachings require the thought that Waley demands of the reader through his attention to detail. The introduction is extensive as well, and Waley clearly is an expert on the literary, cultural, and political history necessary to understand the context of these writings. Therefore, as translations of The Analects go, this one has earned my highest endorsement.

I did want to comment on the most prominent review here, which suggests a similarity between The Analects and Marxism: I simply could not disagree more. I do not disagree that Confucius' teachings have been used to varying purposes, often at odds with their original intent. Pretty much all major works of religion and philosophy suffer this fate (Marx himself is said to have remarked "I am not a Marxist!" in protest to some of the popular interpretations of his works).

The basic premise is different: Marx is interested in explaining social order and predicting the anticipated transition from capitalism to socialism and communism. Confucius takes his social order (feudalism) for granted and focuses on the development of the individual (through the "gentleman's" quest to follow the Way) and the proper conduct in social relationships. Both the subordinate and the superordinate in a relationship are held to high standards of goodness, loyalty, and wisdom. The beauty of the double-edged sword called the "Mandate of Heaven" is that even the supreme ruler of the land must act virtuously or be deposed: everyone is accountable to someone. Bureaucracy is taken as a given in Confucius' time, but note that he stresses a meritocracy based on virtue and ability: bureaucracy itself is not virtue, rather, virtue must be in the bureaucracy. His use of the word "gentleman" is ironic precisely because it is not conferred simply by higher status by birth and/or control of means of production, as Marx would have it. A gentleman is a higher state of mind and action, not a social class.

And so on.

The reason I bring this up is not simply to be ornery, but because to pigeonhole Confucius with Marxism would diminish the great relevance Confucius' ancient teachings have in today's modern age (the same could be said for pigeonholing Marx with Marxism, but that's a different debate!). Feudalism is dead and we live in an age that stresses individualism and egalitarianism, but dependencies and hierarchies are everywhere you look--in families, friendships, in countries, between countries--and the desire for self-improvement is a universal, timeless part of human nature. In many respects, the basic human condition is not so different from Confucius' time. It's a beautiful thing when you think about it, and the reason why the teachings of Confucius, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, and others speak to so many billions of people even today. As such, Confucius' lessons for self-development and social harmony touch on the basic foundations of humanity, making them as important today as they were when first expounded. I would recommend that when the reader reads The Analects he or she compares them not only to other philosophical traditions, but also to his or her everyday life. I believe there is still much to be learned from the ancient teachings of this wise old man.

This translation of Confucius' core teachings was completed in 1938, but it remains a great choice for the readers starting to explore Asian spiritual traditions.

Arthur Waley, born in 1899, was a multi-talented linguist, scholar and writer who was part of the famous Bloomsbury literary circle in Britain. The Bloomsbury crew tended to regard him as more of a scholar and translator than a literary light in his own right -- but, years later, Waley's work stands out as a remarkable body of cross-cultural artistry. While working at the British Museum, he learned Chinese and Japanese and began translating classical works.

In translating Confucius, he was more interested in conveying the meaning of the original text than in creating fresh poetry in English. So, his rendering is more wordy, more prose-like, than other translations of Confucius. But, frankly, reading Confucius' Analects as a 21st-Century Western readers, we need all the help we can get. And, Waley is a graceful writer, even if the Bloomsbury crew didn't appreciate the full significance of his work.

I highly recommend this translation among the many choices available for a first reading of Confucius.

THE ANALECTS OF CONFUCIUS. Translated and annotated by Arthur Waley. 257 pp. New York : Vintage Books, nd. Originally published by George, Allen, & Unwin, 1938.

Classical Chinese is an extremely concise and highly ambiguous language. Since any given line can have a wide range of possible and equally valid meanings, there can in fact be no such thing as a definitive interpretation, and hence, as Burton Watson has pointed out, no such thing as a definitive translation, although Arthur Waley's scholarly reading of this important Confucian classic is possibly as close to 'definitive' as we're ever likely to get.

What we may overlook when considering Confucianism, however, is that it represented an ideology very much like Marxism, one imposed by an all-powerful bureaucracy on a not-always willing population. As ideological documents of the highest importance, since they served to justify the existence of the Imperial system, works such as the 'Analects' were often engraved on stone.

And it's interesting to note that, in the many popular uprisings which have riven China, the stone tablets and drums on which the 'Analects' and other Classics were engraved often became the first target of the mob's fury. They were regularly smashed and pulverized, only to be re-engraved on new stones when the Mandarinate re-established its authority.

In addition, it goes without saying that the Communist Party, which is as it were China's modern 'Mandarinate,' also takes a very dim view of the Chinese Classics, seeing them as relics of a detested feudalistic past, a detestation not perhaps untinged with envy, since the Mandarinate was the most efficient, successful and long-lasting bureaucracy in human history.

None of this, perhaps, need bother the modern reader as opposed to the scholar, since we go to these old books to discover in them what relevance they may have for our lives today, and there is much real wisdom in Confucius that anyone can benefit from.

Arthur Waley's edition, while scholarly, is not so cluttered with scholarly impedimenta as to be unapproachable by the general reader, and is written in a style that remains relatively modern. After a brief Preface, he gives us an interesting and informative 66-page Introduction. Then follows his extensively annotated translation, and the book is rounded out with an Index.

Though Waley was undoubtedly a brilliant translator, I was weaned on Ezra Pound's more lively and idiosyncratic version, and although I've read and compared both translations, the lines that tend to stick in my mind are invariably those of Pound, lines such as:

"He said : A proper man is inclusive, not sectary; the small man is sectarian and not inclusive" (Book II, xiv).

For the same passage Waley gives:

"The Master said, A gentleman can see a question from all sides without bias. The small man is biased and can see a question only from one side" (p.91).

Both, so far as I can see, mean pretty much the same thing, although Waley is a bit more prosy and takes almost twice as many words to say it. Pound's edition, besides its greater punch, also has the merit of being relatively free of distracting footnotes, and of including two additional and very powerful texts, along with beautiful reproductions of them from the stone Classics.

Waley and Pound give us Confucius as filtered through two highly intelligent though different sensibilities, both of them valuable. My advice would be to read both. For those who may be interested, here are details of Pound's edition:

CONFUCIUS : THE GREAT DIGEST, THE UNWOBBLING PIVOT, THE ANALECTS. Translation and Commentary by Ezra Pound. Stone Text from rubbings supplied by William Hawley. 288 pp. New York: New Directions, 1951 and Reissued.

It is in Pound's translation of 'The Great Digest' that we find the striking line: "If the root be in confusion, nothing will be well governed" (p.33). And who would want to miss a line that has such a powerful relevance to the world that we see around us today ?

Can Arthur keep his new pup from being sent away?

In a story that many young readers will identify with, Arthur has a new puppy who misbehaves, as puppies often do! Arthur sets about training him, and brings about a wonderful transformation that amazes everyone, with a fun twist at the conclusion.

If your children are fans of the wonderful TV series, this book is sure to appeal to them.

I liked this book because it has lots of laughs. The story is about a new puppy who really needs trained, but in the end he's well trained.If you like stories like these then read Arthur's New Puppy.It's a tail wagging story.

I liked this book because I really like dogs. And when I get my owen house I am going to get a dog. I loved reading this book. You should buy this book becuse you can lern how to take car of a puppy.

[...]. It is a good book for kids because it helps kids read. It is funny. Arthur gets a new puppy because his mother said he could. Arthur had to give five dollars for the puppy. Arthur was happy to have a puppy. He had been watching a puppy that gave birth to a litter of new puppies and Author got to keep one. I think everyone would enjoy this story, especially if you like puppies!
The end

While children love reading fantastic stories of dragons oraliens or dinosaurs, that doesn't mean they don't also enjoy readingbooks featuring kids just like them.

Or, in the case of the popular Arthur books, aardvarks just like them. Arthur's New Puppy is the eighteenth book in the best-selling series. It follows the misadventures of the lovable aardvark as he attempts to housebreak his bouncy puppy Pal.

Children seem to identify with Arthur as he struggles with everyday problems with the help of his loving parents (and no help from his pesky little sister, D.W.) and friends.

If you have an Arthur fan in the house, or if you have a new puppy in the house, you'll want to check out this book.

Oh my goodness! I was laughing so hard reading this book, I had a sideache for hours!!! The things Joe and his friends do will make you roll on the floor laughing. Great script can't wait for it to come out as a movie. Highly recommended and I know you'll love it too.

This was one of the best books I've read in a long time. Funny, adventurous and exciting. The characters were richly layered and kept putting themselves into these incredible situations. It makes me want to go to the bahamas. I can't wait for this book to be made into a movie. If someone doesn't do it soon I know I will. I truely recommend this book to anyone with a bit of time and a need for humour in their lives.

WHOOOA, what a ride! This was the most amazing story of intense debauchery and wild goose chase since pulp fiction. The talent of the author is so evident in how he has managed to structure the story and keep you guessing right up till the end. It would be great to see this in a film as the characters are so vivid and the imagery of each is striking. I had no Idea life in the bahamas could be so incredibly dangerous. But the most amazing thing about this book is that the author is only 15 years of age. Definately the next Quentin Tarantino

This book/script is such good fun, I had a great time reading it. I was blown away by the characters. Those three sweet guys, Joe and his two friends are always in hilarious situations, it never stops. Everything goes wrong for them .It's also crude sometimes but the 3 friends are so much fun together.
This book will make you laugh out loud.
Hopefully, it will end up as a movie, a hilarious movie.
!

LOVED the book/sript (Even though i am 10)! If anyone is reading a book right now, i say you should put down that book for a while read this book. WHEN it comes out in the movies i will go right there and see it. So in general i think this is a G.R.E.A.T. book!

This is a really cute book, with a pro-reading message, built around one truly silly pun. (If you want to introduce the concept of making a pun to your kids, this is a great place to start...)

We love Tiffany Beeke's artwork, too -- if you like her in this book, it's definitely worth it to track down others she's done as well. (ReadThatAgain book reviews)

...but they liked it too. this is a nice story - great for promoting love of books which is always a good thing IMHO.

the illustrations are cute and inviting. Clever use of animal sounds in the story.

would definately recommend this book.

The poor farm animals are bored. The kids have all gone back to school and left them alone. The horse hung his head, the cow complained, the goat grumbled, the pig pouted, the duck dozed and the hen heaved a sigh and squawked "I'm bored! And I'm heading to town to find something to do!" So off they all went. Soon they got to town and found themselves in front of the library. It looked like a good place to visit since the people coming out all had smiles on their faces, so the horse went inside, approached the librarian and said neigh neigh. The librarian just stood there and looked puzzled. The horse hung his head and left. Next the cow (moo moo) tried, then the goat (baaah baaah) and pig (oink oink), with the same results. Finally the feisty hen went inside and spoke "Book, Book, Book!" with different results..... Deborah Bruss has written a funny, gentle story that will capture your little one's imaginations. Her simple text is beautifully complemented by Tiphanie Beeke's cheerful, humorous, childlike illustrations and youngsters will enjoy all the entertaining detail on each page. Perfect for preschoolers, Ms Bruss' debut picture book is a winner.

Author Deborah Bruss and illustrator Tiffani Beeke have created a world where rules are broken and expectations are turned upside down. The punchline on the last page is only one part of the joke. Who wouldn't laugh at barnyard animals in the library, a blue horse, and storytime led by a cow? The book offers different levels of participation-barnyard noises for the youngest readers, and, later, repetitive phrases. Other readers will enjoy tracking the location of a well-read amphibian in each bright scene. All will enjoy the plucky animals who give up complaining, grumbling, and pouting when they discover the treasures in the public library. Book! Book! Book! is a perfect preschool storytime read!

Deborah Bruss' Book! Book! Book! is a must-have for any home or school library. As an elementary school librarian, I find it a perfect way to introduce children to the joys of visiting the library. The simple storyline delights its readers as barnyard animals make their first trek to the library. Each animal, in its own language, asks the librarian for a book. First and second graders laugh when the hen gets what she wants. Then, still, another surprise comes on the last page. Tiphanie Beeke's illustrations draw the reader and the audience in. Bright, bold colors capture the interest of my students and make it an enjoyable book to share with a class. Book! Book! Book! is a favorite that my students ask me to read again and again.

Trust me, this book is a heck of a lot more entertaining than it appears to be via that old adage about book covers. Still, I must admit those crazy old Southern names and those exressions on the characters drew me into what turned out to be a truly hilarious story that the working class will appreciate--at least the babies and puppies of the working class folk. The prose demands to be read with a western or southern accent and the names are so stereotyped I cracked up. But under the whole stylized theme was an extremely sweet story about the true meaning of friendship. Hilariously written and adorable.

The Bubba and Beau books are amongst the sweetest, most colorfully written, picture books I have seen and we have loads :-) ! Kathi Appelt captures the Texas drawl perfectly and Arthur Howard's illustrations are just charming. For baby showers to birthday presents, Bubba and Beau is one of my top five choices.

Our school librarian read this to our preschool class. They all loved it, as did I.

Bubba is a baby and Beau is a dog. Like the title of the book says they are best friends! They have so much in common. They both are very loud, they don't like baths, they chew on everything and they both crawl on all fours! Join them for all of their adventures!


The illustrations were cute and the cover caught the eye of our 3 and 1 year olds.

It's a quick read. Perfect for the lap sit age!

Appelt's funny and charming tale of the almost simultaneous birth and budding friendship between a boy named Bubba and a puppy named Beau is heartwarming and enchanting. With no apparent idea that they are different species, these naïve babies" bond over their shared first traumas - i.e., the laundering of their beloved "blankie" and their own first baths. Howard's simple charcoal and watercolor renderings of Bubba and Beau could capture the heart of the most hardened soul. Their eyes, expressions, and movements are all enchanting. Howard's equally charming and amusing renderings of the human and dog parents and the Texas ranch where the story takes place provide the "icing on the cake." The result is a book that oozes with life, warmth, security, friendship, and love. Child judges awarded it the 2002 Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children's Literature. To accommodate short attention spans, Appelt has even broken the story up into five well-defined chapters. Readers wanting more of Bubba and Beau will not be disappointed - there are already two sequels, Bubba and Beau Go Night Night and Bubba and Beau Meet the Relatives. Highly recommended for ages 18 months to 4 years.

If you've mastered Hugard and Braue's stuff, if you can do 60 classic passes per minute, if you have all the time in the world to devote to card sleight of hand, then this is the book for you! Seriously, this is a truly excellent book. Buckley's sleights, though not for the faint of heart, are superb. (He must've been one heckuva cardician!) This is a serious, serious card magic book. But if you are serious yourself, you'll get it. Of course, you'll overlook the antiquated prose and Buckley's tremendous ego throughout. (When you read this material you'll forgive Buckley's self-congratulatory tone.) This is a splendid work for those who want to be the best...

This book by Arthur Buckley is amazing.

It has loads of fantastic card sleights, whilst they do need a lot of practice it is worthwhile, as once you have them in your fingers they will never be forgotten.

All of these slieghts are extremely useful. The book is divided into different sections of tricks.

There are tricks for close up and for stage although some may need some imagination to update them, also there is a special section on crooked gambling.

All in all a good book with lots of photographs of Buckleys hands, he was a great card worker.

Buy it if you already know all the basics of card magic well.

I've yet to see a bad review for this book, and there's a reason. This book is terrific. There is however one issue to be addressed. This book is hard!!! Definitely not for beginners, it has some of what I believe are the greatest but hardest card manipulations out there. I definitely recommend it however to the serious card magic enthusiast. There are enough valuable ideas in here to last you a lifetime.

Pretty good book with a variety of unique card sleights (palming, manipulating cards in the deck, etc.). These sleights are the 'real work', so it will take a little perseverance. Many of these utility sleights are ones that you ought to know if you want to be a card sleight-of-hand worker.

The instructions are generally clear, but sometimes a detail here and there gets a little confusing. There's a fair number of photos showing how to do many of the sleights.

Sometimes a sleight is a little more complicated than it needs to be. My recommendation is to follow the author's steps in slow-motion with a deck of cards in hand. After you are familiar with the overall effect, you can make adjustments based on what your comfortable with. There may also be other newer methods for learning these sleights if you want to invest in newer card sleight instruction (such as the Daryl Encyclopedia of Card Sleights videos, etc.).

Right now, I'm working on the side steal sleight. He gives a T. Nelson Downs version which has some merit, but it is much more complicated than necessary. The author's own version is a little more do-able. But even the author's method becomes a little too fidgety, so I've made minor modifications to make it work well for me. I start in slow-motion, counting through the substeps to keep pace while I do the move (1..2..3..4). Then I repeat it until I can bring it up to full speed.

If you want to learn sleights for cheap, try this book. You may have to pick and choose through the sleights, and there may be better methods to perform some of these sleights now, but it's not bad for under $10.

When I unexpectedly came across a picture of Buckley on the first page of the book, and after hearing the other reviews of how difficult and advanced the techniques in the book were, I couldn't believe my eyes. I was surprised to see the face of a handsome teenager, of which my previous impression was COMPLETELY the opposite to the one I held in my hands. And this guy was a professional card magician at the age of 18, and able to do tricks infront of hundreds of people on-stage in 1908!

I have a feeling that this guy's mystery and skill probably gained him significant success with girls his age. The mysterious effects of these difficult to execute sleights are priceless and dazzling beyond belief. If a 3 columns card trick can make girls believe in magic.. then Buckley's stuff probably knocked their socks off... literally! Believe me, this guy would be able to blow David Blaine out of the water and make him look like Bob Longe.

That being said and out of the way, the book itself is amazing. There are very clearcut photos of Buckley's hands and very impressive card tricks, or as he calls them in the fourth section, "Card Experiments". Best of all, this book isn't like most others where the authors seem to purposely be vague (S.W. Erdnase) and not give the best descriptions. Mr. Buckley gives you every detail and is your friend throughout the book, showing you exactly how everything is done without any confusion.

And there is SO much different good stuff in here, that you'll probably never need another book for advanced materials.

It is a great book and a great reference to help you on your way to card excellence and showmanship. You will not be disappointed with this purchase.

This is one of my favorites of the entire S&A series. It is one of the most sailing intensive books providing great details about sailing through tidal river regions. The Norfolk Broads region described is sort of a sailing paradise. Like all of these books, the adventure is very lightweight, and only really suitable for a child with some degree of patience. Part of the appeal is how realistic the books are. I think children enjoy reading stories in which child characters are doing so many fun things on their own with very minimal adult intervention. In my experience these books appeal most to children in the 9-11 age bracket. The book's theme of nature preservation and activism is one that also is fairly relevant even today.

If you have read any of the Swallows and Amazons books and liked them you will love this one too. In my opinion they are all good, but this is definitely one of his best!

This is the fifth of Arthur Ransome's "Swallows and Amazons" tales, although, in fact, it features not a single member of either the Swallows or the Amazons. Nor, indeed, is it set anywhere near the English Lake District. Instead, it describes the Norfolk Broads boating adventures of the two D's (first introduced to the reader in the previous book, "Winter Holiday").

The tale is set in the children's Easter holidays, just a few months after the events of the preceding book. In it, Dick and Dorothea are anxious to learn the rudiments of sailing so that they can take a more active part in the fun when they next meet up with the Swallows and Amazons. Dick is also keen to do some bird watching. It is almost inevitable, therefore, that soon after arriving in Norfolk, they find therefore themselves tangled in up in (and helping out with) the troubles of the Coot Club - a group of local (boat-mad) children dedicated to the protection of the Broads' unique bird population.

Ransome loved the Norfolk Broads with a passion that possibly even exceeded his love of the Lake District. In this book, he paints a portrait of Norfolk, its waterways and the people who live on or by them, making plain his love for this unique environment and its way of life. The story centres on his concerns over their continuing destruction through ever-increasing tourism (and the increasingly thoughtless actions of its visitors), a major problem even 65 years ago. (It is far worse now, of course!) Unlike his Lake District stories, this one uses the real names of the places that feature in it and revels in describing them. Indeed, the book reads almost like a guidebook at times, although you barely notice this, for it is never anything less that engaging in its content. As always, Ransome combines both narrative and instructive content with consummate ease, tempered here with an excitement to the events that unfold. He weaves a tale that is as enthralling and captivating as ever, that will appeal to lovers of good tales whatever their age. The author's own pen-and-ink drawings are as charming as ever, too.

This is one of the few Swallows and Amazons books that can be read earlier in the sequence than it appears (if you really must) without major detriment to either itself or the earlier stories (except, perhaps "Winter Holiday"). You do need to have read it before most of the ones that follow it, however, as the events described here feature heavily in later ones.

After being introduced in the last book, WINTER HOLIDAY, the D's (aka Dick and Dorothea Callum), have their own adventure.

It's the Easter holiday following their winter adventure, and they're going to the Norfolk Broads to stay with a friend of their mother, Mrs. Barrable, to stay on a boat. The D's are eager to learn some sailing but are desolated to find out that they can't. But soon they're involved with the Coot Club: leader Tom Dudgeon, twins Port and Starboard, and the Death-and-Glories, a trio of youngsters who play at piracy. The Coot Club watches over the waterbirds nesting in the Broads, and after a boatload of crass tourists anchors near an important nest and refuses to move, Tom sets them adrift and ends up being hunted. The D's and Mrs. Barrable come to the rescue, hiding him on their boat and using him to teach sailing.

Ransome's fondness for the Norfolk Broads shines through. I didn't get into it as much as some of the other books, mainly because I miss the Swallows and Amazons as well as the lake setting. But this book is interesting for some of the more serious themes that creep in. This is the first S&A book that takes a strong environmental theme, and it's great to see that in something from the 30s. It also explores the theme of sometimes you have to take a stand for what you believe in, even if it gets you in trouble. We also see the tension between residents of the broads and noisy vacationers who don't respect them or the rules of the area. There are also elegiac glimmers of the passage of time, of how the Broads aren't quite what they used to be, although that might not necessarily be bad. It's also fun to see Mrs. Barrable referred to as "The Admiral" by the crew.

It's a fun book, and easy for me to visualize after visiting places like Chincoteague and the eastern shore of Maryland. It's nice spending time with the D's and seeing some of the new characters, who will make a return appearance later in the series. Next book: PIGEON POST, in which the D's reunite with the S&As and return to the lake.

In this book Ransome focuses on the two most recently introduced members of his juvenile cast, Dick and Dorothea Callum, who are sent to spend part of their Easter holidays with Mrs. Barrable, their mother's old schoolmistress, along the rivers of the Norfolk wetlands. Eager to learn to sail so they can take part in the adventures planned for the lake next summer, their spirits plummet when they learn that Mrs. Barrable "can't sail her boat by herself" and plans to use it only as a houseboat. Unexpected salvation occurs in the form of Tom Dudgeon, son of a local doctor, who finds himself a fugitive after setting a motor-cruiser adrift to protect a coot's nest being observed by himself and his five friends (Port and Starboard, the twin girls who live near the Dudgeons, and the Death and Glories, Joe, Pete, and Bill). Seeking shelter from the outraged motorboaters aboard Mrs. Barrable's rented craft, he meets the trio and finds instant common ground, and quickly agrees to serve as Captain and teach the Callums "the ropes." Though there's less imaginative play in this book than in the rest of the series, it still features Ransome's splendid insight into juvenile minds and character, plus loving description of the countryside and a strong consciousness of the environment that must have been unusual in the 1930's. Though this volume will never be my favorite of the series--somehow things are never so lively without Captain Nancy Blackett on board!--it succeeds on its own terms and will be a pleasant change of pace for families reading aloud in sequence.

Despite Lord Russell's criticism that "intuition works best in bats, bees, and Bergson," in this work Bergson not only finishes the uprooting of the Western and Platonic disembodied intellect (a deconstruction taken only so far by Kant), he presents us with the spectacle of unbridled life creatively shaping, not only its world, but itself in accord with its own telos: the need for eyesight creating the eye, so to speak. Difficult in places but a treasure, although one could wish he gave more credit to Nietzsche's obviously great impact on him. Jungians would do well to peruse Bergson too.

Creative Evolution is not so much a work, but a milestone in print of a new direction of thought. It is a book that is of immense importance to anyone who wants to understand the mystery of humanity.

Henri Bergson's seminal ``Creative Evolution'' starts off with the flowing movement so prevalent in his philosophy of the organism, one idea flows into the next in a smooth undivided motion. Not only does Bergson explain his work with analogies and examples supported by the biology of the time, thereby distancing himself from the purely intellectual pursuit of most philosohpy, trapped in the world of the mind, but he demonstrates his thought in the very way of exposition he uses throughout the book. One feels his thought is produced like a Mozart symphony, all at once with no corrections needed. This aptly demonstrates the idea of duration and time he proposes in this book. His influence is profound in thinkers such as David Bohm and Alfred North Whitehead which so to speak ``run with it'' in the parlance of baseball. This is a book worth reading twice for its rich display of creativity and also to reread sections not followed the first time. One does feel however that at times the flow is interrupted by disturbances in his mode of thinking leading to disjointed reading. Nonetheless, not only does he open a whole new way of thought free of dualism and the old patterns of mechanism, but he also expalins the reason for mechanistic thought itself.

I first came across Ibsen's monumental work when reading 'Tropic of Capricorn' by Henry Miller. Despite my complete lack of evolutionary and biological knowledge, I found Ibsen's eschatology mind blowing. Several times I was forced to leave the book for days in order to fully contemplate the philosophical ramifications of his insights. From this great stride forward into the fringes of human understanding Ibsen states: 'A conduct that is truly our own, on the contrary, is that of a will which does not try to counterfeit intellect, and which, remaining itself - that is to say, evolving - ripens gradually into acts which the intellect will be able to resolve indefinitely into intelligible elements without ever reaching its goal. The free act is incommensurable with the idea, and its "rationality" must be defined by this very incommensurability, which admits the discovery of much intelligibility within it as we will. Such is the character of our own evolution; and such also, without doubt, that of the evolution of life." No one, despite their educational backgrounds or lack thereof, should feel intimidated by the possibility of transcending one's very own intellect.

Bergson's thesis is that Darwinian and Lamarkian evolution are only half the story and that there is a creative urge inherent in life that defines the direction of evolution. It is distinguished from Creationism in that his system does not posit and eschaton or final perfect form, nor an external agent (God).

It has some similarity with biologist Rupert Sheldrake's theory of morphic fields. In his theory, there is an energy field (as yet undetected by modern physics) that controls the shape of organic molecules, i.e., one protein is shaped one way and the same collection of atoms gets shaped another way under the same pH and temperature.

Aldous Huxley mentions Bergson's theory of consciousness several times in his writings. Bergson thinks that consciousness pervades everything, and that intellect serves as a filter that presents only what is comprehensible to mental categories. This has several implications. One is the possibility for a monistic metaphysic. The other is that it leaves open the possibility of perceiving an alternate reality (what excited Huxley).

Chapter 3 is about his metaphysics, which are not very clearly expressed. There appear to be avenues unexplored by him. What are the consequences of matter being infused with consciousness? Magic? Why is it that intellect and geometrical thinking is what produces objects in perception? What is the mechanism.

What does have value is his theory that chaos is not the absence of repeatability, but is a stochastic process that can be understood as an aggregate of individual "wills." This is used to support his vital theory of evolution. That each organism "wills" its variation in seemingly random fashion, but at a higher order, it produces the regularity of genera.

Chapter 4 is a critique of various philosophic systems after establishing his "cinematographic" theory of perception. His basic point is that matter is in continual flux, yet we are only able to perceive it as a sequence of discrete states, hence the illusion of permanence.

Actually, this book is a sort of brief update of the author's earlier book, entitled Discovering the Business of Paradigms, & published in the mid-80s.

Drawing essentially from the pioneering work of Thomas Kuhn, who wrote the classic, The Theory of Scientific Revolutions, in the 70's, this author has very artfully expounded the concept of paradigm shift & pliancy in the world of business, in contrast to the world of science. From a strategic exploration viewpoint, this is an excellent guide book.

Understanding and mastering your paradigms is one important thing for making progress in life and in business, but I personaly feel that the real essence of this book is succinctly captured by the author in the five strategic exploration tools outlined in the book. They are the real gems of the book. [Bear in mind that the author is a process futurist, unlike most other futurists who write books & who are primarily content futurists. The five specific tools mentioned in the book are the exact process tools to aid & enhance your strategic exploration. Do not get carried away by the content part of the book pertaining to some perceived trends illustrated by the author.]

In addition, the author defines the concept of paradigm very well & also elaborates at length on its key characteristics & effects, with illuminating examples, as well as enlightening comparison/contrast of paradigm pliancy vs. paradigm paralysis.

He highlights the importance of paradigm shift, pliancy & anticipation. I particularly enjoyed exploring the two specific thought-provoking questions posed by the author:

(1) What do I believe is impossible to do in my field, but, if it could be done, would fundamentally change my business?

(2) Who, outside my field, might be interested in my unsolved problems?

By thinking about & answering these two challenging questions on your own, & against your own background, you will begin to understand & appreciate the essence of the author's proposition. This will be the beginning of your own paradigm shift, as it has happened in my own life design for the second half.

I would recommend readers to buy and read this book jointly with Wayne Burkan's Wide-Angle Vision. Wayne Burkan has been a collaborator of Joel Barker, and he introduces some more new ideas to the paradigm phenomenon.

Better still, view also and learn more from the videos (in which both authors are the lead facilitators), The Paradigm Prism and The Implications Wheel, which bring the whole paradigm concept to life and which showcase some more real-world business examples.

If you want to explore your future, read this book! As the author puts it, before you can create your future, you must first explore it. You must create and shape your future, otherwise some one else will!

This is the author's first pioneering book, which he wrote after leaving the teaching world to embark on a career as a strategy consultant/process futurist in the early 80's. This was also one of the very first few books that propelled me into the world of strategic exploration.

Drawing essentially from the scholarly work of Thomas Kuhn, who wrote the classic, The Theory of Scientific Revolutions, in the 70's, this author has very artfully expounded the concept of paradigm shift & pliancy in the world of business, in contrast to the world of science. From a strategic exploration viewpoint, this is an excellent guide book.

Understanding and mastering your paradigms is one important thing for making progress in life and in business, but I personaly feel that the real essence of this book is succinctly captured by the author in the five strategic exploration tools outlined in the book. They are the real gems of the book. [Bear in mind that the author is a process futurist, unlike most other futurists who write books & who are primarily content futurists. The five specific tools mentioned in the book are the exact process tools to aid & enhance your strategic exploration. Do not get carried away by the content part of the book pertaining to some perceived trends illustrated by the author.]

In addition, the author defines the concept of paradigm very well & also elaborates at length on its key characteristics & effects, with illuminating examples, as well as enlightening comparison/contrast of paradigm pliancy vs> paradigm paralysis.

He highlights the importance of paradigm shift, pliancy & anticipation. I particularly enjoyed exploring the two specific thought-provoking questions posed by the author:

(1) What do I believe is impossible to do in my field, but, if it could be done, would fundamentally change my business?

(2) Who, outside my field, might be interested in my unsolved problems?

By thinking about & answering these two challenging questions on your own, & against your own background, you will begin to understand the essence of the author's proposition. This will be the beginning of your own paradigm shift, as it has happened in my own life design for the second half.

I would recommend readers to buy and read this book jointly with Wayne Burkan's Wide-Angle Vision. Wayne Burkan has been a collaborator of Joel Barker, and he introduces some more new ideas to the paradigm phenomenon.

Better still, view also and learn more from the videos (in which both authors are the lead facilitators), The Paradigm Prism and The Implications Wheel, which bring the whole paradigm concept to life and which showcase some more real-world business examples.

If you want to explore your future, read this book! As the author puts it, before you can create your future, you must first explore it. You must create and shape your future, otherwise some one else will!

[The updated versions of this book include the hardcover 'Future Edge: Discovering the New Paradigms of Success,' & the paperback 'Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future.' Also, video versions are available from www.atsmedia.com.]

12. Solar/Hydrogen/fission: These three elements combine in patterns in the trend toward energy conservationism. All three elements cost more than conventional energy production methods. I think the author missed the energy paradigm and should have listed coal, wind power and geothermal as emerge sources of energy.
13. Time Taxes: The process requires Senior citizens to go to schools in their area and do various jobs, in exchange they are paid by have their property tax reduces allowing them to keep their homes. High property taxes against the Seniors demonstrates a stronger trend towards socialized redistribution of wealth and threatens their constitutional rights of life, liberty, and property.
14. The buffalo commons: Frank and Deborah Popper predicts "large chunks of the rural west will be abandoned and eventually drift into public or quasi-public holdings." The land will be accumulated and returned to its natural state; the Buffalo commons is a pattern shift in the agricultural community as hundreds of thousands of Buffalo thundering across the plains.
15. Education K through competence: Many of the graduating high school students can to read, write, or compute. The value of their high school diploma, in real world competition is zero. The K-competence movement attempts to reverse the trend by measuring student performance levels and retaining students until they achieve the competence level desired. I think the trend seems less jobs for graduating high school seniors and more outsourcing too third world countries with higher K scores.
16. Magical, mystical polymers: Plastics that carry electricity better than electricity (IBM polymer-nanotechnology-lithograph technology for circuit design); arranged molecules in parallel orientation (Paul Smith - plastics ten times the strength of steel); build bridges, buildings, and cars out of plastic. I think the most exciting idea the author suggests is using polymers as a material coating for chips to make electrical connections between the transistors.
17. Nature's wisdom: animals may know what plants to eat to cure certain diseases. Animal intelligence is more than language skills.
18. Negawatts: Amory Lovins began in paradigm shift back into the 1970s. Lovins started with the assumption that in the United States electrical energy consumption could be reduced by 70 percent with no less quality of life. Lovins points out fact about energy savings through energy efficiency by improvements in lighting systems and efficient motors.
19. New building materials: The problem: Too many people are living homeless or in structures that don't get adequate shelter. Robert Gross, former NASA engineer has designed a machine that can make adobe block from a mixture of mud and machine to squeeze out the water using a high-pressure hydraulic ram. Each block is twelve by ten by four inches and weights about thirty pounds. The cost is about 1/20th of any other building material on the market today. Wolf Hilbertz discovered how to grow structures beneath the sea using steel mesh and low levels of electricity. The resulting material is like limestone and can withstand more than four thousand pounds of pressure per inch and does not weaken when dried.
20. Gaia (The earth is alive and her name is Gaia) Robert Loveland found himself asking questions about the earth like "What are the key measures one could take that would prove, irrefutably, that there was life on earth". Loveland discovered many indicators of life, such as: the chemical imbalance of the atmosphere and an extremely stable level of temperature; the richness of life at every level; a mechanism that seemed to create an ideal condition for life (oxygen production systems, CO2 absorbing systems, and salt capturing systems). Loveland concluded that all living organism where collective integrated into a larger organism called the biosphere.

This new paradim is forcing biologists and geologist to fundamentally readdress perceptions of the planet.
21. Loans to the third world power: The poor of the world are credit ready. The loans are small and periodic. Some loans involve more than one person and rely on peer pressure to achieve the 99 percent repayment on the loan.
22. Fractals and Chaos Mathematics: A new form of mathematics. The author incorrectly identified the new math as fractals and chaos. Stephan Wolfram, the inventor of Mathematica and it based on discovers from a programming technique called cellular automation. Wolfram published a book called "A new Kind of Science", some two decades in the making, and claims to be redefining the foundations of virtually every branch of science. Wolfram noticed pattern in the cellular automation and started to wonder if nature follow rules that created similar recognizable patterns. Wolfram advocates that instead of looking for a complex equation that explains everything, they instead should be looking for a cellular automation that corresponds to what they are observing.
23. Personalized production: A move to deliver customer satisfaction by personal production.
24. Masters and patrons: Bill Weimer abstracted from European history seeing two groups to learn from masters and patrons. The masters of the modern age are the works, engineers, scientist, and salespeople. Good patrons optimize the output of the masters. The masters and patrons are form a coequal partnership. Patrons get the Masters the resources from which the masterpieces are created.

Have you ever had an unconscious thought that could possibly change the world? Well, this is one book you won't want to miss. Barker's knowledge about paradigms will definitely assist with transforming your, "big ideas" from thoughts to reality. "Future Edge" can take any organization through a successful reformation. For instance, being an administrator in a rather large urban school district with magnet schools being the "heart" of racial integration, paradigm shifts are an on-going necessity. Barker's book has truly answered the five "W's" of paradigms.
WHO: The "Paradigm Shifters" have the big idea, however, the "Paradigm Pioneers" are the individuals who have the courage, faith and "intuitive judgment" to ensure a successful paradigm shift. Segregated schools are simply not right, and as pioneers, integrating our school is a vision that is "not an act of the head, but an act of the heart."
WHAT: What "set of rules or boundaries," or simply stated by Barker, paradigms, are in need of a facelift in your organization? Federal mandates stated that busing can no longer be the means of integration, however, our schools must reflect our world today; diverse. This mandated created a sense of urgency (Kotter) in the change process.
WHERE: "To not quest for excellence might be considered sacrilege." Raising the expectation of what success is in your organization will inevitably create a need for a paradigm shift. Current enrollment is 92% African-American, 2% Hispanic, and 6% Caucasian. Yes, this is 130% better then years previous, yet it should not be considered as integrated. The where is most likely within your organization as well!
WHEN: "Paradigm Paralysis" is what an organization will face if there is no "paradigm pioneer" to lead the conscious thought to real life. "A leader is a person you would follow to a place you wouldn't go yourself."
WHY: In conclusion, if you read this review and are highly curious as to the paradigm shift that must take place to integrate the school that I work in, then Barker has definitely fulfilled his mission of taking an individual through the process of "Discovering the New Paradigms of Success."

To its credit, ten years after this book was first published, it remains a commendable work of business futurism. One significant exception to this assessment comes from the poor record of Barker's identification of existing and coming trends for the 1990s. By now, we can see the weakness of "gambling instead of taxes", "national health care" (surely the result of Barker himself falling into a paradigm trap), "solar, hydrogen, fission" (at least ten years too early), "time taxes", "virtual reality", and others that didn't make it very far. Barker, however, is not a prophet but a guide to a more expansive way of thinking about the present and the future. Barker brings philosopher Thomas Kuhn's work on paradigms into focus with clear applications to business and any form of strategic thinking. Definitely merits a quick read by anyone interested in thinking more effectively about the future.