Bernstein Books

The author has done some groundbreaking new research on the treament, testing for and managing of Type 1 and 2 diabetes - and the author himself is a Type 1 diabetic and a specialist doctor.

I was impressed by the ship time. In fact, I received
the book in less time than was estimated. So, good job
on that. However, when I recieved the book, I found
that 10 pages had been torn out, of a pivotal section of
the book, the section dealing with diet and control.
The reason that I ordered the book to begin with. I
know that you can't read every book that you have, but,
this left me with a book that was useless.

I recently found out that my sugar was high during a routine visit to my doctor.

They wanted to put me on medicine but I refused beliving that they had make a mistake with my test.

After reading this book I decided to buy a glucose meter and test it myself. The results really scared me and I was determined to bring the levels down. This book gave me hope that Diabetes can be reversed or at least controlled without medicine.

I am thankful that I chose to read this book and was enlightened by all of the valuable infomation that it contained.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever been diagnosed, I consider it a lifesaver.

Thank you,
J. C.
Fort Lauderdale, Fl.

This book provides a good diabetic solution and it should be read by non-diabetics to help them understand what is going on within the food industry. It should probably be read in conjunction with the classic "Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine," edited by E. Braunwald & colleagues and "Alternative Medicine: The definitive Guide," edited by Larry Trivier, Jr. . The latter provides a simple but good overview of the subject of alternatives. More details about alternatives are best understood be reading Daniel Reid's "The Complete Book of Chinese Health and Healing" and "The Science of Homeopathy," by George Vithoulkas. The former provides a thorough description of the comprehensive and thoughtful emphasis on individual wellness of Chinese medicine while the latter provides the paradigm shift necessary to understand today's modern healthcare system.

This is a common sense book. I am a type 1 diabetic and I highly recommend this book. I have read many other books on diabetes and keep up with the research that is done. Dr Bernstein is a also a diabetic, the book is about his quest to live a life without complications. Great low carb diet book.

Book was shipped fast, and came in great condition. Couldn't ask for anything more

William Bernstein has written another must read for the individual investor who wants to chart his own course in the investment world. I was first introduced to this book at a local AAII chapter meeting. Everyone there who had read this book highly recommended it. I suggest reading this book before reading "The Intelligent Asset Allocator" also by the author.Both are excellent books on investing and well worth the time and money spent.

In the introduction to his book, "The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio," Dr. William Bernstein states that the "competent investor never stops learning." Yet, because the world of investing can be such a confusing place, it sometimes seems that the more you learn, the more confused you get. As a participant on the Bogleheads message board, I feel I am an educated investor but still I often get lost after reading all the different debates: Should I invest in total markets or slice and dice my portfolio? Should I invest all my money at once or adopt a dollar cost averaging philosophy? How much foreign exposure should I have? Is now the right time to buy REITs, or do I need them at all? One day, while perusing the message board and sifting through some of these same questions, I found a suggested investing reading list, and this book was listed as the starting point. In this straightforward book, explained with easy-to-understand examples, Dr. Bernstein provides a solid framework for investors to begin to answer some of these questions.

In setting this framework, Dr. Bernstein introduces readers to four basic concepts, or what he terms the four pillars of investing: the theory, history, psychology, and business of investing. The first pillar, the theory of investing, gets most of his attention, as it comprises the first 100 pages of the book and explains how the bond and stock markets work. In this section, Dr. Bernstein emphasizes what he calls the "most important concept in finance" - the relationship between risk and reward. If investors want high returns, they must take great risks. Following this logic, Dr. Bernstein makes some conclusions that may seem foreign to most investors. For example, the best time to invest is not when things are going well, but when they are going poorly. Those who invest during a bubble are not taking a risk and therefore can expect low returns, whereas those investing during a bear market are taking a risk and therefore can expect (but will not be guaranteed) higher returns. Similarly, those who invest in "good companies" like Wal-Mart can expect lower returns than those who invest in "bad companies" like K-Mart, because good companies, with low risk, are generally bad stocks, while bad companies are generally good stocks. This idea - that high returns cannot be achieved without significant risk - is the key concept Dr. Bernstein continues to emphasize throughout the book.

While the first pillar gets the most attention, Dr. Bernstein terms the second pillar, the history of investing, as "the one that causes the most damage" to investors. What separates the professional investor from the amateur investor is that the professional recognizes that bear markets are a fact of life - they inevitably come about once every generation, usually sparked by a new technological advance. Professional investors stay the course and don't panic; they have a plan and stick with it. In fact, for beginning investors, a bear market is a blessing, allowing them to accumulate stocks at low prices. This concept again ties to the relationship between risk and return: throughout history, in times of great optimism, when prices are the highest and the risk is the lowest, future returns are the lowest, and when times look the bleakest, and risk is the highest, future returns are also the highest.

In the third pillar, the psychology of investing, this relationship between risk and return is again raised. Most investors follow conventional wisdom of the time, investing in specific stocks or asset classes that are currently the most successful and thus buying at high prices. Dr. Bernstein provides two strategies to counter this psychology. He advises readers first to identify the conventional wisdom of the time and do the exact opposite. He also advises readers that assets with the highest future returns tend to be the ones that are currently most unpopular. The investor that is able to go against the flow - to stick with unpopular asset classes and pay attention to his or her entire portfolio return - in the long-run will be the most successful.

Finally, the fourth pillar concerns the business of investing, which details how brokers, analysts, and the media work together to make money at the expense of often ignorant investors by peddling bad or biased information. Instead of paying exorbitant fees to brokerage firms or financial advisors, which steer investors to underperforming managed funds, investors can buy low-expense index funds through companies like Vanguard and thus tap "into the most powerful intelligence in the world of finance" - the market itself, which is, according to Dr. Bernstein, the best advisor available.

Dr. Bernstein concludes his book by applying lessons learned from these four pillars and giving readers practical advice for how to construct their own portfolios. Although this section fell short of answering all my questions, the book as a whole serves as an essential investing guide in providing investors with a basic framework to use in evaluating the myriad of investing choices available. As even Dr. Bernstein concedes, "Four Pillars of Investing" is not an all-encompassing book on investing. It is not the only book you will need to read, and it is probably not the first investing book you should read, but it is nonetheless a book every investor should read.

Book goes through the history of investing. It gets quite technical and at times very difficult to follow, only really in one chapter where he discusses what affects stock prices. And rereading it helps out. As the author suggests though, just read a little bit at a time. It's a lot of material to digest. But overall it discusses the advantages of using index funds and the need to diversify. I feel that the book speaks the truth regarding investing and everybody should at least be familiar with the concepts discussed in the book.

Bernstein has endowed individual investors with the most important fundamentals of investing, weaving together the theory, history, psychology and business of investing into a gem of understandable language for mere mortals. I recommend this book often to my clients and encourage anyone who is serious about investing their money successfully to read this book before allocating a penny to any investment.

I'm a Type 2 Diabetic that has had great success following the dietary recommendations Dr. Bernstein puts forth. His pragmatic diet has been a great help in moving my A1c down to the normal range. I've lost a needed 50 pounds. Overall, this book is loaded with good information for diabetics.

It was only through Bernstein's book that I was able to appreciate the importance of maintaining a low carbohydrate diet if I were to ever achieve "normalized" blood glucose and hope to avoid the long term complications associated with the disease. Bernstein, first trained as an engineer, later as an M.D., offers a wonderful "nuts and bolts" approach to maintenance of diabetes whether type 1 or type 2. His standard of control set the bar high where, in my opinion, it needs to be. I wish that my Father, who died of diabetes complications, had been privy to his approach and had available to him the instant test methods for blood glucose that are now available.

Korban

The best book I have ever read on the subject. The fact that Dr. Bernstein has lived, studied, and found solutions for this disease makes this book a requirment. Anyone who wants to take command over this disease should get this book.

This book was a wellspring of information for me as a newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic. Getting off the cycle of being told to eat complex carbs, seeing my blood glucose spike from doing just what I was told, and getting medications increased again and again, I read what Dr. Bernstein said with interest. After trying his recommendations I can say with no reservations that this book may have saved my life! I highly recommend it to anyone who has pre-diabetes or diabetes and hope that the general medical community opens their eyes. After only one day of this diet my blood glucose readings were close to normal, and continue to stay there, with less medication. My energy levels are high and I have felt better than I have in a long long time. Kudos to you Dr. Bernstein, for daring to say the truth! I recommend both his books and also Dr. Atkins Diabetes Revolution to anyone who wants to learn about diabetes and diet.

I have done a lot of research on diabetes at the library and on the internet after I was diagnosed Type 2 in Aug 2007. I saw the dietician/nutritionist recommended by my doctor and also real a ton of information on the internet and many books from the local library. My fasting blood sugar when I was diagnosed was 311. I was able to get it down to 110 - 120 level after dieting, exercising, and eating the things recommended by the dietician. My problem was my levels were erractic up and down even when eating the same diet.

I saw Dr. Bernstein's book was highly recommended by Amazon readers, so I took the chance and bought the book. After reading that a diet of high proteins and very, very low carbs would help stabilize my blood sugars, I decided to try it. To my amazement, I started gettings readings in the mid 80's and the levels stopped spiking up and down. Carbs were my problem. Dr. Bernstein recommends an ideal reading of 83 and that is now my target.

This book should be a must read for all diabetics, both Type 1 and Type 2 people. My motto is "you can die from diabetes or learn to live with it," and I chose to learn to live with it. This book is a great learning tool and coupled with exercise (including weight training), weight loss and proper diet, you can control what happens to your body. It worked for me with results immediately.

Highly, highly recommended. If you have a friend or relative with diabetes, BUY this book for them. The author (Dr Berstein) is still a practicing physcian specializing in diabetes treatment. He is also a Type 1 diabetic. Dr Berstein's experiences lead to this book being published. It should be required reading for all diabetics.

It seems that this book is simply negative. If you are so concerned about these "insane crazy people" then get away from them. Reading a book while imagining these people seems extremely obsessive and histrionic in itself.

This review is about an apparent manufacturing or publisher defect: pages 37 to 84 are missing! They are not ripped out of the book, they are simply not there. I did not start reading it and get to page 37 until after the Amazon 30-day return period was over, so I've had to go thru a rigmarole with Customer Service about how to replace the book, ship back the other one, get a refund, etc. Very frustrating. Also, the customer service dept at Amazon classified this as a "damaged in shipment" problem, although I did my best to explain it's a publishing problem. So now how do I know when they send me the replacement book, the pages will not also be missing. I highly recommend the book, but get it at your local bookshop or if you buy from Amazon, check those pages right away.

I found this book to be very interesting and eye-opening. I was amazed to see some of the most difficult people in my life so perfectly described. I thought that the advice was helpful and the warnings about these folks well worth heeding.

Overall, the information about these types of people is great. But the book focuses almost entirely on encountering these types in the work place, not in personal life. I deal with a histrionic cousin, who maintains her blond hair and Jaguar, while crying to me that she doesn't have enough money for food or medicine. Her non-stop need for me to take care of her has drained me. While I was able to get a lot of understanding from the chapter on histrionic vampires, I had to take the workplace solutions offered and try to tailor them to personal life. I would have liked the book better if it dealt with both personal and professional types and offered solutions for both.

And I do agree with the others that he does take the vampire analogy too far. It seems to me he almost felt obligated to talk about vampires when it wasn't appropriate to do so.

I came across this book when a close friend of mine ran into issues with a difficult person in her life. Some one gave her the book, and (because I read everything in sight!) I subsequently read it. It was very beneficial in explaining my relationship with my youngest son and in helping him understand me as well. I have tendencies toward the obsessive-compulsive side, while he tends toward the hystrionic. I credit this book with helping both of us to come to terms with our very different views of the world, and I am happy to say that our relationship is stronger and much more positive because of this book. The book helps you pinpoint your own strengths and weaknesses, gives you strategies for self-improvement, and recommends specific steps for dealing with all types of difficult, puzzling people in your life. It does all this in and easy-to-read, informative, and entertaining format. If you have a person in your life whose personality you just can't seem to "get," or if you seem to rub others the wrong way and don't understand why, I highly recommend this book! I have given away copies and continue to loan my own out on a regular basis.

Unless you're adopted, you cannot possibly truly understand the feelings all the secrets and lies generated by the archaic adoption system have fostered in the adoptee. This book offers invaluable insight, is well written, and most compelling. Ten years older than the twins, and involved in adoption searches for NYC adoptees, the Louise Wise process is a familiar one to me; interesting that when they closed, Spence-Chapin (Spence baby here) took over their mess. Agencies may have changed their tune over the years and through changing times, but only when all parties realize that truth is the best partner in adoption will any adoptee have a chance. Elyse and Paula have done well to shine a light on a terrible system that has harmed a multitude of victims.

I read maybe 1-2 books a year (excluding parenting books). A book has to grab me right away. This one did.

The bare outline of the story is captivating: twin girls are separated at birth, neither knows that the other exists, nor do the adoptive parents know, and then they not only find each other, they also find out that they were separated as part of a failed psychology study, and that mental illness is behind some of the experiments that were done.

But despite the intrinsic interest in such a tale, the resulting book is less well-done than one might expect, especially since both twins are writers. Each event in their journey to discover the truth about themselves is told twice, in the voice of each woman, and there is a great deal more repetition than even this somewhat awkward device would entail. Again and again they discuss with each other and with us whether they're glad they found each other or not, how it feels to see one's own mannerisms in another person, and whether or not they really want to find their birth mother. Their soul-searching doesn't seem to go very deep, it just seems repetitive.

And one of the oddly annoying things about their story is that in their photos on the back cover, they don't look like identical twins. In fact, they look more like mother and daughter. It's not quite clear how they even know that they *are* identical.

I read this in a couple of days, and once I got straight who was who and which voice belonged to which sister, I enjoyed the suspense of what they would learn. But this does seem like it would have made a better magazine article than book.

I could not stop reading this book -- devoured it in a weekend. This is not just an analysis of the twin relationship or of adoption practice. Nor is it a typical narrative. It is a riveting personal story, like a diary, honestly told by two people suddenly faced with a stunningly unique challenge to their notions of what it means to be "me." The personal nature of the storytelling is what gripped me -- at times a bit ragged, at times emotionally inconsistent, and with twists and turns no novelist would dare invent. It's very real, and I often found myself wishing i could just go have coffee with Paula and Elyse to hear their latest. They are remarkably introspective people who question rather than just accept.

I loved this book. I love reading about twins and their similarities. This is a fun and interesting story about twins who were separated at birth.
Great summer reading.

William Bernstein has written an excellent book on Asset Allocation. I was first introduced to the book at a local chapter of AAII. It was highly recommended by all the members who had read it.I found the book to be an easy read and held my interest all the way through.I can't say that about many books on financial subjects.His research along with the data presented as tables and graphs was easy to follow and understand.It was well worth the time and money spent.

He tries to simplify the math. Result: Unclear explanations.
He mentions Markowitz allocation and says that the portfolio projected using historical parameters did poorly. Then what do you do? His equal part allocation?

He apparently strongly support indexing based on poor mutual fund performance. Later he says the title of the book is in honor of Benjamin Graham. Graham taught how to choose stocks based on fundamentals.
So what? Indexing or stock picking?

Frankly, I found the book a bit confuse because of he did not clearly answer the above questions.

From the title "How to Build Your Portfolio to Maximize Returns and Minimize Risk". The book fell short, by quite a large margin.

The book is a quick read and that was a bad thing. I was looking for an in depth explanation on how to build a good asset allocation. The math for pick two asset classes is explained and how those asset classes, when picked correctly, can actually decrease risk and increase performance to better either one held individually. This all makes sense and was nothing too to me, but a topic that must be covered in a book on this topic.

The problem is, there is not a systematic way to calculate the optimal risk reward profile for an entire basket of asset classes explained in the book. When the book get into explaining multiple asset classes, the explanation on how to arrive at which asset classes and what percentages of each gets wishy washy. They do provide templates asset classes you can use, but so does everyone free on the internet.

I finished this book sorely disappointed that I did not learn anything new to help build an intelligently allocated portfolio.

My broker never told me what an "efficient frontier" was. Maybe he didn't know. Or maybe he thought I was too dull to know what it was. In any case, the author of this book does a good job of explaining how to set up a portfolio of different asset classes in index funds, and makes it understandable to a liberal-arts major like me. I especially like the analogy of the uncle's coin-toss retirement plan in the first chapter. Very engaging. I learned a lot of statistics theory from that simple yet profound example. Don't be intimidated by this book's title. It's a wonderful book for anyone interested in minimizing risk while maximizing return.

This book is great from the perspective that it gives you a detailed look at historical returns using different investing methods and different asset classes. It takes you on a walk using statistics that leads you to the conclusion that getting into the market, staying in the market with a low cost (Trading fees and other cost associated with maintaining a portfolio) and properly allocated portfolio is the only time tested way to maximize your returns over the long term. While " A Random Walk Down Wall Street" is a great book and I recommend it as well, this book is better written with detailed reviews and supporting data.

I would say that some Excel and statistical knowledge is very helpful, but not required to understand, appreciate and utilize this book.

I bought this book two years ago and read it several times (As the writer suggest). As a result I re-allocated my portfolios and the results are great in two respects. I have smooth out volatility by using beta / Standard Deviation and improved my returns on average with proper allocation methods. Even in this crazy market of 2007 / 2008 I'm up 13%, 25% and 33% is various portfolios that I have. The methods and thought perspectives really work for the long-term investors. Highly recommended for the serious long term investor.

I am very happy with my order, I e-mailed them and got a respond back in less than an hour. My book was bought used and looks brand new.

I have studied several ASL books, and this book is easily the best I have used. This book teaches you ASL phrases and ASL grammar. I really like the way this book explains ASL grammar and sentence structure.

Shane

This book is great for those learning A.S.L. because it gives you conversational phrases that you would normally use in taking to deaf people. Much like a Learning French Tape that tells you basic phrases you would use in English and French so that you can learn to converse in Sign by knowing the right phrase and style to use.
The only problem I had was that some people have a hard time figuring out the correct hand motion from the illustrations. Also if you are not used to ASL sentence structure you will have a hard time understanding some of the phrases.
I found it to be a good hand book for teaching basic sign phrases and words.
I suggest using this book with a class or an Instructional Video. It will help to see the signs in motion so that you can match the motion with the illustration.

This phrase book is excellent in itself. Where it falls short in this 2008 edition is that the illustrations seem a bit smaller, harder to read. The new technology section which was added is a benefit for learning new signs, but the illustrations are clearly inferior to those of earlier editions. I've opted against buying the new edition, deciding to use my earlier one. I went to the book store, looked for the new signs in the new section and learned them. When I wasn't sure of the correct motion (which was too often the case), I looked at other dictionaries on the shelf and found them illustrated much better.

This book has very clear explanations of ASL grammar and structure, and lots of useful vocabulary and phrases, but is hobbled by really confusing drawings. In many instances I had to look up a sign in another book ("Signing Illustrated", which has extremely clear drawings) because I was unable to understand a drawing in this one. A worthwhile book, but not practical as a single reference.

My sister and mother raved about this book, so I finally decided to read it and boy, what a wonderful slice of life book that let's me get a real glimpse of poverty stricken family life in England in the early 1900's. I live close to Mr. Bernstein (down at the Jersey shore) and I hope that I will be able to meet him if he does a lecture locally. Please read this and also "The Dream". We think that THOSE were the "good old days", but really, for many people, they were tough times. Thank you Harry Bernstein for 2 wonderful books.

This book really evokes a time and place. The author eloquently transports the reader to a neighborhood full of memorable characters in Lancashire circa pre WWI. It will anger you, make you laugh, make you cry. It is a very powerful book.

This was a very beautifully told memoir with a surprising amount of detail and description. It was as much a story of the life Harry and his family lived as it was the love story between his sister and the non-Jewish boyfriend she loved. Lovely.

This is a really beautiful book. It's so remarkable that the author at what may be considered an advanced age can recreate the atmosphere of England in the early 1900s. Not since "how Green Is My Valley" have I become so immersed in a memoir. The portrait of his mother is lovingly done and your heart aches for her as she struggles. Be sure to follow it up with his sequel, "The Dream" as it, too, is so compelling. May Mr. Bernstein live many more years and continue writing.

I read this book in two days, only because I had to sleep sometime, otherwise I might have done it in one day. I then gave it to my mother, who is 84 years old, and she read it in two days as well. The way the author writes of such difficult circumstances in which he grew up, in such a simple and all-accepting way, is so pure and innocent that it speaks perfectly of the way a child sees his world. The author is not a newcomer on the scene, but I wish I had a lifetime of novels written by him, because his writing is that good. For anyone who loves a really good story without phony embellishment or unnecessary prose, this is a must read. It is just a remarkable book, and I cannot wait to read the next and the next and the next.

It seems to me like it would be difficult to write an objectivist novel, without sounding like or copying Ayn Rand, but in this novel Dr. Bernstein does a great job of integrating his own personality and love of basketball into an amazing story of hero worship. He writes intelligently and on his own terms, as a hero worshipper. It's a great example of a true hero, not the depraved and defiled "heroes" of a lot of modern literature, that are only heroic because of their weaknesses and grief. This book is full of positive and inspirational energy, that when manifest in yourself can truly only lead to great things. I absolutely love this novel!! I hope Dr. Bernstein continues to write and publish great works like this one!!

I just finished Dr. Andrew Bernstein's thoroughly enjoyable *Heart of a Pagan*. I see the theme of the book as hero- and personal achievement-worship vs. traditional altruistic religion. This is presented through the heroic character of Swoop, a basketball player of incredible skill who arrives in a little college-town in Iowa called Hoppo Valley. There he begins to affect the success of the basketball team he joins and also the moral and religious character of the town he moved into. Of course, he encounters numerous difficult obstacles along the way. Basketball fans will enjoy the detailed play-by-play accounts of Swoop's games. The book is also filled with inspiring substories of various other characters. During the climactic penultimate chapter you will be unable to put the book down. The book is told from the perpective of Duggan Claveen a crippled philosophy student at Hoppo Valley College whose life is completely transformed by his encounter with Swoop. Highly recommended!

This book is amazing. It reveals that people aren't getting what they are pursuing only because they either don't try hard enough, or because they refuse to face reality. I've already heard someone say that this book was unrealistic in that the goals achieved by the main characters were "too" great, but that is only because they haven't understood the point; try your very hardest in pursuing important goals, and you will be rewarded most phenomenally. True, the book is "only a story" and it portrays the ideal, but that is not reason to put the book away as a mere fairy tale. It is reason to get off your ass and do something with yourself and make the ideal a reality, whether others like it or not, whether others say you can do it or not, whether others think you're right or not.

Nice work Dr. Bernstein. I was very inspired.

To keep this short and sweet, the story of this book is comparable to Rand novels. There is never a dull moment, and Dr. Bernsteins ability to derive emotion from a reader is only paralleled by Rand as well. The characters in this book seem as real as Dagny and Roark, and are inspirational in every step of their lives. This book is just like Dr. Bernstein himself in that he will make you laugh with jubilation, and cry with happiness in his stories of heroism.

Book review: _Heart of a Pagan_ by Andrew Bernstein

_Heart of a Pagan_ is a remarkable story that depicts the primary conflict of our time -- reason versus faith -- in the setting of a basketball court. The theme is: Heroism, specifically does being a hero require pagan virtues or Christian virtues? The plot-theme is: Paganism is introduced to a small Christian town. The plot is: A young, upstart basketball player decides to turn a losing team into a champion team.

When Swoop, the hero of the story, first shows up at Hoppo Valley State College, Iowa, declaring that he is going to take the team to the top, no one believes that it can be done -- including his girlfriend in New York City, who hero-worships him. He comes across as an empty braggart to most, including "Digs" the limping team trainer, who is a philosophy major. Over time, Swoop and "Digs" develop a friendship that is both broad in values and deep in thought, centering on their mutual respect for Pagan heroism as depicted in Homer's "Iliad" and "The Odyssey" and as encouraged in the works of Aristotle.

There are several drawbacks to the novel. Primarily, if the reader is not familiar with all of the references to great pagan literature or writings, then the full impact of the character of "Digs" and Swoop may be difficult to grasp, though their characterization is done well. Secondarily, if the reader is not a basketball fan, then the details of the games may not come across as inspiring; however, if one liked the movies "Chariots of Fire" and "Rocky" then one will love this story.

The story climaxes in four or five different sets of thematic dramas occurring during the final game of the novel, which took great skill at plot development to come across clearly.

I highly recommend reading it, as the story is inspiring.

To the TOP!

Simply stated, this is a good book.

To expand on this,the Magic Item Compendium is similar to the Spell Compendium in which it takes the magic item properties of many previously made source books(as early as Complete Adventurer to as late as Magic of Incarnum in the WOTC revised 3rd edition D&D series), as well as many prominent magic items. The book promises over 1,000, but if this is true I can't say. It does have many other properties right on, such as having lower cost items than featured in the main books. But what really caught this book for me is it's flexibility.

Sure, one could argue that having a book merely composed of magic items would be pretty much useless unless your campaign allowed for a lot of said magic items. But, these could be easily 'dispelled' by the books overall purpose: Taking all of the magic item properties of most of the source books previous to it's making and putting them in one handy tome. There are magic items (and their properties) from the Eberron setting, from the Draconomicon, from the Complete Adventurer book, all without having to buy the said source books! Even if one where to have said source books, the Magic Item Compendium focuses specifically on finding these properties and items within and presenting them in a well organized fashion for any DM looking to create new, more interesting items of choice.

Another handy feature of the Magic Item Compendium is giving items levels by price, and tables to show what priced magic item a player of x level would most likely have.

This book, like many wotc books, isn't without it's woes. It has about 7 pages worth of errata, or corrections, on the wotc site, meaning if you want the book to be free of error you'll have to retrieve the errata file.
Not to mention that while the magic items and are neatly organized and easy to read from, all of the meat and bones new rules (magic item levels, creating relics and item set bonuses, etc.) are all in the back of the book, after all of the actual items the rules refer to have been presented.

Other than a few minor complaints, the book is solid and a good addition to any campaign.

It's good but still unorganized like the Spell Compendium, the table helps a lot though, unlike in the spell compendium. They should have added the page of each item in the table in my opinion.

I loved it as soon as I pulled out of the box and touched the shiny new cover. Opening it up was like entering a whole new world. The items are fresh and exiting. Easy to read and a joy to locate a new item that lays in wait for the unsuspecting adventuring party.

The only thing I have to say that is negative is:
it would be nice to have pictures of every item. But how realistic is that?
But how NICE would that be too!!!! With all the other details and research a DM has to do, it is nice to look at an image and describe it, alter it, or just hold up the book and say, "it looks like this."

So, if you can live without a picture of every item... then this book is what you need next to you at every game session! There are new and refreshing items...something for everyone!

Happy Gaming and I really think you will love this addition to your DM collection.

An absolute MUST HAVE for any DM who likes rolling for treasure instead of hand picking it. The treasure tables in the back make rolling SO much easier and quicker (read: more fun). Plus the tables include every item from this book AND the DMG.

If you are into what equipment your character has (who isnt?) then get this book.

This is as good for magic items as Spell Compendium was for spells. Possibly better (I can't believe I just said that, all I play is spellcasters!)


GET THIS BOOK!!!
(unless you have the Vow of Poverty, then you will just cry when you see what kind of goodies you are missing out on)

For a while there, it seemed like WOTC was so into their 4th edition that they would not be publishing anything good for a while. But alas, here is something really good! this suplement has a ton af great information in it. Really great idea for adding powers to magic items, creating small ones and large ones. No matter how strict the DM is about magic, eventually you will be able to create some of these great ideas. And for the DM, hey, the bad guys need good armor too!