Bradford Books

This is a classic introduction to the main questions about space developed by well-know philosophers. Zeno's theories are my favourites. Any person interested in art, architecture, LIFE itself, should read the book. An interesting book for curious minds.

Here is a nice Historical overview of where the current discourse has developed from. It would have been helpful to include this work with one on time, but the treatment of space as a stand alone subject was well done. This is a good place to begin one's study into the problems surrounding space and time.

The reviewers before me are of scholars, I am still a graduate student and read this book as a part of a philosophy course material about space and time.

I find that the texts in the book are well chosen and the commentaries are very helpful.

I recommend this book for students and laymen starting their way in the philosophy world.

This is a very fine introductory book about the concept of Space from Zeno to Einstein through Aristo, Descartes, Kant. Author, for each segment provides relevant short readings from the original thinkers and a commentary section by him follows. This is a nice book to read before or paralel with Jammer's book on same topic. Author made a difficult subject very easy to understand.

Gives me usable views to make my scription about music and emotion. Basic stuff!

I really like this book, but I don't think I'm qualified to review it. However, I think you can get a sense of whether you might be interested in it by reading the list of chapter titles and some of the subtitles and descriptions of some of the tables (T) and figures (F), so here's that:

1 Introduction
Emotional Consequences of Expectations
Tension Response
Imagination Response
Prediction Response
Reaction Response
Appraisal Response
T1.1 Response systems
F1.1 Schematic diagram of the time-course of the "ITPRA" theory of expectation.

2 Surprise
F2.1 Schematic diagram of the brain mechanisms involved in the fear response.
Contrastive Valence
Three Flavors of Surprise

3 Measuring Musical Expectation
F3.1 Average moment-to-moment uncertainty for Balinese and American musicians listen to an unfamiliar traditional Balinese melody.

4 Auditory Learning
F4.1 Average response times for musician listeners to hear an isolate tone as a specified scale degree.
F4.5 Sample exposure stimuli showing the long-term statistical probabilities of pitch-to-pitch transitions.

5 Statistical Properties of Music
F5.1 Frequency of occurrence of melodic intervals in notated sources for folk and popular melodies from ten cultures.
F5.2 Proportion of non-unison melodic intervals that ascend in pitch.
T5.1 Probabilities for step-step- movements in a large sample of Western and non-Western musics.
F5.3 Watt's (1924) analysis of intervals in Schubert Lieder. Larger intervals are more likely to be followed by a change of melodic direction than small intervals.
F5.5 Number of instances of various melodic leaps found in a cross-cultural sample of melodies.
F5.6 Average contour for 6,364 seven-note phrases taken from The Essen Folksong Collection (Schaffrath 1995).

6 Heuristic Listening
F6.1 "Brownian" or "random walk" melody.
F6.2 "Johnson" or "white noise" melody.

7 Mental Representation of Expectation (I)
F7.2 Information theoretic analysis of "Pop Goes the Weasel" showing changing of information (in bits) as the piece unfolds.
F7.4 A hypothetical mental network for pitch-related representation.
F7.5 Four objects illustrating the failure to code spatial interval.

8 Prediction Effect
Exposure Effect
The Role of Consciousness

9 Tonality
T9.1 Scale Degree Qualia
F9.1 Distribution of scale tones for a large sample of melodies in major keys (>65,000 notes).
F9.2 Distribution of scale tones for a large sample of melodies in minor keys (>65,000 notes).
T9.2 First-order scale-degree probabilities (diatonic continuations)
T9.3 First-order scale-degree probabilities (chromatic continuations)
F9.7 Schematic illustration of scale-degree successions for major key-melodies
F9.9 Schematic illustration of the amount of flexibility or (conversely) tendency for different scale degrees in major-key contexts.

10 Expectation in Time
F10.2 Effect of temporal position on accuracy of pitch judgment.
Long-Range Contingent Expectations
The Pleasures of the Downbeat
Nonperiodic Temporal Expectations
F10.13 Graph representing the relative durations of three-note rhythmic patterns.
F10.14 Relative durations for two 3-note rhythms tapped by musicians.
F10.15 Categorical boundaries between various perceived three-note rhythms.

11 Genres, Schemas, and Firewalls
Context Cueing
Undergeneralization
Starting Schema
T11.1 Unprimed listener expectations
Schema Switching

12 Mental Representation of Expectation (II)
Episodic Memory
F12.1 Recognition measurements for the openings of four melodies.
Dynamic Expectations
F12.2 Example of a chimeric melody where one melody elides into another.
Conscious Expectations

13 Creating Predictability
Veridical Familiarity
Schematic Predictability
The Anticipation
Hypermetric Anticipation
F13.9 Schematic illustration of chord progressions in a sample of baroque music.
F13.11 Schematic illustration of chord progressions in a sample of seventy Western popular songs ...
Style and form
Dynamic Predictability

14 Creating Surprise
T14.1 Reported qualia for chromatic median chords in a major key context
T14.2 Reported qualia for chromatic median chords in a minor key context
T14.3a Metrical context for ascending melodic intervals
T14.3b Metrical context for descending melodic intervals

15 Creating Tension
The Feeling of Anticipation
The Suspension
F15.3 Prototypical suspension.
T15.1 Summary expectation analysis of a suspension
F15.4 Oddball event.
F15.5 Oddball event from figure 15.4 is transformed into an appoggiatura.
T15.2 Summary expectation analysis of an oddball note
T15.3 Summary expectation analysis of an appoggiatura
Premonition
Climax
Sweet Anticipation --- The Role of Consciousness

Finally, a real five-star book about music. For some reason, there are thousands of books about language, but almost no serious ones analyzing the biology and psychology of humanity's other communication systesms. Every society has a highly developed musical tradition, every society uses music in countless ways including the most sacred religious ceremonies, and yet hardly anyone has stepped forward to analyze it as a basic communication channel for humans.
David Huron's book is on surprise in music. He shows how music creates expectations of pattern, from simple rhythm up to very complex patterns (the concerto, the symphony...) that only sophisticated listeners know. Musicians notoriously love to play with these patterns, to surprise the listeners and thus create new pieces and prevent boredom. Huron distinguishes several types of surprise, on the basis of a highly sophisticated evolutionary and cognitive psychology as well as an astounding knowledge of music. He knows everything from the complexities of Beethoven and Schoenberg to the joik songs of the Saami of arctic Europe, and even knows what happens when you play the latter to rural folk in southern Africa. By contrast, such earlier works as Robert Jourdain's MUSIC, THE BRAIN AND ECSTASY were greatly limited by confining their attention to western classical and classical-derived pop forms, thus missing everything from cross-rhythms to alternative scales.
Surprise presupposes a whole file of knowledge of patterns and schemas, and a deep cognitive and emotional investment in same. Huron takes these mostly for granted. Obviously, the next step is to figure out why people love complicated musical patterns in the first place. Especially, humans love the theme-and-variation type of play with patterns that dominates music from Elizabethan lute solos to jazz to ragas. These are not exactly surprising, especially when you know the pieces, but they are always delightful. Why? Huron mentions body rhythms, speech rhythms, and the like. There is obviously more. I think there is much more about pattern--in music and in general--that we need to study.

Sweet Anticipation should be required reading for all composers and musicologists. The book plausibly explains how and why music affects human emotions, and it also contains numerous practical factoids that can be used to gauge one's own works against the spectrum of human musical perception. Huron uses statistical analysis and a deep knowledge of recent experimental progress in the psychology of musical perception to paint a picture that goes far beyond often banal music theory. His theories apply to all existing musical traditions, which to me is one of the most interesting aspects of the book, since most music theorists are pathetically myopic when it comes to assessing music as a universal human phenomenon.

This is certainly the best music theory book that I've read in many, many, years. It takes many things that performing musicians intuitively know to be true, and puts them into a more rigorous experimental context than musicians normally use. This being said, the book is probably not that accessible to anyone who does not yet have an undergrad level grasp of classical music theory - if you don't know what a ii-V-I progression is, or you can't see the shape of a melody by looking at an printed musical example, you probably won't get much out of it.

Highly recommended!

This is the very best book on classical AI. However, there's a catch, as classical AI has many pitfalls, such as the frame problem or the symbol grounding problem. But there are ways to overcome these pitfalls, and if you want to see what's really hot in AI today you should check out Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies.

Don't judge this book by its cover-or at least by its title. Haugeland's Artificial Intelligence: The Very Idea does not adequately serve as a general introduction to the conceptual underpinnings and philosophical background of the quest to create an artificial mind. Rather, it focuses on one specific approach to how natural and man-made thought works: "thinking...essentially is rational manipulation of mental symbols." (p. 4) Haugeland plows forward with this as his core assumption, barely noting that some AI researchers see thought from a very different perspective (for example, the connectionists) and others find the whole enterprise fraught with theoretical difficulty (such as Dreyfus).

So Haugeland's story is that of a particular theory of mind that held predominance for several decades (what the author himself dubs "good, old-fashioned artificial intelligence" or "GOFAI", p. 112) but is now gradually being superceded. His introduction to this story concludes with a description of the Turing test and a justification for its use, and a brief statement of the efficacy of describing a system in different-even contradictory-ways through different "organizational levels". (p. 9) Of all the ideas presented in the book, this last one has the greatest promise for applicability beyond GOFAI.

Chapter 1, "The Saga of the Modern Mind", is a condensed bit of intellectual history. Haugeland introduces the philosophical children of the Copernican revolution-Hobbes, Descartes, and Hume-and the ways they grappled with understanding the world of the mental with the ideas that had proven so effective in the physical sciences. We soon encounter the "paradox of mechanical reason": if reason is the meaningful manipulation of symbols, and meanings are not physical entities, then how can machines manipulate them? (p. 39)

Chapter 2 serves as an extended definition of "Automatic Formal Systems", that is, computers. This material is the most challenging in the text, but the important concepts (formal games, digital systems, medium independence, etc.), are well-described, except for finite playability. The students I tutored through this work found it impossible to determine just what point was being made, and so did I.

How does one assign meanings-connections to the "real", outside world-to the symbols that a computer manipulates? This question is taken up in Chapter 3, "Semantics"-and answered, it seems, by sleight-of-hand. Haugeland gives to this the name "the formalist's motto": "if you take care of the syntax, the semantics will take care of itself". (p. 106) Neither I nor my students found this simple resolution at all satisfying. In every example of a formal game that the author presents, whatever semantic interpretation it has is provided from outside the system.

Chapter 4, "Computer Architecture", charts the milestones of computing. It begins with the analytical engine, and lauds Babbage's single-handed invention of programming without noting, however, that a human mind does not resemble the tabula rasa of a computer's memory bank. Moving quickly to the twentieth century, we get insightful descriptions of Turing machines, von Neumann machines (which turn out to be the kind of computer we are accustomed to), the mind-bending tree-structured LISP machines, and Newell's pragmatic production machines.

Chapter 5, "Real Machines", might be better titled "Real Problems". Haugeland presents some of the brick walls that AI research has run into. These can be grouped into the phenomenon of the combinatorial explosion: in order to interact with the real world in a manner that demonstrates "common sense", an AI must have access to an impossibly large store of information (while accessing what it needs in due time), and be able to consider an equally impossibly large set of potential courses of action. (p. 178) Methods to restrict what the AI has to consider, such as the focus on "micro-worlds", result in a system with no sense. Haugeland acknowledges these problems, and offers nothing but hope in scientific and technological progress to answer them.

Chapter 6, "Real People", develops means by which the sense that humans exhibit, and machines are far from realizing. Dennett's intentional stances and Grice's conversational implicatures are intelligent-if partial-characterizations of perspicuous reasoning. They are, however, frustratingly slippery for computer programmers, so it's not surprising that Haugeland, with some exasperation, groups them together under the "nonasininity canon": "An enduring system makes sense to the extent that, as understood, it isn't making [a rear] of itself." (p. 219) I feel that, if a reader has followed the author this far, then he or she deserves better than this.

Yet Haugeland and his colleagues are bound to feel frustration. Computers are electromechanical in nature, while humans are neurochemical. Computers can engage in numerical calculation with speed and precision, while most people find mathematics to be their most difficult school subject. Computers are tools that we devised to assist us. Human behavior was forged in the four-billion cauldron of evolution, and psychologists have barely begun to sort out the seething stew of vestigial loves, hates, and motivations that shape our behavior. And honest cognitive science will admit that humans and supercomputers are each masters of two separate, very different worlds. At the end, Haugeland finally admits this possibility-without contemplating the alternatives to the computation theory of might that this possibility demands.

This is a great exposition of the fundamental notions involved in the philosophy of AI. While at first look may appear like a good undergraduate read, it is, in fact, quite subtle and deep in most of the material it touches. Great scholarship.

I borrowed this book often from the library as I love cake decorating, finally I decided it is time to buy it as I figured that is the best book so far for beginners+. I tried a few designs and they were perfect and very simple to follow, I myself couldn't believe that it was my production. I highly recommend the book, I rarely now buy birthday cakes, I make them myself from start to finish.

The high points of this book are the layout, variety of styles, and the percentage of attractive cakes displayed. Some of these cakes are good for adult beginners as well so don't think of this book as just for kids.Most appreciated were the excellent illustrations.
The book should of had better directions though-and there is one cake at the end of the book that I felt was too difficult for young children to do. There was no information on how to write on a cake. Also the introductory chapter was scant. It would of been much better if more casual text was included on how to get your child interested in decorating a cake and a bit on safety. I didn't like the disclaimer on the inside cover stating that the publishers weren't responsible for kids that hurt themselves using the book-how rude!
Anyway, the book is pretty good overall. The cakes look great and offer many ideas and variations on cake decorating.

We first checked this book out from the library and loved it so much we bought one. This is great for young chefs and the parents who love them to spend some time together. The directions are easy and they are fun to make. We made the caterpillar for a 6th birthday and it was a big hit. It made the occasion more special.

This book is good for medical students NOT interested in going into ophthalmology or for primary care residents interested in the basics of what they need to know for eye health screening. This is not a good book for the medical student who wants to go into ophthalmology.
Explains exam, common presentations and the appropriate workup and treatment. Good color pictures. Focuses heavily on what can be treated by the primary care physician versus what should be referred to an ophthalmologist.

I used this book during ophthalmology rotations - it was recommended by attendings - and found it to be extremely useful and enjoyable (maybe that's why I ended up going into ophthalmology!). Contrary to a prior review, I actually think it's also a very useful book for medical students who contemplate going into ophthalmology. I actually recommend it to all my med student friends wanting to go into ophtho. A lot of the other books might be good resources as references, but for a busy med student who has to juggle clinics at the same time, this book was succinct, clear, very well diagrammed, engaging, and well-illustrated. It was manageable enough that you feel you can actually read the whole book (or close to it) and high-yield enough to come away with a good overall knowledge of ophthalmology. It emphasizes the key points at the end of each section, and I also liked the review questions given at the end of each section. You'll need other books as an ophtho resident, but this books certainly helped me on my ophtho rotations as a med student. I bought this book after I pretty much decided I wanted to go into ophtho, but if I had specialized in something else, it would have been an invaluable resource anyway.

This is a great text for any physician, PA or NP that works in a non-ophthalmology field. It's comprehensive and mastering the material contained within the text definitely sharpens clinical skills. Ophthalmology is a subject that doesn't receive much attention in medical school. This is a great supplement for clinicians wanting to broaden knowledge of eye disease and treatment. It clearly defines the problems that can be managed in a primary care or non-ophthalmology specialty. It also points out many common mistakes made in treating diseases of the eye, in effort to help the reader avoid such pitfalls.

It's concise, very easy to read and serves as a fantastic reference. My clinical skills were much improved after working through this text.

What does a young boy with cancer have to do with camels in the Desert of Lop? Author Dawn Van Zant answers this question and many more in a story only she could tell. Bradford is a young boy who has spent a good portion of his life bravely fighting cancer. On one special night as he is laying in bed attempting to fall asleep, he feels a presence in the room. It turns out that the sandman, has been searching for thousands of years to find "the one," and it is Bradford. The Sandman takes Bradford on a journey through time and space that eventually leads them to the Gobi where he is greeted by wild camels who will guide him to the Desert of Lop. Along the way, Bradford learns about the camels, the land, and his illness while proving to himself that he too can be a brave hero. The book concludes with information about real life Wild Bactrian Camels and their status as a critically endangered species. The author also notes, how scientists are particularly interested in studying the animal's immune system, especially in light of all the species has overcome to survive over the years, and feel that it will lead to promising discoveries that could help with many human illnesses.

Once again Dawn Van Zant has written a book that clearly shows man's connection with nature. The way that she parallels Bradford's journey in the desert to his real-life battle with cancer, is heartfelt and inspiring. However, I think the book is better suited for children in the 9-12 age range rather than younger readers. BRADFORD AND THE JOURNEY TO THE DESERT OF LOP is a touching story that teaches lessons about courage and the importance of a positive attitude, while encouraging readers to learn more about nature.

Reviewed by Stacey Seay
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Rebeccasreads highly recommends BRADFORD & THE JOURNEY TO THE DESERT OF LOP as a lyrical, lively bedtime tale, filled with vivid images & magical insights.

As nine-year old Bradford does battle with cancer & dreams of what his purpose in life is the Sandman comes one night & away they fly to the Gobi Desert to find there Bactrian camels, eagles, buried treasures & a quest.

A deeply moving & magical tale founded upon a real boy's life & a real foundation's purpose in saving the last of the world's wild camels.

Outstanding!

Genre: Children's Fiction
Title: Bradford and the Journey to the Desert of Lop
AUTHOR: Dawn Van Zant
ILLUSTRATOR: Alexander Levitas
Young Bradford lay sleeping in his bed, `Warrior' t-shirt and nightcap firmly in place. A visit from the Sandman takes him on a journey of excitement, adventure and discovery that readers will enjoy immensely.
Bradford is a cancer patient and unable to run and play like other boys his age but in his dream he is whole again. He meets the Uighurs, a band of nomads that travel by camel across the desert sand. They lead him to a wonderful, enchanting place filled with wild Bactrian camels that possess an amazing trait; a uniqueness that may help boys and girls like him.
Author Dawn Van Zant writes with skill and dedication, using easy to understand dialogue. Children of all ages will enjoy this adventure. The illustrations by Alexander Levitas are charming and tell the story well for younger readers.
The book is intended to bring awareness to the existence of the wild Bactrian Camels of China and Mongolia and the Wild Camel Protection Foundation with patron, Jane Goodall. Readers are given contact information for the foundation and the website to further their knowledge of these amazing creatures. We wish Dawn and the Wild Heart Ranch much success in all of their very deserving ventures.
Highly recommended by reviewer: Shirley Roe, Allbooks Reviews.


Title: Bradford and the Journey to the Desert of Lop
Author: Dawn Van Zant
Publisher: Wild Heart Ranch
ISBN: 0-9761768-2-3
Pages: 37
Price: n/a
Jan. 2006

What do you expect from a cognitive science book, which neatly separates all the major fields (Cognitive Psychology, Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Language Acquisition, Semantics, Natural Language Processing, Vision), into chapters? First of all, it is not a mile-wide inch-deep book. Quite the contrary, it has remarkable detail, and it's definitely not an easy book for the beginner. However the fragments are not well-connected to each other, and there are no threads of thought one can follow through the text. Probably the most important problem of cognitive science is the gap between the disciplines, and the lack of a common terminology. The authors have adopted an information-processing view, and overstepped this problem rather than solving it. The result is a biased book, which is really nice if you like the information theoretic approach (like I do), but as a course-book, I suggest it as the supplementary reading.

Cognitive Science: An Introduction - 2nd Edition is a fascinating undergraduate text that accurately shows all of the subsets of the cognitive sciences. Cognitive Science: An Introduction - 2nd Edition introduces the advanced undergraduate student to cognitive science subsets such as cognitive psychology, cognitive anthropology, cognitive computational intelligence, cognitive linguistics, cognitive nurro-science, and the philosophy of the cognitive sciences. The diagrams in Cognitive Science: An Introduction - 2nd Edition are very vivid to demonstrate exactly what a philosophers/scientists sees in the subject matter of the cognitive sciences. The undergraduate text provides a very a empirical perspective of the cognitive sciences that differs directly from the classical transcendental perspective of cognition that the philosopher Immanuel Cant demonstrated in the Critique Of Pure Reason. The cognitive sciences can be very difficult to understand, but Cognitive Science: An Introduction - 2nd Edition is one of the best resources to explore the new empirical study of the science of the process of thought.

Please feel free to send questions or comments to mmount@essex1.com

This old book is a great introduction to all of the fields that make up cognitive science at a relatively low price, although it could use an updated edition. It takes a computational perspective as it surveys the various areas, and that is good for someone coming from a scientific field. It covers psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and artificial intelligence, relating them all to the field of cognitive science. In spite of the complexity of each of these individual areas, there really are no hard prerequisites for reading it. However, I would recommend you have at least an upper-level undergraduate knowledge of two of the fields covered in order to better see the total interconnection of all the fields. The book probably goes into the most depth in the areas of natural language processing and vision because these are the most computationally complex. This book is not the last word on any of the fields it covers, but it will get you started. I highly recommend it in spite of its age. The following is the book's table of contents:

Chapter 1 What Is Cognitive Science?
1.1 The Cognitive View
1.2 Some Fundamental Concepts
1.3 Information Processes Can Be Analyzed At Several Levels
1.4 Computers In Cognitive Science
1.5 Applied Cognitive Science
1.6 The Interdisciplinary Nature of Cognitive Science

Chapter 2 Cognitive Psychology: The Architecture of the Mind
2.1 The Nature of Cognitive Psychology
2.2 The Notion of Cognitive Architecture
2.3 A Global View of The Cognitive Architecture
2.4 Propositional Representation
2.5 Schematic Representation
2.6 Cognitive Processes, Working Memory, and Attention
2.7 Mental Images
2.8 Automatic and Controlled Processes
2.9 The Acquisition of Skill
2.10 The Connectionist Approach to Cognitive Architecture

Chapter 3 Cognitive Psychology: Further Explorations
3.1 Concepts and Categories
3.2 Memory
3.3 Reasoning
3.4 Problem Solving

Chapter 4 Artificial Intelligence: Knowledge Representation
4.1 The Nature of Artificial Intelligence
4.2 Knowledge Representation

Chapter 5 Artificial Intelligence: Search, Control, and Learning
5.1 Search and Control
5.2 Learning

Chapter 6 Linguistics: The Representation of Language
6.1 The Study of Linguistic Knowledge
6.2 Phonology
6.3 Syntax
6.4 Universals

Chapter 7 Neuroscience: Brain and Cognition
7.1 Introduction to the Study of the Nervous System
7.2 Organization of the Central Nervous System
7.3 Neural Representation
7.4 Neuropsychology
7.5 Computational Neuroscience

Chapter 8 Philosophy: Foundations of Cognitive Science
8.1 Philosophy in Cognitive Science
8.2 The Enterprise of Cognitive Science
8.3 Ontological Issues
8.4 Epistemological Issues
8.5 The State of Cognitive Science

Chapter 9 Language Acquisition
9.1 Milestones in Acquisition
9.2 Theoretical Perspectives

Chapter 10 Semantics
10.1 Semantics and Cognitive Science
10.2 Meaning and Entailment
10.3 Reference
10.4 Sense
10.5 Problems in Possible-Worlds Semantics
10.6 Cognitive and Computational Models of Semantic Processing

Chapter 11 Natural Language Processing
11.1 Preliminaries
11.2 On the Role of Grammar in Language Processing
11.3 Connectionist Models
11.4 On the Role of Discourse
11.5 More on the Role of General Knowledge
11.6 Production
11.7 Conclusion

Chapter 12 Vision
12.1 The Problem of Vision
12.2 Low-Level Visual Processes
12.3 Intermediate Processes and Representations in Vision
12.4 High-Level Visual Processes
12.5 The Architecture of Visual Computation

This book isn't just for deadheads, although it is aimed at them obviously, but has a little something for everyone who can think "outside of the lines" and is in search of wisdom. For deadheads in particular though, this is unlike any other book I have read on the topic, and it exlores the subject matter in a very different way than any other book I have read. Pick this one up, I'm pretty sure you'll find it a keeper.

This is quite a funky book. If you're a deadhead, you'll appreciate some of the storties and tales presented in this book. While some of them might appear silly or meaningless at first, you can find a surprising amount of wisdom and philosophy. This isn't necessarily a "must-have" for deadheads, but if you're looking for a light-hearted book on the spiritual side of the spectrum, then you might want to check this out. The title truly says it all!

I had found this book when I was in high school. Then I loaned it to someone who loaned it to someone else who loaned it to another person, and then I lost track. I finally found it again!! This book opened my mind so much. I am now aware. I was never a big deadhead, and this book didn't change my mind about them but it sure blew me away. If you're looking for a book that can awaken your true sight and free your mind from it's earth bound thought pattern, then you've found it.

Plutarch tends to be moralistic and tangential. Thucydides slows down his narrative with an abundance of detail and set speeches. If you want a good, straightforward "rumpty tumpty" presentation of exciting and dramatic historical events, then Diodorus is your man. He doesn't shy away either from describing violence and brutality when necessary. Although Plutarch's characterization and Thucydides's clarity are beyond compare, Diodorus's history can compete because its sweep is so much grander.

This volume from the Loeb Classical Library, Greek on one page, English on the other, covers the period 345 BC to 323 BC. The volume starts with an account of the career of Timoleon, the great liberator of Sicily. Arriving in an island terrorized by tyrants and torn by constant warfare, he succeeded in driving out the tyrants, restoring democracy, uniting the Greek-speaking population, and defeating a massive Carthaginian invasion with a scratch army of mercenaries. The invincibility of Greek heavy infantry is presented here as a simple fact without according it any special religious or racial significance. This refusal to respond emotionally to the events he describes, events which involved his own native island, is both a strength and a weakness of Diodorus. He is more a trainspotter of historical facts than a propagandist of Greek civilization.

The focus of the book soon switches to Greece and the final rise of Macedonian power leading to Alexander's invasion of Asia. This territory has perhaps been more ably covered by Arrian and, in parts, by Plutarch, nevertheless there is much here which other writers have missed, for example the description of Memnon's campaign in the Troad, an extremely interesting account of the siege and defense engines employed at Tyre, and an account of the origins of the Indian practice of suttee.

After the main battles have been won and the great cities of the Persian Empire conquered, the narrative becomes a little tedious as we plough through Alexander's endless campaigns against central Asian hill tribes and Indian towns and villages. When the army finally refuses to go any further, the reader is in perfect agreement.

It was at this point that Alexander commanded his troops to build a camp with everything in it doubled in size to give subsequent generations of Indians the impression that the Macedonians were giants instead of men. Alexander then returned to Babylon where his death was predicted and soon followed, a suitable end for this volume which starts with a liberator and ends with a conqueror.

In the side margin of each page there is a date so that the chronology is always clear, and any omissions by Diodorus are effectively dealt with by excellent footnotes which cross reference with other historical sources.

Diodorus' history of Alexander is quite enjoyable, and has several points that the other 'primary' sources do not.

As per usual, the Loeb edition is well put together and you get both the Greek and the English translation side-by-side. For $21.50 you can't go wrong, unless you are trying to purchas QCR. I would assume that Penguin (or some like publisher) could produce an English translation that could be put out in paperback, but I would still say get the Loeb.

All in all a very strong recommendation.

Alexander the Great, was born on or around July 20, 356 B.C.E., and is my favorite personality to read about in history. To me he is the whole package general, statesman, conqueror, and philosopher. The smartest man who ever lived, Aristotle, tutored him. Alexander conquered more of the known world than any other figure in history, accomplishing all this before he dies at the ripe old age of 33. Some people called him conqueror and violent overlord. Some other called him civilizer and even God! All of them yet, called him "The Great". He was the first man in modern history that took this name, "The Great"! Even as a young boy, he shows great promise.

Diodorus a Greek historian who lived from 80-20 BCE wrote 40 books of world history. He is an uncritical compiler who used good sources and produced them faithfully. His work is one of the oldest works available and is based on eyewitness accounts. He does a better job than most in explaining the battle scenes, and seems to be more balanced in his admiration and criticism of Alexander then any of the other early biographers. I love his Bucephalus Story, and I recount it here so you get a flavor of the promise this young Alexander shows.

The legend begins with Philoneicus, a Thessalian, bringing a wild horse to Philip for him to buy. None of the hands was able to handle it, and Philip grew upset at Philoneicus for bringing such an unstable horse to him. Alexander, however, publicly defied his father and claimed that he could handle the horse. The bet between Philip and Alexander was that if Alexander could ride the horse, Philip would buy it, if not, Alexander would have to pay the price of the horse, which was 13 talents, an enormous sum for a boy of Alexander's age to have.

Alexander apparently noticed that the horse had been shying away from its own shadow, and so he led it gently into the sun, so that its shadow was behind it, all the while stroking it gently and whispering into its ear, (Alexander seems to be the original horse whisperer). Eventually the horse let Alexander mount him, and Alexander was able to show his equestrian skill to his father and all who were watching. The incident so impressed Alexander's father, King Philip that he told the boy "Look thee out a kingdom equal to and worthy of you, for Macedonia is too little for thee". He named the horse Bucephalus, which means Ox head, and rode it across Asia, founding a city in its honor in India after its death. This story gives you an inkling about the man.

This book is a necessary read for students of Alexander, I also recommend Plutarch's and Arrian's work, and from contemporary writers, J. F. C. Fuller and Tarn. Most of Alexander's greatest military traits are in the area of military logistics and to understand his genius in this area I highly recommend reading, "Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army," by Donald W. Engels.

As a retired U. S. Army Major, I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in ancient warfare, and history.

While the subplots may be a bit cliche to the typically teen soap operas, and the ending of the book results to a complete copy over of 'Fast Times at Ridgement High', this novel gives a inside look at the zany adventures of working at a local movie theater. I have to admit, I had worked at two local movie theaters and this novel gives me some of the warmer (and sometimes colder) memories of my experiences. This book was suggested to me by a co-worker who I had worked at Showcase Sterling (one of the few local multiplexes at my house)...and I had bought this off amazon.com out of boredom! While reading it, sometimes subplots got dry and sometimes the love interests that sparked got very annoying, the majority of the novel was basically deja vu of my past time of working at the movies. And while I had always felt I should write something similar to what Wade Bradford wrote, this author has created something most stories lack on. While character development and subplots isn't at the correct standards of good story telling, the link of a certain place where everybody goes to from time to time and making it so personal where only a few people could relate to it (like me)...this novel is warm and heartfelt...with a few drama like scenarios and a feel good outline...I suggest this book to anyone who had jobs when they were a teen and digs those sappy teen dramas.

I actually went to High School with Wade and knew him during much of this time. Reading this was very much like visiting an old friend, which is a sign of just how well he stamped this book with personality.

This is not only truly one of the funniest books I've ever read - I can say that, as I'm difficult to make laugh while reading - but also a very honest story with very rich and distinct characters. I hope he's back at work on another of these, because I'm already finding myself wanting to return to these well-drawn personalities.

I haven't laughed this hard in a long, long time. It brought back so many quirky memories of my directionless teenage working days; and the odd characters (co-workers) that eventually became my life long friends. It's a rare book that can make me feel as though I really know these people. It sadened me to finish--I wanted more. I have so many questions. I need a sequel!!!!