J Books

I have given two sets of these books away as gifts. I just hope the recipients appreciate them and take good care of them.

Milne's classic children's books are perfectly illustrated by Shepard's clever line drawings. The originals are so superior to the Disney version that they are in a different league altogether. All children should hear the Pooh stories read by a loving adult. And the adult can enjoy Milne's sly humor on a separate plane from the child's appreciation.

The Winnie the Pooh stories are some of the best writing you will ever read. AA Milne has quite possibly the best writing style ever. Unfortunately, the last two books aren't Winnie the Pooh books. They are books of poems (and I really dislike poetry). Some will love that, but I was hoping for more Pooh.

I bought this for my niece, who will be three in January. Still a little old for her, but my sister and brother-in-law are very excited about reading aloud to her!

These books were purchased for grandchildren. I grew up having these read to me, read them all over & over to my own five, and now to the grandchildren.

A. A. Milne uses wonderful language, humor, suspense, making these books and their wisdom last into adulthood - we all have favorite quotes often used to fit specific situations. To this family, they represent the very best childhood literature.

Leaving off from The Strange Power (Dark Visions, Book 1) Kait & Co. must escape from the Psychic Enemies Network. The posse must literally follow their dreams to a mysterious house.
Problems are:
Rob and Gabriel still hate each other
Gabriel and Kait realize their feelings for each other
Thanks to Mr. Zetes, they are now fugitives...
Then there's the whole "psychic vampire" thing.
I love this book.
Kait is a strong capable heroine who inspires loyalty and trust.
Gabriel becomes a more sympathetic character and Mr. Zetes true insidiousness is revealed
Followed by:
The PASSION (DARK VISIONS 3): THE PASSION

Living in england I have been trying to but this series, when I eventually bought this book I wasn't disappionted what a brillient series shame though that L.J. Smith hasn't continued writing romance horror and supernatual. I enjoyed reading the book and have read them several times.

i thought his was the best of the dark visions trilogy by far.. which really is saying a lot because it is a great series. i love the friendship and attraction between kaitlyn and gabriel that develops in this book.. their chemistry kept me interested and in suspense to see who she picked.

She's done vampires, witches and shadow-creatures, and in this trilogy L. J. Smith tackles psychics, namely five psychics in particular - Kaitlyn Fairchild, Rob Kessler, Gabriel Wolfe, Anna Whiteraven and Lewis Chao (where does she get these names?)
In the first book 'The Strange Power' the five teenagers were united by Emmanuel Zetes and his lackey Joyce Piper under the pretence of helping them control and understand their individual psychic abilities whilst also educating them and supplying them with scholarships for university. However, the teens found out eventually that this was not the case - what Mr Zetes was really up to was to change them into a 'psychic swat-team' and sell their psychic services off to the highest bidder. Horrified, the teens flee the house, which is where 'The Possession' picks up, but with a few differences: all five of them are telepathically linked with each other, and one of their members - Gabriel - is now forced to feed off other people's energy in order to survive.

So where 'The Strange Power' was an introduction to the teens and their powers (which include healing abilities, animal communication, telepathy, future divination and telekinesis) and 'The Passion' is Kaitlyn's infilteration back into the Zetes Institute, 'The Possession' is the journey of the five runaways to find the mysterious house that they have all dreamt of - a white house over a strech of water where voices call out to them.

On their road-trip however, they have to deal with the continuous presence of each other in their minds, the police, their parents, the mysterious location of their white house, Gabriel's need for human substanence, a new arrival, and an onslaught of attacks from Mr Zetes and his 'dark psychics' - those students who had come before them under Mr Zetes's tutorledge. However they are not without their own resources - their own powers guide and substain them, and they find allies in Anna's parents, Tony - the brother of Marisol (who had been a helper at the Zetes Institute and purposely put in a coma by Mr Zetes), an intriguing newcomer by the name of Lydia, and of course the mysterious beings of the white house - a climax that does not disappoint.

L. J. Smith again creates good, solid, interesting characters - especially those of the psychics and their individual talents - and she is a master of creating the 'bad boy', in this case Gabriel Wolfe. You only need to have a look at some of the other reviews to see how he effects pre-teens. Likewise Kaitlyn is a strong heroine, though L. J. spends a bit too much time describing her appearance and how beautiful she is (just once I'd like to see an unattractive L. J. Smith heroine!) and backup characters are likewise interesting and realistic. I especially appreciated the 'shades of grey' L. J. places within the books - there are not simply black and white/good and evil characters but rather those that hover on the boundries such as Lydia, Gabriel, and even to some extent Kaitlyn herself. Gabriel's revelation at the climax of the books when he is faced with pure (though ridgid) goodness and realises he can never become part of it is especially thought-provoking.

There are a few faults however - all her descriptions of psychic phenomena (such the feelings the psychics experience, the power of the crystal, the psychic attacks, the 'third eye' business and the transfering of people's energy into Gabriel) are rather difficult to grasp. Gabriel's description as a 'psychic vampire' I felt was a bit much, especially since L. J. Smith conveniantly makes the neck the best transfer place for energy and it was only young women that Gabriel 'feasted' on - it got a little too vampiric for me, and I thought these books were to be about *psychics*, not drawing out ideas from her previous books.
Likewise, the teenagers never seem to actually *use* their psychic abilities - Kaitlyn draws pictures, but essentially her premonitions are useless as she can never stop what they show her is to pass. On the other hand Lewis and Anna seem to have extrodinarily useful powers, but they use them only once each on the entire journey.

But anyway, if you are an L. J. Smith fan, then these books shouldn't disappoint. As usual, you have to get all three of them and read them in order to get the full benefit of them, but once again L. J. delievers what she promises with her token mystery, suspence, love triangle, teenage protaginists, 'bad boy' and touches of the supernatural.

The Kaitlyn and company are on the run from Mr. Zetes. They go in search of the house in Kait's dreams. But they aren't alone. Zetes sends these ghostly figures after them. In the end we find out who the figures are and trust me, it's a surprise. While this is going on Gabriel was turned into a psychic vampire by the crystal. But Kait finds out and she decides to help him out by giving him her energy. But one time during the process Kait goes deep into Gabriel's mind and finds out that he loves her. What will happen to all of them?

GABRIEL IS HOTT! KAIT IS LUCKY! L.J. writes another hit!

As described on the cover page, this book is cookbook style so I went through the programs on the CD before reading the chapters. I like this book for two reasons.

First, the book is easy to read. A bunch of equations may not always be helpful to understand a problem. What confuses readers most is how an implementation/program corresponds to those equation(s). This book explains the image processing techniques in a plain language and gives you an hand-on experience with those techniques.

Second, to practice image processing, clicking a button on windows or just calling a built-in function, e.g. process(image), will not be enough. When you go to the directory of programs on the CD, you may find out every details. Each program is relatively independent to each other. You will not be stuck by a function call, which you never know or find. Each program is well commented and can be easily modified and incorporated into your program.

This book is good for those who are new to image processing, because it helps you understand what image processing does. It is also good for an experience practicer, because you can find well-organized stuff to build your own applications. It is a must-have book for your shelf of image processing.

Searching for an easy plug & play solution for simple imaging tasks?
No time for programming & debugging things yourself?
No interest in crawling through literature to figure what & how you should program "the methods that solves all your problems"?

Here's a book that deals with most of the elementary - and most used - approaches in image enhancement and analysis. The CD offers a collection of ready-to-play-with programs, both in C source as in executables.

I appreciated the book set-up: each section describes one single task, describes the problem, gives an example, discusses a solution given in literature, and presents the input / output / options for the C code.
- If you want to know more: get the recommended references.
- If you want to modify the program: why not? (well, perhaps because the code is good enough!)
- If you don't care about the scientific background and/or programming: just plug & play!

I have found this book to be extremely useful as a reference for my class on document image analysis. The book discusses (with software which is a bonus!) a whole bunch of image processing techniques that are very useful.

Students can now find in one place- a reference for techniques such as gabor wavelet analysis, convex hulls, moments, fourier descriptors, thinning, hough transform, and chain coding. This allows me as an instructor of an advanced document recognition course to let the students self-study these image processing techniques while I can focus on the recognition topics.

The authors have done a great job of picking examples from a wide range of applications such as outdoor scenes, fingerprints, and documents. The book is "easy to read" and requires just basics of linear algebra to follow.

I already knew image processing when I bought this book, so I am not sure how it would appear to the novice seeking a textbook on the subject of image processing and analysis, but I imagine it could be somewhat confusing. I always recommend Gonzales and Wood's "Digital Image Processing" for those seeking a clear read on image processing and analysis from the ground up. Where Seul's book comes in is with clear descriptions and working code for many basic - and some not so basic - image processing and image analysis algorithms. The book is also very good at explaining the applications of the various transforms. One of the little things that the author of this book does that authors of other books similar to it don't bother to do is to realize that when you are working in image processing you likely have an image as an input and you want an image as an output. Thus the author has built his code libraries so that they work that way. You are not left with arrays of pixels that you have to figure out how to store and manage. In the end you have a nice functional toolbox of working image processing and analysis subroutines that you can chain together and make just about any type of image transform tool you could think of. I'm mainly interested in image effects, and I know this book has been useful to me. The accompanying CD-ROM contains all of the C source code for the algorithms so that you can port them to another language or tinker with them if you so desire. Highly recommended.

The title of this book corresponds to its content, the tutorial gives an excellent overview of basic key points to those readers who are unfamiliar with the subject (as I was). The book can not be used for rigorous study of even simple things but rather kicks you with essentials that are easy to understand with high-school background. This book, written for non-specialists in "image field", gives them techniques for their practical needs and concentrates exactly on image analysis, not on image processing. If you have no time to go through more complex (and deeper) books, take this one to discover basic principles in short form with no attempt to explain the fundamentals. The authors just put you into the facts, so that is why I would characterize the "Practical Algorithms" book as being "handbook". The good point is that the areas of applicability of these facts are explained, the drawback: you have to go to other books to get more details on image processing roots, e. g., to R. Gonzalez and R. Woods' "Digital Image Processing". I bought both, and use them as good annex to each other. The "Practical Algorithms" has lack of some significant areas, like snake algorithm and image binarization (thresholding) techniques but e.g., the cellular processing is quite well highlighted.
Surprisingly, the CD that comes along with this book gave me almost 80% examples that I was able to recompile instantly, and only several examples have failed, mainly due to image file format issues. The source code is not both elegant and bugless, but it is very transparent and portable and can easily fit, e.g., a 16-bit microcontroller.
Overall, this is good book for fast start. You can get real output and pick up ideas on practical side of image analysis. Just remember, the most book examples came from the medicine world, so they are quite specific and may not be implemented directly in your particular application.

I read this book in one sitting back in 2000 when I was still a newspaper photographer wrestling with the choice of my chosen career path. This book details a couple who left steady jobs behind the follow their dream of opening a b&b. I furiously highlighted passages and scribbled notes in the margins as I read. The next day, I bought a binder and stayed up all night drafting sections a business proposal. It took a little while, but I was eventually able to leave a full-time job with benefits and job security and launch my own wedding photography business. The idea of creating your own career path and not just following one was definitely not on the best seller radar then like it is now. And that book is what I lead with when I talk to photographers now about following their heart. It changed my life. Seriously.

At last, a book that gives us permission to dream and a guide on how to bring those dreams to fruition. Only Paul and Sarah could have written such a book. So often others tell us to forget our dreams and merely live as the rest of the world. But in "The Practical Dreamers Handbook" we're told it's all right to have these dreams and to act on them. I've noticed a different writing style from Paul & Sarah..one of peace and tranquility. Thank you Paul and Sarah for this book.

The gurus of working from home have done it again-- managed to package a personal coaching experience into the pages of their latest work, The Practical Dreamer's Handbook. I wasn't looking for a book that would change my life, but I sure found it. With their usual practical hands-on approach to working through a problem, the authors have provided us with the means to evaluate our life, choose our dream, and find tangible ways to achieve our goals.

From visualization exercises to training us to set measurable goals that can be attained, Paul and Sarah Edwards provide us with the tools to finally live our dream. I started reading this book on a Friday afternoon, and by Sunday I had rewritten my business plan and set some personal goals with my spouse. I guess you could say it has changed my life, and I plan to practice these techniques for continued success and stress-free living. Many thanks to this talented pair who continue to share their secrets and talents with the rest of us.

This is not a get rich quick or what I would call a yuppie new age mode book. But rather a well thought out book that is laid out in Three Parts with sub sections that cover everything from DESIRE -Awakening the Dream which then discusses Imagining, believing and being committed to creating what one seeks. To ACTION-Building a New Reality, which discusses following a plan or thread, finding the money, making the time, and having the needed energy. Part three is SATISFACTION-Enjoying Yourself, and is about feeling fulfilled and appreciating the ongoing process that never ends, but is always evolving.

The Parts on finding the time and money to go after ones goals were excellent if for no other reason than for the common sense shared. Challenging people to be quiet and be honest and look at how much time we waste doing nonsensical things, and spending money we should be saving for the goal. And the authors were smart to tell the reader to even downsize, and move to a smaller less expensive home or area if this will provide the extra income one needs to create the extra income one needs to have ones goals. That even cutting back on lunch everyday and taking a bag lunch or going for a walk will save a good 25-50 dollars a week that can be stuck away in a goal savings account.

They also are great at making the reader think about what do we REALLY want and WHY? Are we honest enough to realize that it could take 3-5 years before we see a payoff? Are we willing to put in the needed elbow grease to get the goal?

But most important to me was reading and being constantly encouraged to NOT give up. So many people grew up in homes where lofty goals were either not encouraged or sadly laughed at. The authors tell the reader that the world is full of naysayers and people who will laugh at dreamers. Yet ever notice how the nerd in school that everyone laughed at, becomes famous and has more friends from high school that were in the whole school in ten years?

Good book. Read it!

A practical guide written in a manner that touches the senses. If you are at a crossroads in your life, this book will help you get in touch with your true self and make a life-changing decision with confidence. As Sarah so aptly said, it's about "....seizing on fortuitous serendipity." If you are yearning for a change in your life, you will find it hard to put this book down.

Look, I'm almost 26. I'm in a punk band. I don't have any kids but my drummer does. I was digging through the library catalogue under the subject "punk" and this came up so I had to get it just to see. Farking hilarious! I love the witty character development and dialogue, even though it's obviously simply written for little folks. The illustrations are great with funny details and nods to pop culture. The website is also very funny with its spoof on MySpace. Basically, I cannot wait to tell my drummer about these books tomorrow, so she can get them for her daughters!

I recently attended Art All-State in Worcester and Jarret Kroscozka was one of the Artist Mentors for the program...At the end of the mentor slideshow he got up and did a life-changing reading of Punk Farm. E-I-E-I-OH!! The pictures are adorable and it's basically and amazing kid's book, buy it!

Must be willing to sing it and act it out, if so, this is the one for you!!! Storytime Fun.

We originally got this book at the library, but my daughter (2) loved it so much, we had to buy it for her. It's really a fun book and we enjoy reading & singing it to her. I can only recommend it!

I read this book to many of my music classes. They ALL loved the book--from pre-k up to the fourth grade. It's funny, silly and cool all at the same time. They LOVED listening to the Punk Farm version of Old MacDonald.

The book can be used to teach about the instruments used in a rock band.

I just ordered Punk Farm on Tour. Can't wait to get it!!

This book has been uniquely encouraging for me through recent difficulties. I have given away several copies to friends who are facing different types of trials. They, too are finding encouragement and passing copies of this valuable book along. I originally heard of the book in Chondra Pierce's book about battling depression, Laughing in The Dark. God used the book to help her through difficult times. This book is easily digestible in devotional-like paragraphs and chapters. It's not as intimidating or heavy as many books that seek to encourage, but tend to overwhelm, seem to be.

i liked: these 10 promises can be lived by during both challenging times and good times. author does an excellent work of outlining god's desire of moving us out of weakness away from him to boldness near him through his promises. each chapter begins with a red sea rule, a promise, then quotes a bible passage from exodus as its foundation. then through the chapter and sub-chapters you are taken on a journey of experiences and stories to illustrate the meaning of each promise. every chapter and sub-chapter is filled with scripture quotes and quotes from historical persons. a wonderful little book packed with great reading. i disliked: none found.

God used this book to bring me thru a hard time in my life. God showed me that,when there seems to be no way thru or around a problem, He will make a way. He did just that for me. I have given about 2 dozen "Red Sea Rules" books away, most of the people I give them to come back and say "God did a wonderful work in my life thru this book" Jackie Wolf

This is a wonderful book. Following the biblical pattern of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea the author helps you look at life's difficult problems in a new light and gives you guidelines for "getting thought" tough times.

I keep this book by my bedside and read it whenever I am troubled.

I shared this book with a couple that were going through a crisis. They liked it so much they gave my book back and bought their own!

It's a must read for any christian.

Varina has always thought of herself as a normal teenager until her Uncle Jim gets attacked and when a strange boy tries to convince her that she's in danger. Varina willing goes with Chase when she almost gets attacked. Now Chase is trying to convince Varina that she is a scientific experiment or in other words, a clone and that an evil scientist wants them and the other clones distroyed. Varina doesn't believe that she is a clone but she is still willing to help find the others to warn them before the evil scientist can get them first.

I liked this book. It was just soo cool. I like the way the awesome writer L.J. Singleton makes this wonderful piece of fiction seem a reality.

The events in this story sound like it could really, really happen.

Of course it would be amazing if they did. It deals with action, a hint of romance (it's not THAT bad. This book is for kids and YAs. The romance here is like Brock from Pokemon crushing on Nurse Joy or something.), and, of course, adventure.

What a FANTASTIC new series! Besides being well-written, and a real page-turner, it is totally intriguing because it COULD happen! WOW! I couldn't put it down. L.J. Singleton has created a compelling cast of characters who are in big trouble. I can't wait to read the next book and find out what happens. I highly recommend this book!

Varina has been living a fairly normal life with her Uncle Jim, but then she comes home one day to find the house trashed and her uncle seriously injured in the study. Then things get worse. A stranger called Chase tries to ell her that she is a clone - one of five - but she doesn't want oto believe him. Because her uncle wanted her to, Varina helps Chase track down the other three clones. As they search they are hunted by Dr.Victor and his companion Geneva - both want to test them and then destroy them.

I found this novel both gripping and well written. Varina is the kind of character who gets under your skin and makes you pay attention. The stroy of this novel is strong and I found myself on the edge of my seat each time a new snippet of information came through.

Cloning is a hot topic for novels at the moment - Replica is the best known series, but it has come up in other novels like "Starsplit" by Kathryn Lasky. The scariest thing about these novels is that you can picture it happening somewhere out there. This series is similar to some extent to the Replica series, but this is more challenging and more interesting - after twenty-odd novels Replica is getting just a little bit boring. Regeneration is both using an old idea and making it original.

You have got to try this book and make a decision for yourself - but I don't think you will regret picking this novel up.

I met Linda Joy Singleton at a Literary Writing Conference my school held a few months ago. I had a little class with Mrs. Singleton. She was very nice and taught us a lot about writing and publishing books. "Regeneration" is an awesome book with a fun, mysterious, and creative story that you are sure to love. The five books in the series are so good that it takes you a while to find another type of book as entertaning. I would recomend this book to anyone. ~Diandra M. Age: 14

This is one of the best books in the history of modern man. The pictures alone are enough to keep returning to it over and over and over. I found the tome very informative as it eloquently exposes the under-workings of the CON.
Any library, private or public, is incomplete without this remarkable book.

Getting this book will be the difference in eternal salvation or going to work tomorrow. Get it now, before it's too late. This is your last warning, we're watching you.

If the Book of The Subgenius left your brain nearly distroyed. The sequal will finish the job!

If only Saddam had read this book! If he did, then the Iraqi's would be patrolling New York City right now!

"Bob" gives Jesus a wedgie!

"Bob" give Mohommad a "wet willie!"

"Bob" is the punch line to a joke that was never spoken.

"Bob" is the whoppie cushion at the Black Tie Dinner of reality!

"Bob" is the pie! "Bob" is the arm of Moe! "Bob" is the pie fight at the end of the Three Stooges Episode!

The end times are a'near! Get right with "Bob" now!

I bought this one too, now I'm even crazier!
Thanks again, "Bob"!

that I had to buy THREE copies of the first book, because it would 'disappear' when I lent it to friends. I certainly wore out the binding of each copy myself, because it was one of the funniest books I'd ever read hands down. Naturally, when the sequel, "Revelation X" hit the shelves, I needed to have it, even though I knew I'd already given enough money to these raving hucksters(I mean, I loved the Church-bought the mebership and all). While not as side splittingly funny as the first one, this is still light years ahead of any other humor books. Each SubGenius book is literally crammed with things to read and look at, artwork and rants and gag philosophy from embittered nerds all over the world apparently, all about the mythical figure of Bob Dobbs and his plan to save us from the maw of the Conspiracy that is perpetuated by so-called normal people to destroy noncomformity. Obviously, if you are the shy, intellectual type with a truckload of inner rage and a brain that no one appreciates or understands, then this is your bible. Women Subgenii take note: there's a chapter devoted just to you. Enjoy one of the last decades' coolest in-jokes.

As a white middle class generation x'er, I knew nothing of the Black Panthers or Huey Newton that was based on personal knowledge or experience. What I had heard was that they were radical, dangerous, and hated white folks. That seemed overly simplistic, so I decided to look into the black power movement for myself. Of all the books I read on the movement (Malcolm, Eldridge Cleaver, SNCC, Soledad Brother, etc...), Revolutionary Suicide was the best.

First off, Huey is the best writer of all the writers I read on the subject. That includes both the primary books and the secondary interpretive books written by historians. Huey's writing reflects his life philosophy, he lives for the people and therefore writes for the people. He doesn't seek to impress the reader with a fantastic grasp of the english language. He writes simply and matter-of-factly, much as a good journalist does. This to-the-point writing style more engrossing than any of the other books I read on the movement.

Second, Huey, unlike many other movement leaders, doesn't look to hog the glory for himself. He is very upfront about what he was responsible for and what he collaberated on with others. He passes the glory around liberally (some would say too much) to spread the power to the people.

Finally, this book will give you a primary understanding of who Huey P. Newton was and what he was really about. Did he hate white people? Did he advocate armed revolution? Was he a murderer and thug? Read it for yourself.

If you want to attempt to get into the mind of Huey Newton, then read this book. Reading his autobiography gave me a view of the Party I have never felt. This gave me an understanding of how and why the organization was started and also some insight on the life of Huey. You will defintely have a different view of the Party once you have read this. So read, read, read, and keep reading, and educate yourself about this incredible man and organization.

This book is one of the first and only unaltered accounts of the Black Panther Party by somebody who was in it. The book is in Huey's compassionate voice. This book dispells rumors about the BPP Huey set the record straight. This is my favorite book of all time its a book for the ages.

What can I say, that hasn't already been said? Huey P. Newton was a very complex individual, and I find myself reading a section over a second time to digest what was written. It's worth it no doubt. When you start to read this book, you will not be disappointed, Newton sheds light on even personal matters like falling in love, and views on family. This is great if you want specifics on Mr. Newton himself, and not just the BPP as a whole.

If you're going to study the Black Panther Party, you of course must check out a story of its preminent leader. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. He gave me an understanding what it meant to be a radical Black activist during the 60s and 70s. It meant that you had to be courageous, committed, and five steps ahead of the cops, the FBI, and informants.

Of course, now, this is Huey's account of the Party. While his is seriously important, the works of other Panthers and scholars who are now publishing works about the Panthers must also be studied. For now that I'm reading a biography on another Panther leader, Geronimo Pratt, I'm very interested in understanding more about the political split that took place in the BPP. Why did Huey expell Pratt from the Party? Why did Eldridge Cleaver turn out to be so reactionary? I look forward to reading other books on the Panthers to answer these and other questions.

Shippey walks the reader through Tolkien's lifelong fascination with and love and study of language, which is the golden thread of Tolkien's depiction of humankind through the mists of our earliest time on the planet.

This book is quite simply superb in every conceiveable respect. It is written by a scholar who understands and respects Tolkien's own scholarly passion for philology, the science and stories of the evolution of words and language. This is very different from the humanistic field of literary criticism, and Shippey explains at some length what a philologist can and cannot do. The close reader will end Shippey's book with a wistful feeling that some very wrong turns have been made in academia over the past one hundred years, and one of the reasons for Tolkien's greatness in his time was quite simply his refusal to accept or acknowledge that these wrong turns had been made. At bottom, a scholar of literature is, or at least ought to be, someone who loves words. We will always have a few of these people among us, and Tolkien's and Shippey's works remind us that no overgrown pathway is ever truly lost.

Tom Shippey has an intimate knowledge of the mind and creative processes of the late Professor J.R.R. Tolkien, perhaps nearly as intimate a knowledge as Christopher Tolkien himself. The degree of the schism between language and literature professors of his day was most startling, and how that affected the early critics' appraisals of his masterpiece was also not what I had expected. Tom Shippey's knowledge of JRR Tolkien's mind is most revealing and is encyclopedic, and his ability to explain how deeply the master philologist would see legends and myths in the most ordinary of names and words left me thunderstruck. I have read all five of the main Middle Earth volumes several times and have read some of the Lost Tales, but I had not gained any insight from previous volumes saying how Pr. Tolkien created his world. The authors of those books seemed to lack legitimacy. Tom Shippey does not have that problem, and his book demonstrates that he is Pr. Tolkien's bona fide pupil and linguistic heir. Fans of Middle Earth should be thankful for Tom Shippey's insight, an insight that could only be bettered by Christopher Tolkien, or Pr. Tolkien himself.

Tom Shippey is a profound student of Tolkien with a deep love of middle-earth and a deep understanding of it and its origins.

Unlike so many academics, he is a fine writer. He has style, insight and erudition. Professor Shippey succeeded to Tolkien's chair at Oxford and he has the feeling of Tolkien's world in his bones. He knows Tolkien not only as a fantasist but also as a philologist and understands - and can explain in simple and lucid language - how Tolkien's studies of words influenced his creative work. He has also written interesting critiques of science-fiction.

This is a most valuable book that will contribute proufoundly to any reader's understanding and appreciation of Tolkien's greatness without - and this is very important! - destroying the magic.

I know Tolkien's work well and cannot fault this book.

Shippey's "J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century" places Tolkien in the context of his time. "The Road to Middle-earth" has the more scholastically challenging job of placing Tolkien in the context of his tradition. As that tradition is primarily philological and philosophical, these are his subjects. He tells us what Tolkien meant the words and names in his stories to mean; he tells us how Tolkien used modern language to convey modern and ancient styles and philosophies in contrast; he tells us how the Ring mediates two mutually exclusive concepts of evil; he explains Tolkien's complex narrative strategies; he dresses down critics who misunderstand Tolkien and blame him for not fitting into their concepts of literature; and he does all this with such a blistering display of erudition and general intelligence that the reader sits back amazed.

The book is discursive, and the opening theoretical chapters may seem heavy going, but have patience: they provide necessary context. Shippey has Tolkien's measure in full throughout. He explains what was important to Tolkien, what Tolkien thought he was doing, and - no less vitally - why it is necessary to understand this if one is not to bash Tolkien in annoyance for not accomplishing something totally different.

If you read Shippey, will you necessarily understand Tolkien? No. But if you don't read Shippey, and if you also don't have his insight and knowledge, you will not fully understand Tolkien.