Powell Books

You can see the contents of this book and the author's other work at [...]. Also check out the author's own website [...]. Very creative work however this is not geared towards children. There was a comment above about wrapping this with a box of legos for your child. Don't do that. Parents do your homework first!!!!

I bought this book (and the others by the same author) for my brother who is a huge Lego fan. He actually read them all and loved them, whereas before it was difficult to get him to read other books with kids' versions of Bible stories.

We purchased all three of these books. Great for the Christian lego maniac.

James 2:21-22 "Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac as sacrifice on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did."

Brendan Powell Smith's faith is complete; he has molded his faith into LEGO pageantry and his works will be your pleasure. Pick it up... its his version of marching his child up a mountain in order to slay him on the altar; and unless you are humorless, it'll slay you.

If you do not like this book then you hate Jesus.

Although the information about each album cover is intriguing, I'd be hard pressed to agree that these are the top 100 best (or creative) album covers of all time. As a graphic designer, I feel that some of covers are downright dull - definately not worthy of the title bestowed upon them.

There are so many albums out there, but I have to question some of the album covers that were chosen.
I think that part of the problem with this book is that it tries to catagorize the covers, which is the downfall. For some of the catagories, it seems that they are reaching on covers just so they have enough album covers to sustain that catagory.
I also think there were albums, too numerous to miss.
That all being said, the information was very interesting and it was good to see that one time period or genre was not dwelled upon.

I can't say anything more than this book rules. It has definitely the best 100 album covers.

At least half of the featured album covers were familiar to me, and the book did contain interesting and informative snippets of information. However I was a bit dismayed that some album covers were overlooked, memorable covers by such popular bands as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Meatloaf, ELO, Boston, Blue Oyster Cult, and Iron Maiden (for their frightening Eddie character that graced so many of their albums).

As an art book, this book is a joke. I have many coffee-table and art books, and "100 Best Album Covers" is the only one I have that centers some featured graphics in the CENTER of the book. By that, I mean that a picture is centered in a two page spread, which runs the spine of the book right down the middle of the picture. All of the other art books I have put a graphic on one page so that you can see it (unless it's oversized). The pictures here aren't oversized and would easily fit on one page. It's hard to appreciate even a nifty album cover when you can only see the outer edges of it clearly. Far too many of the album covers are centered on the spine this way. The emphasis in this book is on the commentary it seems, and not so much the picture. Emerson Lake & Palmer's "Brain Salad Surgery" (an impressive work by the famous artist Giger) isn't quite as breathtaking when you have to pry and bend the book open and crack the spine to see it.

The publishers should revise this book and reissue it.

I have owned this book for several years and I finally decided to write a review on it now. Why did I wait so long? Well, this is not the kind of book that you'll likely pick up right away and read all the way through. In fact, I constantly find myself going back to this book whenever I'm bored. It's fun, even after many years, to flip to an album cover and read all of the interesting details on the concept, artist, design, and history. The book is laid out in such a fashion that each time you look at a represented cover, you discover new details and gain a new perspective.

As to the question of whether or not these are truly the best 100 album covers of all time, I really can't say. In fact, in that regard I think the title is misleading because it forces the reader into thinking this is some type of a ranking or countdown. In fact, it is nothing of the sort. This is simply a really cool collection of 100 great album covers and their history. And, in that respect, this book really delivers.

Buy it today. I promise you, it will never get dull.

Anthony Powell's masterpiece "A Dance to the Music of Time" is essential reading for any lover of literature.

About this fourth movement, two salient features strike me: 1) If you are not deeply steeped in literature or, perhaps, to put a finer point on it, the history of literature, if you don't understand this remark, made by Nick in The Temporary Kings, the second of these three final efforts, that, "It is often pointed out that one form of Romanticism is to be self-consciously Classical.", you are going to miss out on much of the work's depth. Indeed, if you have not read one particular book, Burton's delightful, age-old, rambling The Anatomy of Melancholy, you will miss out on much. So much is seen through a literary lens. 2.) This movement is indeed a departure from the other three, in that, were I asked to sum up its theme in one word, that word would be: Necrophilia

I'm not going to delve into the psychology of Pamela Widmerpool nee Flitton or into that of Russell Gwinnett here. But let's just say that, primarily through these two characters, this movement plumbs the depths of sadism and masochism (particularly the latter) so subtly and deftly, and yet so uncompromisingly that it makes just about anything else written on these themes seem exhibitionist and superficial by comparison.

Also, a word on the opus as a whole, now that I've read all four movements: It does not measure up to the standard of Proust, as is often claimed. Really, it's an entirely different sort of work than Proust's. Proust is solipsistic (in a profound sense) and poetic. Powell is gregarious and deeply prosaic. His style of writing reminds me of the Latin I had to construe as a youth.

Near the end of the third movement, our narrator Jenkins confesses to a weakness for Poe. Here, that "weakness" blossoms improbably like a rose in a charnel house. After completing this fourth movement and meditating on the entire "Dance" for some time, I discovered that the overall affect on me was that it was extremely weird, weird in a way that I find impossible to put into exact wording, weird, no doubt, in the way that critic Harold Bloom uses the word when he avers that all great literature strikes the reader in this way, as weird.

As odd as this recommendation may sound, one could do worse, far worse, than to return to Poe's poem Annabel Lee after completing this massive opus in order to gain a sort of perspective, whether one likes the poem or not, perhaps particularly if one does not.

To arrive at the 4th movement of 20th Century British author Anthony Powell's "A Dance to the Music of Time," is, of course, to arrive at the season of winter, as we can see from the front of the soft-cover volume, a reprint of the painting by the 16th century French artist Nicolas Poussin, from which title Powell's masterwork, initially a 12-book series, takes its own. The series'1st movement, chronicling the schooldays of Powell's narrator, Nick Jenkins, was, of course, spring; the second movement, chronicling the palmy young adulthood in London of the narrator, his friends and acquaintances, was summer. World War II was fall. We now arrive at winter, melancholy; discontented, to quote Shakespeare's Richard III; and shot through with death. Powell's language is frequently more Latinate and pompous than in his earlier books; his plots and characters are less dense, and less funny. Our narrator, Jenkins, becomes less an actor in the tale than a bystander; the books read almost as a prolonged afterword as loose ends are tied up.

"Books Do Furnish a Room," first in the final trilogy, is set in the immediate post-war years of the late 1940's. Mention is made of the many people Jenkins knew who were lost in the war: his closest friends from schooldays, Peter Templer and Charles Stringham; his friend from young London salad days, Barnby. Several of his wife Isobel's many siblings have also been lost: as well as her aunt Molly Jeavons. Our narrator Jenkins is working on a study of Robert Burton, sixteenth-century author of "The Anatomy of Melancholy," and the mood is melancholy indeed. Mention is made of the difficulty and expense of getting clothing ration coupons, flowers, alcoholic beverages, gas. "Books Do Furnish a Room" is the nickname of a literary compere of Jenkins'; but he does not dominate this volume. Instead, we see quite a lot of Kenneth Widmerpool, the boys'bete noir from schooldays, and the woman he's married, Charles Stringham's universally-acknowledged to be difficult niece, Pamela Flitton. However, the book largely centers on X.Trapnel, mysterious author, whom I've always thought was based on the mysterious real-life 20th century German-American writer B. Traven, author of the 1927 novel "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," among other works - it was made into a famous movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Walter Huston, directed by Huston's famous son John. And then, of course, there's Trevanian, pen named author of "The Eiger Sanction."

The second book, "Temporary Kings," centers on an international literary convention in Venice. We meet some new characters, principally American academic Russell Gwinnett. But the action really centers on Lord Widmerpool, as he has been named a life peer, and his wife, Lady Pamela. More of Jenkins' friends and relations are lost.

In "Hearing Secret Harmonies," the last book, set in the 1960's, we meet and will see a lot of one Scorpio Murtlock, youthful guru extraordinaire and leader of his own cult. But once again, Widmerpool, now Lord Widmerpool, chancellor of a red-brick university, will dominate, as he is first caught up in the student unrest that characterized that long-gone era; and then delivers himself and his goods to Murtlock. And yet more of Jenkins' friends, relations, and acquaintances are lost.

It's rather a glum volume, all told, and not nearly as entertaining as its brilliant predecessors. But if, you've read your way through this lengthy series, and,like some of us, you want to know what happened then --- well, you might as well read it.

Anthony Powell has been dubbed "the English Proust". Having read both Proust and Powell, I think it would be more accurate to say that Proust is the French Anthony Powell, A.P. being, in my opinion, by far the more accomplished writer. I remember reading a caption to the effect that after reading Powell's works, returning to other writers's required an effort of the will. This is exactly how I felt after enjoying Dance. The manyfold characters of Dance have now become more real to me than most people I've know in my life and it is fair to say that A.P. belongs to that category of rare writers who can change your outlook on life. An abridged audio version of Dance is available (read by Simon Callow) but it is on audiocassette and out of stock. I hope this or another audio version will be made available in more modern form (CD etc.) for those who like the spoken word too. I can't get enough of Dance, whether it be text, sound or TV series.

I agree with a previous reviewer that the later volumes of Dance are weaker than the earlier, and I wish Powell had chosen something more mainstream than necrophilia to pepper his tale of the fifties. But as A.P. himself wrote in his memoirs: with every writer there's something to put up with. "Dance" is too good to deserve less than five stars on account of a somewhat bizarre last part.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the Dance series for a graduate level course over the summer of 2003....until I got to the last volume. In my opinion the books peaked with the sixth, "The Kindly Ones" and finshed delightfully at book nine "The Military Philosophers". Most major character lines were completed and the story had reached a logical and chronological end. For this reason Volume Four reads like a long and arduous addendum. The new characters are unappealing and the loss of the most interesting personalities from the prior three volumes is immense. Further, a personal irritation of mine is the continued use of archaic verse lifted from often bad and lugubrious poetry. Powell is indiscrimant in adding pages from irrelevant works while not advancing the story line. Did he write these last three novels to augment his income as he approached his later years? Regardless they alloy this otherwise delightful series. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR, END AT BOOK 9, DON'T BOTHER WITH THIS VOLUME.

Anthony Powell's masterpiece "A Dance to the Music of Time" is essential reading for any lover of literature.

The so-called Third Movement of British author Anthony Powell's master twentieth-century opus, "A Dance to the Music of Time," comprises the three novels in which it was initially published:" The Valley of Bones," "The Soldier's Art," and "The Military Philosophers." It covers the military career of our narrator, Nick Jenkins, during the Second World War, opening during the period when hostilities had not yet completely begun, the period known as the "phony war," which Jenkins' friend and brother-in-law Chips Lovett, who will not survive, describes as a "tailors' war." Jenkins, whose father was a career military officer, has mused that his family has served in the military for centuries, always without distinction. He begins the war as a line officer, without distinction; he will finish it in a London staff position. The book is probably more easily read by those with a bit of military knowledge, particularly of pay grades and awards, but it will gift any reader with its undeniable lived experience of that great worldwide conflagration.

"The Valley of Bones" opens with Jenkins, who has managed to get into the army, as a mediocre, older than usual, regimental line officer, during the phony war. It mentions the British evacuation at Dunkirk and the fall of Norway, and closes with the Germans about to take Paris. It introduces us to characters we'll see more of later, Odo Stevens, David Pennistone, and Bithel: Widmerpool's not around. Pennistone's a literary type - he and Jenkins discuss the views of war of French philosopher Descartes and poet-soldier Alfred de Vigny, and the doings of English poet Lord Byron, and his friend Caroline Lamb. It's pretty strictly about army life: it's quite funny in spots, but some readers may find it dry.

"The Soldier's Art" opens as Jenkins has been called to a staff position, serving under his old nemesis from school days, Kenneth Widmerpool,while that former schoolmate continues his irresistible rise to money and power, fueled, Jenkins is now in a position to see, by his prodigious ability to work. The story also centers on the character arcs of two more former schoolmates, Charles Stringham and Peter Templer, Jenkins's closest friends from that time. We are kept in suspense as to their fates, but we come to see that Widmerpool does not mean them well. Stringham remarks early on that "it's awfully chic to be killed," and several relatives of Jenkins's wife will die: brothers at the front, others in the London bombing blitz. Jenkins will lose several more old friends and acquaintances. The book gives the impression of having been written in a white heat.

"The Military Philosophers" opens with Jenkins at London's Whitehall, in his final posting of the war, a staff position providing liaison to England's allies. We see the fates Widmerpool has arranged for Stringham and Templer, as we meet Stringham's niece Pamela Flitton. She's introduced while working as a military driver; a beautiful girl, but considered difficult from childhood. She fascinates many men, Widmerpool among them. Surprisingly, to me, at least, the author mentions the findings at Katyn, where evidence emerges of a massacre of Polish military officers by the Soviet, thus predicting the shape of the postwar world. This volume ends with the war; it certainly has its funny bits, but is sometimes written in a more difficult style.

The vast majority of people who read this volume can have had no first hand experience of England at war at this time, nor will any future readers. It's an invaluable telling of the way it was, well worth reading despite its sometimes somber tone.

One feels somehow quite melancholy in turning the last page to Powell's Third Movement. There are several reasons for this emotion, not the least of which is the gradual manifestation of a reflection Nick makes about halfway through The Soldier's Art, the second book in the movement:

"That is one of the conceptions most difficult for stupid people to grasp. They always suppose some ponderable alteration will make the human condition more bearable. The only hope of survival is the realisation that no such thing could possibly happen."

Then, too, there is Stringham's demise: From the first of these movements my favourite character, his witty, dashing, insightful bravura, even when reduced to the lowliest of ranks, always added poetic sparkle to the pages. When last seen taking his leave of Nick with a book of Browning's poems in his hand, I felt this tremendous deflation in that I'd seen the last of the most prodigally heroic of Powell's characters (a suspicion borne out later in the text, unless reports of his death turn out to be greatly exaggerated in the fourth movement.). Perhaps his niece, introduced in these pages, will turn out to be his avenging, well, not angel, but more than capable of doing damage to the loathsome Widmerpool all the same.

If there were any doubters of Proust's influence on Powell, the third book here, The Military Philosophers, should put their doubts to rest. Proust is quoted at length, reflected upon, and, in his capacity as foreign Attaché, Nick manages to convince a high-ranking official that he should be included in the French curriculum.

This is turning out to be a lovely work of literature indeed, though I find myself in sad agreement with another reviewer here that it's probably, like Proust, "not everyone's cup of tea." As Nick reflects in The Valley of Bones, the first book herein:

"I was impressed for the ten thousandth time by the fact that literature illuminates life only for those to whom books are a necessity. Books are inconvertible assets, to be passed on only to those who possess them already."----Powell's opus is that sort of book.

A curious Widmerpoolian point: What Jenkins calls General Liddament's whimsical recourse to "Old English" at times, such as in his dispatch to Widmerpool, "The General bade me discourse fair words to you, sir, anent traffic circles." is not Old English at all. It's Elizabethan or Shakespearean English. Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, is the language Beowulf was written in. It's so completely different from anything approaching modern English that it has to be translated by specialists to make any sense at all to the modern reader. It would have been just as alien to the Elizabethan ear, come to that. ----This sort of slip just won't do when there's a war on. ---I wonder Widmerpool didn't catch him out on it.

This summer I started reading Powell's series in consecutive volumes --just finished "Books Do Furnish A room" which follows "The Military Philosphers" --It's fine, completely up to the quality of the preceding volumes but now treating the post-WW II period, our characters and some new ones, in a more hum-drum time. I don't know about the quality of the followng books but so far Powell is not in his dotage by any means .

By the way, I took each individual book out of the library-- didn't use any of the compound or collected books.
easier to handle, and on the eyes ---

I chose to read the Dance series for a graduate school course over the summer of 2003. This third volume is delicious. It logically ends the most important story lines. The volume also contains perhaps the two best loved books in the series, "The Valley of Bones" and "The Military Philospohers". I have studied military history for over the past 25 years. In my opinion these three volumes provide one of the best insights to the bureaucratic dimension of war. They are an opposite yet complementary view of World War II as compared with a more corporeal work such as Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead". Powell the penultimate characterist becomes an expert narrator in this volume. As usual he continues to dazzle thorugh his use of the English language. Practical yet esoteric words that I added to my vocabulary from this volume include "palimpsest", "aperient" and "anent". Beware, exemplary writing ends with book nine. Volume IV, written in the novelist's dotage, is perhaps the very reason many view this series as dull and plodding. END YOUR PLEASURABLE EXPERIENCE of this series WITH VOLUME III.

Arrived in specified time, no issues. Use the book all the time. Pretty good reference.

The future is Javascript. Being a Microsoft technologies fanatic, I always wanted to make use of the AJAX library. My javascript needed some brusing and this was the book I went after. The complete reference, and a good companion to HTML/XHTML Complete Reference. David Flaganan's book is good too. Both deserve 5 stars.

I think the line tends to fall between the programmer types and those of us with less of a comp-sci background on this book. I stepped up to this from Jeremy Keith's DOM Scripting after a wild self-teaching binge and enjoyed reading it. It's considerably less dry than you would expect from a book of its size and I thought the author did a good job of explaining more complex JS topics. That said, some topics were starting to show their age and it's overdue for a new edition.

Overall it's a great introduction to people who want to pick up tricks across the entire gamut of JS and I found myself running into a number of objects and methods I wasn't very familiar with. When I'm looking for new JS ideas I would go to this one and start browsing sections I hadn't read as thoroughly. When I want to know exactly what is up with a given facet of JS, I go to O'Reilly's version, the Definitive Guide.

My copy was from the library unfortunately and I miss it, but I'm still holding out for a third edition as it's getting a bit long in the tooth in some sections, but this is usually obvious (like pre-ajax coverage of the XMLHTTPRequest object).

There is definitely room for both the definitive guide and this JS book on my bookshelf, however, and I personally thought it did a great job on prototypical inheritance for doing OOP-style JS.

This is a fairly comprehensive book. This is not the best "beginner" book. The "beginner" info is in there - but it's mixed with so much advanced stuff that it can seem overwhelming. If you have previous experience, there's a lot of good stuff here. This is an excellent "second book."

The text is a very good and complete explanation of JavaScript. It describes the best usage of JavaScript with the latest common browsers at the time of writing (early 2004). There are numerous examples which express the programming ideas in a simple fashion.

If you have programmed in other languages, JavaScript should be an easy learn with this book. Programs written in it tend not to be very long, as they are associated with a single web page. While JavaScript deals nicely with the various objects in a browser, like a window or document, the programs tend to have a procedural flavour.

Not a bad book. Some cool Beastie Boys photos and a few Run DMC pics as well. Sure, there are other 80's rappers in here, but it is mainly comprised of Beastie/DMC shots. Ricky was one lucky dude. I remember him during the Check Your Head tour soundcheck in '92 (in Mesa, Az). He asked all lesbian girls to meet him at the side of the stage after the show. He also ran around the Beasties with a camcorder during the show. Lucky man.....Good book for the price.

Known in some circles as the "4th Beastie Boy" or the "Rap-arazzi," long-time Greenwich Village, N.Y., native and man about town, Ricky Powell truly delivers the goods in Oh, Snap.
This photo guru has been in the game a long time, which is evident in his body of work, especially with the old school Def Jam recording artists he shot including Public Enemy, LL, and the Beasties, just to name a few. Powell has an uncanny ability to showcase an era of both hip hop and NYC culture that seems to have faded in recent years. Like Glen E. Friedman, Powell was in the right place at the right time, capturing a movement that was explosive, dangerous and elegant all at the same time. This book is a must have for all hip hop fans and those who remember the way NYC was prior to the Rudy Giuliani administration.

Ricky Powell has constructed a visual textbook regarding the rise and subsequent dominance of rap/hip hop within the urban domain. Complete with rare photos of living legends in their own element, this book is a requirement for any fan of rap/hip hop.

this book is soooo dope! i'm a diehard beastie's fan so this made me extremely pleased. the pictures in here are ones that i've never seen before and it doesnt just feature the boys: it includes Run-DMC, a few pics of LL, and various hip hop artists... i suggest it to any fan especially teenage girls like me who enjoy looking at pictures of the Boys in their prime hotness...

I saw this book at my chiropractor's office and wanted to slip it in my bag. So glad Ricky put these sincerely taken photos out in the public. The subjects never seem tricked into posing they seem more spontaneous and free , just like the mood of the music at that time . I miss that.

since John lectured at Loyola. It changed my life and when I got divorced, I realized that I loved my wife and if she needed to go to be happy, I needed to support her. I lost my son a few years back and haven't felt anything since until I met a new woman in my life. I recognized almost immediately that I love her totally, and unconditionally. We have some things to work on but this book reminds me of what unconditional love is and isn't. Boundaries and strength and openess and honesty. I am alive agian.

The Christian author portrays unconditional love in a beautiful and refreshing way. In a world of self-help books and broken marriages, this book epitomizes what real love should be like without making it impossibly idealistic.

No matter how many times you have answered this question, in your life, to focus upon this question, is to love yourself.

And don't worry about the answers that come to mind. Whatever answers you arrive at, really represent part of your one life principle, which is what you filter all of your decisions through.

Mine is "Serene Samurai," or, "Creative Self-Expression."

Both terms come down to unconditional love.

And both come down to John Powell's message, "True self-esteem and a true sense of identity can be found only in the reflected appraisal of those whom we have loved."

I especially enjoy reading these 2 messages, in "Unconditional Love:

"There may be days when disagreements and disturbing emotions may come between us. There may be times when psychological or physical miles may lie between us. But I have given you the word of my commitment. I have set my life on a course. I will not go back on my word to you. So feel free to be yourself, to tell me of your negative and positive reactions, of your warm and cold feelings. I cannot always predict my reactions or guarantee my strength, but one thing I do know and I do want you to know: I will not reject you! I am committed to your growth and happiness. I will always love you."

"To choose to love as a life principle means that my basic mind-set or question must be: What is the loving thing to be, to do, to say?"

This wonderful book is a continuation of the ideas in "Why am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am;" also by John Powell, S.J.

I picked this book up on what I figured was a fluke. I was at a used book store and the title seemed exactly what I was looking for. I had no idea how true that was! I definitely believe that this was God's plan, and boy am I glad I listened! :)

This book has completely changed my life, and I am thrilled to recommend it to everyone I know! Just ask my friends... LOL I had no idea what I was getting myself into! I have always had a close relationship with my Father in Heaven, but have struggled with self-esteem my whole life because of abuse issues as a child.

This book is SUCH an incredible view into the souls of those who have suffered any kind of abuse -- or for any reason have low self-worth. I could not put it down, and learned SO much about myself!

Thank you SO much for writing such a wonderful book! My life will never be the same again... isn't it great! :)

JL

November 17, 2005 - A settlement has been reached in connection with a Roman Catholic priest accused of sexual abuse. At least six adults claimed father John Powell abused them in the late 60's and 70's. No criminal charges were filed against Powell but the priest has admitted to the abuse.
--ABC News
Two of the former Chicago Jesuit priest John Powell's victims spoke out Thursday. Patrice Regnier says Father Powell -- a former Loyola University professor -- started abusing her when she was 12 years old. She just received a settlement.
"The idea people found from me speaking the truth that they could come out themselves and speak the truth is a good thing," said Patrice Regnier, victim of sexual abuse.
Diane Ruhl says she was abused at 17 years old by Father Powell on the Loyola campus when she was a student. She confronted him 30 years later by writing him. He responded and admitted to the abuse in his letters.

Hulk smash with Omnibus! This book is huge and heavy! With Amazon's usual discount price, you basically get 30 issues of classic Hulk for around two bucks each, hardbound! You won't get a better deal than that! All of Marvel's Omnibus books are fabulous collections and money oh so much better spent than wasting your cash on the overpriced crud being published today.

Just below the surface lies untamed and incredible power, once I cracked the cover I found undiscovered stories of the Hulking Thing I had never seen. I didn't start reading Hulk comics until about 1974 so all of these stories were new to me. But I never looked back into the older Hulk comics, so this was a real treat, I didn't know what I was missing.

It was a surprise to find stories where the Hulk is an intelligent, cunning and conniving Hulk. This is a real switch from what I'm used to; "HULK SMASH PUNY HUMAN!" The other thing noted by one other reviewer is that these stories are like the abridged version of comics, very short. It's good to get in a quick story while you wait for something like a TV commercial break. The dichotomy between the indestructible and the fragile is always present and remains the struggle throughout.

This Omnibus Collection of the Incredible Hulk does not read like a graphic novel. Although there are progressions and story threads that run through the different stories there is very little continuity. To me this was exciting because instead of reading something to a conclusion what I read was the evolution of the Hulk, Dr. Banner, The Leader, General Ross and Betty.

I am very happy to have this Incredible Hulk Omnibus Collection. For true believers, it is a must have. The overall quality is outstanding, the inks and page treatments are vibrant and archive quality.

Lee & Kirby rocking the sixties comic scene with innovative and groundbreaking storytelling. If you grew up on comics like I did, don't hesitate and pick up this awesome collection of classic Hulk adventures!

I've collected the Hulk for well over twenty years, but I've never read the Tales To Astonish stories. Now I can read the early adventures of this classic icon in a wonderful format!

Due to the wear-and-tear of rereading old comics, I have always been a fan of collections, especially those that include extra art or interviews of the creators reflecting on work deemed classic with the passing years. Collected works have even greater weight when the volumes pertain to hard to find or very expensive comics. The Marvel Masterworks seemed to be the best there was even when compared to graphic novels or trade paperbacks because you could get 10 issues for each volume that included the annuals. Sure, they were more expensive but considering the amount of issues you could get for around $55, it was certainly a better deal than buying the comics themselves if you wanted less degeneration of these precious issues. At least you got a chance to read years old stories without wearing gloves or paying a mint, if you'd ever found them at all.It seemed the best value and quality for any collected works.

This ALL changed when Marvel upped the stakes with their Omnibus collections. The Marvel Omnibus collections are bar none the best quality and value to date. The characters are given a heightened sense of their contribution to the comics industry; we care more about the issues we're collecting because Marvel has shown how they care about the character as well.

The Omnibus collections are literally the "red carpet" for their volumes, no less for the HULK OMNIBUS. The sheer SIZE of their pages show you Marvel's dedication to underlining, capitalizing and bold-facing their subject matter's importance here and their rightful place in comics iconic history: much larger than their original comics, sturdy binding, glossy pages, every page of each original comic, AS WELL as unreleased art, current and former interviews (including everything that was in the Masterworks counterpart), alternate variant covers and --best yet--up to 30 ISSUES per volume, whether they be annuals or special appearances (i.e. "What If?" etc...). All this for the cost of less than TWO volumes of the Marvel Masterworks that would only give the reader 20 comics. Much lees if you purchase or pre-order here from Amazon.

I'm not knocking the Masterworks because I still feel they have tremendous value, especially when considering what you can get from those that have yet to be released from the Omnibuses. Also, many Masterworks have become less expensive on the resell market due to the Omnibuses' popularity. Some may not see the difference bewteen the Masterworks vs. Omnibus and just want the issues for sheer volume.

The Marvel Omnibus' are every bit as good as the DC Absolute series and sometimes much better because not all the DC Absolute series have nice glossy pages. Here, every Marvel volume is as good as the last and the next.

The fine line is that the Omnibus collections are the best there is that Marvel has to release. As a Marvel fan,I am more than likely to collect every volume I can for my favorite superheroes, maybe even those I'd never considered owning before. The Omnibuses remind us just WHY they are icons. X-men, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Iron Man and now Hulk; comic book stars given the star treatment, a Director's Cut for their comics. I can't see it getting any better than this.

J.R. Mounts

The book is well written and informative about the events of Powell's life and the geological survey in which Powell played such a major role. My primary disappointment with the book was that I felt I didn't know the person John W. Powell much better after reading the book. The book provided very little information about Powell's life outside of his work.

Reading this book was like being present at the creation of America. It will appeal especially to U.S. history buffs and to anyone interested in the American West. Worster's telling of the feat that won Powell fame, leading the first expedition down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon, has definitely renewed my passion for exploring the West. Powell was a man of ideas, as well as action. For a quarter century he was at the forefront of debates over reserving land for American Indians, how to foster family farming in the arid West, and the thorny issue of water rights. For many years, Powell was a prominent official in Washington, as head of the U.S. Geological Survey, which he helped create, and in other positions. From what I gather in this book, Powell may have been as important as any single individual in making support of scientific research a normal function of the Federal Government. From the perspective of one man's career, Worster touches on a multitude of topics: railroads, telegraph, photography, landscape painting of the West, Mormon settlements, and many more. For the comprehension one gains of American life in those times, this biography is the equal of a first rate novel. Although a work of scholarship, it is written to be enjoyed by the general reader.

My comment at the end of my title refers to Wallace Stegner's "Beyond the 100th Meridian." While that is a very good book, it comes close to perpetuating a myth of Saint John Wesley Powell.

Compared to Stegner, who may be a point of reference for many readers curious about this book, Worster paints a far more complete picture of Powell, delving much deeper into journals and letters kept by colleagues, underlings, and exploratory co-travlers of his.

We see a Powell who was NOT totally Stegner's beknighted prophet of a kinder, gentler Western development. Powell did favor independent farmers over corporate conglomerates, but just as much as Nevada's Sen. Stewart, he wanted to drain every last drop from the Colorado. And, Worster also shows how he ran afoul of the most ardent forest conservation advocates late in his Washington career.

In short, Worster indicates the semi-mythical Powell, not just of Stegner but some other writers, should be taken with a grain of salt.

Worster puts Powell's evangelical -- yes, evangelical -- fervor for irrigation in the backdrop of his childhood Methodism. While there's no way of proving this, it is certainly a reasonable interpretation.

He also paints a broader picture of Powell the bureaucrat. Here again, he differs somewhat from Stegner, suggesting that Powell bears a bit of the blame, at least, for his own wing-clipping by Stewart et al late in his career.

At the same time, Worster gives a detailed portrait of just how hard-working Powell was, both as a Washingtonian and the explorer of the Colorado River and Plateau.

In essence, this is "revisionist history" at its best and most proper.

The title a River Running West is something of a misnomer. One could infer from this title that the bulk of this work centers upon Powell's Colorado River excursions (the front cover might lead one to believe so as well), yet barely 1/5th of it actually does. The beginning, as to be expected, recounts the early years of John Wesley Powell, but the entire second half of this weighty tome is dedicated to his time in Washington DC as head of the USGS. Indeed, to be fully accurate, if matching title to content, a more appropriate appellation might be A Bureaucrat in the East, but bureaucracy just doesn't sell well.

Worster's underlying thread in this effort is Powell's transition from son of devout Methodists to enlightened, agnostic scientist. All well and good, if this is the Powell story. But, Worster bangs this drum so incessantly that it leaves one wondering if he was more concerned with Powell's religious upbringing than Powell himself. There's a whiff here of an agenda.

To be fair, the Colorado River excursions are suspensefully told, but as with most books of the genre, the maps are sparse and dreadful. I can't believe I am in the minority for desiring detailed maps with which I might closely trace the route of intrepid explorers. This becomes especially desirous when I have personally visited sites along their journey for then I may more accurately transform the text into mental imagery. But with sub-par maps containing spotty detail and far too many blank spaces, this becomes a mere exercise in frustration.

Despite this, Worster's biography of Powell is no less than mediocre. It follows the standard format of the genre leaving the reader educated if not exactly enthralled. It is not a book I leapt towards at every opportunity, though there was no need to coerce myself into continuing. A River Running West is but an average account of an indomitable man synonymous with western expansion. 3 stars.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Thorough, evocative, thrilling, and comprehensive in its scope, it was a delight from beginning to end.
I completed a major in Geography at Illinois State University many years ago, where Powell taught at one time, and I am embarrassed to admit the sad truth that in all the courses I took nary a word was ever mentioned about the great man. Considering his extraordinary contribution to our understanding of the natural world, it is all too sad.

If you run IIS you most definitely need this book. The information in it is awesome, much more complete than any Microsoft class could ever give you. I took the MCSE test on IIS 4 and still didn't know what I was doing untill I read this book. If you have IIS do yourself a favor and buy this book. You won't be disappointed!

I was a completely newby to IIS and Web Servers. In this book I found a clear and complete path to follow in order to learn the technology beyond this product and, most important to me, to have IIS run the way I needed it.

Since becoming a network manager I have found that IIS is a necessary part of every NT network and with little exposure to the applications associated with IIS my job was a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be.

This book is good for information about install and configuring IIS, monitoring and the monitoring tools, overview of the Index, FTP, news, mail and transaction servers. Also there is good coverage of security and security issues.

Another section of the book covers topics like Internet application server, ASP, scripting and working with the application associated with IIS. What I found missing or shortchanged was the troubleshooting of the IIS and the errors that you get.

Great book for IIS administrators. Steps you through the basics and into the EXTREMELY Advanced and has everything you need to be a successful IIS administrator.

I wasn't able to find all of the answers I needed, but there wasn't much that wasn't answered. The coverage of CGI is a little thin, but pretty much expected given the size and scope of the book.