Watson Books

I have to get mine rebound. My sister and I have the one we used to read as kids and her kids and now mine beg for it everynight. Needless-to-say, it's in tatters!

My kids', and now my grandkids' favorite favorite favorite book.
I wish I could buy fresh new editions for all the children in my life...

I loved being read and reading this as a child, the funny poems and pictures are a delight. I still have the copy I had as a child and now enjoy reading it with my two daugthers, my older daughter loves the humor too. It is wonderful it is available in print again for families to love.

One of my favorite books as a kid; really made me want to visit New England. One of these days I have to buy myself a copy, but I really wish it was in print for new kids to enjoy.

I am so pleased to see that Amazon is offering this book. I grew up reading it and the rhymes are still so vivid. The illustrations by Wendy Watson are splendid and offer a wonderful glimpse into family life and life in small communities--quaint and old fashioned. It's a Garrison Keillor or Dylan Thomas type of world. The sweet and humorous pictures often contain little snippets of conversation (between the foxes) that illuminate the rhymes and make it that much more interesting a read, and there's always something happening in the background that makes it fun to pore over. I would highly recommend this for children 3-7. It's a warm book and perfect for a Fall day when the leaves are turning or Winter evening with a cup of cocoa.

Calligraphy and brush painting are not easy to learn WITH an instructor; learning from a book is daunting at best. Yolanda Mayhall's book is as close to having an instructor as any I have found - and I have tried many books. Her style is informative without being pedantic, guiding gently without drifting into boredom.

If you take nothing else away from reading her book, you will realize that art is not "taught", it must be appreciated, understood, to be learned. Like a foreign language, sumi-e demands inspection and appreciation before you can begin to replicate it! Even those who can read printed Japanese will have difficulty understanding how the strokes are created. Those impoverished by a lifetime of penmanship will find the basics of "brushmanship" as foreign as Japanese language!

Never fear! This book will lead you gently through the process. From preparing ink to holding the brush to creating those first tentative strokes, this teacher is at your side. She will guide you through the strokes of the "four gentlemen" at the core of brush art. Bamboo leaves will give way to the orchids, birds, mountains and waterfalls all illustrated s0 beautifully in her book.

Remember that brushwork requires practice. I have used many a fat Sunday newspaper as an inexpensive substitute for rice paper (a point worth remembering to all the "grasshoppers" out there). Practice makes perfect. Yolanda will inspire you to practice and lead you through the levels until you could paint bamboo in your sleep! I have yet to find a live teacher who can inspire me to improve my brushstrokes like Yolanda can in her book.

If you are new to Japanese brush art work and want to learn the technique, this is the book to start with!

Personally I am also interested in using colour in my sumi-e works, this guide only has black and white. But the images are just beautiful. Hope I reach that level soon!

If you're a beginning Sumi-e painter you might want to wait on purchasing this book until you're more comfortable with the basics of brush loading and color gradiation.

This book tends to avoid going into detail about the intricacies of brush loading and the importance of your paper quality and it's absorbency.

If you are a beginner looking for a solid book that explains in alot more detail the four gentlemen and the importance of your brushes quality and methods for loading the brush, buy "Japanese Ink Painting: Beginner's Guide to Sumi-E" (Paperback) by Susan Frame. It's a marvelous book with alot of great examples and step by step instruction as well as some history and excercises you can do to become more comfortable with your brushes.

After exactly two lessons in watercolor and an appetite to learn more precise brush strokes I purchased Sumi-E. I immediately was able to make headway using the carefully written examples shown in this lovely book even without purchasing the precise Japanese brushes. I highly recommend it.

I have sculpted for the past 15 or twenty years and bought this book specifically for the page that dealt with plaster piece molds. Unfortunately, piece mold making is a lost art and few books even attempt to describe them, never mind explain how to make them. I'm still not sure how to tackle piece molds of fully articulated figures, but relatively solid pieces, like the portrait head illustrated in the book, would be reasonable to attempt.

After receiving the book from Amazon, I was pleasantly surprised by the thoroughness of the book on a host of topics. Trust me, for anyone who is starting out, you can save yourself years of trial and error by referring to this book. In the chapter titled "modeling the figure" Langland explains the importance of building up slowly in "strings" that follow the forms of the muscles and stresses the importance of creating a solid pelvis, rib cage and head making sure that they align properly with the spine. I found myself nodding in agreement at countless points reading the book. It is remarkable how many processes and artistic concerns he manages to thoughtfully and clearly address throughout the book. As an example, Langland describes three methods to mark locations where holes will be drilled through a base to facilitate mounting a bronze sculpture. Now, this sounds like a very straightforward thing to do, but in practice it is a little tricky. Typically, underneath a bronze sculpture, a foundry will drill and tap two or more holes that can receive screws that pass through counter-bored holes in a stone or wood base. How would you locate hole centers in a blank base so that they will match the existing hole pattern in a bronze sculpture?

really good technical manual for the whole sculptural process, and clearly and simply written and illustrated. I would certainly recommend this book.

I have been sculpting only a short time. This book has become a great resource for me to consider having some of my work bronzed. I had no clue as to where to call or what to ask. After finishing this book I was very comfortable calling a local foundry and getting quotes via the formula the author suggested.

He also shows how you could, (if you had time and resources), make your own bronze casting at home. Either way the steps are useful for when you are prepping your piece for the foundry. Also included is a nice full-color section on patina's for bronze and the effect each chemical has on the metal.

A refreshing component to this book is the authors use of wit and light-hearted look at this art form. It makes the reading very enjoyable and easy.

If your an artist that wants to take your work to the next level then I highly recommend this book!

I have owned this book since 2001, and still find myself referencing it for additional insight and techniques. As my work evolves I find this book an invaluable manual to refresh me and acquaint myself with alternatives to what I have been already doing. Finally it has been very helpful for me in working with foundries to check their process and verify the quality of work produced- whether speaking of molds, waxes or finished bronze.

This is a very helpful book for anyone creating sculpture and wishing to mold and cast into another material. Langland is very knowledgeable in the history and practice of casting in a variety of materials. His depth of knowledge shows in the attention to methods for wax, plaster, bronze and other metals.

This book covers so many aspects of sculpture from start to finish. You are never left with unanswered questions or uncertainty to any of the processes. The color section on patinas is marvolous. I love this book and have enjoyed reading it. Highly recommended!

what would your life be like if you didn't have money problem ??..hmm...if you are ready to find out GET this tool book and you will see for yourself. Your whole life can change with Access Energy Transformation tools and I have to say, that's what happend to me. YES..yes ..yes...wow.....more ease more joy more money .... How does it get any better than this ? I am so GRATEFUL to Gary Gouglas and Dain Heer for sharing these amazing tools that opened infinite possibilities for my life. THANK YOU !!!!!

It's an easy read. The tools work. Honoring myself instead of my expenditures. Living in the question. Access Energy Transformation continues to change my life. "How does it get any better than this?"

I used to think you had to work hard for money. It took this book - "Money isn't the problem, you are" to show me how to change all that. Now I realise that if I don't make money significant it can find it's way into my life from any direction. I read this book all the time, open it to a page and practise using the "tools" of that page for the day. For example - if you say "I don't want money" - you are telling the universe that you don't lack of money! So if you say "I don't want money" a few times a day - the universe will say - "Oh, you don't lack of money!" - and give you more!! Now that tool alone can bring you lots of money. I taught that to my friend who is a Real Estate Sales Agent (a realtor you guys call them in the US) and she says it all the time when she is working with people - you don't say it out loud dilly! You say it in your head - and the vibration of that goes out, and people around you pick it up - and perceive that you don't lack of money. And, along with other tools that she is using from the Money book, she has become one of the top selling agents in her company. (No 1 for one month, and at present No 3, out of about 20 agents!)
There are many tools in this book, and they are so easy to put into practise, you don't have to be clever! You just have to use them! How does it get even better than this?
I have recommended this book to many of my friends in New Zealand, and they are so grateful. "Wow, this book is making such a difference. I never knew before, that you could ask for money" and things like that. If you would like to change your perspective on money, and also, many other things in your life - you may like to consider the possiblity of reading this book for yourself. I would give it a 1000 star rating if there was such a thing.

I've worked with lots of modalities for transformation, and nothing else works like Access Energy Transformation. It could not have originated from this world. I use it constantly, and have seen many people clear many problems physically, mentally, and spiritually. People are constantly asking about Access.

Gary Douglas and Dain Heer are straight shooters. Every single word they wrote in this amazing book makes so much sense. The tools they share facilitate us each minute of the day and of the night... Yes, even while we are sleeping, the tools get to kick in to shift our universe. During the Internet bubble years, my wife and I have created massive amounts of money. Still, without engaging into outrageous expenses, the money was keeping on going away at an alarming rate. This book opened our eyes on a key element: we were not willing to receive it all. What does this mean? Any parts of us, of our life or of our environment we were not willing to receive entirely triggered, somewhere, an unwillingness to receive money. We were earning it through our corporate positions and our investments yet, we were not willing to receive so much more, thus explaining those "unexplainable" cash outflows...
Thank you Gary Douglas and Dain Heer for showing us that something else exists. We have so much gratitude for you.

I have 5 year old triplets and went digging through my old books to find this one. They are just as mesmerized by it as I was 35 years ago - like Georgie and the boy in the Everlasting Lollipop - it's make believe that children want to believe because it tickles and delights their imagination with a touch of darkness in a way very little does today in a digital, dumbed down, leave-nothing-to-the-imagination era. I have a well-loved copy that I'll never part with. This would definitely be an excellent candidate for Harper to bring back, but only if it maintains its shape and hardcover quality - as they are all part of the mystique.

I still have a very battered copy of the Tall Book of Make-Believe from over 50 years ago. I wish it was in print now! Out of all the books I've seen illustrated by Garth Williams, this is the best. The stories and poems are marvelous, but his drawings and paintings are so beautifully nuanced and full of life, they jump right off the page. The tall format makes for some really interesting layouts, too. One of the all-time classic children's picture books.

I loved this book so much as a young child, but it finally fell apart from being read and loved too much. Now that I have a daughter of my own, I would love for her to enjoy it as much, but $150 for a used copy is realistic for a young child... Please Harpers, publish this wonderful book again, so the next generation of readers can have a chance to experience the wonderful stories, poems and drawings.

My mother got me this book when I was a child. I loved it and learned from it for many years. When I had a daughter, I found a copy of it and purchased it for her. It was her favorite book. When she had children, she bought a used copy for them.

The trick, of course, is that each of us mothers read it to our children until they were old enough to read it for themselves. I found it stirs children's imaginations, teaches them about many important things and sparks their avid curiosity.

I am now a writer and fast closing in on retirement age. Much of what I know about my craft I originally learned from this book. Any child who doesn't get to read it and see the wonderful illustrations is doomed to lead a deprived existance, as far as I'm concerned.

Several years ago, I remembered that I read it as a child,
and went looking in the attic, the basement, all over.
When I finally found it, it was tattered, pages missing, etc.
I checked Amazon, ebay and other used book websites, and
finally found a very decent copy for $55.00. Don't give up-
keep checking and a copy will turn up. I am 56 years old
still reading it (it's the best children's book ever) and
will hopefully pass it on to grandchildren, - IF they can
pry it out of my hands !!!

I read this book as a classroom assignment in my senior year of high school in 1979 and it left a profound impression on me. I think it should be required reading for teens. After reading this book I have NEVER taken freedom for granted.

During a walk one day in Moscow, NYC-born twenty-two-year old employee of the American Embassy in Moscow, Alexander Dolgun, was kidnapped and taken to "the Lubyanka prison, headquarters of the MGB." Initially, thinking what a great tale he'd have to tell (having seen the inside of such a famous place), knowing he hadn't committed a crime, he was unafraid, maybe even a little bit...excited. But it wasn't long before he was imprisoned, interrogated, tortured, and sentenced under (p 19) "Article 58, sections 6, 8, 10, etc. of the Soviet Criminal Code...espionage, political terrorism, anti-Soviet propaganda, etc., etc." to imprisonment in a forced labor camp. By the time of the "thaw," when many prisoners were released including Dolgun, he had spent eight year of his life in forced labor camps. Twenty-three long years passed from the day of his kidnapping until he was able to again set foot on American soil. After his release from prison, he met Solzhenitsyn, who interviewed him while writing The Gulag Archipelago. He was especially interested in Dolgun because (p 348) "he had never...met a sane survivor of Sukhanovka." Like Solzhenitsyn, Dolgun had an amazing memory and was able to recall minute details of much of his imprisonment. Forced to stay up for days at a time with little or no sleep during his interrogation sessions, he was beaten, sent to solitary confinement, and tortured for not signing a document stating that he had committed illegal acts. He proudly writes of his ability to survive without signing anything incriminating anyone else (although some of his acquaintances did succumbed to the pressure). When he finally was released, he found out that his mother, also picked up, tortured, and imprisoned, went mad due to her experience. Not long after their reunion, she was sent to a psychiatric hospital with the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. She remained there for the rest of her life. There were very few Americans in the GULAG. At times, he was able to use that fact to his advantage, although others were wary of him, believing he must have been a spy.

He recounts the experience of being transported to and between prisons, interactions and friendships with other prisoners, the day to day drudgery of trying to stay alive under horrendous conditions which involved trying to meet ridiculously high work quotas for extremely strenuous jobs while in a constant state of starvation and often, sickness. Fortunately, he was able to work in the prison hospital at times as a feldsher (even performing minor surgery). He also did his share of hard labor, but was ingenious enough to get extra food by secretly doing sideline work like by making metal spoons. Dolgun's story is one of many wonderfully tragic memoirs about an often-overlooked issue: Stalin's forced labor camps. Also good: Journey into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Semyonovna Ginzburg, Man is Wolf to Man by Janusz Bardach, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (partially based on the experiences of Dolgun's friend, George Tenno) and The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and, probably my favorite, Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalomov.

I chose to read this book after reading the written review by Stuart Paine. I thought that any book that made a man cry must be extraordinary, and I was right. The things we were taught in college about Russian History pales in comparison to the writings of Mr. Dolgun. I was appalled at the conditions in the Gulag that he wrote of, and amazed at the ways in which the prisoners managed to maintain their sanity and faith. This is a must read for any thinking person.

After I read ALEXANDER DOLGUN'S STORY for the first time in the early 1980s, I was so moved that I wrote to him to confess my admiration. I have never done that before or since for any other author. The story is amazing, inspirational and unforgettable and may be the greatest true adventure story I have ever heard. Imagine "walking to Paris" in a Soviet prison cell, sleeping upright with one's eyes open (!), learning "medicine" from a fellow prisoner and performing surgery, or teaching yourself to play the guitar in a Central Asian prison camp and performing Rachmaninov in a prison revue! The names "Lefortovo" and "Sukhanovka" ("I shall see you in Sukhanovka!") are now forever in MY memory. When Mr. Dolgun recalled on the last page the names of some of the people whose tragedies he'd shared (fulfilling his promise to tell the world of their fates) - tears welled up in my eyes. Every literate person on Earth should read this book! Five stars are not nearly enough!

For the reasons described by others this is certainly a worthwhile book for anyone wishing to understand what happened to the Russian people under Stalin. If you read it, just imagne the thousands of Russians suffering the same way and the millions of Russians living in constant fear that they would be abducted into slavery. Now that the Cold War is over, all Americans should review their history and make the distinction between Communists and Russians. This book as a good way to begin.

I am an American married to a Russian. My wife's parents were afraid to have children during the Stalin period for fear that her father, highly educated and from a pre-revolutionary wealthy family, would one night be summoned to the Gulag (as her uncle was) and the family made to suffer. She was born in Kruschev's time.

Very well written, thought out and organized book demonstrating the different techniques that can be used with a variety of paint mediums and materials. I would recommend this for an introduction to use of materials, tools and grounds.

If anyone out there is even thinking about painting (or if you are already a painter) this is the book. It will show you examples of almost every kind of paint and then what will happen if you mixed it with something or layer something. This is a GREAT "example" book. Watch out thou you will want to go and try them all out......

This is a wonderful book, if you are an artist, you can find different samples for many techniques, if you are an amateur, you can find a lot of fun.
This is my precious!

This book is exactly as described. A "visual sampler" of step-by step, demonstrations, to achieve hundreds of different effects in your paintings. Wonderful, colorful illustrations, easy to understand instructions and desriptions as well. Also the layout of the book is very user friendly. There is 208 pages so you get your money's worth in this book. This book is full of ideas to get your creative hands moving. I am very happy to own this book.

I must disagree with the reviewer who said this book is not for the true artist. I am an artist and although I know some of the techniques or variations thereof, there are plenty more that I can't wait to try. I feel like a kid in a candy store, not knowing what to do first.

Sure, this is not a book that teaches you how to draw or paint, or how to make good compositions. Its focus is on techniques to achieve certain effects. That's all it says it is and it does that admirably.

I bought this book a while back ago, and since i've been on and off reading it because of the sheer volume of the book; it took me some time to get through, but hell, it was worth it.

There's alot of information packed densly inside of this brick, which is by far the best book i've ever read on history; it overviews clearly and and objectively the ideas that have been important throught history in terms of consequences, and in terms of shaping the culture of the period in question.

More importantly, however, is how all this is put togheter in a systematic contextual way, so as to leave the reader comprehending the ideas relation to one another, and finally, mr. peter watson presents us a final conclusion, which leads us to understand how all of this should be interpreted with regards to "the big picture".

I read this over a period of about 6 months, a few pages a day. Most of us have been over the material in this book one way or another during our lives. The thing is -- this text puts the facts and data together in a way that makes history make sense. So much of history seems like it was acted out by crazy people. It's so hard to understand why people do what they do. Watson makes the connections between what and why. And he does it in such a way that anyone can read it.

You should know though, Watson has a strong bias against all things religious. A main sub-theme in this book is "How we threw off the yoke of religion and superstition." Machts nichts to me but some find it annoying. I gave it 5 stars even so.

This book is the best single volume of the history of ideas that I have ever encountered. It has rich content, plenty of bibliographic detail for following up specific ideas, and is beautifully written.

To read history as an evolution of ideas and inventions instead of a series of battles/wars or moving from one political machination to the next was most satisfying. Even more refreshing was to read a history that includes eastern as well as western innovation with many interesting asides and anecdotes. I've sent copies to my children and brother-in-law!

One must give Peter Watson credit where credit is due; he is not shy when it comes to examining topics of enormous scope, or at the very least craft titles that imply that this is his aim. Unfortunately, far from examining thought "from fire to Freud" Watson's work is of far more limited dimension, instead examining European cultural evolution from the early Middle Ages forward. His text examines several topics to understand their influence and development on civilization. His examination, however, proves too often limited, failing to look far enough to embrace the full range of his field. Most disappointing is his tendency to bifurcate ideas into two competing camps, and ignore the vast nuance in the middle.

For example, Watson divides thought into two opposing spheres : the physical (scientific or natural) world and the spiritual (religious). While it is true that this dichotomy exists in the West -- interestingly forced on the physical camp by the Church - far from inevitable, the division is a historical artifact created by social context. Those enchanted by Watson, and they are legion, will retort that his is not interested in the possible, but the actual, and even then only what occurred in (western) Europe. Yet even here, Watson ignores alternatives. Judaism, which Watson gives only so much attention as suits his goals, long embraced a notion of the co-existance and even integration of these two concepts. Many rabbis examined the physical world and sacred texts and sought reinterpretation of the former when they conflicted with the latter (two prime examples being Nachmanidies of Spain and Maimonidies of Egypt, two of the most significant sages of Jewish history). Watson might likewise have considered the ancient Greeks like Aristotle who sought to understand the spiritual through they physical.

When it comes to certain concepts Watson plainly tortures his topic to reach desired conclusions. Thus he imagines Freud's examination of the unconscious as on the continuum of the notion of the soul, yet this is at best forced. While it is true that Freud postulated a division between mind and body - not surprising given the technology available to him - but far from a notion of rote ritual, he developed a theory based on observation and imagined it being refined over time by experimentation. Even a cursory comparison of this with religion reveals the extreme limits of the comparison.

This brings us to the place where Watson succeeds, and in my opinion shines. His examination of the notion of the controlled experiment, that instead of being limited to observations as they occur people can create things to observe in order to test hypothesis, is nothing short of brilliant. This concept may be the driving force of the creation of modern science, a concept that allowed humanity to tame the atom and journey to the stars. Despite its other short comings, this makes Watson's book worth reading and presents an idea worthy of further consideration.

It is about time a book like this has come along! It is filled with humor, hope and inspiration. In particular, Jana High's story brings home the importance of a good sense of humor in the midst of adversity. I also related a great deal to Julie Burch's story of struggling to be independent and learning to be happy with one's choices. I highly recommend this book for a friend, a co-worker, a relative, or yourself!

I was looking for a new book to give to my wife whom was down in spirit as our oldest left home after graduation. Well, I was impressed with this book by Jana High and Marilyn Sprague-Smith.
I read it too, on advice from my better half. The Princess Principle is a fresh interpretation on understanding and listening to one's own values, personal worth and self esteem system. The authors left me with clues and guidance on how to stay on top of the everyday life journey and how to place the bigger picture in daily focus through the road hazards ahead. I normally read astronomy and other science books but this was a great change for me.

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, award-winning author of This is the Place and Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered

Lately we`ve seen lots of movies that trade on a little girl's desire to grow up to be cared for by a handsome prince. That includes The Princess Diaries, Maid in Manhattan and other Cinderella stories that pretend to have an up-to-date twist for the modern woman. We have fashion designers exploiting women's desire for the glass slipper with five inch heels that will trash her posture and disintegrate her spine. Now we have The Princess Principle but it is not part of a trend toward exploitation.

Instead it is full of essays by eighteen women who share their hope, joy and expertise. The title may attract the very woman who needs it. It is an authentic inducement because our culture has made the idea of being a princess a part of our psyches that we might as well turn to our advantage.

The editors, Jana L. High and Marilyn Sprague-Smith, M. Ed., have assembled literate, well educated women with different stories and different angles on how we might improve ourselves and still live with-even accept-what now may appear to be our natural urge to be a princess. For these women, The Princess Principle isn't about being rescued; they know we are beautiful and important in the ways that count.

As a writer considering my own anthology I must also comment on the format of this book. It is rare among anthologies. It gives each contributor full and complete billing including her name on the front cover, her picture on the back. It is also careful to credential each author so the reader has a sense for who each of them is and how she might best approach that writer's views.

This book might even be a resource for readers because some of the authors act as coaches, therapists, or advisors in real life.

In the spirit of this exceptional format here are the contributors:

Lorri Allen
Sue Bergstrom M.Ed.
Julie D. Burch

Jennifer Curtet
Deb Gauldin, RN
Sheryl Rudd Kuhn, MRR
Carolyn L. Larkin
Janet Luongo, M.S.Ed.
Joyce C. Mils, Ph.D.
Rebecca Pace
Lori Palm
Vickie Pokaluk
Valerie A Rawls
Sheryl Roush
Sue Stanek, Ph.D.
Amy S. Tolbert, Ph.D.

My bet is that not one of these women is a princess in the traditional sense and that every one of them is a princess in the sense she is making her own way, happily and with self assurance, in this big, bad but wonderful world.

(Carolyn Howard-Johnson's first novel, This is the Place, has won eight awards. Her newly released Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remember has won three. Her new book of poetry , Skyscapes: A Woman's View,is looking for a home.)

This book reinforced my belief in self and rejuvinated my sprit of "hope". I enjoyed it so much that when I finished reading it I immediately purchased copies for my wife, daughter, sister and niece. Every man can benefit by reading this book and every woman deserves her own copy.
As President of Pinnacle Speakers Bureau, I help organizations plan events that are designed to be a PEAK Experience. I can truly say that this book is a PEAK Experience!
...Benny Williford, Pinnacle Speakers Bureau

This book offers compelling insights that encourage you to see yourself in the very best light. What's more is that it awakens the awareness that each person deserves to be treated royally. Of course, that is not about being pampered and pandered to, but rather, to live, work and love in the world in ways that demonstrate your respect, caring and competence!

Give this book to every woman you know. This is an excellent book to give to young women as well.

This is a good book to overview the special effects for making movies. It includes history and technics for almost everything but not details. However it is impossible to include details in a book so readers need to find out the details from other resources. Overall this is a good book for gaining knowledge in special effects.

I got the book for my boyfriend. He loved it.The book has a lot of interesting and useful information even if you are just a movie-lover, not a movie-maker

Special Effects is THE BEST book you could wish for on the subject. I have a shelf full of old, an mostly inaccurate books about special effects, but with this new book I could throw the rest away. Also, don't bother with magazines like Cinefex anymore, which are very dry and heavy going. this book is a pleasure to read and has interviews with everyone who is important in the business. There are hundreds of cool photos as well which makes it very good value. Anyone who works in special effects, or is just interested in the movies should read this book. Congratulations to the author Mr Rickitt who has condensed 100 years of movie magic into a single lavish book. Dont take my word for it - BUY IT!

Yes there is great history and education in here, but the mass of photographs tells a truly beautiful tale. The artists illustrated here are for the most part the true pioneers of creating magic on film. Going into a project with truly no proven technique must have been terrifying and adrenaline pumping. Our techniques have greatly improved but since the advent of fully cg fx, the pioneering aspect is minimal. It is very well written but I can't call it a page turner since I spent so much time staring at the pictures. Great for fans and professionals alike.

I'm a film studies tutor and reccommend this title to all of my students. Why has the publisher/author allowed it to go out of print? This is the best book ever written on special/visual effects and one of the best introductions to film making and film technology generally. PLEASE REPRINT THIS BOOK and ideally, make a softback edition at a price my kids can better afford. THANKS!