Arts Books

Rarely do I come across a "martial arts" book that genuinely delves into the reality of armed assaults or real world violence. The majority are fraught with pretend, imagining, exaggerations and nonsensical rhetoric.

Mr. Lawrence A. Kane has provided the human race--not just martial artists--with a well researched manual of documented pragmatism that encompasses the realm of armed assault.

Directed to the layman, "Surviving Armed Assault" strives toward and nicely achieves, a grand measure of clarity in describing the precursors, the actualities, and serious ramifications of violenve, and in particular, that of armed violence.

We won't find a photo-rich environment of fancy disarms and unique control measures of someone unarmed taking on an armed, alleged felon. What you will read are documented facts and figures about what happens when humans decide to use weapons against people or just choose to behave in atrociously violent fashions--both against those prepared for such eventualities, and those who are not unprepared. We will also learn about important attributes and concepts for dealing with real world violence, armed or unarmed.

Void of rhetoric and fabrications, Kane keeps us on the straight and narrow, allowing us to peep through the portal of a serious and dangerous topic, providing the kind of realsm that teaches humans best.

If anyone has a need or a curosity for learning about human on human violence, especially violence involving weapons of various sorts, this book is a good one for developing a base of understanding upon which you might construct a wise structure of operations.

Thank you, Mr. Kane for your efforts and time to create a nicely written masterpiece.

"The Griz"

Surviving Armed Assaults is complete from start to finish. I can't think of anything that Mr. Kane has left out of this insightful book. This book covers the variety of weapons that one can expect to encounter on the street, how to avoid physical confrontations, the importance of awareness, and how to be prepared to meet a violent predator if one finds himself in that situation.

The technical information provided on the multitude of available weapons is very helpful and enlightening, as is the numerous photographs found throughout the book which demonstrate Mr. Kane's points and helps visual learners grasp the points which he is trying to get across. This book is well written and would be a great addition to any martial arts library.

I highly recommend this book to any martial artist, law enforcement officer, or just the average man on the street who wants to keep himself or his family safe. Predators do not think like the ordinary, every day man. This book gives the reader a good idea of what to expect should you ever be unfortunate enough to cross paths with one of these criminals. I can't recommend this book enough. Buy it and be safe!

Any time you deal with interpersonal violence, there is a high likelihood of someone attempting to apply something beyond their own hands and feet to make the other person have a bad day. Lawrence Kane addresses that problem in this exhaustive volume.

Kane cites research showing that 70% of the male population carries a knife. In seven years there were over 1.7 million attacks in the U.S. utilizing blunt, bladed, and projectile weapons. 25% of violent crime is committed by someone bearing a weapon. You have a one-in-four chance of getting shot, beaten, or cut and stabbed every time you cross paths with a violent criminal.

Even with this in mind, most martial arts programs do not adequately take weapon defense into consideration. Obviously, this book and others like it are needed.

Kane addresses awareness, avoidance, de-escalation, legal matters, and the aftermath of violence. The meat of the matter is covered in over a hundred pages dealing with improvised weapons, firearms, knives, clubs, and all manner of weapons you are unlikely to come up against on the street; but as the author shows, stranger things have happened. It is always best to be prepared.

The book is wrapped up in the end by an incident that actually happened, as Kane analyzes what each person did right, and what they did wrong.

In 32 years I haven't read anything this comprehensive. Skip the others. Read Surviving Armed Assaults.

Surviving Armed Assaults is so well written that it is excellent reading for anyone who is concerned about personal safety in today's turbulent world. Frank, no-nonsense information with much emphasis on preventing assaults in the first place makes this book exceptional. Although this book assumes the reader is already practicing one of the martial arts, it also offers an incentive to anyone who might be considering this option.

I will admit that I started reading this book a bit biased toward it being good. I have read other books by Kane that I enjoyed, I've contributed a chapter, as did Kane, to Loren Christensen's "Fighter's Fact Book 2" and Christensen wrote a Foreword for the book, and to top if off, best selling author Barry Eisler mentioned me in his praise for the book on the inside cover. So yes, I expected it to be a good book and one that I would like.

However, what I did not expect is how good it really is and how much excellent material Kane offers in this one volume. Because of the things mentioned in the first paragraph, one could easily say I am biased, and maybe I am a bit. With that said, I am writing a review and endorsing this book wholeheartedly because it is an exceptional addition to anyone's self-defense library and a book that has potential to save lives if people read it and listen to Kane's advice.

The first chapter is on awareness, a topic I also write and speak about, so I was especially interested in what Kane had to say. So what does he do? He starts the chapter off with a quote from Ani DiFranco, "Any tool is a weapon if you hold it right." This grabbed my attention because I once headed the local security for a concert of hers and had a very good talk about penjak silat with her bodyguard as we waited for her to change so we could walk her to the bus. It means nothing to anyone else, but hooked me. I continued and was fully engrossed with the statistics and examples Kane provided relating to violence. Reading those made me glad that there are those of us out here doing what we can to prevent violence and teach people to avoid or deal with it if necessary. Something Kane's "Surviving Armed Assaults" does very well. Kane did an excellent job with his chapter on awareness, and even though he teaches a modified color code a bit differently than I teach, I believe this chapter should be read by everyone in order to wake up and be more aware so they could avoid many potentially dangerous situations.

Speaking of avoidance, that was the focus of chapter two. Kane not only makes a great argument of why you should avoid violence, but provides strategies to do so. He follows this with a chapter on scenarios that extends the awareness and avoidance topics to situations such as car jackings, cash machine safety, hostage situations, sexual assault, rape, workplace violence and more. Before dealing with physical responses, Kane focuses on de-escalation strategies in chapter four. This is an often overlooked aspect of self-defense books and a welcome and needed addition here. Many self-defense books focus on striking and kicking and forget that if you can talk your way out of a situation you will be much better off than having fought your way out. Kane gives some excellent advice with his de-escalation strategies and I again wish everyone would learn these. One of the reasons a person is much better off by de-escalating a situation is because of the potential legal ramifications that may follow a physical altercation. As an attorney, I am very familiar with such things, and feel that Kane did a good job with his chapter on countervailing force that included legal considerations.

The remaining chapters focus on armed conflict, rules to live by, the aftermath of violence, and weapon features and functions. Some of the information in these chapters is biased toward Kane's karate training. Practitioners from other styles may not benefit from these chapters as much as the first ones, but I would encourage everyone to take even the karate parts and look how the principles behind what Kane teaches applies to their own art or self-defense system. (Kane's nine rules could apply to any art or system)

This is an excellent book filled with practical and realistic information related to weapons and violence. There is researched data and personal anecdotes that support Kane's perspectives on violence and his illustrations of real violence and what to do about it, or most importantly, how to be aware of it and avoid it altogether. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to martial artists and anyone interested in self-defense.

Reviewed by Alain Burrese, J.D., author, speaker
Hard-Won Wisdom From The School of Hard Knocks, Hapkido Hoshinsul, Streetfighting Essentials, Hapkido Cane, and The Lock On Joint Locking series

Being heavily interested in art, I fell in love with the philosphy of postmodernism as it is an issue, and a period, in which we live. While philosphy is often incredibly dense, this book helps lure you in as it gives a simple, unbiased overview of different aspects, reasons, and affects of postmodernism. It draws on several different critics of postmodernism and branches out to discuss the cultural, architectural, artistic, political, and self-developmental issues. After reading this, I find it hard to objectively view everything in life as I somehow draw connections back to postmodernism. The book also gives suggestions for further reading if you're interested in a certain viewpoint and would like to explore it in greater depth. Unfortionately, there are some issues in the book that you wonder why people would actually waste their time studying as they are rather pretensious, but nonetheless, it is a nice, easy, broad introduction into an boundless area of study.

This book has a lot of information in it. I am using it in a class.

Teach Yourself Postmodernism, despite the slightly tacky series title, is by far the best introduction to the topic I have yet to come across. It is easy to read, exceptionally inclusive, and well-researched,and concludes every section with what critics of the philosopher/philosophy say about him/it. It is very narrative-neutral in its own postmodern way.

Even readers already familiar with the work of many the writers and philosophers most closely associated with post modernism will find this book useful, as it serves as an excellent pocket resource to all of the important people and ideas of our post-modern era - including the idea that postmdernism is an oxymoron or just another modernism.

This is a good read if you're new to what postmodernism is all about. It's fairly clear as far as explaining things and it gives you direction on who and what to read should you desire to delve deeper into postmodernism.

I had always heard the term "postmodernism" and never really put much thought into it. However about four years ago, while I was working on my masters in social sciences the term was brought up again and again. After reading many philosophy type books, I thought the concept was grasped. Consequently, the notion of postmodernism was still nebulous, evasive and elusive. I can recall asking my advisor in my graduate program what defines a postmodern theorist. He simplistically stated that a postmodern theorist will claim he/she isn't a postmodern theorist. Also postmodern theorists tend to not agree with one and other.

Ultimately I felt quasi-comfortable about my knowledge in postmodernism, yet I had a thirst for more. This led me to look for a book on the topic and to "Teach Yourself Postmodernism". I have to say that I am very pleased with the content within the pages of this paperback by Glenn Ward. This book spoke of postmodernism in terms of architecture, art, music, film, history, politics, fashion, languages/words/text and psychology (to list a few). Another thing that I liked about this book is it provided many lucid and tangible examples when discussing concepts. For instance, the movie Blade Runner was used as paradigm of postmodernism.

Modernism was also tackled in this book, mainly because there can't be postmodern without modern. The book also is reader friendly. However, there were some aspects/points that were totally over my head. I reread many components several times and grasped it and other things were just way too abstract for me to clench.

Other cool parts of this book:

* Ideas are broken down by chapters
* Theorists from both modern & postmodern are reviewed
* Books on similar subject matter within a chapter are provided
* There is a chronological list dates of postmodern history
* A glossary of key terms used throughout the book
* As noted prior, many lucid examples of postmodernism

Overall, I felt like this was a great book to learn about not only postmodernism, but society and really the world people live in. The book is only about 232 pages, but Glenn Ward packed a great deal of information in this book. I would be really interested in reading another book by him, just based off this one. After finishing this book, I feel like I have a more solid understanding of the complex perception that is postmodernism.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R5CLRG2QVFHL This book is stunning. Simply stunning.

This is the latest collection to my Pixar artbook. Almost immediately, I wrapped the book up to protect the cover from the elements. The bright green cover is made of cloth-like fabric and attracts dust easily. After picking it from my desk from photographing it, some parts of the cover had already became dirty!

Old school photos, high resolution renders, great writing filled the pages made of high quality paper stock.

It tells the history of Pixar animation studios before there was Pixar animation studios, all the way up to the Disney bought-over. It stops just right before Ratatouille or there would probably be more written on Brad Bird. You'll find the true meaning of passion, determination and the love for their art.

If you've owned other Pixar artbooks, you'll be pleased to note that there are quite a lot of new, never-been-printed photos in the book. You're going to see tons of new images.

There are more pictures on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for my blog's link.

Dear animation lover. This book will restore your faith in the power of passion. With a never failing belief in the craftmanship of delivering a great story Pixar showed the possibilities of a good marriage between art and technique. Off course, some luck of being in the right place at the right time counts as well.

The book starts with the original background of the pixar machine as a calculating machine to the point where Disney takes over.

I also have almost every Pixar art-of book there is, but the movies described in the book (including all the shorts) are mostly viewed from a Pixar company point of view. This way you get a great overall view.

As it is my dream to come close to the Pixar company, this is probably the closest you can get the heart of Pixar when you are living far away...

Great book,
have to read a lot but very very interesting.
Great image quality and edition.
I'm loving it!


Martina,
Buenos Aires
Argentina

If you're at all a Pixar fan, or even an animation fan, this book deserves a place on your shelf!

The content of the book is as high quality and colorfull as the company it describes. Also the author did a good job at documenting the history of the company.

However, in the making of this book someone made a couple of mistakes. There are tens of images which have unacceptable 'pixelation' (i.e. blockiness due to overstretching of digital images). Especially the full page spread on p. 220 jumps out with pixels blown up to almost milimeter size!

This is quite dissappointing to me, especially as it is the artwork of a company which spearheads the way in digital imaging! I can imagine this is a slap in the face of some of the artitst and it would definitely not pass through their quality system if the book was produced by Pixar.

Overall the majority of the images in the book are very well reproduced, so I take the couple of handfull of bad apples for granted.

I received a tip about this book from my daughter's preschool teacher. They use it for school and when I picked it up, I expected this to be a teacher's manual. It does have lots of education material and should be a class! My husband and I enjoyed the funny little stories and I really got some great tips on the kinds of toys to buy for our preschool daughter and her newborn sister. Already, we have more toys that we probably need but this is a great guide to help us as the girls get older and then ask for everything. It really helps you put a value on the dollars you spend on toys these days. This is a great book for first time parents to read before they start toy shopping. There is a great chapter about technology toys.

I can't stop reading this book! Each chapter is better than the previous one and there is SO much I learned about toys. I'm pregnant with my first child and my mom bought me this book as a gift. She told me that I need to know everything about toys now so I do not make the same mistakes as my siblings who bought way too many toys that my nieces and nephews rarely play with. This is an amazing resource for preschool and kindergarten teachers too and the best part is that this book does not dictate what toys are the best. The reader is left to decide that based on what the authors have taught you. It's really a parenting book and class all in one! They have a website too.... toytips.com lists tons of toy reviews based on research for you to review. I LOVE that! I've looked at other websites that have reviews and opinions of a few parents and their experiences with specific toys but this is so much better than that! Great find. Great buy! Thanks, Mom!

I'm a stay at home dad who bought toys for my 5 kids this Christmas. I bought this book to learn how to choose and what kinds and types are better to buy. This book gave me the confidence I needed to figure out what toys were best for Lilly, Max, Zoe, Kate and Nick versus what they asked for (Xbox and Ipod, Barbie and My Little Pony) I made some good choices and I was pleased that they actually play with them. It seemed we have so many toys from last year that are just sitting in the playroom. I really like the chapter that talks about family board games. I never really thought about this before and now we play games every friday night (weeknights are out because of homework, ballet practice and swimming!) My wife thinks I am a genius and I'm never telling her this book helped me but I think it can help other guys like me so I felt compelled to write this review for all the other dads out there like me!

I am a pediatrician living in Ireland. A friend of mine in the United States told me about this book that he uses as a reference to help his patients with toy-related questions (categories of toys appropriate by developmental age, safety, etc.) He bought me a copy for Christmas. After reading this book, I realized that not only is this book helpful to parents but also to physicians. Toy safety and selection is not a course that is taught in medical school and this book is ideal for all pediatricians. I am familiar with other toy-rating and toy-suggestion books published and none come close to the detail and amount of research put into this book. If anyone is looking for a gift for their pediatician, this is IT!

I read this review from Fagan (below) and have to add to it. I am an emergency room nurse and we see many toy-related injuries. Most could have been prevented. I think if parents took the time to understand the importance of buying age-appropriate toys and then took the time to play with their children, we might see less accidental injuries. I bought a copy to keep at the hospital for our health care workers who will benefit from reading this book. It's nice to see two authors who care so much about what they write about. Thank you to Ms. Marianne Szymanski and Ms. Ellen Neuborne.

This is without a doubt my very favorite quilt book. I have owned this book for several years. It was one of the first books I purchased, and it is still my favorite. I have completed a number of quilts using patterns in this book. Several have blue ribbons! I highly recommend this book to any quilter.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out this is the book used on a Simply Quilts episode, which I had wanted to buy anyway. A good, fast strip method for making Trip Around the World, Blooming Nine Patch, and other patterns. Lovely photos, definitely worth a buy.

I took a class with this wonderful, spunky lady a few years ago. She makes HUGE quilts, and this book has a great selection of variations. The sizes only include either very large, or baby. But the designs are so simple!

I love this book. I've made a couple of quilts using it and plan to make a few more. I've gotten nothing but rave reviews on the quilts I made using this book and I can't recommend it highly enough. I purged through my quilt book collection and got rid of most of them but this book stayed in my top ten list. The use of color alone is worth the price of the book.

Very clear directions and beautiful designs. Good ideas on blending colors. Great for beginners but interesting enough for the experienced quilter.

I bought Transfigurations and Grey's earlier book Sacred Mirrors at the same time. Both are visually amazing and the print quality is excellent. I especially liked reading about Alex Grey's journey as an artist that is part of Transfigurations. It's not a path I would want to tread, but knowing about his life gives good insight and empathy into the aesthetics of his work. I'm very glad he met with Tibetan culture, which obviously has influenced him greatly, and helped him escape the dark trap of Euro-American nihilist existentialism

Transfigurations is a beautiful book that does an excellent job presenting the work of Alex Grey, one of the most important artists of our times. There is no artist quite like Alex Grey. For many years, I have used this book and an earlier Grey book, Sacred Mirrors, as a transformative tool both in my own life and helping others.

I bought this book for my son who'd asked for a coffee table art book
by Alex Grey, and he was happy to have received it. When it was under the tree unwrapped after Christmas, I took a look, and it's an interesting work. I'm not sure if it's in his room or if he took it to college; I'll have to look. If it's home, I can read more of it.

It arrived in beautiful condition.

Truly edifying, powerfully enlightening art of the nervous system (peeled open) and all its glory.

The universe is marvelous, indeed. Grey is a shining star.

Although my other books reviews are totally sarcastic this one is sincere. Giving TRANSFIGURATIONS five stars tells you nothing, it is my most cherished possession purchased from Amazon. Alex Grey is the most beautiful inspiring artist I know of, disturbing as well. For both reasons I get goosebumps each time I hear his weird kind of slimy sounding voice on the DVD and audio tapes that I also purchased. I find his whole dark side very intimidating and there are a couple of spots where the blur between holy and immoral is way to ominous for my churchy little, reactionary mind to consider but I'm sure that in his genius he is expressing things that, like all of his works, are simply way beyond my comprehension.

Even though I really like Grey's self-portraits as a boy, I usually skip past the first thirty-five or so pages to his more inspiring works of colorful anatomy charged with energy and connected to occult and mystical symbols of the spirit. I've always thought of these symbols as pertaining to aesthetics who live an isolated existence, however, for Grey's works they seem to be intimately associated with love, family, personal growth, and the journey through life.

I find his most beautiful works to be his oil on linen anatomical scenes of his family which include one of him and his wife embracing and another with both of them, eyes shut, in a moment of reverence with their daughter in which all three pineal glands are actively sharing an interwoven and upward spiraling rainbow of purely intelligent energies. Another is of his young daughter, as a toddler, who draws out a sphere from her heart encircled by a rainbow of noble and vital energy containing within it a Tibetan symbol of primal purity.

Alex Grey expresses better than anyone I've found how religious symbols from around the world are spun from the same spiritual desires and aspirations of people everywhere and are all equally divine.

Transfigurations shows Alex Grey's development through his life cycle from the dark cocoon of young manhood through his emergence as a man of tremendous knowledge and beauty expressed in fantastic colors and intricate and intriguing layers and details. He is clearly one who has made an incredible journey in life and easily ranks with all of the most famous and greatest artists in art history.

The Transformers Identification and Price Guide by Mark Bellomo is the greatest for the Transformers, More then Meets the Eye show every action figure created from Gen 1 and more. I have not seen a more detailed Transformers toy book with strenght, weakness, and more in one complete book. I recommend this book if you are Transformers More then Meets the Eye fan.

This is the best Action Figure guide I have ever seen. It is very informative and very accurate, the author even adds his personal take on most of the figures. And talk about bringing back old memories. I actually bought this book for nostalgic purposes and was very pleased. It was nice seeing all the old Transformers from the 80's in one piece. Makes me wish I knew what happened to all my old ones, man I'd be rich if I would have taken better care of them. Hope Mark Bellomo does a guide book for the rest of the Transformers. If you are looking for the ultimate 80's Transformers Action Figure guide, this is it!

I had heard good things about this author, and this guide, from reviews at other Transformer sites, so I bought it (it was also being sold for half price at amazon.com when I bought it). It was well worth every penny! It is very thorough and gives great details on each type of Transformer and each of the "lines of Transformers" that were made up to 1990. Each Transformer is also given approximate prices for what they are worth as well. Granted, the prices will change over time, but this guide will still be a worthy identification reference for a very long time.
I would have given it a 5, but there were quite a few grammatical errors in the book, but it won't affect your ability to understand the information.
My favorite part of the book is that the author appears to have had fun writing it, but takes it seriously enough to make it a very thorough reference guide. A must have for any Transformer fan, from beginner to expert!

This is a great book about the 80's transformers toy line. It has plenty of info on many transformers like their favorite motto to stats. If you are fan and/or collector this book is a must!!!

This is great reference guide. It shows all the Generation 1 Transformers (84-90). It shows all the pieces and a bio of each character. It also shows the value.
As kid I had over 50 of the originals and they are worth a ton of money. I use this book as a guide to purchasing used transformers at Ebay.
I wish he would come out of with with a volume 2 (92-07) which would show all the generation 2, Beastwars, Alternators, Universe,Cybertron, 07 movie, and classics. Which I think are better than generation 1.
Awsome book. I reconmend this book to all collectors.
Also check out the G.I Joe guide.

This book has it all when it comes to grammar. It teaches the parts of sentences and how to put them together to write a report, what is and isn't good grammar, and how to sound like you're not an illiterate; and, on top of all that, it offers exercises. I showed this to my boss who said she would buy several copies for the office so that staffers didn't make grammar mistakes. The author put this all together in one thin but rewarding book...worth every little penny you pay.

For years I wondered about when to say "good" and "well," or how to avoid double negatives, and a whole slew of other problem areas in grammar. Well, this book made it easy and simple. I highly recommend it. Nice job, Professor Hayes.

Whether you're in elementary or high school, being homeschooled, or run a business, this is the best supplemental text on grammar to have on hand. I learned so much from it in such a short period of time. It focused on all the grammatical problems we have when presenting or writing. I own a Ford dealership and have copies of this book all around the showroom and in each of my sales associates' office for use as a quick reference. I want my staff to sound educated and act with class. Speaking poor grammatically isn't the answer. Buy this book. I don't usually review or recommend books but I'm making an exception in this case.

Troublesome Grammar is one of the most helpful books I have come across to point how errors are unknowingly made in speaking and writing. This author hit right on the problems we all have, such as when to use well or better, which verbs to use for past tense, how to use hyphens and so on. This is worth the few bucks it costs.

I'm from Scotland studying here in the States. I saw a student on campus using this book to do an English report. I asked him to let me look at it, and, wow!, was I every surprised that someone was smart enough to wrap up all the grammar problems we face in one easy to read book. Thanks, Dr. Hayes. You made my work here at college easier. I hope everyone gets as lucky as me and finds this book.

I have got the book on my hands before i was expecting.( outside USA)
In this case i knew the book.
I had bad experience buying books through other book Sellers and after had bought them i was informed that they were not available . I've got really disappointed.
When i buy a book i wanna make sure the book seller has it available.

If you are looking for a concise and practical guide to business writing, then you've found the right book. It is organized well allowing you to zoom in on the specific advise you are looking for (e.g., memos, letters, emails, reports). The chapters are easy to scan so you can readily zoom into areas that you feel would be most useful to you. The book provides specific examples that well illustrate the principles touted in the book. This was one of the main books used in a Business Communication class at NYU's Stern School of Business. I also found the Guide to Managerial Communication (7th Edition) helpful.

Concise, simple and straight froward advice.
It give you advices of how to write good memo, report, e-amail,....

Writing that Works, by Kenneth Roman, is a great, great, book on how to improve your writing on the job. Even if the only writing on your job is to reply to an occasional e-mail, this book will improve your writing immensely. This is one of the top three writing for the job guides I've read (out of dozens), right up there with "Plain English at Work", and "The Elements of Style".

This expanded version of an earlier edition of two seasoned advertising executive' original writing guide is something like Elements of Style, but aimed squarely at someone writing for business purposes (e.g., one of the ten chapters is "Asking for Money". There is a useful afterword describing a dozen more books to help you write better. Recommended as a good starting point for any business person wanting to write more effectively.

Not quite what I was expecting. Pretty awesome projects but for practical use, meh, some of it.

Great book! I give it five stars! Fun projects you can build cheaply using stuff you find in thrift stores or for free if you are willing to look inside Salvation Army dumpsters! Projects are great if you are a private eye, company internal security guy, or a kid who wants to really bother your family, friends and neighbors! On the more serious side,if you are into nature, you could probably use alot of the night scope and amplified ear stuff for bird/ animal monitoring. Be rational using this stuff! You could get in trouble if you follow your evil genius side! But...that's why you are looking at this book isn't it...MAH!, HA!, HA!, and HA!

In this world where unexpected suprises are not always welcome - and if your thoughts lean toward keeping an eye on things, this publication will certainly help. There are chapters the younger set would appreciate as well the seasoned info gatherer will not hesitate to start putting something together.
Not electronic savvy? Not a concern. Just a few of the ideas presented here will get you headed in the right direction with property protection, keeping tabs, and real time viewing scenarios.

Before reading this I thought; "Get a camera, put it up, check it once in awhile." Wrong. This easy reading material will get you thinking in important directions about surveilance you probably haven't thought of previously, unless you were a professional.

This is a fun book, with lots of great ideas. However, it really needed tighter editing. There are several instances where the text did not agree with the schematics (schematic has 50K ohm pot, text discusses 50 ohm, etc). This is unfortunate, since novice readers may not spot the problems, and end up with circuits which don't work.

I'd also recommend a more traditional, left-to-right layout of the schematics. Some are left-right top-down, others are right-left. This makes it more difficult to follow the "flow" through the circuits.

Regardless of these hiccups, I'd recommend this book to those who'd like to tinker with "spy gear" or who are looking for simplier project ideas.

I got this for my friend's 16 year old son and he LOVES it! He is so excited about just knowing how all these things work, even though his mother refuses to let him into a Radio Shack in case he tries to build some of it! I've made him promise not to use any of his evil knowledge against our family and in return, I'll get him book 2 for his birthday! Great fun!