Arts and Culture Books

I love these Official Guides for the X-Files. They tell the entire episode in just enough detail if you may have missed something or have not paid enough attention. They also have the "Backstory" so you could find out information you ay never have even heard of. They have quotes from the fabulous stars. I just wish they would have had more from and about the stars. Bt other than that they are fabulous. I have my rating as 5 stars but because of this I would pick four and a half if I could. They tell everything you need to know and more about the greatest show to ever air!

I love this book,I especially like the behind the scenes stuff, it's great.I recommend this book to anyone who is the biggest fan in the world to the show like me.It has a great picture of David Duchovny in front of the mirror (very cute). I have almost all of season 6 on tape so it was very interesting to read the behind the scenes stuff and see how they made the episode.I have all of season 7 on tape so I can't wait for the next book to come out.I am running out of blank tapes!

I admit to being a X-Files addict, and so this was necessary to try to understand the show. It, and its previous 1 through 4, have made my interest in the X-files grow as I finally got clues and tremendous answers in reviews and stories from many missed episodes. A lot of work obviously went into these books, and I wait eagerly for volume 6.

The End and The Beginning is just another great book in a great collection. It is one of the most descriptive guides yet, with great color photos and a play by play look at each episode from season 6. If you are a true X-phile, this book is a necessity. This is a great look at the series while Scully and Mulder were still on the same planet, so to speak.

This is definitely a must-have for any X-Phile, especially if you missed an important episode of Season 6. It contains a detailed summary of every episode in a mini novel-like form, with commentary about that episode. It's also great to have if you desperately want to view a Season 6 episode, but you didn't tape it. In this book, you can READ the episode. I know it's not the same as watching it, but it's something. And for all you 'Shippers like me out there, you can re-live all the greatest 'Shipper moments, like in the episode "Triangle."--the famous kiss, and Mulder's famous "I love you" line to Scully. And let's not forget the part in "The Unnatural" where Mulder teaches her how to play baseball, or in "Dreamland" where Mulder dances in front of the mirror while in the body of Morris Fletcher.

The book also contains colorful photos commemorating every unforgetful moment of the season. Now I can't wait for the next volume. I'm one of the unfortunate people who missed the Season 7 finale, where Mulder gets abducted and Scully announces to Skinner that she's pregnant . . .

I enjoyed reading this and passed it on to my kids who are visiting the Loire Valley this summer and living with a family there. Proper etiquette is always noticed, and a general knowledge of fine wines can only add to their experience.

Highly recommended! The audio format is a great idea! It makes learning very easy and the information is all relevant. This is one lesson that is interesting and easily finished.

This was my first wine book, and it is still the best beginner's reference. It covers everything you need to get started. The real benefit, however, is the audio format. You actually get to hear the narrator (who is fantastic!) pronounce the names of the various grape varieties, wines and terms. This is a huge benefit and something that cannot be replicated in the written word.

A good etiquette book should sit on every professional's bookshelf alongside "how to win friends" and "7 habits." I purchased this book along with Essential Etiquette Fundamentals, Vol. 1: Dining Etiquette and The Etiquette Edge: The Unspoken Rules for Business Success to cover all the bases. These books do an excellent job covering the important etiquette skills often overlooked in today's environment. Although often underappreciated, exhibiting proper etiquette signals to others (especially your boss and clients) that you are well educated, care about detail, and have respect for others. I highly recommend these books for anyone new to the business world or for those of us who may need to brush up on the basics.

Although drinking good wine isn't difficult, learning about wine can be. Once on a winery tour a vintner explained that there are 15,000 different choices that can be made from grape to bottle. Sometimes picking out a wine can seem daunting. Food Scholar's Wine Selection & Etiquette does a superior job of teaching those of us who would like to learn more without the information being overkill.

While there are more comprehensive books out there on Wine, I really like this book because it excels at being written for the average person. The book is divided into logical sections. I also like that the effect of climates in a region on the grape are covered. This is an easy way to tell what kind of wine you are getting just by looking at where the grape was grown.

This book will enhance your knowledge as well as your ability to pick out wines that you and your guests may enjoy. I would highly recommend this book to those who want to learn about wine, as this book does an excellent job of giving a basic education about many of the wines of the world.

Though I could have lived without some of the articles, mostly this is a great guide book to movies. I laughed while I read it, and I liked the movie picks a lot.

At first glance, this is a book you think you might want to pass up, but it's the perfect guide! These four girls have very different tastes, but each of them have a lot to offer. With little side-bars, and essays, this book is as fun as they come! They have made some very good recommendations for me. If it weren't for these four, I wouldn't be able to expand my horizons. But they're the type who make you open your mind. I mean, I hadn't even heard of 'Gas, Food, Lodging' before this book and let me tell you, it's a good movie! So get this book and see what these girls have to say. You might find a gem of a movie that you enjoy just as much as they say you will.

This can be read as a reference guide OR for just plain pure pleasure--for me the latter...these woman have a great, unigue voice.

I first became familiar with the Girls on Film through their Website. Amazingly, I almost always agree with their movie critiques. That's why I knew I wouldn't be disappointed with this guide. It's more of the same conversational tone and is filled with a lot of movies I know, but also a fair ammount I haven't seen (yet). I'm looking forward to making my way to the video store. The Girls are friends who make you feel welcome- a great movie guide with multiple gen-x style blurbs which are very amusing!

Though far from an all-encompassing movie guide, it is still well-worth the price of admission. I didn't always agree with the choices they made (I mean, Andrea, come on! "My Fellow Americans"???). But I enjoyed every page of the book and found it to be among the wittiest I've read this year. My one complaint? It was too short. I wished there were more!

Marshall McLuhan's _The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man_ (University of Toronto Press, 1962) is 45 years ahead of its time because not very many persons have understood it very well. With bold strokes, McLuhan has delineated how Western culture is different from other cultures in the world today. For Western culture is still a residual form of print culture, whereas other cultures in the world today are to one degree or another residual forms of oral cultures.

Drawing on Walter J. Ong's account of visualist tendencies in Western philosophic thought in _Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of Discourse to the Art of Reason_ (Harvard University Press, 1958; 3rd ed. University of Chicago Press, 2004), McLuhan also calls attention to visualist tendencies in Western thought.

In the late 1950s, McLuhan, a Canadian convert to Roman Catholicism, read _Insight: A Study of Human Understanding_ by the Canadian Jesuit philosopher and theologian Bernard Lonergan. Lonergan calls attention to the tendency in Western philosophic thought to equate knowing with "taking a good look." Thus McLuhan was drawing not only on Ong's account of visualist tendencies in Western philosophic thought, but also on Lonergan's.

In the 1994 "Introduction to the Transaction Edition" of his book _Belief and Unbelief_, Michael Novak, who studied under Lonergan as a young seminarian in Rome, nicely paraphrases Lonergan's critique of visualist tendencies in his own words:

"Rorty thinks that in showing that the mind is not "the mirror of nature" he has disproved the correspondence theory of truth. What he has really shown is that activities of the human mind cannot be fully expressed by metaphors based upon the operations of the human eye. We do not know simply through "looking at" reality as though our minds were simply mirrors of reality. One needs to be very careful not to confuse the activities of the mind with the operations of any (or all) of the bodily senses. In describing how our minds work, one needs to beware of being bewitched by the metaphors that spring from the operations of our senses. Our minds are not like our eyes; or, rather, their activities are far richer, more complex, and more subtle than those of our eyes. It is true that we often say, on getting the point, "Oh, I see!" But putting things together and getting the point normally involve a lot more than "seeing," and all that we need to do to get to that point can scarcely be met simply by following the imperative, "Look!" Even when the point, once grasped, may seem to have been (as it were) right in front of us all along, the reasons why it did not dawn upon us immediately may be many, including the fact that our imaginations were ill-arranged, so that we were expecting and "looking for" the wrong thing. To get to the point at which the evidence finally hits us, we may have to undergo quite a lot of dialectical argument and self-correction." (p. xv)

In summary, Western philosophical thought from antiquity down to the invention of the Gutenberg printing press around 1450 carried a strong visualist orientation, as Ong has detailed. Then with the advent of the Gutenberg printing press visualist tendencies were much more strongly culturally conditioned than ever before. As is well known, print culture in the West with its strong orientation toward visualism saw not only the spread of the Protestant Reformation, but also the emergence of modern science, modern capitalism, modern democracy, the Industrial Revolution, and the Romantic Movement. Thus the strong orientation toward visualism in the West has helped set Western culture off from other cultures of the world.

However, today modern capitalism as developed in print culture with its strong orientation toward visualism is being globalized through economic globalization. Thus capitalism today is making inroads into parts of the world where print culture did not have the historical impact that it had in Western culture. To varying degrees, the other cultures are residual forms of oral culture, as McLuhan describes oral culture in this book.

Thus McLuhan's pioneering study of print culture can enable us to better understand the world situation as we live through the upheavals of economic globalization.

--Thomas J. Farrell, author of Walter Ong's Contributions to Cultural Studies: The Phenomenology of the Word and I-Thou Communication (Media Ecology)

Definitely more of an academically written book than McLuhan's more famous "Understanding Media." For new McLuhan readers, I recommend reading "Understanding Me" or "Understanding Media" first.

This book expands on the views of McLuhan's teacher Harold Innis, who distingusihed oral and written cultures. The book argues that oral cultures are synaesthetic and work with synthetic logic, while cultures of writing push the mind toward singulation of senses, logic and 'perspective'.

McLuhan 'glosses' through a wide range of scattered historical pieces of information to show how oral, written and print cultures have different patterns. He ably shows how printing also transformed art, architecture, society and industry.

The book is thoroughly historical, dense and rich in informative detail. It forms the foundation for McLuhan's clearer theoretical articulation of his ideas in 'Understanding Media', but is more accessible to the layman.

This book belongs to a pantheon of books that revolve around similar ideas like Harold Innis's 'Empire and Communications' & 'The Bias of Communication'; Walter J. Ong's 'Orality and Literacy' and William J. Ivins's 'Print and Visual Culture' and 'Art and Geometry'. But this is the most sweeping, convincing, dramatic statement of the common theory proposed by these various writers.

And for those who love theory with a dose of history, this makes for really delightful reading.

The Gutenberg Galaxy, McLuhan's second book, is one of his best, but the reader should be forewarned that it is also one of his most difficult to read and does not make a good introduction for the beginner. One of the reasons for this difficulty is that it is written in mosaic style, in which McLuhan -- like Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project -- creates a text that is largely composed of quotations from mostly obscure authors stitched together with his own commentaries in between. These quotations are from works written in classical academic style, and none of them are easy reading. They require concentration and the book itself takes time to read carefully.

The book is a cultural archaeology of the effects of the rise of print upon Western society in the period between 1450 - 1850. It is concerned with analyzing the new kinds of social and cultural structures which typography brought into being, such as nationalism, the concept of individuality, the idea of authorship and intellectual private property, new genres such as the literary essay and the novel. The rise of the printing press, McLuhan points out, was coincident with the rise of the mastery of depth perspective in Renaissance painting, and this is not an accident, for both the new Euclidean space conception and typography had in common an emphasis upon the organization of the world around the eye favored as a sense organ at the detriment and exlusion of all the other senses. During the manuscript culture of the Middle Ages, the senses were still synesthetically woven together like a tapestry, and no single one of them was favored to quite the degree of exclusion which the favoring of vision brought about in the Renaissance. Illuminated manuscripts, according to McLuhan, have a textural feel to them that still relies heavily on the sense of touch, and Medieval art, with its disproportionate sense of space in which one character -- such as Christ -- will be represented as larger than everyone else primarily due to the emphasis upon his spiritual importance rather than his inclusion as one individual among many occupying the same field of homogeneous space, is similarly haptic. Gothic lettering, he points out, is hard on the eye and difficult to read because it is tactile and still appeals to the sense of touch. Roman lettering, together with Arabic numerals, was favored by print, and this had the effect of streamlining the ability to read such that silent reading became common. Printers began to do new things like number the pages, create indices and Tables of Contents, and this had the effect of emphasizing authorship since it now became possible to track citations properly. Typography, McLuhan never tires of pointing out, favors the eye at the expense of all the other senses, and it tends to favor an abstract view of space as a container within which objects are placed in an arrangement that takes all spatial relations into account.

All of this began to change in the nineteenth century with the rise of electric technology and the favoring of discontinuities brought about by the telegraph and the newspaper. This kind of syncopated feeling for space, in which each object begins to occupy its own space no longer held in relation to other objects, began to erode and change the old typographic world of the Gutenberg Galaxy. Electric culture, which McLuhan does not discuss much in this book, favors tribalism, spatial discontinuity, erosion of individuality and the rise of corporatism, decentralization and so on.

This book should be read together with Understanding Media, for the latter volume picks up where The Gutenberg Galaxy leaves off, at the threshold of the Electric Society.

It is a masterpiece of scholarship by one of the greatest intellects America has ever produced, an intellect that easily puts the French po-mo philosophers in the shade. You will get more useful ideas out of any one of McLuhan's books than you would out of a whole crate of books by postmodern French philosophers.

--John David Ebert, author of Celluloid Heroes & Mechanical Dragons: Film as the Mythology of Electronic Society

This is the first McLuhan book I read, back in the late 1960s. It took me about a month to get through, because each short chapter contained so many new ideas and insights I had to think about them before going on. I didn't always understand them, but what I did comprehend was intoxicatingly exciting.

Many readers of McLuhan treat his probes as absolute statements of truth. Then, if they disagree with him, they reject his whole approach. One important fact to keep in mind while reading this or any of McLuhan's books is that he himself refers to the clever slogans which sum up many of his insights ("The medium is the message" being the best known, of course) as "probes", not facts. Their purpose is to explore an idea in order to stimulate thought. Even if you ultimately disagree with the concept set forth, if it makes you think about it, the probe has accomplished its principal purpose.

Back when paper zines were cool.....

An eclectic, entertaining, interesting and thought provoking collection of people, organisations and ideas expressed as only a combination of Boing-Boing (the original 'zine) and Wired could.

Sex, drugs and cyberspace as seen in 1995

When I first read it, I had never before heard of the Cacophony Society, bOING bOING magazine, the Billboard Liberation Front or Burning Man, and I had no idea what "culture jamming" was. But my eyes were opened, and my life has gone all *kinds* of strange and wonderful new directions, all because of the resources in this incredible little book.

It's a damn shame it's out of print, but it's howling for a sequel. How about it, Carla?

Everything from prank calls, odd types of hacking, and Wham-o products to strange but simple foods, comix, and the Happy Mutant Hall of Fame, the Happy Mutant Handbook has most everything that the other 10% of the human population, who aren't Normals, could want to know. There are lots of fun little pranks that can always be used. One is standing in an elevator and giggling the entire time you're reading the phone book. It's quite entertaining and your able to read it again and again, each time knowing that there are actually other people like you out there. If there weren't this book wouldn't exist. So worship it and read it.

Because of the happy mutant handbook I know now that being weird is the best thing in the world!! It has made me look at the world in a whole new way. I carry it with me every were. you to sould check out this funky book on life. a must have for any one pussing reality.

Do you laugh at authority, enjoy silly putty, get a kick outta kitsch, appreciate goofy pranks, take pride in being a do-it-yourselfer? Do your knees get weak over Water Wiennies, Sea Monkeys, Crazy Straws, or Esquivel? If you answered "yes" to a few or more of these then you are probably a happy mutant and this book is for you.

It's great. You'll find tips on building hacking, how to do "your" work while appearing to be doing "their" work, turning the tables on telemarketers, creating your own personal anti-marketing strategy, getting your zine seen, and The Urban Absurdist Survival Kit which offers official looking signs you can copy and stick around to confuse and amuse. It also includes character profiles of idiots you are likely to run into on the net, conveniently printed up as cards to cut out and keep handy for quick identification. Plus, articles on Ivan Stang, Roger Corman, Jim Ludtke, and Patch Adams (oooh, even scarier than Robin Williams).

Get your giggles off while undermining the Man. But, this book isn't all just fun and games, it contains a degree of seriousness, yet it is also serious fun. *The Happy Mutant Handbook* possesses teeth but when it nips it aims for the funny bone.

Buy this book, read it, play with it, give it a hug. You two kids could become really good friends.

First off, the paper and print is very good. Some of the posters in this book are great, specifically the Sean Connery "From Russia with Love" posters (which there are a lot of). My only issue is really that many of the Bond posters are awful. Specifically the Roger Moore era... The posters are so bad that they are in some cases comical. Overall, there's enough content to please fans, but I think it would be great if there were even more classic and foreign posters.

I purchased this for my James Bond fan and he loved it--much larger than I expected and a very cool collection of posters and images.

I bought this book as a present for the huge James Bond fan in my life and it was perfect. He really enjoyed looking at all of the classic posters from the various movies. If you have someone who really is a Bond fanatic, this is the way to go!

I bought this for my husband's birthday, he's a HUGE Bond fan...he was really excited about this book, and i was impressed with the large format and the posters from around the world for the different Bond films. Definitely worth buying, even as a book to leave on the coffee table for people to flip through.

This is a wonderful collection of James Bond Movie Posters. The illustrations and quality of the images are outstanding. They are crisp and sharp and very colorful. This book covers Bond posters from all over the world. The composition of the Japanese posters are quite eye catching and innovative. This is a wonderful and essential book for James Bond enthusiasts.

This book stands as the best introduction to one of the best comic strips ever produced. Not only is it packed with hard to find "Krazy Kat" strips, but it also includes a biography of the artist, George Herriman. Some consider Herriman the first African-American mainstream cartoonist. His colleagues didn't know his ethnicity (and Herriman didn't tell them) so some called him "the Greek". He felt he had to hide some of his features from the public. For example, he kept his very curly hair closely cut and hidden under a hat. Not only that, his birth certificate shows his parent's ethnicity as "colored". The prejudices of the time likely would not have allowed an African-American the mainstream status and freedom allowed to George Herriman. So through "Krazy Kat" we get a glimpse of what early 20th century American culture may have missed out on due to its racial myopia. For "Krazy Kat" stands as an absolute masterpiece of its genre.

Herriman found some modicum of fame in his lifetime. William Randolph Hearst (the newspaper magnate) loved Herriman's work and rewarded him with a lifetime contract (according to the biography in the book, Hearst once read a "Krazy Kat" Sunday page and immediately demanded a raise for the artist). Herriman's success didn't come quickly, however. His first big break came in 1897 with the sale of a sketch to the Los Angeles Herald. Around 1901 he landed his first job as a "Staff Cartoonist" (a person who literally reported to the office every day and rattled off strip after strip; very different from today's cartoonists). Between 1901 and 1916 Herriman penned numerous strips (the book includes samples of many of these strips - many in color), including: "Musical Mose" (this strip's overt racial humor would not fly today), "Professor Otto and His Auto", "Acrobatic Archie", "Two Jolly Jackies", "Major Ozone's Fresh Air Crusade", "Home Sweet Home", "Baron Mooch", "Mary's Home From College", "Gooseberry Sprig" (considered to be a direct forerunner to "Krazy Kat"), "Alexander the Cat", "Daniel and Pansy", and finally, in 1910, "The Dingbat Family" (which changed its name briefly to "The Family Upstairs"; it was Herriman's first hit). It was in a "Dingbat Family" strip in 1910 that a mouse first "beaned" a "Kat" with a projectile (in the "running boards" of the strip). Eventually the Kat and mouse sideshow surpassed the main strip's popularity, and "Krazy Kat" debuted as a daily in October 1913 (the famous Sunday pages began in 1916). Herriman kept experimenting with other strips through 1923 when he finally placed his focus squarely on "Krazy Kat".

From roughly 1913 to 1944 (when Herriman passed away leaving a week's worth of unfinished Krazy Kat's on his drawing table) "Krazy Kat" developed from a "Kat" and mouse game (filled with puns, misunderstandings, and musings on the imperfections of language) into a complex love triangle between Krazy (the "Kat"), Ignatz (the mouse) and Offisa Pupp (the dog). Ignatz's entire being revolves around "beaning" the "Kat" with a brick, and Krazy interprets this as an act of love (unbeknownst to Ignatz). Offisa Pupp loves Krazy (in a fatherly sort of way) and his obsession revolves around catching Ignatz in the act and jailing him. Three obsessions collide in an almost jazz-style derivation of themes. Herriman developed this theme brilliantly over 30 years of strips. But overall it defies analysis: the strip can only speak for itself.

Sadly, though "Krazy Kat" counted such dignatiries as e.e. cummings, George Gershwin, Gilbert Seldes, James Joyce, and other literati, as fans, its popularity waned dramatically throughout the 1930s (as it became more surreal, esoteric and unabashedly uncommercial). It was kept in print by Hearst himself. The book does not cover the frustration of Hearst editors at the inclusion of the strip in their papers. They rebelled against it in some cases. Many simply tried to remove it from circulation only to find Hearst himself yelling "keep it in!" So we have, of all people, the controversial William Randolph Hearst to thank for the continuation of "Krazy Kat". By the end of its run "Krazy Kat" only appeared in some 30 papers.

The main focus of this book lies in its numerous incredible strips. The book includes daily strips (most dating from 1938 to 1944) and Sunday pages (dating from 1916 to 1944 with some in color; it also includes both the first and last Sunday pages). If one reason exists to purchase this book, here it is. The strips retain their amazing character even after decades of aging. And the artwork remains astounding. Not only that, the book includes samples of hand colored drawings of Herriman's, and photos of Herriman and his family. All in all, this book opens the door on one of the comic strip medium's most celebrated strips. Those that get hooked should continue thier obsessions (in the true spirit of Krazy, Ignatz, and Offisa Pupp) with the Fantagraphics' series of Sunday pages, and the Pacific Comics club's reprints of daily strips. Someday every Krazy Kat strip Herriman drew will finally appear in printed form. We can hope, at least.

This is a wonderful book for Krazy Katz fans to own. It is large, colorful and very informative on one of Americas great cartoonists. The delivery through Amazon was fast and effortless. The book, a treasure to own. Worth the lower price through Amazon.

This is what all popular art forms should be. A social commentary as love poem. And poem this is. There is very little that someone can write about the Krazy experience without treading in the same terran as this wonderful book. This is were your Krazy love afair begins. And unlike Ignatz you don't show your love with a brick.

This is a wonderful introduction to George Herriman's great comic strip Krazy Kat that ran for several decades in the early twentieth century. This introduction provides biographical background to Herriman's art, a survey of some of his influences, and a very healthy dose of Krazy Kat panels, both color and black & white. It also discusses the way that Krazy Kat became a cultural phenomenon, easily one of the most highly regarded comics of the century, and permeating many other arts as well.

The Krazy Kat strip is utterly insane, surreal stuff. Here is the premise: Krazy Kat (who is usually female but is sometimes apparently male) is in love with Ignatz Mouse. Ignatz loathes Krazy, and to prove it konstantly kreases that kat's krown with a brick. Incredibly, Krazy sees this as proof of Ignatz's affection, and falls even more deeply in love (many panels show hearts rising from Krazy's heart when she is hit by one of Ignatz's bricks). Officer Pup, the town constable, is in love with Krazy and frequently throws Ignatz into jail for hitting Krazy, which causes Krazy to pine for her would-be lover. This is merely the barest sketch of this weird and wild world. The town of Concocino is populated by a host of equally outrageous characters, though the focus continually comes back to the three principals.

Though even the most recent of these strips are over sixty years old, Krazy Kat has stood up magnificently over the years. Part of the reason surely lies with Herriman's enormous gifts as an illustrator. The Sunday strips in particular are things of great beauty, with the frames arcing around the page in spectacular designs of considerable innovation and complexity. The content of the comics reflects a genuine wit and substantial intelligence, while the bizarre love triangle possesses endless possibilities for both humor and pathos. This truly is one of the most unique comics in the history of the medium, and even those who do not usually respond to the genre are apt to find this enormously entertaining.

When I noticed that many of my favourite cartoonists have said that Herriman's 'Krazy Kat' is the greatest comic strip ever, I decided I should check it out. It didn't take long before I agreed with them.

George Herriman is one of those rare individuals who genuinely deserves to be called a genius. That's a word that gets thrown around a little too casually perhaps, but in Herriman's case it is almost an understatement.

He was a brilliantly inventive artist, but his writing is what really sets him apart. A lot of the dialogue is written phonetically in bizarre dialects, a tricky thing to do, but he uses it to great effect.

Whereas space restrictions force cartoonists today to avoid using more words than is necessary, Herriman would often use a lot more, and much of the pleasure of reading 'Krazy Kat' comes from the sheer virtuosity with which Herriman uses language.

That a comic strip could be as funny, as intellectually stimulating, and as beautiful to look at as 'Krazy Kat' seems to me to be some kind of miracle. This book is a great introduction to Herriman and his work. There's a generous helping of 'Krazy Kat' strips, as well as some of Herriman's other work. Anyone who loves comics should have it. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

OK, so it was the title that got me since i was not a "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" fan. My friend loaned it to me and i had HAD to check it out. Then i had to have one of my own.

What a clever, funny book that was clearly written from the heart. What a fresh directive. I could almost hear the author talking to me. I could almost "see" the people and nearly experience what was going on, the desciptions were so clear.

I think Im now a Millionaire Fan..

Now i tape all the shows to find J.E.'s show and watch it. -THANKS ALOT -

All i need to know now is.....what's next Millionaire Boy?

about writing a review for this book, Millionaire Boy/The Adventures of a Game Show Contestant, that I forgot to rate it with stars. 5 STARS! 5 STARS! 5 STARS!

Loads of fun!
A very entertaining read!

I wanted to read this book for several reasons. ONE because it was about one of my favorite tv programs, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and TWO because the author was from Montana.
I enjoyed this book thoroughly! It was well-written and very amusing.
The author has a very comfortable style. It is really like he is talking right to you. There are inner monolouges to let you know what he is thinking at key parts of the book.

This was a very visual book, because the author's descriptions of people, settings, and activities were superb!
I had read other reviews of "Millionaire Boy" and questioned if people were really laughing out loud as they claimed.
I can atest to the fact that this is a very funny book and, yes, I DID laugh out loud. SEVERAL times!
I have passed the book along to other fans of WWTBAM and they have enjoyed it as much as I did.
I too am looking forward to the author's next book.
I think he has a great future ahead of him.

Have a game show fan or a Regis Philbin fan on your gift list?
This is a book for them!
But like I said at the beginning, "Millionaire Boy" really is a book for everybody!

This book was a lot of fun and much like several of the others who have written reviews of Millionaire Boy:The Adventures of a Game Show Contestant, I found myself laughing outloud several times.

The perfect sitting by the pool book!
If you like Dave Barry, you'll appreciate the humor in this book.

Anybody know if the author has written anything else?

With all the wit of a Dave Barry read but better! Full of humor and trepidation about making a public appearance on national television. The true story of making your dreams a reality. A great book that is very difficult to read without pausing to go back and read parts out loud to who ever might be around to listen...friends, family, cats, pillows.

New Orleans is my favorite season of Real World thus far, and i am a little disappointed in the contents and layout of this book in comparison to editions for later seasons (ie, chicago and las vegas). Instead of putting cast member information in an orderly fashion, they throw around the facts over various pages. castmember david's fact sheet is also suspiciously missing. I didn't like the rw reunion junk at the back of the book to pad its length. they should have included the floor plans of the house and more photos taken by the cast instead of this.

If you watched the Real World New Orleans, this is a great guide to what you didn't see. If you DIDN'T watch the show, well, then there's no reason to buy the book!
My favorite part about the book was the information about the Kelley/Danny and Melissa/Jamie "feud." With quotes from the sources themselves, it adds even more drama than was on the show! VERY interesting!

This book is amazing!! anything you ever wanted to know is answered!! It even goes into a bit of stuff from other seasons, with pictures of Rachel(S.F) and Sean's (boston)wedding! as well as tonnes of pictures what they're doing now etc....etc.....
You will really enjoy it!!

I liked this Real world book a lot in fact I like most of them, all except Seattle which was incredibly boring . But this book gives you a lot of insight into what the camera didn't show. Some of the things mentioned don't seem to make sense b/c when you see the reunions on tv they don't act towards each other they way that you would think w/some of the comments that they have made about each other in this book. Besides that it is well worth your money and time to read it.

It's amazing how much is told in this book that wasn't revealed on the show. This book gives the show and the cast (which I think is the most interesting cast yet) more depth. The thing dealt with most in the book is something that wasn't hardly dealt with on the show, and that's Kelley and Danny's dislike of Melissa and Jamie. There's way more content than that, but that is what's focused on a bit. 'Unmasked' also put to rest the answer of some questions, such as "Why was Kelley not in the house a lot?" and "What did Matt really think of Julie the whole time she crushed on him?". All the cast members let out what they really thought about each other, and some of the results could be surprising. All in all, I found that this season and this book is the best ever. Can't wait until next season!

A WONDERFULLY TOLD CAT-TAIL! THE ILLUSTRATIONS ARE LOVELY AND APPROPRIATE TO THE PLAYFUL THEME OF THE BOOK.

This is a fantastic story. It sparks children and adults (I'm 53!) the imagination and creativity that will help make the world a more beautiful place. I hence started to write my own children's stories. Amy Tan is my inspiration, and I hope she becomes yours.

I am the mother of 2 boys and have little knowledge of "girl" books. I bought this book for 2 little girls ages 4 and 5. The parents of each girl said their daughters were thrilled with the book and asked that it be read to them twice the day the book arrived. I bought the book because I love Amy Tan's novels and assumed that a child's book would be just as engaging. Amy Tan's story and the beautiful illustrations did not let me down.

The most exquisitely illustrated book I've ever owned! A fun, fictitious way to describe how white siamese kittens get their colors.
It's a bit long for a bed time story, but really fun! Kids ages 8 or 9 and up may be able to read it themselves, but the beginners may have a hard time.

I've read Amy Tan's "Joy Luck Club" and "Kitchen God's Wife" and had no idea that she's a wonderful children's author as well. I learned about this book from watching the same titled PBS series. The series is cute for kids, but the book is a wonderful story, rich in history and beautifully illustrated. Tan is a gifted writer that children and adults can appreciate.