Magazines Books

Briefly: This is an absolutely amazing collection of travel writing, perhaps the paragon collection of the genre. Honestly, there are no duds here (and there are a lot of essays here), with stellar writing and captivating stories across the board. A fantastic travel companion that, like one reviewer said, is a bear to read: though it's "only" 400-some pages, they use a tiny font and almost zero margins, so you get an incredible amount of reading, and it's all superb. I've read nothing better in the genre.

I concur with all of the previous glowing reviews. I have a beef with the publisher; the text is too small. I guess the font to be an 8.

Years and years ago an office-mate brought in a copy Outside magazine with an article on "Ferret-legging," and read to all of us. By the end of it we were dying with laughter. I made a xerox, which I saved for years, until I finally made the mistake of loaning to a friend (ex, now, obviously) WHO DID NOT RETURN IT.
Now this compendium of Outside's comes out, and blessed Mary mother of God, it includes the ferret-legging piece.
You must buy this, flip to "King of the ferret-leggers," and read the piece. You'll thank me, honest you will.
And I'm told there're some other stories in here as well. Think of them as gravy.

Thanks to Outside magazine, which has been systematically cultivating a stable of fine writers for years now, we have a collection of what I'll call the "nouveau adventure" genre. Yes, there are traditional, edge-of-your-seat adventure stories by familiar names like Jon Krakauer, Sebastian Junger and Dave Roberts, but to me the real pleasure of reading this book is derived from pieces like Ian Frazier's "Keeping America's Trees Safe from Small-Curd Bubble Wrap," and Randy Wayne White's "Why Do We Fish?" Their topics are just a bit off the wall, poke gentle fun at the human condition, and still manage to offer some real insight into subjects that most of us would never have thought of.

I have also savored the several pieces in the anthology that touch a deeper chord. "The High Cost of Being David Bower," a sensitive portrait of a man literally driven by the urgency of his dream, and "The Blackfoot Years," dealing with the importance of a river to the lives of a family that has had to cope with tragedy, are two favorites.

Here you will find adventure of all kinds, insightful social commentary, high risk moments, and just enough oddball humor to keep you entertained for hours. Like other readers, I find myself returning to this collection just for the fun and pleasure of rereading my favorites. Many thanks to Outside for having the vision and sense to give these authors a home in print.

I must have re-read this book for the twentieth time by now. And I already have this whole stack of Outside magazines on the shelf! Every time I read this book I would discover something interesting and new between the lines and in the stories -- whether it's emotional, descriptive or implied. I feel terrified when I read Krakauer's take on the Everest accident; inspired by the story on David Brower and his environmental stand; and I laughed myself silly with The King of the Ferret Leggers. In short, this book take me through the whole gamut of emotions. It's a great compilation and an even greater buy.

I have shot a bare bow nearly all my life. When I finally decided to buy a new bow with all the accessories, I wasn't sure where to start and how to use all the new stuff. This book was excellent in helping me become familiar with my new bow. The pictures are great and the text very educational. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn or re-learn about the bow and arrow.

This book is great for highlighting many aspects of archery and providing information that is useful for a beginner and experienced archer. It is a nice text that compiles information that would be useful to have as a reference. There are tuning methods, suggestions for shooting form, tips on how to fix your bow and add accessories. A very solid book with plenty of pictures for any archery fan.

I very much enjoyed this book. It was a great refresher since I haven't shot a bow in quite a few years. It also had lots of great information I didn't know, such as paper tuning, in depth information on arrows and arrow selection. I highly recommend this book.

i cant say i have any bow hunting skill whatsoever but this book has taught my what to look for in equipment and to practice my posture. i recomend this for people looking for a vague idea on equipment to buy, but not for the specifics.

EVERYTHING you always wanted to know about Bow Hunting but were too intimidated to ask. Being a woman just picking up the sport of bow hunting at age 37 I would walk into sporting goods and archery stores and be overwhelmed by the amount of information I needed to know before I ever purchased a bow. This book helped me know what equipment I needed and what equipment was just smoke and mirrors. It also prepared me for "target panic" and explained in detail about every other facet that I could have ever thought of and even some I didn't consider. Great for anyone just picking up the sport.

Brilliant, funny, interesting book! One of my very favorities from childhood, and now my children love it. Highly recommend. Will stimulate your children's imaginations!

I bought this book at a library booksale last Saturday. What a find and a steal!! I bought the book because of its illustrations at first. When I first opened the book I was amazed to see how awesome the verses were too! They are just so funny and intelligent! You don't even need to see the pictures of these crazy birds to appreciate the verse written about them. I especially loved the "Glove Dove" near the end of the book. It reminded me of the Menacing Flying Glove in the movie "Yellow Submarine." I am a big fan of the Beatles and this book was very trippy, just like something they would create. These birds would fit right in with the Blue Meanies in Pepperland! I am hoping to become a teacher in the future and this would be an excellent book to include in a classroom. You could read the book and then have the kids make up their own bird from everyday household objects and write a poem about it!! Its just an all around awesome book, I wish I had seen it when I was little!!

When I was in elementary school, I can't recall which grade exactly, I found this book in the school library, or rather, for some reason, I recall it being in the office. Anyways, I absolutely LOVED it. I remember day after day skipping recess outside and instead going to the office reading this book. I was literally obssessed with it. I remember that it transported me into an alternate reality, a wonderful fantasy like world, the atmosphere was just magical. Something about the types of birds and the illustrations, it was like a whole other reality. This was about 15 years ago, and I just happened to find it at the library and it was a thrill going through it again. Amazingly, each time I turn a page, I remember it now again. I am definitely going to try to obtain a copy, but for some reason I remember it being larger when I was little, so I will probably go back to the school and see if I can buy the copy they have. Of course, maybe it just seemed larger back then, but anyays, I will get mysefl a copy. I would recommend it for anyone!

I like this book because of the Ice Cream Cone Coot and all of the other funny birds. My grandmom has a copy of this book and we read it whenever we come to her house. It was my mom's book when she was a little girl. And now it's my grandmom's book.

That's all.

I read this book when I was seven years old. At the time it was unlike anything I had ever read before. It has a touch of whimsy, magic and humor. The words rhyme and the illustrations are well done, which makes it a fun read. Best of all is the last page which still, for some reason, makes me say, "Awww. That's neat."

Just what I wanted. Delivered quickly as always. Enjoyed the cookbook almost as much as I enjoy watching the show. Worth the price and the short wait to receive it. You came through again, Amazon. 5 Gold Stars for you!

It's difficult to go wrong with America's Test Kitchen. I love their recipes--and the equipment ratings are extremely helpful.

I've only made about six items from this book--but all have turned out extremely well.

I highly recommend this book.

The scrappy, fun America's Test Kitchen books, companions to the top-rated TV series of the same name, tend to compare to the more staid Best Recipe series the way classes at the local adult education center compare to college courses -- not necessarily as deep or down to earth, but a lot more varied and just as informative. This, the third Cooks Illustrated book devoted solely to the TV series, carries on the fun of last year's party-and-comfort-food oriented book and the original ATK Cookbook with an emphasis on things that might fall into the category of diner and cafe food.

Organized by episode like its predecessors, Inside America's Test Kitchen goes down home with pan-roasted chicken and a quickie ragu bolognese, revisits Chinatown with beef and broccoli (a followup to last year's Kung Pao shrimp), and has fun with ethnic home cooking like cassoulet (trimmed down for weeknight use) and pollo fra diavolo. Trips to your local luncheonette include blueberry pancakes, Denver (i.e western) omelettes, the German Apple Pancake (i.e. the Baby Apple to New Englanders), corn muffins, and lemon cheesecake; even the espresso bar makes an appearance with chocolate chip cookies (including reviews of prepared cookie doughs) and a full frontal assault on the often-sawdusty oatmeal scone (flour choice is critical).

In my review of last year's book, Here in America's Test Kitchen, I pointed out that it was a keg party; if that's so, this is the hangover cure for the next morning. It's perhaps a bit difficult to top the fun factor of a cookbook that starts you off with the best buffalo wings ever, but with yet another cool factor that's off the charts, the ATK crew have at least equaled it.

I've bought a number of books published by Boston Common Press, and all of them, including this one, are superb cookbooks for the home cook. They explain exactly what to do and why to do it that way. In my experience, cookbooks of any sort (especially restaurant cookbooks by celebrity chefs) tend to suffer from poor writing and give uneven results. This one does not. To my palate, perhaps one out of every fifteen recipies falls flat, producing merely good rather than excellent results. Virtually everything is a crowd-pleaser.

The only caveat I have to add is that there is a certain amount of overlap between different Boston Common Press books and Cook's Illustrated magazine. If you own lots of their books or subscribe to Cook's, find a copy of this book at your bookstore and thumb through it to see how many recipies are redundant. Still, an great buy.

I liked the fact it didn't just tell me how to do something it told me why.

While there aren't many recipes (around 30)
all have turned out very well.

I buy these books for my elderly parents. They love to work through them and it helps to keep their minds active!

Enjoy these puzzles and the puzzles are entertaining. The puzzles are ranked as beginning on up. Very fun!

The pictures in this book are really great. Don't want to write on them.
It is lots of fun and quite challenging at times.

I love brain teaser puzzles and this book is great fun. I purchased the 3 pack and gave a book to my 9 year old son, he loves it. It is addictive and hours of fun! Fun for the entire family. I would recommend these as great gifts for kids instead of video games. My husband enjoys the puzzles too, I use him when I can't find something.

As a child I loved hidden picture books and as an adult I still love it. This books is great for all ages. It has different degrees of skill levels for everyone. I am own my way to collect them all!

I've been giving this to my dad for the last seven years and he loves it. This book is never a disappointment and is full of tradition and nautical lore. The illustrations are beautiful. My family have all been sailors and have always loved the traditions and lore of the sea. This gets better each year.

My husband, an avid sailor & builder of his own sailboat, asked one year after we were married for this book. It has become a tradition every Christmas to purchase the Book of Days. And no matter how many years have passed, he enjoys each new book as much as the last. If you know a sailor, or someone who simply enjoys sailing lore & facts, this book is a treasure.

As we can all use calendars for the upcoming new year, they often become merely repositories for written appointments and reminders for such events as family's and friend's birthdays, and concert and luncheon dates. The Mariner's Book of Days 2008 Calendar is a much different calendar. One that satisfies those of us who simply use a calendar to keep our busy lives in order and also a calendar that does much more than that. Education, insight, history, technical tips of traversing the sea, humor, family, love, and memories. This special calendar is all that and much more. This very special calendar is dedicated to the late Robb White from Thomasville, GA. Robb, was a very special person who comes from a very special family, a family which I have become a part of over the past year. In spite of my obvious bias for this wonderful calendar, I feel that even if I had never met Robb's family, this is a calendar that would have captured my imagination, my excitement, and my curiosity about a subject that we all have an interest in, from our younger years into out adult lives. My only complaint of the calendar (which has been published for several years) is that each new year brings more fascinating information built upon the previous year's calendar, thus begging for a much longer multi-year calendar (maybe a boxed set?). Although, maybe we should just take life one year at a time, fully enjoying and living that year to the fullest, something that I'm sure Robb White did and would suggest to the rest of us.

If you have an interest in nautical history this is the calendar/journal for you. Have been purchasing for 8 years and have never seen a repeat of information. Fascinating!

This is a lovely way to keep track of your appoinments while also enjoying fascinating bits of maritime history and other often little known nautical facts. There is enough space to keep a short diary entry for each day.

This book really brings out imagination in young children. The big illustrations help for them to see the picture fully with the words.

The author explores color and shape in it's simplest form to enable childres to absorb the illustration quickly and easily, thus they hear the full meaning of the words at the same time. Excellent teaching reading book for k-2

My 2 year old was given this book as a hand-me-down. We read it to him and he has insisted on reading it again, and again, and again.... I'm sure this book will be a long-time favorite!

I used to be a Teacher Aide for a daycare for kids ages 2-4. Every day before naptime the kids would beg me to read this book to them. And not just once but twice! They loved when the baby bear went down to see the dragon. And at the end of the story they would all shout the last line "milk and cookies"!! Since then I have had a baby of my own and would like to get a copy of this book that sure will be a favorite with my daughtor.

in Frank Asch's _Milk and Cookies_ the author introduces the common childhood fears of monsters, and presents a story which helps children overcome that fear.

Mama, Papa, and baby bear are visiting at Grandma and Grampa's house. They spend the night. Baby bear looks through the cellar door to see Grampa feeding "a dragon" in the cellar, which is actually a wood stove. Later baby bear has a dream of a dragon coming upstairs, which eats all his milk and cookies. Crying baby bear is then taken downstairs by his father to see "the dragon." After that, baby bear is no longer scared; he and his grandparents and parents all eat milk and cookies.

My 3-year old son loves this book. He sympathizes with baby bear, and he loves the way the story is resolved, of course. I'd recommend this, as well as Frank Asch's book _Goodbye, House_ as excellent books for children aged 3.

ken32

I have read this story to all three of my little ones, and the older two still enjoy listening to me read it to their little brother. The simple rhymes and beautiful illustrations make this a family favorite.

Thia is a favorite book of mine. I read it to my eight children and to any children's group I had the privilege of teaching. It teaches do not steal and do not try to twist the intentions of authority. Mama Panda gave her son money to pay for ingriedents for a cake, not for him to go to the fair.

This was a favorite book of mine 25 years ago. My mom saved our original copy and now I read it to my 3 and 2 yr olds nearly every night. It is their top request. The rhymes, illustrations, and take home message are absolutely precious. Brings back such sweet memories of my own childhood!

The number one favorite of hundreds of books read to my four small children, (now honors graduates of Boston University, American U., and Syracuse U.) Panda Cake teaches lessons, rhymes, tells a story, entertains and remains memorable 20 years later. Wonderful illustrations and particularly great for younger brothers or sisters. Hands down the cutest relatively modern children's book we have ever read.

I am one of 5 siblings who adored this book as a child. Twenty years later, as adults, we are all fighting over who gets to keep it! I will have to purchase more! So far, I am the only one with a child. My 3 year old son LOVES this book! The black and white drawings are lovely and are not cartoonish versions of animals, they look more realistic. There are many opportunities to learn about rhyming, animals and consequences. You could also educate your child about fragile Panda's and how important it is to help them. I wish that they would reprint this book. My copy will probably fall apart by the time my son is done "loving" it! Buy this book if you can find it!

I've always bought comic books for the cover art. But with tens-of-thousands of comics out there, it was almost impossible to know which ones to search for. Of course, if I remembered a comic from when I was a kid that was a start, but what of the thousands I'd never seen? I was a blind collector. Gerber's books cover almost every comic book published till about 1965! 20,000+ photographs...fantastic! Even if I couldn't buy them all, I could at least see what was out there. The only weakness is that some later issues of the longer running titles are omitted. I would liked to have seen them all, but can understand the desire to wrap things up. For the price of one good 1950's era comic you can view just about ever cover published...a very good deal.

What a [great] set of volumes. I am a huge comic collector, owning every issue of Spider-Man ever printed, but I am also a great fan and collector of various other comics, and a comic-history buff. These books are a joy to just flip through, learning about Golden and Silver Age comics. The pictures are gorgeous, all in color on glossy paper. And there's 10's of thousands of them! Well worth the money and worth their weight in gold if you're a true comic fan and collector! Might be a bit much for just the casual comic enthusiast. These 2 books and the two volume Marvel set are the standard by which all other collecting resources should be held to!

What a [great] set of volumes. I am a huge comic collector, owning every issue of Spider-Man ever printed, but I am also a great fan and collector of various other comics, and a comic-history buff. These books are a joy to just flip through, learning about Golden and Silver Age comics. The pictures are gorgeous, all in color on glossy paper. And there's 10's of thousands of them! Well worth the money and worth their weight in gold if you're a true comic fan and collector! Might be a bit much for just the casual comic enthusiast. These 2 books and the two volume Marvel set are the standard by which all other collecting resources should be held to!

What can you say about two books that have 21700 comic book covers beautifully printed on gloss paper? WOW! for a start. No one is going to better Ernst and Mary Gerber's five-year labor of love to complete this project. If you collect comics from 1935 thru 1965 you need these. I don't collect them but as a publication designer I have an interest in the visual aspects of popular culture so I got a set...despite the price!

Open either book anywhere and start looking and it soon becomes apparent that this is a very comprehensive collection, I kept coming across comics that ran for a few issues, sometimes only one issue. Each cover has up to twenty-five pieces of information, essential for collectors. Many show a cover of the only copy known to exist. The first sixteen pages of each book has text about collecting comics and their values. I liked the page in book two that is devoted to ads that appeared on the back covers, strangely some collectors only go for these, if you do, go for a copy of 'Hey Skinny!' by Mike Beller and Jerry Leibowitz, surely the only book about the subject.

Author Gerber says on the jacket flap...''if you spend one minute examining each picture, eight hours per day, five days a week, it would require an astounding NINE weeks to complete the job.'' Nine weeks later have a rest and then go and buy the two volume 'Photo-Journal Guide to Marvel Comics' and start to look at a further 7700 covers!

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

I was amazed at the scope of this book, every cover from 1935-1965, and the labor that must have gone into compiling and producing it. Its extremely well photographed, carefully indexed, and the quality of paper and binding is excellent. For serious comic book collectors, it's worth every penny. A lifetime book.

People try to put him d-down
(talkin bout my inspiration)
Just because he monkeys around
(talkin bout my inspiration)
Things he draw look awful c-c-cold
(talkin bout my inspiration)
hope he's still drawing when we're both old
(talkin bout my inspiration)...

This book sits front in center on the coffee table in the living room. It's great to watch peoples expressions as they flip through the pages. Love it...

If you want insight into a creative mind, this is your book. Here is an individual who has a unique vision that will not abide by convention and that is refreshing. Get ready for creative, erotic, organic and always refreshing work that does not abide by the mainstream. The mind of Nate is a refreshing one with longevity, creativity and originality. Get your own copy for inspiration.

a great little book with lots of the works by N8 Van Dyke (cheap also). Not for everyone taste I reckon..... hate it or love it. Personally I love it. The legends of the plates are hilarious, this guy is seriously crazy!

I was pretty surpised by Plan A. Mostly because I was expecting a gentle romp through the delightful mind of a wonderful artist. Unfortunately I hadn't prepared myself to be dragged roughshod over 23 miles of glass, nails and artistic insanity. After I regained my breath, and covered myself with bandaids six inches deep, I went for a drink. Then I had another one. And another one. Then I went back and read it again. I'm not saying that you'll need therapy after reading it. But it's probably good to make friends with a professional... Mostly because after awhile you'll start to think... "If this is Plan A, when can I expect Plan B-Z to come out? When, I ask you, WHEN???" I'm paying 150 bucks an hour and all my shrink will tell me is "Someday..." Grrrrrrrrrrrr... I'll never heal... and I don't mind a bit.