Sales Books

This is really a very good book. The book features some great photographs, but not so many that it is simply a coffee table book. There is still plenty of great information, from the standard "history of coasters" discussion to a directory of parks referenced in the book.

I think what I like most about this book, is that it provides some great photos and informative text on interesting coasters that you don't always here about such as the White Cyclone and The Bandit at Yomiuri Land in Japan as well as many coasters at smaller parks in the states.

The book divides its space well between woodies, steel hyper coasters and steel loopers. It even gives space to water rides and spin and pukes. The book was published in 1996, so of course none of the latest and greatest coasters are featured, but it provides a very full and diverse selection of rides and I can't say enough about the great photos of rarely featured coasters. Well worth the purchase price for any coaster nut.

This book has all the information you need and want about roller coasters including, hieght,speed,length, duration and number of inversions. It has pictures of all recent coasters exept a few and the information I just said. I give this book two thumbs up. Rush out to buy this one.

This book is THE refenrence for world wide coaster informations...Superb color pictures,great details,and is the most up to date book on coasters.The "quality -vs- price" ratio is excellent,you won`t regreat this book,if you`re a long time coaster fanatic or a new comer like me !!

I first got the book when I was just 4 years old. It is the most awesome book in the world. I like how it tells you about how high and how fast each roller coaster is. I have read this book so much it is falling to pieces.

Nice pictures and good descriptions of many roller coasters, including some NOT in North America. The book begins with a history and sometimes dabbles into the science of the rides. A bit more precision on the science of the rides is desired. The large middle section is devoted to just about every kind of type of coaster except the (now defunct) side friction coaster. Chapter 3 briefly includes white knuckle rides that are not coasters.

There are many good books of reference on African American history published. However, this one ranks among the best. Well written, user-friendly layout, addressing a broad range of topics, this is recommended for a home or classroom library to teach that all members of a society contribute to its advancement and that our society must be inclusive of all members. Every child can be proud of his or her cultural and historical heritage in a country created by immigrants.

The author states in his introduction that this book is not to be viewed as a text book, but rather to be used as supplement. It's a rather comprehensive supplement with captivating text! This book is organized in easy reading segments that are all numbered 1 thru 1001 & also divided within 6 Parts (Sports, Culture and Religion. . .). I feel as if the author is talking with me personally. History boring? I don't think so with this book! I plan to use this book with homeschooling as well as "homeschooling" myself! Can't wait to learn more of what I missed in school!

It's not easy to write a comprehensive history book that is also engaging and user-friendly. Author, historian, and professor Jeffrey Stewart found the way. In 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About African American History, he pens a concise yet encyclopedic narrative that highlights the people and events underlying the amazing story of African American history.

Stewart organizes his work around six sections: Gretat Migration, Civil Rights, Science, Sports, Military, and Religion. This is a book you can read cover to cover or one article at a time in any order.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction .

This is a wonderful wealth of information written at a level that easily read and interpreted by students. It should become an addition to every classroom library.

Took me absolutely forever to read this book - months! But I loved it and certainly learned a lot. Stewart is to be commended for pulling so much information together in a marvelously cohesive book. Prints and photographs are terrific. And for those who want more on the subject, and there is more, believe it or not, there is a black history calendar, a desk calendar, also chuck full of history and info.

Andrew Griffiths has written another classic. There are so many simple ideas (actually over 101!!) that will make a difference to my business.

I enjoy Griffiths writing style - he speaks with experience but doesnt talk down to you.

This book deserves a home in every small business owners library

Great for my business, these marketing ideas have helped me set up new ways of building my coaching and training business internationally! Loads of information, easy to read and great examples make this book a MUST for all small business owners!

This book is a simple, thorough, engaging manual of methods people can easily apply immediately to market their business. What I most appreciate are the many unusual ideas - and the passion Griffiths uses as he makes suggestions to the reader.

He has a very engaging, friendly style which any reader would enjoy - it is as if he is sitting beside you, cheering your efforts.

This is one of those books that belongs on the shelf of any business. Those with a limited marketing budget or a SOHO will find it especially helpful.

If you can't get advice from this book - you are not trying! An easy to read guide to marketing - logicial, practical - a common sense guide which can be applied to any business, anywhere. THis book, along with Andrew's other guides to business are written to genuinely help you - not to dewilder you. You never feel as though you are being spoken down to - rather you feel as though these steps are so easy, logical and cost effective they have to work. Highly recommended and congratulations Andrew.

"101 Ways to Market Your Business" by Andrew Griffiths is a sensational tool for any small business owner. It's simple to read and the ideas are easy to implement and best of all, don't cost a great deal of money. As a marketing manager for a shopping centre, we find business owners often need inspiration - and something that will help get them back on track. We buy this book in bulk and hand it out to those who need it - and it's great to see them implement the ideas and to see their businesses ultimately improve.

A veritable enchiridion of diction for those given to excessive cerebration or whom merely want to leg up to the cutting edge of lexical facility or merely assuage the traumas of lucubration. The book has a place of honor on my shelf - twixt a venerable and tattered Oxford Concise and the New Fowlers. Erudite, masterfully researched and articulated, and a real time-saver when it comes to looking-up in depth meanings of obscure and difficult words.

This book is not just a collection of interesting words, it also provides quite a bit of insight into the etymologies and connotations of each word. Far superior to your standard word-a-day fare.

This is indeed a most excellent book, with plenty of gems to amuse and educate even the most erudite word maven. Were I to rate it on content alone, I would give it an unabashed 5-star rating - broad selection of words, with associated definitions and discussion being generally clear and informative.

However, one cannot judge a reference book like this solely in terms of its content. Organization matters - specifically, the ease with which one can expect to retrieve the information being sought. And this book leaves something to be desired in that regard. The author has a bizarre, and infuriating, predilection for separating words from their definitions, sending the reader on a cross-referencing frenzy around the book. Obviously, some cross-referencing is inevitable in any dictionary, but Schur seems to like to give his readers the run-around for no apparent reason.

For instance:

Why should someone looking up the word 'haiku' be redirected to the entry under 'cinquain'? If we proceed to that entry, we find definitions, not only for cinquain , but also for 'tanka', 'hokku', and - finally - 'haiku'. Why lump these four definitions together here, instead of locating each definition directly unter a discrete entry for the associated word? These are not synonyms.

Similarly, why is the definition for 'pawky' located as an aside included in the definition for 'pantagamy'? The two words have nothing to do with one another.

Look up 'lupine', 'caprine', 'leonine', 'asinine' -- in each case, you will be directed to the word 'accipitrine' before you get your definition. This is because all of the animal adjectives are included together in a single list, and 'accipitrine' happens to be the first element on the alphabetized list.

But enough griping. Let me finish on a positive note, by including 3 of my current favorite words -

strangury: A medical term, whose meaning can be inferred from the following citation - "He that hath that dysease .... that hyghte stranguria,pysseth ofte ande lytyll."

pilliwinks: an instrument of torture designed to crush the fingers. (The discussion notes that thumbscrews were often referred to as "thumbikins", or "thumbkins", which seems akin to trying to convince someone that waterboarding is just the latest extreme sports craze.)

thank-you-ma'am: a hollow or rut across a road that causes the people in a vehicle passing over it to nod involuntarily, the way one might do in acknowledging a favor and expressing thanks.

Content: 5 stars. Organization: 4 stars.
Overall rating: 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5.

My wife gave this book to me last Christmas. It is the best gift she has ever given me--a sesquipedalian feast that, having become quite quotidian (to this reader), has yet to be rendered trivial, or desipiient. It offers a brobdingnagian view of a lexoconic world that even those of lilliputian linguistic skill can appreciate. Very simply, if you love language, if you love learning, you'll love this book.

I was walking through Barnes & Noble with my friend when we both spotted this book, it looked like so much fun. It truly is great fun to read. The book is split up into two sections, the first section is the 1000 most challenging words, the second part is 1000 most obscure words. Let me tell you, I can't even say a quarter of the words in this book but it is very interesting to read through it and find words like zarf(a special type of cupholder) and sic(which means thus or therefore). I used some of the words in this book each day(or at least try) and it has really broadened my vocabulary.
This book is the perfect gift for a friend or if you just want to have some fun with impossibly obscure words!

As intended by the author, I read this book on a flight to Las Vegas and it was the prefect size. Essentially a series of essays on business networking, The ABC's of Networking acted a a good reminder for all of the things I know I should be doing. I read Some Assembly Required and this provided some of the same information using stories that were entertaining as well as useful. I am sure that his next books Some Assembly Required for Women and Some Assembly Required - LinkedIn will be equally valuable.

This is an outstanding and very quick read. The authors offer simple and superb advice on mastering the art of professional networking. The concepts they describe are useful and straight forward, and the short essay format makes the book easy to digest, on a plane, bus stop, lobby, etc. Highly recommended for anyone who can benefit from a stronger professional network...can't we all!

You are staring at one great book. He keeps the text simple, yet full of thought, and everyone should be able to apply his principles and thoughts to their daily lives. The examples used have the ability to connect with most anyone reading the book. He even includes some of his goals and how he has achieved them! Many people will tell you that you don't need a book on networking, but even the best networkers are constantly learning. You know the old saying, "you can never learn too much"? Well, I would say the ABC's of Networking is a refreshing reminder of how to succeed in networking. You will definitely want to add this to your personal development library!

Read this book cover to cover on a two hour flight to Phoenix and it spells out everything a small business owner, saleperson, or really anyone could easily do to expand their business or social network. Follow the simple principles of this book and you will enjoy more business success than your competitors and more personal success as well - after all, who doesn't like making new friends?

No Matter how simple we all may think some of these concepts are, it takes someone like Thom Singer to get it through our head that we need to practice and practice again. Thom Invites us to get hungry once again and remember how some of us got to our current level of success in the first place. For those of you starting out, Mr. Singer's series on Networking is a great place to start. This book is a perfect size to travel with and keep in your briefcase. Instead of playing games on your flight or between appointments, what could be more valuable that honing ones networking skills. I use this book as a base and take notes as to how I can apply this to my business. I can reference it at any time and be reminded to send a thank you note or follow up email to someone I had just met. All of my employees and staff have Thom Singer's first book "Some Assembly Required" as well as the "ABC's of Networking".

This is a model of clear and effective writing and teaching. Certainly one of the best accounting books I've ever read, it gives you the tools to start ABC analysis at once and never strays into jargon. The many examples of different company types and the simple to use and understand spreadsheet analysis keeps you focused on the theory of ABC rather than minute details of allocations. A book to keep on your desk.

I can not quite imagine a single decision made in any company that does not concern cost. And, when it is about accurate costing, I can not imagine another book on business that can better assist than this one.

First, the author defines the concept, states the reasons why Activity Based Costing should be implemented in every company, and then thoroughly shows you how to do it. Since the main step-by-step example in the book concentrates on a small manufacturing organization, those who are applying the concept to service organizations may have a harder time making the translation to their specific situations. Still, I don't think that will be much of an issue. The book is very well-written and must be digested by every professional with a passion for improving their company and seize a competitive advantage.

Hicks has a lot to offer in this book on activity-based costing, however it is not an easy to read. It very quickly dives into the weeds of detail. I think this is a very good second book to read on Activity Based Costing, because it goes into the details of how to actually implement a system. I would recommend that you first read Kaplan's "Cost and Effect," to get a good grounding in the fundamentals before reading this book.

This is a fantastic book on the subject of ABC. The costing model constructed in the book goes into just enough detail to give you a practical foundation for actual implementation, without getting lost in minutiae. At just the right times, the author also reminds you about the big picture and doesn't let you go away thinking correct decisions can all be boiled down to exercises in number-crunching. This is a must-buy, if you're serious about implementing ABC in your organization.

Activity-Based Costing: Making it Work for Small and Mid-Sized Companies, is a very well written and usefull handbook to design and implementation of Activity-Based Costing. It provides: a general description of key concepts of ABC, a practical guide to design of ABC system in the company, as well as description of any potential problems concerning implementation of ABC. I am working as a financial consultant (in Warsaw), and this book has helped me to help many companies that were loosing their cost-effectiveness. I think, that the author should have added some 100 pages to the book, and defined - described some aspects of Activity-Based Management - although that could have been too technical for most of the readers. Overall, I think that the book contains most of the knowledge needed for successful design & implementation of ABC. It really worked for me...

I was very pleased with this book - this is the second one I have purchased. I bought it for one of the women in my church to use as a resource for a class on how God sees women that we are planning. It is an excellent resource for Christian women.

This book is an excellent reference book for all Christian women who really want to know about women who blazed the trail for us. Not only do you study the women in the Old Testament, but the New Testament as well. This book is used as a textbook in our Church Leadership School. Wonderful gift for a Christian sister. Of all the books cooncerning the women in the bible that I have read, this one is by far the best.

Women in the bible are often not a topic discussed in church or elsewhere. This book is a wonderful look at the ignored parts of the bible, (and I don't mean every book after Exodus). Women did participate in the bible and this book celebrates their accomplishments and gives them long overdue praise.

The books came in good condition and arrived sooner than promised. We are using it as a group study, and though it was published years ago the contents do not get outdated, any more than the Bible. It makes these women come alive for us as real people.

This exhaustive work is invaluable to anyone who wants to know the stories of Biblical women better. I'm doing research on Biblical widows, and this book is the most accessibly organized sourced I've found. It was written in 1955, so don't be surprised if it's a bit dated stylistically & theologically. Still, it's valuable as a reference tool that may lead to you to deepened encounter with women of faith.

There are also audio files, and lots of extra pictures not included in the book at their website, where you can also buy the book.

You can get more information at http://www.apollostory.com/

Reading another review, In which the reviewer states that he has to hide his copy from himself, I had to chuckle. This is the first book I can ever remember finishing, and then immediately flipping back to page one and starting all over again. Not only is the story an absolute stunner, in which some of the brightest and most engaged minds of a generation are swept into a whirlwind of impossible problems, which all have to be solved yesterday, but it is also made even more amazing by the fact that it is true. As if it weren't enough to start with such great material, the authors weave a terrific web in which all parts of the story are brought together, and the people involved are shown to be real people.

After reading this book, I would highly recommend watching "Apollo 13, to the Edge and Beyond", to see the faces and hear the voices of some of the extraordinary people whose stories appear in this truly excellent book.

Perhaps saying this is the best book I've ever read is too much (although, honestly, it just might be the best), but I will say it is my favorite, including fiction works. I've read it six times, after which I had to hide it from myself. If I walk by my copy and just happen to pick it up to thumb through I'll read it again.
Many non-fiction books tend to become tangential, or will leave the reader wondering if anyone involved with the project ever heard of an editor. Not this book. There is scarcely a wasted word or waver in direction, to the point that even the footnotes are worthy.
The authors' pacing of the story and placement of the material and concepts are unsurpassed in my experience. They create a genuine excitement in the reader.
It's a mystery why the book has never been reissued, which has driven up the price of existing copies and so reduced access to such an enticing and, in my opinion, needed history. I would very much like to see the BBC or Tom Hanks latch on to this story -- it's worth a twelve-part series.
Update, 9-19-04 - I have learned from the most reliable source this book has been reissued. Go to www.apollostory.com for details.

I've read most of the other "space" books and this one is the best by far. Most of these books are written from the astronaut's point of view, and while this is an exciting and interesting view point, it's pretty clear that there are thousands of people working behind the scenes for each astronaut out doing his job (his - this is Apollo - all of them were men).

After reading "Apollo" I have a new understanding for the amount of effort and love that went into the creation of the Apollo program. The men and women who helped put a man on the moon are every bit the heroes as the 12 who stood on the surface (as well as the seven, the nine, etc.).

If you really want to understand how America put a man on the moon, this is the book to read. After you finish, go back and watch Tom Hanks' "From the Earth to the Moon."

This book is the true "diamond-in-the-rough". With so many re-issues of material from the manned space program and specifically Apollo, it's hard to imagine that this book isn't re-issued again and again! This book (along with Andrew Chaiken's Man on the Moon and Jim Lovell's Lost Moon) is by far the definitive account of the Apollo program. Not just a re-gurgitation of the Apollo history, this story is told from a Flight Controller/Engineering perspective and gives a truer picture of what the early and subsequent days of the program were like. Here, Apollo Program Manager Joe Shea comes alive and is portrayed as an heroic/brilliant manager, not the villian of the Apollo 1 fire as in other accounts. You're down in the "trench" in Mission Control for not only the Apollo 11 Moon landing, but also for the lesser known Apollo 6, the ill-fated second un-manned launch of the Saturn V. It may be hard to find this book, but the effort is well worth it...one of the top 5 books that I've ever read.

This book has a lot of creative marketing ideas. But throughout most of the book, Karen Post confuses marketing with branding. That is, she treats all of marketing as though it were branding.

In Post's view of the world, everything is branding and branding is everything. You brand your product or service, you brand your organization, and you brand yourself. The latter, your personal brand, she memorably calls "brand moi." You brand yourself not only to advance in your career or to promote your product or service, but to let everyone know (when you introduce yourself at parties, for example) who you are and what you're about.

Good Marketing Tips
If you look at this book as a trove of clever marketing ideas, you'll gain valuable insights and ideas from it. Post offers tips on how to tap into your creativity, conduct market research, promote customer loyalty, brainstorm a product or company name, design a logo, plan sales promotion and publicity events, build a more effective website, and more.

If you really want to learn about branding in the narrow sense, however, this book will only confuse you. The main problem is the lack of a clear definition. In the Introduction she explains (or tries to) that a "brand is a mental imprint." Then she leaps to this definition: "A Brain Tattoo is a stronger brand than the norm, rich with promise, bold with purpose, distinct and prominently inked onto your buyer's cranium." Two paragraphs later she says, "A Brain Tattoo is reality branding," though she never explains what she means by reality branding. Now we get the impression that a brain tattoo is a certain kind of branding, not synonymous with normal branding.

But then, throughout much of the book she uses the two terms synonymously. At the beginning of Chapter One, for example, she says, "A brand, or what I refer to as Brain Tattoo, is a psychological impression of value-based emotions, lodged in the mind of a buyer or prospect."

GREAT BOOK!!!!
LET ME JUST START BY SAYING YOU HAVE TO GET THIS BOOK!!!
THIS BOOK IS AMAZING IT GIVES YOU THE INFORMATION YOU NEEN TO START BRANDING YOUR COMPANYS NAME FROM A-Z.
THIS BOOK HELPED ME IN A BIG WAY ,IT GOT ME THINKING ABOUT MANY IDEAS FOR THE BRANDING OF MY COMPANY.
I'VE READ ALOT OF BOOKS ABOUT MARKETING AND BUSINESS AND BRAIN TATTOOS IS BY FAR THE BEST BOOK OUT THERE ,IT IS WELL WORTH YOUR MONEY .BEFORE YOU START YOU COMPANY I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU READ THIS BOOK. GOOD LUCK PAUL S.

There are so many books on branding out there that try to explain the concept of branding. Most fail to do so, but instead, baffle the reader with jargon, theorems and charts. This book creates an easy to understand definition of branding. It also provides exercises to help build your brand and great real world examples to prime your branding ideas.

This book is very well written and very readable! Make sure you have a pen and paper to take notes and work on the exercises! This book will be a staple in your business book collection. I still refer to it months after reading it.

This book really gave me the courage to think outside of the box from the start and really helped me understand how vital branding is to a marketing campaign. Being a fairly recent college grad with a degree in marketing, I discovered concepts and ideas that are definitely helpful in the world of advertising today and it also was a great addition to my college education.

It was fun to read, and it was interactive... allowing you to apply your own marketing and advertising scenarios to help you succeed.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I read this book. The ideas and examples made complete sense. It seems like such a simple concept, but it's amazing how many large corporations miss the point. I plan on implementing many of these concepts into my own company. I have no doubt that the ideas will only benefit my company and myself personally. Thanks for sharing, you have great in-sight.

Some brands are much more than just products, companies or logos. Some brands are cultural icons, rich with meaning. BMW, for example, is not just a car. It's a statement of accomplishment, refinement and wealth. People don't buy BMWs simply for transportation. This exceptional little book looks at the many dimensions of brand meaning. The author first establishes a theoretical basis by considering the human motivation for meaning and perception. He wraps up the book by connecting theory and practice with three excellent chapters on brand strategy, the evolution of brand meaning and brand communication. People make buying decisions, Batey argues, not simply to satisfy utilitarian needs, but to satisfy much deeper emotional and spiritual needs. The challenge of the marketing profession is to understand this phenomenon and to address the symbolic need as much as the superficial. This book has become required reading for my marketing department.

In a world where consumers more and more are taking control and ownership over the brands and where company needs to learn how to delegate the brands management, going back and dissect the role and the meaning of them is always a useful exercise.
This book seems to provide a 'state-of-the-art' knoweledge on branding. Well thought and well researched it helps to navigate the realm of notions and discoveries that is slowly unveiling the fascinating world behind brands. A 'must to read' for passionate about marketing and advertising.

Mark Batey demystifies the magic of branding. This is extremely well-informed and engagingly written book. I dare to call this book the first truly scientific book on branding. The author provides a unique and perfect blend of scientific analysis and savvy description of the brand-building process. Unlike many other branding books I've encountered, this book gives complete explanation and answer to the ultimate question, "How to create enduring and successful brands?" This book provides an invaluable recourse for academic scholars, brand managers, CEO's, and everyone involved in improving and guarding a brand. As a brand consultant and a PhD scholar I find this book essential and fundamental for my work. I would also like to emphasize the significance of chapter 5 of this book. Batey deciphers elaborate structures of psychological meaning of brands.

A thorough, insightful and well-written book by an advertising veteran who brings fresh thinking on brands. Brands take on meaning in people's minds, and in our socio-cultural environment. As the author demonstrates, in the post-modern world it is people who confer values on brands rather than the other way round.
The book is very well structured. It begins with the individual - the individual's needs, emotions, values, yearnings. Next it considers how people perceive the world around them. It then considers how we find meaning in things - objects, be they consumer objects or the ordinary, personal objects that we accumulate. All this is an essential backdrop for understanding how brands assume and provide meaning, which forms the basis of the remaining chapters.
An excellent book.

Whether you work with brands, study them, or are just interested in what constitutes a brand, this book is a must read. It is very well structured, and the earlier chapters, on Human Motivation, Perception and the Meaning of Things, are fascinating as a backdrop to Batey's solid ideas on how meaning gets into and is drawn from products and brands.