I grew up in New York City, but have lived for the past 10 years on seven acres in a semi-rural part of New Hampshire. I am also in the process of building a barn (next to the house the we actually live in). So when I saw this book, I had to buy it.

However, within a few chapters I was starting to have some concerns that Monninger was missing the point, and the more I read the more it was confirmed. What he has written is a New Yorker's view of life in New Hampshire. When I got to the point in the book where he describes how he used to live on Central Park West, I understood my concerns, but also really lost touch with the book.

He describes expansive fields with levels of gardens and myriad flora and fauna. In my mind's eye I was picturing a real expansive New Hampshire farm, but then I was drawn back to the fact that he is talking about three acres, abutting on the town school. Three acres is a lot of land in Manhattan, but if you live in New England for a while you will understand that it is just a back yard. Monninger catalogs every plant and every bird he finds, with the child-like glee of someone who has never seen nature before, but he is so lost in the details that he can't get beyond that fact that he is writing a New Yorker's view of New Hampshire for other New Yorkers.

I also found it annoying that he does not describe the impact of having on job on his ambitious renovation project. It would be great if I could have the amount of free time that he seems to have, both to spend with family and work around the house. It comes off as an idealized view of life, and does not describe the realities of what he has undertaken. He also makes a few attempts to add local color and local history, and I feel the book would have been better if he had had more of that.

From a literary standpoint, he really does overdo the metaphors and descriptions, but I can imagine how difficult it must be to accurately convey the feeling of spring in New England, or the size of a large structure. He would do better though with more description and less attempted poetry.

I can see how this book might be an interesting read for someone in a large city imagining life in the country, but it is not really an accurate or well written portrayal, and it left me, now a committed New Hampshirite, frustrated.

I just completed the relishing of Joseph Moninger's , A Barn. Agreeing with anothers veiwpoint of too much flowering descriptions I ignored a few choice lines and skipped to new paragraphs; yet with respect I know I would never have enjoyed the parts I did read if they had not been described with such love and experience. I am one of those "wanna be barn owners"; ever since I was eight years old and watched the people two streets over gut, renew and live in this massive building with huge windows and sturdy walls. I fell in love. Amongst all the eloquence this book offers; it is the underlying theme; the reason I did not read it, that leaves me speechless and in awe. It is in the storyline that Monninger weaves the secondary and yet primal thread of family and the fact, as he states, that he realized that he and Wendy were creating thier son's past. What a beautiful, thought provoking, loving and spiritually filled knowing. As they were focused on integrity during the ever present process of renewing this structure; they also were creating sustanance, substance and stablitiy for Pie. My son is twenty-three and if I ever get another opportunity to go around with him again; I pray that I rememeber that once we become parents; however that is gifted to us; that in our present we are creating our childs past.

If you read this, Joseph Monninger, Wendy and Pie; thank you.

This is a great book that offers to show us a different way of life than most of us live. Having grown up in the suburbs of California, the oldest house I lived in was 30 years old. I never had to worry about heating, or beams falling apart things that are very real concers to Joe and his family.
In addition to the general information about "barn" living, we see what it is like to integrate three lives into one new one. The stories of the deepening relationship between Joe and Pie are heartwarming and touching, as are the moments of closeness between Joe and Wendy.
Mr. Monninger gives us a wonderful insight to barns, New England, and creating a new life with people that you love.

when it came to building a ghost story, through dialogues and occurences, noone matches Lefanu. At this, he is a master. he describes the situation before THE happening magnificently. however, when it does happen, the story is over. the horror itself seem to escape Lefanus writing style. his ghost stories are mostly not catching to a modern(living)reader. only 2 of his ghost stories are worth reading. I still recommend this book. the reason are the two stories who are not ghost stories. Carmilla, one of the very best vampire stories, built beautifully through subtle hints, psychology, and descriptions. my favourite gothic story. then it's Lefanu's masterpiece: green tea. in fact, one of the best horror stories ever written! too bad Lefanu insisted on writing so many ghost stories, instead of common horror, otherwise he might be a real master in the genre, as Carmilla and Green Tea proves

I don't much like ghost stories, but these and the ones by M R James really stand out from the pack. Atmospheric, inventive, and original. In "Carmilla" LeFanu invented the vampire story, and with its subtle horrors and hints of lesbianism, it is at least as good as Dracula. Rich and intricate prose.

Not only would I say that Lefanu is superior to the supposedly incomparable M.R. James, he actually rivals Poe in terms of psychological profundity and intellectual denseness. These tales are meticulously crafted and some of them are inexhaustible in their potential readings. M.R. James, on the other hand, is a pleasure to read, to be sure, but shallow when placed alongside the likes of Lefanu. I have nothing against James but he is strangely over-rated for some reason. Lefanu, Onions, Poe and Lovecraft I would have to rate ahead of him, with Lefanu and Poe at the top.

.................all of Celsus' work was destroyed by Christian emperors, but "On the True Doctrine" is "preserved" only because it was contained, in pieces, within polemic against the work that was written by Origen of Alexandria. This book is a reconstruction and translation of Celsus' writing found within the 13th century work, Contra Celsum. There is also a forty page or so introduction to Celsus' work, that sets the stage for better understanding the world in which Celsus wrote "On the True Doctrine".

My impression when reading this book was "Wow, the same arguments are still being made against Christianity (particularly Fundamentalism) today!", i.e., that Jesus was a charlatan that mislead the gullible and uneducated, that Christianity is, overall, not very original in its beliefs, that Jesus could not really have risen from the dead, that the beliefs about the Christian god don't make him seem very god-like, among others.

The book reads relatively easily and quickly. We can never know, of course, if we are really reading words that are close to the original "On the True Doctrine" as was written by Celsus some eighteen hundreds years ago. The manuscripts were destroyed so we must rely on Origen to have given us an accurate representation of Celsus' ideas. Additionally, we are relying on a reconstruction, which has its own added challenges. Luckily, it is easy to believe that Celsus' work is similar to what we read in Hoffman's translation and reconstruction. Why wouldn't a thinking man such as Celsus challenge the new religion of Christianity just as we are lead to believe he did? As I have said, many of the same challenges exist today.

In short, I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about early Christianity.

I was delighted with this book. It is short, easily read, and
contains a very good summary of the major complaints against
Christianity that I have always had. And this book was
originally written 1800 and something years ago!

Also, because of the complaints Celsus makes about Christian
literature of his time, you can see that some potential
criticisms against Christianity are _not_ valid. Those who
claim that the gospels did not exist until the 4'th century
are proven wrong by Celsus quoting them in the 2n'd -- of course
this doesn't mean that the full extent of the gospels existed
in their current form. In fact Celsus claims that Christians
were constantly rewriting the gospels in order to counter
criticisms made against them.

Finally, and importantly, Celsus opens up the world of the
Platonic definition of God in a way I had heard of but could
not really imagine. Platonic theology (although I don't believe
it) certainly puts all Christian theology to shame -- in an
intellectual sort of way.

This book is really worth reading.

Some reviewers have stated that Origen did not own a copy of "On the True Doctrine", nor was he even aware of it's existence. This is, of course, the merest of wishful thinking. It must be admitted that it is impossible to write a point-by-point refutation of a book unless one is in possession of (however temporarily) the work being refuted.

Having (admittedly only) skimmed through Origen's Contra Celsum (I read several pages of it and glanced over nearly all of it), I know that it is possible to recreate Celsus' entire anti-Christian diatribe. In fact, not only is it possible, it is easy.

I also must make issue with the suggestion that the reason for the lack of availability of Celsus' opus is the disintegration of the society which produced it. This is clearly a fantasy and is not at all supported by the relevant facts. The reality of the matter is this: by the time the Roman Empire was Christianized, it had become a capital crime to possess literature critical of Christianity. That is why our understanding of Christian origins is so one-sided. As even students of history know: history is written by the winners. The book burners won. Well, almost.

Celsus was feisty, educated and condescending. He was a pretty good writer and a decent philosopher, however, that is not why this book is valuable. It is valuable because of the unique picture it paints of the ancient world and of early Christians. It betrays Roman attitudes towards the Christians in their midst and it is revealing in that it exposes the fallacy that Jesus had been world famous by the end of the first century, for (writing in the late second century) Celsus felt the need to describe Christians and their beliefs (especially concerning the alleged founder of Christianity) to his readers who he assumed knew next to nothing about either.

I love how he complained that the principle adherents to Christianity were what he (as a proper and educated Roman man) considered the dregs of the society: Women, children, slaves, sailors and criminals (I am a former child and a current professional sailor haha). And I love that he was so inundated with so many different flavors of Christianity that he was not even aware that they are not the same cult. I also love how he ratted them out for making corrections to the gospels on the fly, pen in hand, during debates. This certainly explains why there are so many textual variants in the ancient, extant New Testament manuscripts (for instance, there are 81 textual variations of Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer in the ancient manuscripts).

An excellent book for anyone interested in Roman History or church origins. I love this book.

There are without a doubt some brilliant ideas in this book. However, reading the book is a bit like mining for precious ore, you have to go through a lot of uninteresting rocks to get to the good stuff.

It would appear that the author had some serious ideas he wanted to publish and chose book format as conventional and lucrative. However, the book is a mish-mash of ideas that don't necessarily string together to form anything like a cohesive argument or narrative. While this non-linear presentation works well in cyberspace, it is a frustrating thing to deal with in book format.

It is heartening that a classics professor would tackle a subject like the change from print to electronic technology. His comparisons between the coming of the Internet and the rise of the codex in late antiquity are interesting. He clearly "gets" the Internet and doesn't consider it the big bad book-slayer.

The author sprinkles in some of his theories on education, particularly post-secondary. He poses interesting questions but provides no answers to those questions about the purpose of post-secondary education in the modern world.

Some of the ideas presented were compelling, the style of the book was difficult to handle, and his final comparisons between himself and Cassiodorus were a bit much. I could only give it two stars.

J. J. O'Donnell is one those scholars whose learning is assumed rather than displayed. As a result, his brief approach to the long-terms effects of the computer revolution on reading and higher education feels like a bracing, sophisticated exchange of ideas. Like conversation, O'Donnell's thesis is not terribly unified or orderly. He often makes sidetracks from his focus on high technology and literacy into explaining such interesting things as how we choose our cultural ancestry instead of merely evolving out of it, the errors of current education, and perhaps more than you ever wanted to know about other avatars of the word such as St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and Cassiodorus. Great cover too.

O'Donnell is uniquely suited to write such a book and to indulge in such digressions. He is Professor of Classical Studies but also Vice Provost for Information Systems and Computing at the University of Pennsylvania. His purpose is to compare the transformation already begun within the electronic medium to earlier transformations such as those from oral to written culture in ancient Greece, the papyrus scroll to the codex manuscript, and the codex to the printed book. ... O'Donnell proclaims that interactive 'hypertext' was the original form of written communication. In fact, the book as a form of authorized mass communication has allowed individual and community freedoms to dissolve and centralized authority to legitimize itself. 'Control over texts had brought control over people' (p. 37). Books will never disappear entirely, he prophesies, because of the public's love for a good, self-contained, often fictional narrative. Scholarly tomes, however, will lose their influence and the libraries which contain them will have to radically adapt: 'In a world in which the library will cease to be a warehouse and become instead a software system, the value of the institution will lie in the sophistication, versatility, and power of its indexing and searching capacities' (p. 61).

The greatest change in store, then, will be in the manner in which scholarly research is undertaken and written up. 'The traditional monograph, with its sustained linear argument, its extraordinarily high costs of publication and distribution, and its numerous inefficiencies of access, is beginning to look more and more like a great lumbering dinosaur' (p. 58). No single point of view will do in our electronic postmodern utopia. The author must die and so must the enclosure of singular line of argument and conclusions declared by one mind to which all the world is expected to accede. 'Instead of publication that says "This is how it is," we have a form of public performance of scholarship that asks "What if it were this way?" Publication of this sort becomes a form of continuing seminar, and the performance is interactive, dialogic, and self-correcting' (p. 136).The next generation of scholars - who will have learned 'disorientation' of their assumptions, according to O'Donnell - may be the ones to actually listen to and learn from each other.

The question of consciousness is only hinted at but O'Donnell's stance here falls somewhat short of postmodern. Though he understands the way we remember is largely determined by our culture and communication system, he still accepts human nature, that is, human consciousness, as essentially stable and guided by the simple - and singular - motivations which drove our ancestors: 'Technology will do what it always does: provide tools. Those tools may eventually shape their owners, but they are always assuredly instruments with which their owners may pursue their own aims' (p. 148). It may be that in an electronically communal, de-authored culture, individual memory will lose its egocentric center (which others have understood as the postmodern condition). In this scenario, individual identity may either become fragmented or become, as Ricoeur suggested, mutualized as 'oneself as another'. If this is the case, then writing, codices, books, and the computer may do more than act as tools. They may instead have altered and be continuing to alter the nature of our self-awareness - human consciousness itself.

This book I found very enjoyable. It connects the past and the present in a sensible and imaginative way. The dream of the virtual library is an ancient one, the author tells us. O'Donnell is knowledgeable about world history and about his particular Irish heritage. I enjoyed reading the chapter for academics very much. I think that many peopel will find this book engrossing and educational. Bravo O'Donell!

Usually read for his one hit novel (Red Badge), Crane produced a score of great stories & a gritty novel about prostitution (Maggie) and some very modern poetry that still reads well today. Put it up against his contemporaries of the 1890's and he sounds remarkably modern. (He even looks modern is some later portraits... I see him hanging out with Brautigan, learning about horses with McGuane, hanging in the streets with...)

Crane does not waste words. Each poem moves quickly to the point, offers you this, and this. In school there may be a couple Crane poems in an english book, but not near enough. From "In a desert" (#3?) to Intrigue, his poems are near perfect and his words still hold strong meaning today, from 80 to over a hundred years after they were written.

Although Stephen Crane has earned his place in the American literary canon largely on the basis of his novel "The Red Badge of Courage" and his psychologically compelling short fiction, he was also a master of the art of poetry. "The Complete Poems" is a superb tribute to that poetic genius. In addition to collecting all 135 of Crane's known surviving poems, editor Joseph Katz has written a substantial introduction which places Crane's poetic achievement in context.

Most of Crane's poems are written in a free verse using simple, yet quietly powerful language. His words are full of irony and paradox; his vision is sometimes sarcastic and often dark, yet frequently surprises with gentleness and compassion. Reading Crane, I get the sense of meeting an ancient sage on a barren, wind-swept plain. His poems often have an oddly scriptural flavor to them; these are verses that invite return and reflection.

Stephen Crane writes, "I have a thousand tongues / And nine and ninety-nine lie." Nonetheless, in "The Complete Poems of Stephen Crane" the attentive reader will discover a reservoir of disturbing truth.

Joe McIntyre - himself a Word of Faith teacher indoctrinated by the Faith movement - endeavors to present the "unbiased" truth about Christianity's Faith movement by telling what he claims is the "true" story of Faith founder, E.W. Kenyon. The problem, however, is that McIntyre tells this true story by out and out fabricating. He claims to be responding to "heresy hunters," but he does so by misrepresenting them at least FIVE times by my own count. Don't take my word for it, just check out his footnotes to find that he misrepresents people. But here's the best story of them all.

One of the sources cited by McIntyre contains information that contradicts what he says regarding Kenyon's death in 1948. He knows the information that contradicts him exists, but instead of acknowledging this fact, he simply doesn't mention it and then tells what he says is the "true" story of Kenyon. This fact alone disqualifies this book from being anything more than a reference so that Faith followers can say that questions are answered that HAVEN'T been answered.

But supposing McIntyre told the truth, here's something we learn by reading this book: E.W. Kenyon took aspirin - despite being "healed by Jesus' stripes" (p. 170). He suffered at one time from peritonitis (chapter 6). He was divorced even though he could manipulate his circumstances by "having what he said" (pp. 154-156). It appears that in telling the "true" story of E.W. Kenyon, we found that the message he proclaimed - and is still proclaimed today - is anything BUT true.

On the cover of this book, it says "Includes previously unpublished material from his personal diary and sermon notes." This is why I bought the book, as I wanted to read sermons by Kenyon that were not published in book form or in his newsletter. Sure, I read the book, and I really didn't find hardly any direct teachings from Kenyon or additional sermons that he never published, which disappointed me. Overall, this book is just a research book providing key answers to his critics. If you read after Kenyon, and want additional material on what he taught on, I do not recommend this book. This is primarily a book on Kenyon, and not on what he taught.

Pastor Joe McIntyre, has produced an invaluable resource text for those in the body of Christ, who are not only interested in knowing the True Story of E. W. Kenyon. But are spiritually hungry for the victorious Revelational Truths taught by E.W.K.
This book will not only inspire you, but put a glossy wheather
proof coating over your Faith-Walk from legalistic head-hunters, as well. Trust me!!!

The book 360 Degree Selling covers two of the most important areas in the selling of biotechnology products, use of clinical trial data, and disease state information. This information is exactly what today's physicians most want from pharmaceutical sales people. Additionally, the book has great information on relationship selling and physician personality styles, and a very extensive section on territory management. I highly recommend this book to anyone in pharmaceutical sales, I know it has helped me to be more effective in my sales presentations.

360 Degree Selling-How to Sell Biotechnology Products is one of the best books of its kind. With 24 pages of selling, using clinical reprints, it supplies the representative with crucial ways to use third party selling. The book also leads the representative to use the many web sites available to supplement his/her presentation with the latest and most pertinent information for the physician. Furthermore, it shows how the representative can best utilize his/her Time & Territory Management and Routing techniques. Last, but not least, it teaches the importance of maintaining physician contacts and using phyician personality and prescribing profiles to tailor presentations to individual physician's wants and needs.

Great book! My company recently purchased this book for our entire specialty sales force. I have followed the principles and techniques outlined in the book, and I can see a difference in my relationships with my physicians. This book concentrates very heavily on relationship selling, and the publisher provides a free 360 Degree Relationship Selling Strategy report from their website. It is really great, I don't know of any other selling book that provides this type of service, it's like getting the book for free. I am recommending that my company purchase this service for our sales force. Thank you Black Dog!

Being long time fans of the TV show Babylon 5, my friends and I couldn't wait until they made a RPG out of it (one Star Wars campaign too many I guess) and when it finally came out we rushed to the store to get our copies.

While the book is very nice, all the pictures are in color and all it still left a few things lacking. First of all it contained no ship combat system (fortunately, Earthforce sourcebook has one, yet if you want a good space battle I must recommend Babylon 5 Wars, by Agents of Gaming, it has a much better combat engine). As opposed to Star Wars where you have many enemies to choose from depending on your skill levels, the only enemy provided was a typical thug that any character with half a synapse firing and any weapon could kill easily. While all this means is that you have to make up character stats for ALL people in the begining of an adventure, it is quite an inconvienience.

Apart from that, this is one of the best RPGs I've ever played. It is based heavvilt on Role-Playing which is good for any GM who can think on his fet and is smarter than his group. The combat system is aalso very good if somewhat slow. As oppsed to Star Wars or D&D or Shadowrun, this gets into impairments and hit location while in the battle which negates thoses epic battles we all love so much in other games.

Despite all the little flaws and the fact Chameleon Electic stopped puplishing it, this is a very good book and a must0have for any fan of the show, even if you don't like RPG's.

I like the rules for structuring campaigns. Some of the ideas here are new, and it does a good job of showing how to recreate the epic structure of the show in your RPG. The character creation rules are also good and unique. The back story of a character is far more important than the stats, and this makes it easier to tie adventures into the character's history, to make things personal. I also like the skill system and skill resolution. Unfortunately, I do NOT like the way combat is done in this game. It resolves slowly, and the body diagram hit location chart is confusing and unnecissary. Overall, I liked it enough to base a long campaign on the system, but I plan to completely rework the combat system to make it faster and simpler. Because of the large amount of material in the book, it sorely needs an index. Fortunately, an index is downloadable from Chameleon Electric's web site.

Character creation is a little clunky, but the actual mechanics of the system are nice and clean. The background material isn't bad, and the artwork is pretty nice (at least the shots from the show...)

Unfortunately, Chameleon Eclectic's a little slow getting out new stuff for the game.

Yeah, the dictionary section is less than adequate, but (as another mentioned) it was an add-on, and the purpose of the book isn't to be a standalone dictionary.

For my purposes, as an absolute beginner, the grammar and stock phrase portions were immensely useful. The dictionary is OK, for very light reference duty, but obviously a handbook this small is not the be-all-end-all dictionary. Go buy an actual translating dictionary to go with Conroy's handbook, and you've got a great teaching pair.

The small size is handy, too, for slipping in a coat pocket or briefcase.

As others have said, this book really isn't a useful dictionary. However, as a phrase book, and quick language reference, it's great. If you plan on buying this, I highly recommend getting an actual translation dictionary to go with it. Still, the sample telephone answering machine recording is on my voice mail....

Tiel alioj diris, cxi tio libro ne-estas vere vortaro utila. Ankoraux, tiel fraz-libro, kaj tiel referenco rapida lingva, gxi estas belega. Se vi planus acxeti cxi tion, mi rekomendegas ankaux acxeti vortaron efektivan tradukan. Ankoraux, la provajxa telefona mesagxo estas uzata je mia vocx-posxto.

Let's be clear, you won't really learn esperanto using only this book. It is too limited as to it's scope. However as a simple phrasebook and dictionary for the occasional esperanto user, it does quite well. It's a great little book to carry around (unless you have room to carry a full dictionary or a complete language workbook) in your purse or briefcase.

As a small travel book for travelers who "may" use esperanto in their tavels, this does the job quite nicely.

Before I read this book, I kept hearing what a horrible novel it was. However, it isn't horrible; it's just not nearly as fantastic as some of his other works. It's still definitely worth the read, though.

If you can make it through sentences that seem to never end and some repitition, you will find a great story of love, guilt, and Southern life. This book opens with the Sartoris family, and several young men (Bayard Sartoris and others) returning home from World War I, and the impressions war left upon them. Thrown in with a little bit of incest, love notes, and a daredevil, this book provides a good combination of mushiness (sp?), humor, and sorrow.

However, while some have said not to read this book as your first Faulkner, I disagree. And here's why: reading this book after you have read some of his other works really makes you look at this book in a more negative way, since his other works have been so great. Just remember, if this is your first Faulkner read, many of his other works are MUCH BETTER, so if you read this first and don't like it, there are MUCH BETTER ones out there. As far as reading goes, it's a pretty easy read (although you might have to keep track of all the Johns and Bayards), at least in comparison to some of his other books. Also, if you plan on reading other Faulkner books, this one is a MUST, since it introduces you to the Benbrows, Snopes, and the Sartorises-all characters that are found in some of his other novels.

Three-and-a-half-stars. "Flags in the Dust" is the first of Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha novels; it is a must-read for all potential Faulkner fans. It's not his best, by any means--the storyline is at times skittish (perhaps owing to the fact that "Flags" is the uncut, unedited version of what was originally published under the title "Sartoris"), and the characterizations are neither as deep nor as unique as those found in his later works. But "Flags" has charm and importance nonetheless. First, it is a crash course in the Sartoris family, whose many "John"s and "Bayard"s (not to menion the indomitable Granny Millard and Aunt Jenny) comprise a hefty chunk of Faulkner's later novels and short stories. Second, it is absolutely *amazing* (and I can't underscore that enough) to see Faulkner's great novels just beginning to poke through the surface of Jefferson, MS soil: the Snopes family, V.K. Ratliff (here named V.K. Suratt), the McCaslins, the Compsons (I think reference is made even to Thomas Sutpen) all make appearances in the novel. Therefore, I recommend reading "Flags" *after* you've read most of the other Yoknapatawpha novels--the breadth and depth of Faulkner's vision (anticipating or laying the foundation for novels he would write 20 or 30 years later) is truly remarkable, and is half the joy of reading it. (But whenever you read "Flags," at least make sure you've read "The Unvanquished" first--the characters will make far more sense if you do.) As for the story itself: it's convoluted and not always engrossing--though the angst of young Bayard (silently mourning the wartime death of his brother John) is portrayed achingly well, and Aunt Jenny remains one of Faulkner's most powerful leading ladies.

Though not as complex and difficult as some of his more famous works, Flags in the Dust provides some outstanding writing. It may benefit some to read The Unvanquished prior to this book as it gives some background on the Sartoris family, the main focus of Flags. Many of Faulkner's descriptions in this book are uncanny. I would have only given this book four stars, but his two-page description of the mule was alone worth one more star.