In Mark Salzman's "The Soloist," I think he shows the joys of being a child prodigy and the unhappiness it can bring. This book also shows something about the criminal courtroom. The main character, Reinehart, is a child prodigy that plays the cello. He played till his late teens and then lost his gift. This story tells about his anguish in becoming a great cello player again. I think this book is written well. It isn't a very difficult reading, in terms of vocabulary. But it goes deep into the main characters feelings. A lot of the books you read show a little into every character. But this showed a lot into just one. This book also makes you think about things and throw things around in your mind. It's a great book to show you about being different, but not feeling like an outsider. Is shows how to be happy in the end and not always think about the past and future, but the present. I would recommend this book to any high school student.

This story, told by a child-prodigy-cellist turned music professor, alternates chapters about the professor's life, professional & personal struggles with chapters about a jury trial, in which a Zen Buddhist is on trial for slaying a Zen master. As a very amateur cellist, I most enjoyed the writer's frequent and highly descriptive references to great cellists (YoYo Ma, Rostopovich, Janos Starker, Pablo Casals) and composers (Bach, Mozart), the comparison of composers & their music to works of art, the details of the protagonist's efforts to inspire and teach his student, a ten-year old Korean boy. None of the music discussion comes across as academic or pedantic; it's woven gracefully into the novel.

The trial aspect of the book was not a typical fast-paced courtroom drama; it focused more on the parameters of the insanity defense as applied to a religious fanatic, and the trial is resolved in a decidedly undecided way (that's all I'll say).

The novel is more about the protagonist's personal experiences with music, relationships, and jury duty than it is about any underlying story. The protagonist is likeable and, for the most part, very real. He is supposedly a virgin, which didn't come off as believable to me. Minor glitch, though. Overall, a good novel, particularly for a music lover, and a quick read.

Although written as fiction, The Soloist can teach you a lot about the real world of music, cults and life itself. The clever author Mark Salzman shows the world the meaning of life and how amazing things can happen. He gives us a look at a murder trial with the subject of Buddishm, a look at life without a family around him, and as a musicain. It is a very creative story written by a very talented man. It gives an impression you will not forget. I would recommend this book to people who are into life itself, cults, trials and music. The littlest thing put the main charecter Renne in a jam he found a way to find a way out of each and every move he made. It expalins a lot about life and the things that go along with it. So begin to read this marvelous book.

Mr. Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web. He also created the first Web server and the first Web browser, both in 1990. In addition, Berners-Lee is the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium. That pretty much sums up his qualifications for writing a book about the Web!

I bought the audio book and have listened to it to and from work. It's a little more personal because Tim is actually reading it to you.

This book is for any HTML author or professional working in an Internet-related profession. I recommend it greatly to those working on browser-based applications; it's important to recall the original intent of HTML and the browser. The World Wide Web can become so much more, and reading this book will cause the reader to wonder and dream of new possibilities.

This book that tells the amazing story of how Tim Berners-Lee conceived of the Web and brought it into being. I've read many brief accounts of the early history of the Web, and could never believe that Berners-Lee managed to put together all of the necessary pieces, HTML, HTTP, client software, and server software all in one year. Yet in this book, Tim Berners-Lee recounts not only how he pulled it off (and who helped him), but also his motivation, which was even more interesting than how he did it. Berners-Lee covers not only the development of the Web, but also the browser wars and why they were fought. On the other hand, I found it a little surprising that he never mentioned JavaScript and its role for the Web. Occasionally, the prose gets a little technical for general audiences, but for the most part, it is extremely readable.

The world (us) is not recognizing enough Tim Berners-Lee's contribution, extraordinary insight, and relentless behind the scene efforts. If one has any doubt that a few individuals with a vision and a participative belief system can change the world, this book is a Must Read. The first part of the book is a say-it-as-it-is account of how Tim's vision and belief system (global connectivity, keep it simple, open-source, no control, etc.) brought the WorldWideWeb into being. The last part of the book will leave you with the impression that we're just at the beginnimng of the journey and that there is much more in Tim's vision than today's web. Our computers are the neurons of a mega-super-global brain under construction. For most tasks, these neurons still need us to decide what to do. If Tim's vision is being implemented, in a few years (5-10?) these "neurons" will act independantly, decide by themselves what to do, understand and make sense of the vast amount of information that they will have collected. When he presents that vison, TBL says "I get the same distant look in people's eyes as I did in 1989 when I tried to explain how global Hyprerttext would work." That didn't stop him then. Buy this book and support his efforts to make the web OUR common intuitive brain.

I have constantly butted heads with any whisper of authoritarian tone, especially in regards to the kitchen. Since I don't work in the sizzling madness of a four-star restaurant under an iron gaze, I prefer a more relaxed ambience in my kitchen.

The fabulous thing about this book is that it dissects the fundamentals of good cooking - no matter what the cuisine. Ingredients that are in their prime and of the highest quality, a basic understanding of what's staring at you from the kitchen counter or refrigerator, and the willingness to experiment and trust your innate (yes, we all have to a certain degree) gastronomic intuition.

Cookbook authors are most often restaurant professionals whose idiosynchratic personalities make them interesting points in the culinary universe, but all too often intimidate the average cook with a heavy-handed emphasis on tradition/precision and mind-boggling lexicon. Bittman's casual approach and culinary flexibility put the reader at ease enough to enjoy the actual process and the significant results from their modest efforts.

For the seasoned cook in purusit of a new perspective or for the willing amateur, approach the recipes without the obligatory pre-recipe tension. Bittman will effortlessly guide you along the way with useful insight on his triumphs and errors and how to make do with several options, even if it seems like you can't.

Mark Bittman does a wonderful job of bringing interesting ingredients and simple techniques together to make great-tasting dishes in a minimum amount of time. He fosters a spirit of experimentation with his suggestions for quick variations on the recipes. Most importantly, his "minimalist" approach demonstrates the truth about great cooking: the best flavors are in the food; don't muck around much with it and you'll do OK.

Mark's clear writing style makes the recipes easy to understand and his introductions often show the thought process he went through in stripping an idea for a dish down to its minimalist presentation.

I've often pulled this book off the shelf, paged through to find three or four recipes that sound interesting, made a shopping trip and threw together a fantastic meal in an hour or so. With the help of this book and implementing Mark's philosophy in other dishes, I've increased my reputation as a great cook among my friends.

Many have suggested Mark's "How to Cook Everything" book. I found that book too daunting upon first perusal. I don't want to cook "everything." I just want a few dishes that I can turn into consistant favorites. This book was perfect for me and I highly recommend it. Perhaps when I'm looking to expand into some odd dishes, I'll pick up "Everything;" for now this book holds more than enough.

I am just learning to cook and am already an avid fan of Mark Bittman. His two other books - "How to cook everything" and "Simple to spectacular" are the only books that have a permanent place in our spatially-challenged kitchen (we have about 50 other cookbooks). Now, I have to find room for this book.

I read "the mini" in the NY Times every week and have attempted a few of his recipes, which have always produced fantastic results. The recipes in this book are fast, simple to follow, and require ingredients that are very easy to get. Along with each simple recipe, Bittman also includes a "With Minimal Effort" section that lets you elevate the dish from minimalist to spectacular. The technique and ingredients in this section are just as simple as in the main recipe.

Buy it. You will definitely enjoy it.

Some of the material was wonderful but why in the world does this book include long lists of movies, books and tv shows? Too many ideas cost too much money. Not all of us have thousands of dollars to spend on dates and vacations.

My friend told me about this book and i have to say it's a very excellent and useful book.This book has alot of great ideas,suggestions and places to go to,plus it has alot of lists of movies,songs,romantic gifts and many other information.I think your partner would love them all. I highly recommend it.

I think this book is great. My girlfriend and I saw it on the shelf when we were in a bookstore, so we picked it up and had a cup of tea and read. Money was low that day, but I had to have it so I went back for it. When I read it cover to cover I had to take notes, write comments in the margin, and I smiled the whole time. I'm 'giving' it to my girlfriend to make her own notes, but I suspect we will keep it where we can both get to it for inspiration. It's worth the money, and I think it's a great starting point for brainstorming your own ideas, or you can just take the ideas out of the book!

Ever think of Bart Simpson as a Heideggerian thinker? Ever wonder which Simpsons cast member is the most moral? Ever ponder what to make of the religious characters in Springfield? After reading The Simpsons and Philosophy, these ideas will certainly spring to mind the next time you catch a new episode or rerun of The Simpsons!

Many Americans regard the popularity of the long-running hit animated series, The Simpsons, as evidence of the demise of American values and intellectualism. This collection of philosophical essays about Springfield proves that not only is this view incorrect, but perhaps narrow-minded as well. The Simpsons is not a cartoon for children, but rather a satire of society in general. The authors choose topics that arise from various episodes of the series, and use these stories to elucidate important philosophical concepts for the reader.

My favorite essay concerns Lisa Simpson, and the contrasts between her portrayals of an intellectual but still a little girl. The essay helped me understand better the concept of intellectualism in American society, and also Lisa's role on the show.

Overall, this book is a humorous, off-kilter look at what is perhaps the funniest (and maybe even most intellectual!) show on television today.

"The D'oh of Homer: The Simpsons and Philosophy" is editor William Irwin's second foray into returning philosophy to its marketplace origins, making it accessible to non-academics through pop-culture comparisons. Like his first, "Seinfeld and Philosophy," "D'oh" is an introductory-level philosophy text compiled of different papers and presentations given by various people in the philosophical field. Arguably, the Simpsons provide a far richer crop of philosophical conundrums than the "show about nothing" (who else would soundly wallop objectivist 'thought' like the "Ayn Rand School for Tots" episode), and that is reflected in the various chapters in the book, covering much of the major philosophical movements (although the moderns are strangely underrepresented).

Topics include whether Homer is an Aristotelian model (he isn't), whether Bart represents Nietzsche's Will to Power (the book says he might, but he doesn't), and if Maggie embodies the Tao (she does, to a certain degree). There are more non-philosophical essays as well, including a great one of gender discourse and sexual politics, and essays on parody and allusion. Unfortunately, due to the short nature of the essay format, these topics are never taken to any great degree of depth, but those looking for an introduction to philosophy will find them to be more than adequate.

As with any scholarly compilation, some of the essays are better (and better-written) than others, and the book's weakness lies in the fact that some of them clunk along at a jagged pace. Some were clearly written for an intellectual audience familiar with philosophical themes and discourse, and some were written for a higher degree of accessibility. That isn't to say that the essays aren't understandable, but the language, prose, and sentence structure of some (especially the more, um, dry examples) could be a real turn-off to those who would otherwise get a lot out of this book.

It's weak, but not too weak to overlook. The only other problem is that the Nietzsche essay works from a VERY narrow interpretation of old Freddy's works, and should be taken with a grain of salt - but that's a personal problem with the book, not a professional one.

Grade: B

Bill Irwin's first collection, _Seinfeld and Philosophy_ was a well put-together set of musings about philosophy regarding the best sit-com ever. This latest compilation ruminates over the best animated series ever. I have been an avid fan of "The Simpsons" since its inception, and a practicing philosopher for the past 4 years. I found this book to be thought-provoking and entertaining.

You're not going to find significant philosophical breakthroughs in this book, and you won't find deep insights by watching "The Simpsons," but as a companion to the show, this book will shed new light on the characters and situations found throughout the series.

Mostly, I would recommend this book to anyone taking a first-year philosophy course who wants to see how philosophy can make fun things more profound, and profound things more fun. Yes, there is fun to be had in serious academia -- it should not all be dry and boring. Irwin has collected a number of papers that make for philosophical fun for all.

First off I would like to make a distinction between the Python programming language and this particular introduction to it. Python is a great language and you will enjoy programming in it. This is probably the source of excitement in reviews on this page. Because the book, unfortunately, has a number of flaws.

The tradition of O'Reilly Perl books has been not only to teach you the syntax of Perl, but also to introduce programming techniques and ideas how to make best use of the language features. This Python book scores zero on these points. It focuses on syntax exclusively and this makes it unsuitable for an absolute beginner. The examples are unimaginative. The authors show you how to write correct code for using "dictionaries", but not how to USE "dictionaries". A Perl book author would throw in a program that uses a "hash" to search for duplicate data entries (as they did).

Besides, the flow of the book is uneven. Functions and classes are discussed at length, but built-in data types and exceptions are looked at only briefly. All this is really unfortunate because there are not very many Python books on the market and it is a very good language.

Overall, I think, this book is best for experienced programmers who already know their CS, have to get up to speed with Python very quickly, have $30 to waste, and really love to own O'Reilly books. The rest might be better off by printing out the Python tutorial.

I first purchased this book nearly two years ago, but I never got past the first few chapters.

I just picked this book up again, with the benefit of two years' experience programming in PHP and a little but of Java, and I realize why working through this book seemed like such slow going the first time around.

On the one hand, "Learning Python" is written with a lot of hand-holding for readers who may not have much programming experience at all with any other languages; the basic concepts of variables, statements, functions, data types and the like are all clearly explained, which is a good thing for someone just starting out.

On the other hand, there are also quite a few tips and bits of information about memory efficiency, or how certain elements of Python relate to their C underpinnings; things that a rank newbie probably won't understand, and probably doesn't need to know when they're just trying to learn the basics. These esoteric points are probably quite helpful/interesting for programmers coming from low level languages like C, but those programmers will be frustrated by the slow page of the sections covering basic mechanics.

So you've got a book that moves at a beginners' pace that's full of asides targeted towards experienced programmers; beginners will be confused and overwhelmed, and experienced coders will just get frustrated.

For what it's worth, I have the first edition of this book; I'm not sure how the second edition compares.

Mark Lutz and David Ascher deliver precisely the needed information to meet the objective stated on the cover of the O'Reilly text, "Learning Python" (Help for Programmers).

A succinct, yet thorough treatment of the Python programming language is presented in some 350-plus written pages that are well organized and facilitate the development of Python programs in a "Read and Code as You Go" fashion.

After spot reading the Chapters on "Getting Started", "Types And

Operators", "Basic Statements", "Functions", "Modules" and "Common Tasks In Python", I was coding and running my first text file I/O Python programs within the first half of a day. The authors concise presentation of the concepts definitely facilitated the "learning curve", which so often is an obstacle when learning a new programming language. The material was also indexed very well with clear index descriptions to easily determine what the topic was and where to find it.

What I found to be the strongest point of the book were the "Gotchas" sections, in which the authors discussed topics such as Python Language Constructs, Program Class Usage and Coding Practices to be aware of. I found the "Common Coding Gotchas" section at the end of Chapter 3 of great benefit in coding and debugging my first self-authored Python programs (As I learned, Python is definitely a language where you want to indent consistently, avoid the mixing of blank spaces with tabs and not forget the use of colons to denote decision logic). The application of these concepts alone were a great asset in reducing the "Learning Curve" for me.

The program examples provided reinforced the clear, concise concepts presented by the authors. The programs that I studied were suited to running in both a Linux environment (using Linux Python Version 1.5.2 for SuSE(tm) Linux 7.0 and Red Hat(tm) Linux 6.1) and MS Windows(tm) NT/98 (using Active State's Active Python(tm) Version 2.1).

Exercises presented at the end of the chapter were effective at reinforcing the programming concepts presented. With some supplemental tutorial material for non-programmers, this book could be used as an educational text for a Python programming class, particularly one geared for programmers with scripting language experience.

The authors did a good job of covering a number of topics important to application programmers. Object-oriented Constructs, Manipulation of String Objects, Operating System Module Use, GUI Programming Component Frameworks and Applications such as Tkinter and JPython are discussed to provide the reader a good exposure to the extent of the Python language implementation and its strenght as a robust, object-oriented scripting language.

The book is definitely an invaluable resource for providing the essential material necessary to construct your first Python programs, especially if you've had prior programming experience with other scripting languages, such as REXX, Javascript or Perl.

Definitely one of the best O'Reilly publications I've read to date. Kudos to Mr. Lutz and Mr. Ascher for their contribution to making the experience of "Learning Python" a fun and productive pursuit. Five Stars!

As I read previous reviews, I was bemused by the wide variety of ratings. When people disagree so vehemently about a book, it is almost always worth reading whether one agrees with the authors' conclusions or not.

About three years ago, a co-worker who knew I was a Christian asked if I believed in UFOs, and I gave her a theologically safe, non-committal answer. However, her question got me to investigate this phenomenon more seriously.

I now consider Alien Encounters to be a valuable addition to my research library. In addition to presenting compelling arguments for the reality of alien encounters, the authors present some interesting insights on some of the most confusing portions of the Bible.

This book explores some possible explanations to try to reconcile what appears to be strong evidence for extraterrestrial / supernatural encounters and Christian beliefs. Some of these theories are sure to be controversial.

If UFOlogy were the primary or only subject researched by these authors, I would be hesitant to recommend it. However, both have done outstanding research in other areas.

My only reservation about this book is that the authors try to tie together so many concepts at one time that there just isn't enough room to do most of them justice.

For instance, as presented in the book, credible arguments may be made for a slight shift in Earth's orbit around 700 BC. However, four astronomers wrote an entire book (The Long Day of Joshua and Other Biblical Catastrophes) developing the concept of an Earth-Mars orbital resonance. They recognized that this is an extraordinary claim. Carl Sagan once said, "I believe that the extraordinary should be pursued. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

Unfortunately, brevity required that much of the evidence for this and other concepts be heavily edited in order to fit everything into Alien Encounters. (The bibliography provides ample material for further research, however.)

Overall, though, I would heartily recommend Alien Encounters, especially to skeptics. Despite my own skepticism, I found myself over half way through the book before I first put it down. And while I'm still undecided about some of the conclusions presented, it at least convinced me that this is a topic which deserves more serious consideration.

I have been interested in this subject for years and I have read a number of books on the subject. I found it to be a well compiled, thought provoking review of factual information. It not only discussed UFO's & alien abduction, but looked at new age thinking and biblical end time scenerios. If someone is really searching for 'real truth', they may have to search beyond their own comfort zone, my bible says to "prove all things". I think that Missler and Eastman have done a comendable job in trying to make sence of a very confusing subject, that may dramatically affect all of us, very soon. I have studied Missler's material for over 20 years and highly recommend this book.

This is the best Book I have read since I was able to read ! Other than the Bible of course Missler and his co author have done as fantastic job on explaining the UFO scene . Both men have worked hard on this book and anyone searching for understanding should run as fast as you can to the book store and pick the book up ! I have been unable to think about Alien life until now ! The authors teach before they tell you how , why , where , what and etc . Also they back things up through a very old book called the "Bible" . If you are a minister you should also read this book and teach the message next Sun . The book is also a lesson about humans , satan , and what we are coming into the next few years ! I thank the authors for a job needed to be done 100 yrs ago . However , you may need to re-read the pages because of the content . It may be hard to understand the subjects but don't give up , go to the next page then back and you will understand it some better . This book should be in every Christian home . I can't wait to read the next one the authors produce . READ this book now ..

This was the first aura book I read, and for me, it was excellent. It did a bit of explaining about the technical side of auras, and told a lot of stories of the authors experiences (which dragged on a little bit admittedly), but as for the 'how to see auras' part, it really worked! It was a lot simpler than I had expected, and really very fast. I have since used his basic methods to show my friends how to get started. One warning though - I was expecting to see auras like on the front cover of the book, but what the book actually teaches is how to get *started*, and that means seeing the first 'layer' of the aura, which isn't coloured. It was a first step though, and I felt worth my while. I've been practicing since, and it's great. I definately recommend this book to beginners, it doesn't overload your brain with too much information like some of the others might do.

I got dragged, literally to a book signing that I was sure would be a bore. My co-worker had read this book years ago, and wanted me to experience it for myself, knowing I would never read a book on such a wierd subject as auras. At first as the author was demonstrating this aura technique I couldn't see anything, but I wasn't really trying. THEN IT HIT ME! I could see the golden light that surrounds the head and shoulders get bigger as he did some breathing exercises. Then when he wrote down a color on a piece of paper and handed it to one of the members of the audience, I could see the color slowly (about half a minute) change to a greenish blue. When the lady held up the paper, "turquoise" was what was written. Many others in the group of about 50 said they saw it too. Needless to say this was one of the most mind blowing things I have ever seen.
I've since recommended this book to several people, and I just hope that he comes around again so I can try it again. I can see auras on some people, but the author really has a strong one, and seems to be able to control it as well. One Warning though, the colors don't look anywhere near as strong as on the cover. So don't go looking for that. But I definitly saw colors, and they change from person to person.

With so much seriousness in the world today, it was a real pleasure to read a book written with so much ease and good nature. I liked the author's way of "de-mystifying" the whole subject of meta-psychics. He makes a point of starting from a disbeliver's viewpoint, and I find his writing style very engaging. It is almost done in journalistic approach, very personal, and self effacing. What he has accomplished is no small matter. You don't have to be a Tibetan monk, or an Indian shaman, or have studied in an ashram to learn how to see auras. The exercises couldn't be more direct and the technique for viewing the aura is so simple, I am amazed no one has written a "how-to" book like this before. I come from a part of the world that accepts the aura as real. Kirlian was Russian after all. Although I read the book in English, I have found a translation in my native language when I went back home recently, and have come to find out it is quite popular there. It deserves to be popular, and I recommend it for style as well as content.

Occasionally I have heard or read comments about Holding Time that include false information, and would like to correct some of them and encourage everyone to read the book. It was *not* designed for autistic adults. I know this, because my family has worked with Dr. Welch in her offices in New York City and she told us how it developed, as she also does in the book itself. Holding Time was developed by Dr. Welch for autistic children, and has since been shown to be remarkably successful in helping all children, including those described as "normal". I believe anyone who finds Holding Time to be abusive either has not read the book, or is simply not applying the technique correctly. In this case, they should contact a therapist who is specially trained in attachment issues. Having worked with Dr. Welch and seen the truly remarkable results she's brought about with our two girls, I find myself telling all my friends about the technique and encouraging them to try it with their own children. So many of the problems associated with child rearing can be eliminated with Holding Time. Whereas "Time Out's" teach children that their emotions are not acceptable and that they must get out of the parent's sight, Holding teaches that *no* emotions, including anger, are unacceptable and that anger does not negate love. Through Holding, you can experience a degree of joy and love you would not have thought possible. I honestly believe that many of the problem kids in our society who are now problem adults would not be committing crimes or hurting anyone if they had been "held" as children. I'm reminded of the words of the great anthropologist Margaret Mead who said (and I paraphrase), "Is it possible for one person to change the world? Indeed, that's all that ever has." Please don't be afraid of Holding Time. Read the book, get help from an attachment specialist or call Dr. Welch if you need to, but try it. Best wishes to everyone.

Holding Time, as described in Dr. Welch's beautiful book, is a two-way interactive physical and emotional expression of unconditional love and acceptance between parent and child of any age and between spouse, as well. I have found it to be equally beneficial to each of the holding pair.

There are other therapies that go by the name of holding therapy, but they mostly involve holding by the therapist. Don't confuse these other therapies with Dr. Welch's parent-child holding therapy. Welch therapy works directly upon the crucial bond that must be formed between parents and child. It is this bond that is the foundation of behavior regulation. And it is the direct bonding experience in Dr. Welch's therapy that makes it so much more effective than other therapies.

When I first read about Holding Time, I felt a great sense of loss because I didn't know about it when I was raising my own daughter. That's why I would like to pass the information along to parents who still have the chance to use this most wonderfull method of deeply connecting and communicating with their children.

Holding Time is a special experience between mother and child where a space in time is created with no distractions. The results of the deep connection that is created have brought autistic children from a world of no communication back to one of close union with the parents. With normal children, Holding Time produces many kinds of success. This amazing technique helps many problems that arise with children, such as bed wetting, clinging, tantrums, lack of motivation, and sibling rivalry, because it gets to what is really being asked for under the acting out symptoms. It creates a very intimate and safe space for mother and child to communicate what is truly needed by the child.

When I read about Holding Time, I wished that I had known about it when I was raising my daughter. I think it would have given both of us the security we needed to experience each other in a physical and emotional way.

Despite other positive reviews, I tend to think this book contains some flaws which have been over looked. First of all, it appears as if the audience of this book is aging baby boomers who are fretting about surviving their retirement years in financial comfort. Perhaps this book offers some useful advice for these people, but for me, this advice falls short.

First of all, many of the recommendations in this book assume that a) You do not have enough money for retirement. and b) You don't have enough time and/or discipline to save for retirement. However, as young GenX'er, I personally have plenty of time and earning potential to accumulate enough wealth to retire and die rich. If a young person, not even making the median income saves a mere 10% of their income from age 25 until age 65, they can retire a multi millionaire. I have no intention of abandoning this goal, since I have over 35 years in which to build a nest egg.

The author presents several contradictory statements on how to manage your money. First, he recommends dumping credit cards and using only charge cards. The charge card he recommends costs over $50 a year to use. I can use a credit card, with no annual fee, pay my bill in full each month and save over $2000 in annual fee charges over my lifetime. Apparently, the author assumes that his audience is too undisciplined to use credit cards without paying off the balances each month. In addition, the author rails against consumerism and planned obsolecence and says that it is better to repair your VCR, computer, etc. rather than by a new one. In a later chapter, however, he recommends leasing vechicles to avoid paying repair bills associated with older vechicles. I drive a 12 year old truck, and I know that my repair bills on that vehicle are much less than the thousands of dollars I would spend on lease payments and higher taxes.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with some of his advice. As a GenX'er, I 'quit today' before I even got my first job. ;-) I also think that many people in my generation have already decided to place family and happiness above the pursuit of wealth. The benefit of being young, however, is that these goals do not need to be mutually exlcusive. Much of the advice that I do agree with he seems to have taken be observing the GenX generation.

In short, the book may provide a good guide for older, undisiplined boomers who have missed the chance to save for retirement, but for younger people, conventional wisdom (properly executed, and with some modifications) may still be the key to sucess.

All 4 of Pollan's axioms are so right & on time ! People everywhere are struggling to come up with answers -- but first they need to know what the questions are (by the way, the next book "Live Rich" is essential to get the full picture). In a nutshell, there's 2 ways to make it in this world: (a)the linear income system (12 hours a day, 5 days a week, for an entire lifetime -- continually trying to put a $5 bill where a $50 bill needs to go) or (b)the residual income system (10 years or less, growing ASSETS which in turn create income). Option A is working hard; Option B is working smart. However, for those poor souls who insist on Option A -- being controlled by time, money & circumstance -- rather than Option B... well then the Die Broke plan is their only hope. It's the best overall Option A compromise. In particular, with the painful idea of "it's just a job" .vs. a "fulfilling career" (heresy to a boomer), linear income people are just gonna have to compromise somewhere -- before the stress puts them all in an early grave. We need these Option A lemmings around to pay social security tax so that my retirement-bound in-laws won't come to me 15 years from now looking for a hand-out. Thank you Pollan & company. So very eloquent & so ON !!

This is my personal favorite in a long list of books on financial planning, although I think it caused the hairs on the back of my financial planners neck to stand up. Actually, that might be a good sign. The advice in this book goes against everything a sensible planner says to do. The traditional advise is to protect, nurture and grow your 'estate.'

You know the bumper stickers you see that say "We're Spending Our Children's Inheritance"? This book is based on that theory, although with a kinder philosophy behind it. The authors recommend you

1) Quit Your Job. (virtually,not actually)Rather than leaving your job, start thinking of yourself as an independent contractor - and make sure you do what you like, get what you want) The work world has changed, employers complain about lack of employee loyalty, but will 'right size' you tomorrow

2) Pay Cash - Get rid of credit card thinking and credit card debt. This is not your father's credit card system anymore!

3) Don't Retire - The idea of putting yourself out to pasture at a given age is as dated as the concept of thinking you have to grow your inheritance to leave to your kids.

4) Die Broke. Spend your money wisely now, use legal ways you can take care of your parents and your kids while you are still alive.

The idea is not to live poor or foolishly, but to rethink entirely why you are struggling so hard now for a tomorrow that may or may not come. Use your money today, to take care of yourself and your loved ones. This book is easy to read without talking down to the reader, is full of good advice with possible to practice wisdom. A good investment!