This book is great for beginners and for those who have been working out for awhile. Very easy to understand routines, safety tips, stretches and warm-ups. When I first discovered this book I had not worked out with weights at all. I felt challenged initially, yet the different programs the authors have worked out make the workouts fun, and definiteley not boring. I loved the pre-set routines when I first started, yet I ultimately customized my own to make it work even better for me. I recommend this book highly!

I was looking to get in better shape for some of the sports that I do (racing sailboats being my main concern), and did not know the first thing about strength training. This book really set me on the right path, with lots of good information about how to do this safely and efficiently. I am about the farthest thing from a bodybuilder, but since I have been following their programs, I feel healthy and strong. All those little aches and pains from computer work have disappeared, and my knees don't click so much when I do stairs or exercise bikes. I do the workouts while I watch TV in the evenings, so I don't have to go out to a health club ... and I get the entertainment value as well. Kudos to the authors for providing such a great service!

I have been using this book as my training guide for several months now. It has a practical and no-nonsense approach. Since I bought this book and started using it, I have been reading other weight-lifting/strength-training books and so far have found the lessons/advice in this book to be extremely sound. If strength training (and not weight lifting) is your goal and you want to take the do-it-yourself approach, you won't go wrong with this book. You won't need a lot of equipment, either. A few free weights will do the trick.

I took a chance on this book after Amazon.Com posted it as recommended reading and was pleasantly surprised. While there have been other scholars who have pointed out the folly of Rationalism, Mr. O'Hear's angle was thought provoking and accessible to my plebian mind. Finally, an author who is courageous enough to both critique contemporary problems and provide a solution... even though his proposal is that we do nothing. His suggestion of a Zen-like "wu-wei" approach to our current cultural maladies is rather refreshing. In short, the author traces the evolution of enlightenment thinking to the current cultural cesspool where all things are equal and human experience is homogenized.

Mr. O'Hear portrays the notion of progress in essentially two ways: Technological (i.e., Material) and Spiritual. While progress in the material realm has offered advancements in transportation, medicine, and spectacle for example, humankind has not advanced spiritually.

We have denied the divine aspect of nature and of ourselves via materialism and scientism, thus in the Nietzschean perspective killing God (or the gods) and displacing the truly mythic and religious qualities of existence. Mr. O'Hear also encourages the reader (in a sort of Buddhist way) to accept the fact that with life comes suffering and that modern day Western humans hide from this fact. We hide behind psychotherapy, antidepressants, alcohol and drugs; we fill our days and nights watching television, surfing the internet, and otherwise being involved in the trappings of pop culture. And, much to our misfortune, we increasingly see things in a Darwinian manner, believing that we are merely machines of reproduction. Always seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, the much needed development (or redevelopment) of spirituality and human wisdom have fallen to the wayside. For the author, this is where the emphasis on life should return. Life, as in art, should be an expression of Beauty in the archetypal sense.

While Mr. O'Hear's observations of our society may be bleak in themselves, there is nevertheless the notion of hope for our species suggested throughout this book. Hope most assuredly is an element of the divine. Hope is above our bodily animality and mortality, our base cravings and desires.

Hope, however, is more than mere optimism. Hope is an acknowledgment that our spiritual future is more important than our material past.

This book will definitely make you think. Highly recommended.

The title above is stolen from a rap-like Van Morrison song by the same name; and refers to ways in which our pilgrim's progress has gone so badly astray in the last hundred years or so. So does the author of this book, Anthony O'Hear, rave on, rather eloquently, I might add, regarding the ways in which we have collectively transmogrified, vulgarized, and corrupted what was originally considered man's progressive search for the truth and enlightenment into a mere free for all for material goods and personal pleasures. Thus far have we gone astray that we think we have reached the final stages in man's progress when in fact we have so narrowed, lowered, and reduced both our strivings and the meaning of the notion of progress into superficial and mere material terms that our quest is now a mere shadow of anything like its originally rich, universal, and varied meanings.

It is more than coincidental, according to the author, that with the rise of science and technological innovation a new, much more limited and "operationally (read superficially here) defined" notion of progress means has for all intensive purposes diminished it, for science and its accompanying rationalistic ethos can only address certain aspects of a quite limited range of questions and issues of all those concerning mankind, and not necessarily the most cogent or meaningful at that. Indeed, our forbearers much better appreciated and understood that scientific technique itself could never meaningfully address moral, ethical, or philosophical issues, for these are by their very nature beyond the scope of such a rationally limited enterprise as science. Instead of recognizing the limitations of science however, we seem to have redefined progress in such a venial fashion as to make it virtually meaningless. O'Hear believes that our age is one devoted almost exclusively to a revolution of technological innovation and serving narrowly defined human rights and needs, and he argues that most of us find ourselves profoundly limited in terms of the scope of our own lives to ones characterized by material striving for individual comfort and happiness.

Yet through the very act of defining our notion of progress so narrowly and superficially, their utility in terms of providing any satisfaction or meaning to the individual is systematically frustrated, and seems rather meaninglessly channeled into a characteristically trivial pursuit for more material goods. Until we learn to redefine the nature of our quest into a world-view better invested by a reinvigorated appreciation for a more aware, introspective and characteristically moral and ethical standards, our progress will tend to be limited to the pettiness of material acquisition. Under such circumstances, our chances for achieving any true and substantial progress on the road to the traditional meanings of progress are poor. So long as we continue to view progress in such an impoverished, limited and superficial way as to limit it to material comfort and greater personal wealth, we will likely go no further in any meaningful way. This is an interesting book, one that substantiates the same kinds of traditional arguments that traditional scholars have made regarding the nature of contemporary society and the dangers associated with our increasingly exclusive scientific and rational orientation toward each other and the world.

We use it as a daily reference tool for graphic design. It seemed the best choice among several.

Not having played with previous CorelDRAW products in the past didn't slow me down in getting in the groove of CorelDRAW 10! This is a great resource for beginners. Not only does the author impeccably dig into many areas of the software, but he also makes plenty of useful suggestions on technique. And, technique, for me, is where it's at! The language is easy to understand and the illustrations depict clearly the instructions given. I give it a 5! (My, I think I just had a Siskel & Ebert moment!) :)

This book has obviously been written by someone who has worked with this program for years. It's easy-to-follow, well organized, and explains all of CorelDRAW 10's sophisticated capabilities and technical workings using clear, concise, and well-illustrated terms. I've already found myself utilizing dozens of the of tips and tricks, of which there must be hundreds. After a few weeks of working through the chapters, I've yet to find a topic or effect not covered. A nice touch is the tear-out shortcuts guide for the keyboard and the CD containing hundreds of art, image, and effects files - plus a bonus of 6 additional chapters. There are also special sections on using Corel's new RAVE program, built-in web image utilities, the Tracing application, and entire chapters dedicated to customization and VBA program scripting. This book is a leap ahead of any previous editions of the CorelDRAW Official Guides and quite frankly is one of the best books I've read on any technical subject.

This text book is the most up to date and comprehensive text book available for radiology residents preparing for the ABR exam as of this date 3/12/2002. I have recommended this text for my most serious students and they have done quite well on the ABR exam. ( Most have scored in the > 90th percentile in the U.S.) For residents who want to just pass the exam, I recommend Sprawls text.
Edward J. Goldschmidt Jr., M.S., DABMP, ...

I currently own the first edition of this book, and after flipping throug this new expanded 2nd edition, I'll be upgrading soon. The first book is an excellent text to use for teaching radiology residents the principles of medical imaging. Now, this second edition with greatly expanded content and pictures looks like it would be suitable for teaching a course to medical physics students. All sections appear to be significantly expanded with the additional detail needed for medical physicists. Still excellent for residents, but might go into a little more detail than they need.

Opening the pages to this textbook is like stepping into a classroom. These authors obviously are not only experts in their respective subspecialties of medical physics, but they are also seasoned teachers of the art and science of this field of medicine. This is easily evidenced by the clarity of thought and completeness with which they treat each topic in this comprehensive, easily readable textbook. I highly recommend this textbook to all who have a need for such a clear, concise teaching of the many aspects of medical physics covered in this work.

The introductory chapters are quite useful to understand man's relationship with symbols, but as I see it, the major goal of the book is to provide an inventory of the most frequently occuring and most obvious symbols. They are grouped around given topics and are briefly described. I liked the general introduction better than the symbol descriptions, which I found too short and general.

I have read both the above book and Private Myths by Dr. Stevens, and learned a great deal. The author writes clearly and energetically. There is one suggestion I'd like to make. For those of us who do not have a religion in which the term "God" is meaningful, I would like to recommend using the word "Nature" when indicating "highest" cosmic power.This term is consistent with Jung's position, and certainly will resonant with peoples wuch as Asian (I am one), American Indians and most others.

This is a book gives significance and meaning to everything that pops in your head. It is filled with possible representations of things that you would otherwise, look over. I don't always agree, yet it is filled with interesting and somewhat new theories about dreams.

This book was a National Book Award Finalist, and deservedly (This Time by Gerald Stern won that year, but I haven't read it yet, so I can't compare).

Fairchild was born in Houston, and grew up in West Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. His upbringing very much shows in his work. This is the poetry of the blue-collar working class. This is very much the poetry of the west and of Texas. Fairchild writes mostly longer narratives and dramatic monologues (most with longish lines). Some of the best poems of his are: "Beauty" the 10 page narrative of the working man, and this poem is phenomenal. It is one of the best contemporary poems written. And in fact, the only modern day narrative that is better is Dave Mason's "In the Country I Remember", though not by much. There is also one of the best baseball poems in recent years (or maybe the best baseball poem ever), "Body and Soul", a great narrative that runs a few pages and touches on the truth of the human soul of the working man. Also of great note is "Keats" (it'll surprise you) and "Cigarettes" a poem that finally gives us a reason to smoke. Or at least an understanding. The other poems in this collection are also great, those four are just the best.

There are two signs that clued me in that this was going to be a great book (other than the finalist of the Nat'l Book Award). The first were the blurbs. R.S. Gwynn, the modern day Pope, says "[Fairchild] measures a world inhabited by those for whom life has made its meaning plain by constant subtraction...both real and mataphorical, that figure so prominently in this collection." Dana Gioia says of this collection: "Fairchild boldly plundesr the territories of prose to expand the possibilities of contemporary verse...These fluent poems are amnivorously intelligent. The reader never knows what will come next; but, as deeply psychological in their probings as a novel, they alwasy cohere." Tim Steele, one of the greatest of the modern metricists, says "Fairchild brings sympathetic insight to the people...he has a gift for focusing on those moments when lives constrained by psychological or economic circumstances are touched by beauty and significance." And Wyatt Prunty calls the poems "remarkably textured, genrous, haunting" .

And the other sign of this books importance is Anthony Hecth's introduction. No more needs to be said.

Once in a while the prizes go to a book that truly deserves it. This is a wonderful collection. Fairchild's poems are mature, nuanced, strongly crafted, and moving. He's particularly good at mixing narrative with lyric, as in the stunning poem "Beauty." And see if you don't think that "Body and Soul" isn't the best baseball poem ever.

B.H. Fairchild is one of the important American poets. Important for what he has to say and, even more, for the carefully crafted language in which he says it. The is an exceptional book of poetry, and, in my opinion, a manual on articulating, giving voice to, one's heart. I'm tempted here to quote from the poems, doubtlessly the best way to convey the depth and weight of his work but it's hard not to quote, practically, every poem. In a time of "no time," when efficiency has been elevated to a cult and success is measured by how much one can get others to do more work on one's behalf, Fairchild celebrates those who work, day after day, in the anonimity of hard, manual work. This book is for those readers who need to find beauty even in the dread of repetition and obscured futures. This book celebrates the men and women who no one celebrates, a treatise in soul-making written in unsentimental, yet passionate, words. How sadly woundrous that people, poets, artists of the depth and scope of B.H. Fairchild remain gold to be mined in the obscure depth of majestic mountains. Yet, just reading his masterful "Body and Soul" should be enough to proccure a miner's hat and begin to mine the rock. Like Robert Hass, but in his own way, Fairchild elevates narrative, stories, to the height of pure poetry. It might recall for you, also, the receptive and heart-breaking beauty of James Wright poems, as another reviewer so wisely pointed out. In the poem "Body and Soul," I must mention it again, Fairchild speaks of men who might have witnessed the difference "between talent and genius." I believe I, too, have such experience with these poems.

I, like many who reviewed this series, got into this series when I was 16 years old. The inordinate amount of sex was surely a major aspect of my voracious reading of this series. As I look back, 14 years later, I ralize that Piers Anthony had a gift of coming up with some great plots. Yet he had to suffuse them with so much sex (and bad sex, may I say), which he does with virtually every book he writes, that the story just becomes soft porn books. Of course teen boys love it! But this is not real science fiction.

The writing of Piers Anthony is mediocre at best, lacking in complex characters. His strength is good plots and knowing how to turn teen boys on.

I FIRST READ THESE BOOKS IN THE 10TH GRADE OF HIGH SCHOOL. I READ EACH BOOK OF THE SERIES ABOUT 20 TIMES. THEN MY LIBRARIAN TOOK THE BOOKS AND WOULDN'T LET ANYONE READ THEM.NOW I'M A SENIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL AND WANT TO FIND THEM SOME WHERE ELSE, ANY IDEAS? E-MAIL ME AT eboz9@nctimes.net. THANKS.

This story captivated me. I started reading it when I was in highschool and couldn't put it down. Between then and now, 10 years later, I've read the series over again a million times. Read the first couple of pages and if you don't want to read anymore, I'd be shocked.

After the exhiliration generated by Washburn's classic book on Denali, this one left me slightly disappointed. There are many exquisite photographs and a few truly great ones, such as the famous picture of climbers on the Doldenhorn (in the Bernese Alps). But on the whole there are just a little bit too many pictures of abstract geological features. These reveal a more scholarly side of Washburn's art: interesting to round out our view on this great artist, but less captivating than the epic mountain pictures. Also, there is an appendix with a detailed account of Washburn's career, with many little inset pictures of people he worked with (Barbara Washburn being the most prominent amongst them). I would have liked to see many more of these pictures and at a size more amenable to detailed study. A final point of criticism on this book concerns the interview with Washburn by the editor: it is very revealing but way too short! I would have guessed that Decaneas would have been able to extract much more material from all the conversations he has had with Washburn in the final years of his life. So, it's a nice book to have in the library, but Decaneas missed an opportunity to put together an absolute classic. Pity.

This book is a marvelous record of mountain exploration and photography with photos that span a period of almost 70 years. This small collection representing much less than 1% of Washburn's photographs is a remarkable record of photography rivaling Ansel Adams or Vittorio Sella. Although the photos were originally taken to support his geological or surveying research or to provide guide shots for climbers, Washburn soon realized that he had a knack for taking photographs as art that were as good as any being produced by other photographers.

This book may be a disappointment for those who want expedition photographs as few of the photographs include people. Indeed, having a few more pictures of people would have warranted five stars. Yet, many of the pictures are aerial photographs so the lack of people in many is not surprising. What makes it ultimately worthwhile is the crispness of the pictures, the attention to details on the ridges and valleys of the mountains, the patterns revealed in the flow of glaciers, and so on.

One other point of interest is that this book was the Grand Prize Winner of the 2000 Banff Mountain Book Festival -- the only pure photography book to win that award.

Bradford Washburn roamed the globe for eighty years as a mountaineer, explorer, cartographer, and aerial photographer. In Bradford Washington: Mountain Photography, Tony Decaneas as assembled one hundred full-size landscape mountain photographs from the more than ten thousand images that Bradford made during his lifetime of photographic accomplishments. From the Grand Canyon to the Alps, from Mount McKinley to Mount Everest, these black and white landscape photos of mountain peaks and picture portraits of team members and colorful characters that are each of them museum quality visual images showcasing Bradford's photography as having risen to the level of fine art.

The book starts out at such a leisurely pace that one is fooled into thinking that it will be finshed in a few days read, but Feynman soon plunges into the much deeper aspects of computation. Some chapters are material that are covered by others much more extensively (such as theory of computation) but they are often treated in his unique approach, other topics (such as Quantum mechanical computers) are such rare gems that they alone would be worth getting the book for.

This book is not easy, but like his physics lecture, the effort in following his lectures and working out the questions and problems that he poses make this, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful, albeit difficult and terse, books on computation I have come across in a long time. Certainly belongs in the library of anyone who is serious about the theoretical aspects of computation.

This reference is derived from Feynman's lectures at Caltech between 1983-1986 for the course 'Potentialities and Limitations of Computing Machines'. This small volume introduces computers as a file clerk performing his tasks, moves on to show how the 'file clerk' can be built out of simple gates, how the gates can be built out actual transistors, discusses essential issues in computation theory such as computability and Turing machines, and then discusses essential issues in information theory such as data compression. The physics of computing from a thermodynamics context is then considered. If the general reader ignores the gas equations, this chapter is fairly easy to read and enlightening. The next chapter continues with a discussion of quantum mechanical computers. The final chapter discusses how real transistors function at the atomic level and fabrication techniques for real integrated circuits. Lectures given by invited experts on computer science topics such as vision, robots, expert systems, etc, are not included. Although this reference does not discuss alternative architectures for computation, such as the ones found in the brains of animals, this reference is ideal to introduce the motivated general reader to the concept of computation and the techniques used in commercial computers.

This book is pretty good. I thought the characters advanced a lot in this book, as well as got more interesting. However, if you are looking for BIG action, this isn't the book in the series for it. There is lots of action in this book, but the final blow-out has been saved for its own book.

Basically, the main characters are split into two groups--the group in present-day Eldh and the group in 1883 Colorado. The Colorado group has to deal with fitting into the society and waiting for Jack to show up. Interestingly enough, they have to deal with a vigilante group called the Crusade of Purity. That could lead the reader to some conclusions between the book and a commentary on real life.

The group on Eldh splits when Aryn has to go home to meet her future husband & takes Melia with her. However, this is ok, because she ends up facing up to her past actions that she thought were justified, and becomes stronger in her Craft. The other group is trying to find Grace's sword and make it to the black tower. Along the way, they meet some VERY interesting people....

By the end of the book, everything is in place for the beginning of book 5. I can't wait.

I liked this book a lot and in fact like this whole series. First off I've read books with homosexuals as the main characters, however I never read a book where one of the main characters is bi-sexual (Travis). It's pretty obvious that he likes both men and women and yet has the darnest time making the decission. I thought it was pretty funny with the scene of Beltan and Vani.

A lot of people don't like Vani but I happen to find Beltan more than a little annoying, this is just me however. For one Beltan gets all [mad] just because Vani happens to love Travis. One thing I don't understand is the whole destiny thing and find this to actually take away from the book. However over all this was a decent read.

Warning: This review contains spoilers, so I suggest you skip it if you haven't read the book yet.
I absolutely love these books. Sword and sorcery fantasy is rarely written this well. I really care about all the characters and what happens to them. That is why I am in agony until I get to read book 5. I SO badly want Travis and Beltan to get together. I'm pretty much indifferent to Vani. I think that the author is drawing it out to add suspense. He keeps hinting that Travis is going to get both of them, but he won't just SAY it. I realize that this is great storytelling, but it's killing me. And what the hell was that at the end, where Travis goes to kiss Beltan, and Beltan pulls away? WHAT?? Aaaagh!!