I too was once a Led Zeppelin fanatic. I bought anything and everything that began with the letters "L" and "Z"...including this book.

It's not bad. It's not great, but it's not bad. The book is a collection of quotes from Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham on a variety of subjects ranging from music to their well known problems with the music press to life on the road etc, etc. The topics don't get much heavier than that although that's not a big deal. I mean, does anyone really care what John Bonham has to say about the state of international affairs? I don't think so. At the end are a few sanctimonious quotes from Robert Plant about no man being an island and Jimmy Page saying that he's searching for an angel with a broken wing.

Whatever. Judging by the age of some of his girlfriends I'd say he spent most of his time looking for her at the local Jr. High School.

Anyway, the biggest flaw with this book is that there are no dates accompanying the quotations. So you don't really get a feel for how the band members grew or progressed as people as they got richer, older and supposedly wiser. Bad omission by the editors.

If you love Zep the way I used to love them, buy this. If you're just a casual fan then stick w/the music.

This book includes exciting insite into the band. Zeppelin gave so few interviews during their years together. "In Their Own Words" gives one the feeling of having the inside track on what the guys were really all about.

This book is great, because it is TRUE! It really IS in there own words! The book starts from the beginning of the forming of the band, even before Led Zeppelin, and continues past Robert, Jimmy & JPJ's solo work,up until the reunion of Page & Plants long waited for reunion tour, in 1995. There are also quotes in here from their late manager Peter Grant. But you get MORE than THAT! You get LOADS of pictures throughout the WHOLE book, pictures taken all through a 30 year time span. Many pictures I have never seen before, (and I though I've seen them all)!
Also! Did you ever wonder what the song "Thats the Way" is about? I always did! To my surprise, Robert explains it in this book! (and I'm so relieved) Other songs too! and about ALL their albums & movie.
This is a GREAT reference book! Great to show all your Zep Head friends, and discuss! I just have 2 questions I cannot find anywhere, and if anyone knows the answers please send me an I.M. on aol instant messenger! #1 What is Robert Plants Exact hight and approximate weight? #2 What size are his tight hip hugger jeans?! LOL! (I'm female, I saw him in 2nd row on the floor EXACTLY 1 year ago today, and he smiled at me 3x, I threw him a gift, he was flattered)! He was GREAT, even without Jimmy-he has a unique, mysterious, intriguing style & talent that is all his own. BUY THIS book, not the other books full of lies!

An interesting collection of literary works analyzing the over-abundant classes that exist in our so called "classless society." Authors and musicians Point out that while we strive for limitless society, we will always be restricted by our class, with very few exceptions.

Literature, Class, and Culture was an excellent book that express the differences of the classes- mainly between the workiing classes. Some of the stories are actually quit entertaining while others seem to draw out way too long. The material is easy to relate to no matter what class you fall under. I would recommend reading this book, that is if you have the free time (it took me a while to read the book and doing the writing assignments on the material).

I found the book to have a complete realm of subject matter. All of the essays and stories and particularly the songs had very good meaning to them. Most of what I found interesting was the subject of everyday life from an ordinary perspective. Most of the subjects were from a working class perspective and it opened my mind up to many things that were important and expressed years ago. I found that a lot of today's thinking could easily be paralleled with that time and those circumstances. For instance, in Boxcar Bertha, an autobiography, her mission to find out what makes men and women do the things that they do at the expense of their being, still goes on in today's society. I found things in this writing to be parallel to the year 2001. There were many examples of this type of subject matter. I just felt good reading it and knowing that it could relate to me. I highly suggest getting a copy and reading it.

I'm going to be a first-time Eastern Europe traveler this summer. However, I have travelled extensively and one of the first things I look for in a travel book is a book that offers information on all aspects of a country. For example, I felt the information on countries like Yugoslavia and Macedonia was a little abbreviated. There are some people out there who would actually like to do an "off-the-beaten-path" trip in those countries and Lonely Planet wasn't able to help me plan for this. The information on Greece was definitely helpful, but for those who plan to travel on their islands, I'd recommend Lonely Planet's Greek Islands which had exactly the right amount of information I needed to make my travels there worthwhile!

We purchased this book before going to three of the countries covered, because there are so few books that cover Eastern Europe as a whole.

Although the information was limited, we found it helpful in general terms. It also whetted my appetite for going to the other countries in the book!

I can only speak for the Yugoslav section in this book, since it is the country I am most acquainted with.
Generally speaking, the LP team did an excellent job researching Beograd, but information on the rest of the country is poor. They don't mention a thing about Serbian institutions like Studenica monastery; they omit everything about the Fruska Gora and there's not even a word on the charming town of Sremski Karlovci.
I wonder whether the information on the other countries is equally poor. If that is the case, I'd rather tour the region on my own without any book at all.
However, one improvement with respect to the previous edition is they are now including Kotor (But Ulcinj is not so much recommended as before, which I don't know why since the beaches are much better than in Budva).
With regards to Novi Sad, their suggestions are very poor, even in what concerns to lodging. My recommendations are: add the Fruska Gora, Srem Karlovci, Raska and probably Nis.

This book is a handy source for getting by speaking Bahasa Indonesia, the national language of Indonesia, and will serve you well if you go to Bali. In Bali, they speak Bahasa Bali and Bahasa Indonesia, and as I have read in Lonely Planet Bali & Lombok guidebook, apparently, Bahasa Indonesia is easier for the visitor to learn.

My husband and I used this book on our trip to Bali in April, and found it very useful. We pleased many Balinese by trying to speak in Bahasa Indonesia, instead of expecting them to speak English.

This is a very small book (126 pages, 3.5" x 5") and fits nicely in the pocket of the very lightweight clothing you will want to wear while in a hot, humid, tropical climate. The book is organized according to topics (food, taxi, shopping, emergencies etc.), rather than alphabetically like a dictionary, and we found the organization helpful when we really needed it, like when dealing with vendors or when going to a cafe. The only thing different that I would have liked to be added, is a small dictionary of Bahasa Indonesia at the back of the book to accompany the small English one. Although we were not at a loss without and Indonesian dictionary.

Selamat siang. Saya hanya tahu sedikit bahasa Indonesia. Dimana setasiun kereta api? Bagaimana jika kita makan pagi di warung ini? Saya mau beli kelambu. Terima kasih.

This fit-in-your-pocket phrase book is nicely designed, and I really use it.

The grammar section alone outperforms bigger Behasa Indonesia language courses for simplicity and clear explanations.

Categories like "Getting Around" and "Food" are well organized, and it really is possible to find what phrase you are looking for, standing at the market in front of Mister Banana Seller, in a few seconds. Glossary is English to Behasa Indonesia only (and not the other way around).

Like the title explains, this book offers commentary from various echelons in the German Air Force on the planning and production of fighters and bombers, the deployment and assignments, the policy, the conflicts and the strategic misuse of this vital branch of the military. As well, the author gives a great deal of background on the manufacturers, the competition for the new air speed record, the celebrated pilots who tested the new marvels, the hardships of restricted supply, the motives and explanations of the awarding of production contracts, and many more insights into the German Luftwaffe from its inception, and from the ground up. While a little too technical in naming every formation and an insistence on listing every make and model of plane for every sortie, this book has a lot of valuable information on the German military apparatus, specifically the air arm.

Review An absorbing account of Luftwaffe's triumph and tragedy in World War II . The author expatiates on operations of German airforce in different theatres of war -Poland ,Norway ,France and Low countries ,Balkans ,Russia- when Hitlers's conquest was at its height .The principal credit for making "Blitzkrieg' a success must go to Luftwaffe. Its support of ground forces -direct ,indirect -brought the Polish campaign to a swift conclusion .Later it helped the German armour to breach French defences at Sedan on May 13,1940.Allied airforces intervened ,made a desperate attempt to block Guderian's tanks from crossing river Meuse which was repulsed by the Luftwaffe fighters.Once the breakthrough was effected, panzers rattled and rumbled towards the English channel. In the process they outran infantry cover, consequently the Luftwaffe was assigned the task of protecting vulnerable flanks of armoured thrust which it did brilliantly.On May 21-22 ,1941 ,Royal Navy in Cretan waters was exposed to the full fury of German airforce.This led to the first air-sea battle in the history of war .After suffering crippling losses the English fleet had to retreat having paid the penalty of operating without aircover Then it was largely responsible for the triumphant German advance upto the gates of Moscow. The book has exploded a few myths. The strength of German airforce during the beginning of hostilities was grossly exaggerated by Anglo-American historians of the war.During German invasion of Poland, Luftwaffe had at its disposal only 1302 first-line aircraft. Anglo-Saxon media has reviled the German bombing of Warsaw,Rotterdam. The author ,however, has given different interpretation on what caused this bombing,.Both cities were barricaded and bitterly defended. Repeated attempts to make them surrender through negotiations failed The book has a few drawbacks. The section dealing with ' Battle of Britain ' appears outdated. Ever since the publication of group capatain F.W.Winterbotham's book 'Ultra Secret" hitherto accepted history of world war needed re-interpretation . But the author can be absolved of this lapse since he wrote the book at a time when Ultra was still a top secret.Author never had the privilege to know that Luffwaffe ciphers had been broken and its operational orders read by the British intelligence.

Also ignored are developments in the field of electronics .Just as the Battle of Atlantic, technical progress made a deep impact on the fortunes of airwar.Germans had radars like Freya, Wurzburg to detect the approach of Allied bomber formations.British countered by deploying jammers (Mandrel,Carpet) on aircraft accompanying bomber formations helping them to penetrate German airspace, Then there were devices like Liechtenstein SN2.RWR(radar warning receiver) called Naxos, The former was an airborne interception radar, Latter a passive device capable of picking radar emisssions from Allied bombers which were picked up at double the distance at which bombers radars were able to detect German fighters. This gave fighters ample time to plan manoeuvres . Naxos picked up emisssions from H2's radar installed on RAF pathfinder force ( PFF) which were assigned the task of marking targets to be bombed by dropping phosphorous flares.Naxos guided the fighters directly to this aircraft.The second German RWR was Flensburg which received emissions from British airborne radar Monica fitted on to the tail of RAF bombers.Thanks to progress in the field of electronics total destruction of Berlin in the spring of 1944 was averted.

Upon reading the book I had a feeling that HerrBekker wrote it with the intention of extolling the achievments of Luftwaffe. No doubt Germans had superior planes at their disposal. Till the advent of American P-51 Mustang fighters Luftwaffe's FW-190 was the best air superiority fighter.This was amply demonstrated during the dogfights with the British Spitfires in 1941,42,43 above the English channel. Much before the outbreak of war Germans had experimented rocket,turbo-jet powered planes (HE-176,HE-178) However the lead was not exploited and the advantage squandered due to myopia of Luftwaffe General Staff. Reason for the decline of Luftwaffe is not difficult to seek. Being predominantly tactical airforce whose mission was to support the army in its blitz campaigns, it lacked strategic offensive and operational level defensive capabilities. Conceived for short-term campaigns the changing nature of war forced Luftwaffe to embark on number of tasks and its weakness was soon exposed .The belief that Germany had won the war led to curtailment in long-term planning and development.As a result the airforce was saddled with obsolete aircraft.Finally Hitler's insistence on offensive air operation meant that the potentialities of Germany's first operational jet fighter (ME-262) could not be fully exploited.

Since the end of WW II, it seems that occurred an epidemy of books written about the Luftwaffe, mainly by American / British writers, with bombastic titles like " Rise and Fall of The Luftwaffe", "History of the Luftwaffe"..etc... FOrget all about them. Cajus Bekker's book is the best ever written about the subject and comes from a remarkable neutral point of view, considering the fact the writer is a German. In only one volume, he sets up the reader in the real demands placed upon the Luftwaffe even before the War, and shows the way that the German publicity machine worked over their initial sucesses. HE also describes all kinds of combat squadrons, including bomber, dive-bombers and reccon, without talking only about the fighter pilots, differently from so many books. Great! A War Aviation fan must have this one!!

Its wellwritten and funny.my favorite part of the book was when kerby got his chemistry set.Also when kerby hit bumpson the head with his sword.Kerby bent bump hat.

Ah yes, those were much simpler times, when you could write a book that involved making magic potions with a chemistry set and drinking them or placing them in a lemonade vat... and not worry about getting sued. I'm curious - does the book come with a warning now? Or has the story been edited to reflect safer lab practices? Of course, to this end, few chemistry sets include anything that'll kill you anymore, either (justifiably so, I guess).

All cynical humor aside, this is a terrific children's book. The rest of the series is well worth tracking down, also.

Oh happy day! For years I've been trying to remember enough about these books to track them down, and now a search engine has done it for me. I read this series of "Trick" books probably in their first printing and adored them. Now that I have children of my own, I've been trying to figure out how to describe them to a librarian in order to track them down. Now with a few clicks, here they are! I only hope they all come out in an affordable format soon. Kerby may not be the original Harry Potter, but I can't wait to re-read all of these. Yippee!

For a beginner, the first 15 or so chapters of this book are a good introduction to Common Lisp. After that, however, it shifts gears and turns into an AI book that uses Lisp. Perhaps this is not surprising since it was written by two gents from MIT's famed AI Lab, but I was interested in learning Lisp, not AI. I really think that the last half should have focused on the parts of CL that were skipped in the begining.

This is a nicely written introduction to Lisp, with the topics divided into small, digestable pieces followed by exercises with the answers in the back.

The book does not overwhelm you with trivial details, which makes it easier to learn from. However, that also means you'll probably need a second book fairly quickly, which goes into greater detail. For example, the book describes reading from and writing to files, but I don't see anything on appending to files or replacing files.

This is the very best introduction to Lisp. It teaches you how to really use Lisp in real situations. And it goes on to advanced topics (LISP in LISP, OOP in LISP, Constraint Propagation, Databases, Symbolic Pattern Matching, etc.) showing the amazing force of LISP.
It builds your LISP skills slowly, but thoroughly, from the very basic to AI.
Professor Winston is a highly regarded name in the AI community, too.
Absolutely a must!

The Doctor and Ace arrive on Heaven, an idyllic world where humans, Draconians and other races live togther in peace, and Ace finds herself falling for another traveller. But the peace is about to be shattered by invasion, and this time the Doctor's game of traps will hurt those closest to him...

Love and War is perhaps one of the most important New Adventures in the series for many reasons. First of all, it introduces the wholly literary companion, Professor Bernice Surprise Summerfield. Based in part on Kate Lemon, Emma Thompson's character in "The Tall Guy," Benny has grown to become one of Doctor Who's best-loved companions, and her debut is suitably brilliant. Love and War's cover features perhaps the best illustration of her from any of the books in which she features.

However, despite the arrival of new friends, the book is not overall a happy one; the relationship between Ace and the Doctor becomes strained to breaking point, and she leaves. The reasons for her departure, and the development of the Doctor's role as a manipulator, have been a source of controversy since the book's publication, and the debate continues today. The reader, hoever, is not guided towards a decision over the Doctor's methods; his side of the story and Ace's are both presented, and while it hurts to see Ace hurt by him, sympathy goes out to both characters.

Whether you agree with the move or not, Love and War is definitely a required read, with Paul Cornell's usual blend of continuity (here much subtler in most places than in his later novels), well-drawn characters, and strangeness (for instance the scene in which the Doctor speaks with Death over his bargain with his sixth life).

Love and War sees a new Doctor evolve from the old, and regardless of how you like him, the story and presentation of Cornell's second New Adventure make his book unmissable. I felt truly sad when the Doctor and Ace parted company; no doubt you will too. And a book that can make you sad is a rare, and special, thing.

Wow. Reading LOVE AND WAR is a startling reminder of exactly how good Doctor Who can be. It does so many things so well, that it becomes difficult to break down and show off the individual parts. However, there are a number of fundamental things that Paul Cornell did particularly well, and they deserve to be given a closer look.

While I first read LOVE AND WAR quite a number of years ago, my recent rereading (done about seven or eight years after my initial perusal) contained a fair amount of surprise for me, solely by the amount of sequences that were very familiar despite the passage of time. There are quite a lot of memorable scenes that had stuck in my brain, and the crystal clear familiarity with several passages meant I couldn't fully believe how long it had been since I had last read it. Contrast this with my experiences with another early NA like TIMEWYRM: APOCALYPSE, that contained a similar time between initial and second reads, but for which the amount of material that I remembered from the first time was practically nil.

This is a story that can change drastically upon rereading. If you've previously read it, then on the second reading you can see all the little touches and foreshadowing that Cornell slipped in. For me, the first time I read it, LOVE AND WAR was the story of the Doctor's betrayal. Yet, aided by the benefit of hindsight, it's possible to view this as an epic tragedy, with the Doctor attempting to, but eventually being unable to hold back the inevitable conclusion. There's a lot of subtlety at work here and one almost certainly will not catch everything on the first reading.

The emotional content of the book is quite heavy. There are huge doses of angst, particularly during the end, and yet the book never lets itself be overly weighted down by it. The emotion is realistic and hard-hitting, but never gratuitous. It could have so easily bounced straight into the realm of overbearing melodrama, but fortunately, Cornell choose not to do so. He gave enough so that the audience could establish an emotional connection to the characters, but not so much as to cause us to be sick of them. The balance is perfect.

While the plot of LOVE AND WAR is excellent, it's primarily the story of the characters that makes this such a memorable tale. The character motivations are meticulously worked out. It's a rare story where you can rationalize every single person's actions and still completely understand why the final conflict between the main protagonists has to occur the way that it does. The plot drives the characters, but the characters drive the plot. It's very neat.

In addition to what I've already mentioned, there are loads of slight details that make this a wonderful read. The way the plot perfectly ties in with the characters. The wonderfully realistic interactions between Ace and Jan, and Ace and the Doctor. The great and understated introduction of Professor Bernice Summerfield. The prose is on par with some seriously good books out there. If you haven't read LOVE AND WAR, then beg, borrow or steal a copy immediately. Sell your kids to the BBC. Eat a whole pound of butter. Do whatever it takes to get your hands on a copy of this book.

Earth is at war with Draconia, and one planet is kept out of it: Heaven, where both sides bury their dead. But it is not only the dead who are on Heaven: there are also the living, and something in between, an ancient terror whose activities on Heaven are the reason for the Doctor's visit...

The books prior to this in Virgin's Doctor Who series were an extension of the TV series (although people would argue about how successful they were). Here, the Virgin New Adventures start firmly establishing their own style here.

The book also sees the introduction of the first new companion created for the books - Bernice Summerfield, a professor of archaeology. Benny (as she is known to her friends) stays with the Doctor for a long time, and eventually heads up a series of books and audio plays of her own.

The story also explores the Doctor's character, and what regeneration means.

Amongst all this, there is a good story to read. Paul Cornell is one of the better writers in the Doctor Who range.

As a Luftwaffe enthusiast I greatly enjoyed this book. There's a lot of fresh information and photos I'd never seen before.

Collaboratively researched and written by military historian Christopher Staerck and military aviation expert Paul Sinnott, Luftwaffe: The Allied Intelligence Files provides the reader with an amazing behind-the-scenes tour of the Allied intelligence service's struggle against the German air force in World War II. Drawing upon once-secret dossiers used to gauge enemy aircraft, and incorporating what is today known of the Luftwaffe, while utilizing black-and-white photographs of captured and deserted aircraft (including some never-before-published pictures), Luftwaffe additionally benefits from a straightforward and detailed narration. Presenting as it does the underside of one, critical piece of that global struggle, Luftwaffe is a very strongly recommended addition to World War II history and military aviation collections.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. As someone with a long time interest in the Luftwaffe this book adds a new angle. There's a lot of detail and photgraphs I hadn't seen anywhere else before. The intelligence histories take you back to WWII real time information.

Overall a fresh take on a fascinating subject.

It is impossible to understand Machiavelli in 90 minutes, or even 90 days, though I have no doubt that books like this sell. Still, unsuspecting students who really want to learn something should beware. There are no good short cuts for stuff this difficult, and this is worse than a bad shortcut--it's downright misleading.

Paul Strathern does a good job of providing a very useful description of the historical and biographical context of Machiavelli's works. Without this kind of background, those who attempt to read Machiavelli's most famous work, THE PRINCE, will find their efforts to be frustrating and futile. Strathern's little book is best seen as a useful adjunct to and preparation for Machiavelli's works, not as a kind of CLIFF'S NOTES which provides a systematic delineation of his contribution to political thought (although Strathern does help the reader to understand Machiavelli's view of political theory "as a kind of science independent of morals"). Strathern offers a good contribution with his brief comparison and contrast of Machiavelli's THE PRINCE and DISCOURSES ON LIVY, alerting the reader to the more temperate and considered contribution to political theory provided by the latter work. As Strathern notes, in THE PRINCE, Machiavelli writes from the ruler's point of view, providing guidance for the ruthless consolidation of power. However, in DISCOURSES, he writes from the citizens' point of view, giving them advice on how to run things, "especially how to achieve freedom within the state." In relation to the latter, Strathern cites Machiavelli's seemingly out-of-character assertion that "people are more prudent, more stable, and have better judgment than a prince." All in all, Strathern writes clearly and engagingly, although he tends to indulge in a bit of historical gossip (e.g., his discussion of Cesare Borgia's sister, Lucrezia, daughter of Pope Alessandro VI). In sum, this book is useful as an introduction to Machiavelli's contributions, but is not an adequate substitution for a reading of Machiavelli's works.

I'm perplexed by the people who write angrily about the "90 Minutes" series because they are disappointed not to find a serious, in depth treatment of the works of these philosophers. The books obviously don't purport to be anything but what they are: an entertaining, high level view of basic concepts and life history.
The author shows in this book how Machiavelli's life and times may have affected his writings. I have other books that delve into Machiavelli's philosophy, but none of them mention his personal circumstances and history, which surely would affect his writing and philosophy. These books are good in that they put these great thinkers in a social and historical context which many books fail to do.
I enjoyed the books I've read by this author a great deal.