I read a friend's copy of this book when I was in early grade school and I have been searching for a copy ever since. It's been more that twenty years but I still remember the images from the book: the destroyed city, the frightened children, the hope for the future. At least now I know the author's name and my search will be a little easier! Thanks Amazon!

This ain't "Witch World!" "Outside", by Andre Norton, tells how a return to nature and the mysticism of Nature Religion could turn around the dead-end journey of our increasing reliance on technology too complex for all but a few to understand. Many of the images are derived from traditional Wicca -- the Black Man who is also the Fool and also the Wise One and who leads his followers to freedom is only the foremost among them. In many ways this book is like a zen koan -- the puzzle or joke that has no straight answer, meditation on which leads to illumination. That there are so few copies available is a great pity -- it should be widely read by mystics, ecologists, and urban planners.

I first read this young adult book when I was 7. It was my first taste of Science Fiction and 23 years later I still remember it! It is set on a world where everyone lives in a huge domed city which is full of broken machines that no one remembers how to fix. People live in gangs where anyone in their twenties is considered an "old". They suvive by scavenging out of ancient stores. Whole areas of the city are abandoned. Food is running out, and the oxygen makers are breaking down. And children are following a mysterious rhyming man and vanishing. The heroine of the story is a young girl, a "little", who longs to see what is outside the dome, even though "olds" say everything is dead. So she follows the rhyming man...

This story of a future Earth is a bit scary for young readers, but is very haunting and thought provoking for more mature kids. This story is one that many adults would do well to read as well. It may very well be our own future!!

It is a wonderful story with the idea of cats as aliens come back to earth to collect their cousins. (earthling cats) It is a wonderful story where a boy and girl hear them thought-speak to their cousins to come home and learn too much. It is a MUST READ.

I was hoping for more contemporary rejection letters. This is still a fun book, but mostly rejections and reviews for older authors.

If the greatest authors of all can be rejected and survive, maybe there's hope for all unpublished authors. The publishing racket has only become harder and harder to break into these days, unless one is willing to go the route of electronic publishing and on-demand printing, both of which remain dangerously akin to vanity press printings as of this review. This wonderful little collection serves as a comic tonic to the rejection and review blues; although some of the authors are obscure today (which is my reason for not giving it full marks --it's hard to laugh when you have no idea what book is being rejected), overall it's a marvelous little read. Some examples of rotten rejections: Tony Hillerman was told to "get rid of all that Indian stuff"; J.G. Ballard was told "the author of this book is beyond psychiatric help"; William Faulkner was told about his novel "Sanctuary" "Good God, I can't publish this. We'd both be in jail."; and my favorite, "I'm sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language." When one considers that J.K Rowling had the first Harry Potter book rejected ten times before it was published, one has to wonder what publishers are thinking. Now you can see for yourself how badly they perceive literary quality, most of the time.

this is a great collection of bad reviews and rejection letters of great books and authors. it gives the unpublished writer hope, knowing that authors like dickens and joyce were rejected by publishers. and it's loaded with humor.

"Now All We Need Is a Title: Famous Book Titles and How They Got That Way" is a cute book, but nearly all of the books mentioned did not pique my interest. Nearly none of the "classics" that are popular today are written about and it lacked an index. A disappointment - I do not recommend.

Andre Bernard did an excellent job putting this book together. If you're really into books, or you know someone who is, this is a nice little afternoon read. And probably anyone who thinks coming up with a title is easy should be forced to read this! To prove the point that titles can be very difficult to come by, Andre Bernard admits that his original title for this book wasn't very good at all: he wanted to call it Untitled!

I purchased the Adobe e-book version of this book assuming it would be easier to use for reference than the print version. I was wrong. The Find feature is slow, cumbersome, and doesn't support Boolean searches. You can't copy or print even the smallest portions of the text. You cannot jump to a reference from its listing in the index. And when you click on the highlighting tool, you'll accidentally hit a link that periodically pops up for Amazon.com, opening your browser whether you want to or not. You cannot return this e-book, though you will be tempted to. Save yourself the money and buy a used copy and some sticky notes.

As the other reviewer said, a fabulous book that is absolutely awful as an e-book. I have the hard copy, and use it frequently for speeches and talks. It is brilliant - pick one up, and you will sit down with it. But the e-book is as bad as the other reviewer mentioned - all the portabilitiy in the world can't make up for impossible searches and slowness. If I could get my money back, I would... Maybe it's just Microsoft Reader, but regardless, it makes the book virtually unusable.

BARTLETT'S BOOK OF ANECDOTES is not this reviewer's normal work having mostly stayed with fiction. In fact, I had no plans to write a review, but my spouse was leafing through the book and started laughing. Motivated to take a look and not let it be a coffee table piece, I started to read some of the quotes from famous, not so famous (at least in my circle) and infamous people throughout history. I found myself intrigued, enjoying the comments that are often serious and obtaining additional pleasure from a brief biography of the contributor. In fairness, I have not finished the anecdotes, but read a few each night to simply relax as the book reminds me of A&E's "Biography for the Millennium" even though there are contributors from before 1000 AD. However, though entertaining and a remarkable research book, readers need to consider the price vs. the value before purchasing this tome.

Harriet Klausner