This book is one of the 2 most desirable and collectible books on classical guitars (the other one is: Collection of Fine Spanish Guitars from Torres to the Present by Urlik, Sheldon). The figures are superb and the text informative. The hard cover edition is better in the following senses:

1. The hard cover edition is a limited edition (6000 copies only).
2. It is like a textbook which can be opened fully on its back. Easy for reading and scanning.
3. It's got a hard protective slipcase

However, getting the softcover edition might be your choice for its price and availability.

If you are a lover of guitars, specifically classical guitars, you owe it to yourself to purchase this book. There is nothing else like it. Great photography, details on some of the best guitars from some of the best makers...Romanillos, Smallman, Bernabe...They are all here. Inclusively, the book covers players (Williams, Bream, Segovia) as well as an in depth look at wood and the guitar market today. Great stuff and at ..., an incredible bargain.

Any lover of the classical guitar cannot help but appreciate this gorgeous collection of instruments, as well as the way in which they are displayed on the pages. Filled with information about the guitars and their construction, the luthiers, and which players'CDs you can hear them on, I highly recommend this fine edition. I take issue only with the subtitle "A Complete History", as the guitars are based on a single collection of instruments, owned by Russell Cleveland, and not necessarily what any other person would consider "Complete". That fact does not diminish my enjoyment of this exquisite book one bit.

This is a great assortment of fiction. Just when I was getting tired of gay anthologies comes this very different bunch of tales. From Jim Provenzano's scorching account of a gay-bashing to Adam Klein's "the Medicine Burns," the voices vary and the styles differ enough to provide a great sampling of gay men's fiction from 1996.

I was disappointed that some were novel extracts (Michael Cunningham's, Chris Bram's from "Father of Frankenstein" and Edmund White's) but on the whole an interesting collection, particularly Kevin Killian, Stephen Beachy and Michael Lowenthal's touching account.

Also recommended:
Father of Frankenstein (or anything by ) Christopher Bram
Shy by Kevin Killian
Mysterious Skin and In Awe by Scott Heim
PINS by Jim Provenzano

The author of "Truth Serum," an astonishing memoir of childhood, presents here a collection of short fiction. The tone and voice in these stories are familiar from Cooper's earlier writing. He relates his tales in an introspective but not maudlin manner. Cooper can write about heartbreaking circumstances without self pity, pathos, or mockery. He takes an empathic stance toward all of his characters. The element of recall is ever present. Most of the stories relate an interesting circumstance and contain in the middle a reminiscence of an earlier time that is thematically connected to the present. In this sense, these short stories are similar to the memoirs Cooper has previously written.

Some of the stories have outrageously off-beat, humorous premises ("What To Name The Baby," "A Man In The Making," "Hunters and Gatherers"). They are rarely, however, written for out-loud laughs. Rather, they serve to explore human nature and emotional tenor. Cooper is particularly adept at delving into the warmth of romantic ties. His depictions of love relationships ("Exterior Decoration," "Old Birds," "Hunters and Gatherers") convey intimacy succinctly, clearly, and movingly.

The painfully raw, embarrassing awkwardness of budding adolescent sexuality is explored in "A Man In The Making." This story begins with a cryptic situation that unfolds into a cringe-inducing event that reveals so much about how alone young adults can be with their erotic impulses. The tenacity of personality, even in the face of deteriorating health, is demonstrated in the tender and clever "Exterior Decoration." Cooper's oft-visited theme of family ties sees endings and beginnings folding into and strenghening one another in "Old Birds." The varieties of domestic arrangements are considered in the highly amusing "What To Name The Baby." This collection of short pieces is a very fine book. If it is not as strong as "Truth Serum," it must be remembered that few books could be. Cooper is a writer whose work is becoming consistently rewarding and rich.

Bernard Cooper's collection of short stories is one of the easiest and funniest reads you'll ever encounter. This is remarkable not because Cooper doesn't have the literary talent. He has it in buckets. What's remarkable is that Cooper's stories, at their core, deal with some rather heartbreaking realities of gay life in America: the ravages of AIDS, homophobia, men and women searching for or creating their identity within a culture that pushes them to the side and says, we are normal, you are not. Cooper tells us of the married Mormon who realizes he's gay but has been counseled by the church's elders to fight these impulses and seek the company of men. He decides to follow his advice and throw a party for every gay male he and his skeptical wife know. A man dying of AIDS decides to add color and style to his neighbors' lives by sneaking out at night and putting up tasteful porchlights, rearranging plants, and painting garage doors and walls. His partner is mortified by this artistic vigilantism and doesn't know how to stop him. Certainly, a couple of the stories are not funny such as "X" where we find a young man numbing his senses with drugs as he recalls his first touch with homophobia.

I was surprised to find that I had already read several of these stories in various literary journals over the past several years. Despite this, I enjoyed re-reading them and realized that Cooper is not only a fine writer, he is a master at describig the human condition in such a way that gay or straight readers will identify with the characers on some level. This is a wonderful book.

This collection of stories is a good one. They are able to transcend the conventions of the current time -- ie. they are not quirky or full of sex sex sex, but instead, they work with character and story. Still, with hats off to his more traditional narrative form, the author also is writing about today and the peculiar necessity for hope needed now in this new century. I would recommend this book to anyone who respects good writing but lives within this difficult modern world. The best of both worlds here.

I almost didn't finish this book. My initial impression was that this guy's life is as dull and as vapid as anyone else's. He visits a department store with his mother and her neighborhood friend -- big deal. His dad finally gives in and buys the big freezer for the kitchen -- so what?

But suddenly, and quite by accident, I realized that the book had me firmly in its grip. It somehow became important to find out what happened at the AIDS clinic. The minutae of which gym he was attending -- and why -- gained a greater significance than I could have anticipated earlier in the book.

Cooper's writing style makes it easy to digest these essays. He writes with a precision that reminds me of Edmund White, or even Buckley, but without the pompous esoteric nature they sometimes employ.

The book ends abruptly. Whatever happened to Bryan, his roommate? What further progress was there in his relationship with his father, if any? But real life isn't conveniently episodic. I ended yesterday with unfinished business; I will leave unfinished business at this day's end. Just as a photograph captures only the briefest millisecond between what-has-gone-before and the unknowable what-will-be, so this book snatches Cooper midway between life's experiences, with stories as-yet unfinished. In the end, it makes his autobiography all the more real.

Far and away the strongest material Cooper has written, "Truth Serum" is one of the best memoirs I've ever encountered. It ranks with Theodore Dreiser's "Dawn" as a stunning evocation of early life. His language is fluid and beautiful. He writes about childhood as vividly as if he were watching intimate scenes from his past on a movie screen. Except that he describes feelings and thoughts-- unfilmable-- so freshly. The reader enters into the child Cooper's head and perceptions in astonishing ways. This is exceptional writing and the sense of immediacy (with the exception of the abstract final piece) is wonderful.

I checked this book out of the library and read half of it before I realized that I had to own it, so I bought a copy the next day and picked up where I'd left off in the other copy. It's not a book-length memoir as much as it's a series of shorter memoirs. And what I find the most compelling in this book is his sense of focus. He writes a rather extensive essay about high school called "101 Ways to Cook Hamburger," and it essentially consists of three scenes. But from those scenes, I get a strong sense of his high school experience as a whole.

Also, he covers his entire life in this relatively short book. He has an essay on his mother that centers on the freezer she coveted, and an essay on his father. He talks about joining the gym, and the various gyms of his life, and that leads him to a discussion of AIDS. He has a short essay that categorizes all of the different kinds of sighs.

One of the greatest compliments I can give a book is to say that I wish I'd written it. I'm going through this book again, underlining passages and studying his use of scene, description, and exposition. He's a writer to learn from, in a lot of ways.

Burt is 6th grader waking up to his sexuality at the same time his older brother is dying from leukemia. His brother works for their attorney father by serving subpoenas on people. Burt sometimes accompanies him. Bob falls in love with Marion Hirsch a kind of free spirit who cannot return his love. The novel follows a year using the title of a book of poems Burt receives as its theme. Aunt Ida reads the poems to Burt eveery day. Slowly Burt begins to put the memories together. When he realizes his brother is dying, he tries to hold on to sensations, descriptions, feelings. The novel ends suddenly. It is almost as if someone did not include a few more pages. This suddenness leaves the reader with a sense of unfinished business. This contrasts with the careful way Bernard Cooper had been approaching this final scene. Yet the novel is full of memories of the people and friends Burt lives with and the seemingly mundane events of their lives.

I hate when a book this good comes out in 1993 and I don't even hear about it until 1999!

Mr. Cooper is a masterful writer. A Year of Rhymes is funny without being silly, poignant without being sappy, and generally well done: I feel I haven't read a book this good all year. Mr. Cooper joins superb technique with touching insight to his characters, and strokes of poetry lace the book.

Great fun and substantial, too.

This book contains many essays. Some are one to two page long observations, others are more personal. The more personal ones are the heart of this book. The essays about his relationship with his father are very good. The longest entry is entitled "The House of the Future". It is roughly thirty pages long and it is beautiful. It is worth buying this book just to read this one essay, which is about the death of his older brother. I could not put the book down during this essay. The language and images are extremely vivid, and the story is enveloping. I didn't really care for some of the shorter pieces, but "The House of the Future" is one of the best pieces I have read in a long time.

I read this book so long ago but just had to be the first to post a review...

This is what essays are all about. It's a fun, informative, and smartly written jaunt through a culture and individual life.

Wonderful!