We borrowed this book from the library. After having it read to him for the first time, my 2 1/2 year old son practically took possession of it. We returned it 3 days ago and he asks for it repeatedly. I told him that we would borrow it again later. Tonight, just as he was falling asleep, he said "Chugga, where are you? In the library? Come back later." Now I have to buy it so that he will always have it on hand when he wants it. This is a wonderful book for reading out loud. I would love to send a personal note to Mr. Lewis and Mr. Kirk telling them how much we enjoy this book.

Our son ALWAYS laughs at this book. We started reading Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo to him when he was a few months old and just beginning to smile and laugh. Inevitably, he giggled at the "whoo whoo" sections of the book. Now, eight months later, this book is still his favorite. He hears it almost every night and always smiles at the pictures and laughs at the train sounds. The illustrations are colorful and the story is well crafted and nicely written. It is a family favorite and a must have on your bookshelf.

My son had me read this book 10+ times the afternoon it arrived. It had great color illustrations and a cute rhyming story that gets kids involved! Whoo-Whoo! Yes, little boys like mine and the one in the story do sleep with their toy trains! We love this book! Whoo-Whoo!

This is another fun and witty book from Daniel Pinkwater. Mr. Plumbean lives on a street called Neat St. All the houses are neat, and they are all very similar. One day a bird drops a big spot of orange paint on his house. The neighbors want him to repaint his house, to make the house look neat again. He repaints his house, but with lots of odd and strange colors and designs! All the neighbors are outraged and appalled; they think he's flipped his wig!

I've read this book to kids, 3- to 5-year olds, and they think it's hilarious. I think most kids would love to strike out and look different, make unusual art, et cetera. The world of adults probably looks boring to lots of kids. But overly serious adults discourage kids from looking or acting too far from accepted norms. Mr. Plumbean, and his creator Mr. Pinkwater, show kids that it's okay for your house to look different, and for you to be different!

My only quibble with this book: after Plumbean changes the looks of his house, the neighbors complain for a while, then ALL the other neighbors change the looks of their houses as well, to look like their dreams, as did Mr. Plumbean. It's a bit of a stretch. Did they ALL want to change their houses? Isn't that a bit of conformity in itself? If at least one guy had left his house the way it was, and said "my house always looked like my dreams," (surely, Plumbean and all of his newly enlightened neighbors would approve) it would have seemed more in keeping with the "be yourself" theme of the book. As it is, all the neighbors seem to be hopping on the bandwagon.

Out in the real world, not everyone wants to have a goofy looking house (or outfit, or car), regardless of what other people think. Anyway, that's my quibble. I give this book 4 stars. Little kids (and older kids, also, apparently) really love it!

RESOLVE TO BUY THIS HUMOROUS BOOK.

ken32

The Big Orange Splot is, according to me, the best children's book I have ever read. It shows children (as well as adults) that being yourself is the right thing to be. Creativity is sometimes stifled in this world, and this book shows that it is a wonderful thing to be creative. This book helps the reader to grow as an individual, and to heighten their level of self-esteem.

Let your dreams become your reality! Make waves! Be who you are, not who everyone thinks you are! Share your dreams and bring joy and a sense of freedom to all who come in contact with you! These are the messages of "The Big Orange Splot", Daniel Pinkwater's utterly, delightlful tale. Mr. Plumbean turns the disaster of the "big orange splot" of paint dropped on his roof by a sea gull into an opportunity to break away from the constraints of conformity. You will smile as you read how his daring actions liberate his whole "neat street". Recommended for children and adults who all need reminding that there is still a child in all of us. I LOVE this BOOK!!!!!!

wow . . . our high school's drama club was going to do this play (it got cancelled unfortunately). we all loved it! at rehearsals, we probably spent more time laughing over the footnotes (i usually despise footnotes, but these are great) than we did actually rehearsing the play. anyway, this is a work of literary genius. i hate shakespeare, so i love this. most of the drama club loves shakespeare, and they love this too! everyone still has their copies, and still read them. this is definitely on my top 10 list!

If I were asked the funniest play that read I would answer "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)." Now I can answer the same if I were asked the funniest book I have ever read. All hail to Jess Winfield, Daniel Singer, and Adam Long! The gang has sucessfully written a very intricate and accurate book of William Shakespeare and his complete works. Wait -- they have distorted and sucessfully gutted some of the most perfect pieces of literature ever written and it is absolutely perfect. While reading the book make sure to take the time to read ALL the footnotes. You will really appreciate the tactful placement of every irreverent word and insite into the life and works of William Shakespeare that Jess, Adam, Jess, Daniel, and Jess have. Definately a must read and certianly a must see.

I have seen the Reduced Shakespeare Company perform this play and these guys are absolutely hysterical! This book provides a side splitting look at Shakespeare in all his glory and wretched excess.

Despise reading Shakespeare? Not to worry, as the RSC introduce you to Shakespeare in a variety of hilarious ways - via a cooking show, a football game, even a rap song! Indifferent to Shakespeare? Well, don't you worry either. The RSC cover the Bard's plays and sonnets in ways you'd never imagine, prior knowledge of the plot becomes unnecessary. Love reading Shakespeare? Then you'll still enjoy this book!

Plus, there are brilliantly clever footnotes (I've always hated them before, but I loved these!), funny forewords and humorous pictures. This book is brilliant and funny and worth every penny!! Buy it!

This book is probably the most valuable IT audit tool in terms of providing the user(reader) with guidance in conducting IT audits on informaiton systems, intruducing tools and techniques to solve security and control problems, and explaining the latest professional standards and legislations concerning IT auditing. From the fundamental concepts to best practices, this book covers every thing you want to know about IT audit in system development, network, application and IT operation environments. In addition, a large amount of valuable information, such as information about various professional associations and their standards that apply to information technology, is provided at the end of the book in appendixes. The appendixes also provides case studies, sample audit programs, and glossary that are very helpful to those who are new to IT auditing area. As a student in IT auditing major, I found that following this book is a very effective way to build up knowledge and experience in this area.

This is the first textbook I have seen and read that cover comprehensively tremendous amount of information in IT Control and Audit-related issues. It is a valuable resource for those who want to increase his or her knowledge in this emerging area, either for students in Accounting, Auditing, Computer Information Systems and Law or for IT Professionals who want to refresh his or her knowledge in this area. This book provides information ranging from A Foundation for IT Auditability and Control to Computer Information Systems in the New Millennium while at the same time doesn't forget to include the specific issues such as Legal Environment of Information Systems and Security & Privacy of Information Systems issues. In addition to that, this book provides several of Information Audit Cases. The other things that make this book even more interesting are that it provides its readers The Bibliography of Selected Publications for Information Technology Auditors and The Professional Standards that Apply to Information Technology. In short, this book is one of the most valuable IT Audit resource that I have seen and read.

I personally love this book because of the following reasons: 1. This book is very easy to read- compared to the other books I have read, this book presents the contents in a very clear and concise way. 2. A very through book- the book provides people with detailed information about IS auditing. It covers most areas in which an IS auditor will utilize in his/her practice. 3. An informative book- the book provides people with different valuable tools, techniques as well as guidelines in addressing the audit, control and security problems. In addition, the book provides numerous research resources and case studies.

However, the format of the book may be improved by the following suggestion: the book should use different font size to distinguish different level headings.

Whenever I go to a bookstore with a new friend, I check out the Daniel Pinkwater section. The ones who turn out to be the best friends inevitably remember _some_ Pinkwater book from their childhood--Lizard Music or Fat Men From Space or The Magic Moscow--but the best and most resonant are Alan Mendelsohn, The Boy From Mars and The Snarkout Boys And The Avocado Of Death, and they're both included here. The former is about the best teenage-friendship book ever written, the latter drives a stake through the heart of the teenage-detective genre, and this anthology also includes the ridiculously brilliant Young Adult Novel. I want my kids to have this book. More to the point, I want my kids to think they're not supposed to be reading this book, but to read it anyway.

Alan Mendleson, Boy from Mars -- This was one of the first Pinkwater books I read. (It is also one of the best) The slaves of Spiegel -- Great. Sequel to 'Fat Men from Space'. I wish there was a magic moscow resteraunt in my town. TheThe Snarkout bous and the avacodo of Death -- Everyone should Snarkout at least once in their lives. Young adult Novel -- Extremely funny. I can't give away the rest.

What more could you possibly want of a novel? Only to have FIVE novels like it! And guess what - you get that too. Daniel Pinkwater is a genius, dork, scientist, a bald guy, and a funny guy all rolled into one brilliant whole.

But hey, don't believe me, I lie all the time. Just get your fleegix cups and read this book. It rocks my world (and some other worlds probably too).

I am Jewish, and when I read this book, I found out the realistic happening of what could have been me in the Holocaust if my ancestors had not moved to America before this all started. Books like "The Devils Arithmatic" are very well written books but do not give the 411 on what really happned. For example, "The Devil's Arithmatic" skiped parts about Jews ging into a ghetto and they made the Jews not know who the Nazis were in 1942. By that date, everyone that was Jewish knew what was going on and would have probably been sent to a ghetto long before. This book, however, gives the true happening of the Holocaust, and shows what people lost that were so dear to them. I was almost in tears when I finished this book. My teacher at my middle school had a historical book report project she assigned. She reccomended "Daniel's Story" as her favorite book. My friend who sits next to me, is Hindu and read the book when she knew nothing about the Holocaust. She loved it and couldn't put it down. In conclusion, this book is one of my favorites and it was a great learning experience- even though I knew much about the Holocaust already. Please read it!

In class we were reading this book,and it was so touching that I will never forget it.I loved this book,and not only did it teach me more about the Holocaust,but it encouraged me to learn more about the Holocaust. Daniel starts off a 14 year old boy an a train,but then goes through hard times,loosing his family and ending up at a concentration camp. I encourage all the other young readers to read this book or buy it.It will be worth the time and money!

WOW! This story is surely one of my favourites! Before reading Daniel's Story, I had no background information at all about what the Holocaust and World War II was like. It was a shocking and very compelling novel, to say the least. I first read this story about 2 years ago, and I've read it 5 times since. It keeps drawing me back, with its strong plot and setting development. The characters really got through to me as well! GREAT JOB, Carol Matas! I would HIGHLY recommend this book to ANYONE who wants to learn about the Holocaust and what the Jews had to go through back then.

O'Reilly & Associates, well-known for quality computer references, have once again done a superb job with this manual for vi. This Unix text editor can often be intimidating for those who haven't been exposed to it, but once a bit of time is spent with vi, it becomes second-nature. This book greatly helps in that endeavor.

Using this book, in conjunction with making vi my default PINE editor (thereby forcing me to become fluent with it, lest my email use become rather slow and awkward,) provided a huge speed boost in learning the vi editor. Vi is very powerful, and is almost always included on every unmodified Unix install. These items, coupled with the fact that vi doesn't automatically insert line breaks (like pico does) make it one of the most-preferred text editors amongst Unix sys-admins.

Not only does _Learning the vi Editor_ cover the essentials, but moves beyond basic editing functions into more powerful features, such as global searches & replacements, customizing the editor, "moving around in a hurry," command combinations, and other advanced vi features. For even better results in using vi, pick up a copy of O'Reilly's _sed & awk_, though it's not necessary for effective vi use.

_Learning the vi Editor_ is written in a friendly, casual voice, and Linda Lamb provides what your input and output will look like for most commands, interspersed with comments that put the reader at ease, such as "Qute forboding, isn't it?" followed by reasons not to be intimidated.

This book will help just about anyone conquer the mighty vi tool, and will help prove vi's superiority over any other Unix text editor. (Ahem - no offense to the emacs gurus out there.)

It's often said that there are very few quality computer books in the world, but this is most definitely one of them.

If you've never used the vi editor before, this book is for you and if you've been using it for years, this book is also for you.

The book is organized so that the reader can start at an introductory level in the first couple of chapters and learn how to use the editor. Then as the user gets comfortable, they can go back and read the next couple of chapters and learn a great deal more. I've done this several times over several years, and my editing abilities STILL increase dramatically afterwards.

The book also goes into good detail regarding the vi clones in later chapters. I personally use gvim and found the section with specifics on vim to be of great help.

The bottom line? The book is extremely well organized and absolutely thorough in covering the topic. The book was written in 1998 and the information is still up to date. And given the fact that it's a computer book costing less than 30 dollars, the actual *value* of the book deserves 10 stars!

For most people on the planet VI makes about as much sense as brain surgery, possible less!

This wonderful reference book allows the beginner to jump in and start using the powerful VI editor.

This book has made the process of understanding and learning VI simple with its concise and clear writing.

The chapters are arrange so that you get the basic commands early and only get the more advanced commands as you move further into the book.

Each chapter ends with a review of the material presented and this makes for a great reference of the commands.

All in all this is a must have book for anyone that uses the VI editor.

Any book defined as a true classic is likely to be thought of as stultifying and incomprehensible...at best. Yet, there are dozens and dozens of books that are true classics and still manage to speak to today's modern audience. Boccaccio's Decameron is one such book.

The Decameron was written around 1350 during an outbreak of plague in Florence. It is the fictional account of ten young people who flee the city to a country manor house and, in an effort to keep themselves occupied and diverted, begin telling stories.

Ten days pass in the pages of the Decameron (hence its name), and each person tells one story per day, making a total of one hundred stories. These are stories that explore a surprisingly wide range of moral, social and political issues whose wit and candor will probably surprise most modern readers. The topics explored include: problems of corruption in high political office, sexual jealousy and the class differences between the rich and the poor.

The titles themselves are both imaginative and fun. One story is titled, "Masetto da Lamporecchio Pretends to be Deaf and Dumb in Order to Become a Gardener to a Convent of Nuns, Where All the Women Eagerly Lie With Him." And, although the title, itself, is a pretty good summary of the story, even a title such as this cannot adequately convey Boccaccio's humor and wit.

Another story that seems surprisingly modern is, "Two Men are Close Friends, and One Lies With the Other's Wife. The Husband Finds it Out and Makes the Wife Shut Her Lover in a Chest, and While He is Inside, the Husband Lies With the Lover's Own Wife on the Chest." A bit long for today's modern world, perhaps, where popular books are dominated by titles such as John Grisham's The Firm, but the outcome of this story is as socially-relevant today as anything that happened in fourteenth-century Florence.

The Decameron, however, goes far beyond plain, bawdy fun and takes a close look at a society that is unraveling due to the devastating effects of the plague. The people in Boccaccio's time suffered terribly and the book's opening pages show this. The clergy was, at best, inept and, more often than not, corrupt. Those who had the misfortune to fall ill (and this includes just about everyone) were summarily abandoned by both their friends and family.

Those looking for something representative of the social ills of Boccaccio's day will find more than enough interesting tidbits and asides in these stories. Serious students of literature will find the ancestors of several great works of fiction in these pages and readers in general cannot fail to be entertained by the one hundred stories spun by these ten refugees on their ten lonely nights.

Giovanni Boccaccio THE DECAMERON. Second Edition. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by G. H. McWilliam. cli + 909 pages. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 1995. ISBN 0-14-044629-X (Pbk).

Second-hand opinions can do a lot of harm. Most of us have been given the impression that The Decameron is a lightweight collection of bawdy tales which, though it may appeal to the salacious, sober readers would do well to avoid. The more literate will probably be aware that the book is made up of one hundred stories told on ten consecutive days in 1348 by ten charming young Florentines who have fled to an amply stocked country villa to take refuge from the plague which is ravaging Florence.

Idle tales of love and adventure, then, told merely to pass the time by a group of pampered aristocrats, and written by an author who was quite without the technical equipment of a modern story-teller such as Flannery O'Connor. But how, one wonders, could it have survived for over six hundred years if that's all there were to it? And why has it so often been censored? Why have there always been those who don't want us to read it?

A puritan has been described as someone who has an awful feeling that somebody somewhere may be enjoying themselves, and since The Decameron offers the reader many pleasures it becomes automatically suspect to such minds. In the first place it is a comic masterpiece, a collection of entertaining tales many of which are as genuinely funny as Chaucer's, and it offers us the pleasure of savoring the witty, ironic, and highly refined sensibility of a writer who was also a bit of a rogue. It also provides us with an engaging portrait of the Middle Ages, and one in which we are pleasantly surprised to find that the people of those days were every bit as human as we are, and in some ways considerably more delicate.

We are also given an ongoing hilarious and devastating portrayal of the corruption and hypocrisy of the medieval Church. Another target of Boccaccio's satire is human gullibility in matters religious, since, then as now, most folks could be trusted to believe whatever they were told by authority figures. And for those who have always found Dante to be a crushing bore, the sheer good fun of The Decameron, as Human Comedy, becomes, by implication (since Boccaccio was a personal friend of Dante), a powerful and compassionate counterblast to the solemn and cruel anti-life nonsense of The Divine Comedy.

There is a pagan exuberance to Boccaccio, a frank and wholesome celebration of the flesh; in contrast to medieval Christianity's loathing of woman we find in him what David Denby beautifully describes as "a tribute to the deep-down lovableness of women" (Denby, p.249). And today, when so many women are being taught by anti-sex radical feminists to deny their own bodies and feelings, Boccaccio's celebration of the sexual avidity of the natural woman should come as a very welcome antidote. For Denby, who has written a superb essay on The Decameron that can be strongly recommended, Boccaccio's is a scandalous book, a book that liberates, a book that returns us to "the paradise from which, long ago, we had been expelled" (Denby, p.248).

The present Penguin Classics edition, besides containing Boccaccio's complete text, also includes a 122-page Introduction, a Select Bibliography, 67 pages of Notes, four excellent Maps and two Indexes. McWilliam, who is a Boccaccio scholar, writes in a supple, refined, elegant and truly impressive English which successfully captures the highly sophisticated sensibility of Boccaccio himself. His translation reads not so much as a translation as an original work, though his Introduction (which seems to cover everything except what is most important) should definitely be supplemented by Denby's wonderfully insightful and stimulating essay, details of which follow:

Chapter 17 - 'Boccaccio,' in 'GREAT BOOKS - My Adventures with Homer, Rousseau, Woolf, and Other Indestructible Writers of the Western World'
by David Denby. pp.241-249. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 0-684-83533-9 (Pbk).

It seems almost redundant that I bother to rate this with yet another 5-star review (especially since I didn't buy it from Amazon-- Sshhhh, don't tell anyone), but this is one of the books that changed my life.

As a mind struggling to repair the damage caused by the American education system, I set out to follow other curriculums from times when learning was actually valued. Since many of the so-called "classics" American students today are forced to read in school are thinly-disguised socialist propaganda, I chose to look to much earlier times. I picked up The Decameron by chance, having remembered it from an off-hand statement a high school history teacher had made once. The book had everything, exalting adventure, romance, heroism, virtue, and other things I had been taught were subjective and dangerous. I found it the most refined and tastefully deviant book I had ever read and I have never been able to understand why students are not exposed to it as the basis for the study of literature.

Boccaccio's stories (told one per day, by each of the ten characters over ten days) give great insight into the midieval paradigm while poking fun at its obvious problems. The tales cover the whole of Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor, which was very unique for their time. The rolls of heroes involve characters of every culture, race, religion, and background in the known world-- something unheard of before this book. Boccaccio's great love and understanding of women also shines through, the expression of which tops the list of reasons as to why he was exiled from Florence! Most of the stories are based on actual people and events, though the author takes a great deal of artistic license in some cases. A great many little-known facts can be learned by reading the historical notes (one reason why I chose the Penguin Classic version). Boccaccio surpasses every other man of letters (before him or since) in ability and creativity and will no doubt do so for centuries to come.

Toquevilles' Democracy in America, written over a century and a half ago, is almost as relevant today as when it first appeared in print. Outside of the Federalist Papers, no book is as essential to a American student of political philosophy as this. This book is neither a manifesto of the right or left - both sides can draw powerful arguments (and lessons) from this work. Paramount to the book are the conflicts between equality and liberty, which today remains the core difference between the major political parties. Toqueville also predicted the rise of America and Russia, as well as the growth of the central government - a hundred years before it became reality. His praise of the American system of decentralized, voluntary associations is also dead on. A wonderful book.

The specific edition I am reviewing is the Heffner addition which is a 300 page abridgement. I also own an unabridged edition but I have only read Heffner cover to cover. What is amazing about de Toqueville is how uncanny many of his observations are over a century and a half later. He accurately predicted in 1844 that the world's two great powers would be the United States and Russia. He aptly pointed out that Americans are a people who join associations and he is so right 156 years later. Although there are both religious extremists on both ends, ie fundamentalists and atheists, he was dead on that, as a whole, we are a religious society but that our religious views are moderate. De Toqueville shows how American characteristics evolved from democracy as opposed to the highly class structered societies of Europe. From de Tocqueville, it could have been predicted that pop culture, such as rock music etc, would develop in America because the lack of an aristocracy causes a less cultured taste in the arts. In a thousand and one different ways, I found myself marveling at how dead on de Toqueville was. Most controversially, those who argue that we have lost our liberties to a welfare state might well find support in de Toqueville. Here, 100 years before the New Deal, he forsaw that a strong central government would take away our liberties but in a manner much more benign than in a totalitarian government. There are certain liberties that Americans would willingly sacrifice for the common good. Critics of 20th century liberalism in the US might well point to this as an uncanny observation. By reading "Democracy in America," the reader understands what makes Americans tick. De Toquville was an astute observer of who we are as a people and should be read by all educated Americans.

I want to note that there are several editions of this great work and in deciding which to buy, be aware that each has a different translator. I feel Heffner's translation is slightly stilted but, he did such a wonderful job in editing this abridgement that it, nontheless, deserves 5 stars.

Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville is by far an in depth view of America as seen by the traveling Frenchman. It is written so well that even today almost one hundred and fifty years later it is still apropos.

The translation flows very easily and is not distracting. De Tocqueville has a wonderful writing style that could pass today even though it was written long ago... so well readable and quotable that you get the picture of American life, morals, and an astute view of politics all rolled into one.

You get a view and meaning of American civilization, for America herself, and also for Europe. You can tell from reading. that this view is ever-present in De Tocqueville's mind as if he is a comparative sociologist. Yet reading this book you get the impression that De Tocqueville had generations of readers in mind.

As De Tocqueville noted, "It is not force alone, but rather good laws, which make a new govenment secure. After the battle comes the lawgiver. The one destroys; the other builds up. Each has its function." So true even for todays war. After you defeat your enemy you have to build up the infratructure just as Marshall and Truman both realized.

Reading this book you see the skillful eye of the author noticing and recording what he sees and he is impressed. I found this book to be of great import for the observations of America and hope that our educators use this book for teaching our children about the great country we live in.