"What else would I need than this book when learning about Bonsai? I recommend it fully and suggest that it should be on everyone's bookshelf, or at least in his or her hands"

When you start growing Bonsai, it is hard to work your way through all the titles available. I first bought a book called Bonsai for Beginners by the same author and while this was a very nice book, it was not only geared to beginners but also to more advanced growers. This new book is a revelation. Beautifully laid out, the practical guide to Growing Bonsai is the first book I have read that truly spells it out. It is lavishly illustrated and very well written that it is more than a reference book. It has become a 'read'.
The Practical Guide is just that. It covers all the basic information that you, as a Bonsai Grower in the early stages of this wonderful hobby, need to learn to understand what is to be done. A real beginners book but written by someone who understands what a real teacher needs to speak about when speaking to a newcomer. Craig Coussins writes in a very one to one style and I really felt that he was with me every step of 'his' way. This is a great book!
Clear instructions filled with some gorgeous photographs looks at all the techniques that I need to know. Charts explain the right times of the year to do the work and completed by a species list of all the most popular Bonsai that beginners should try.
Therefore, what else would I need than this book when learning about Bonsai? I recommend it fully and suggest that it should be on everyone's bookshelf, or at least in his or her hands.

What is vastly different about this book and most other Bonsai books is one simple premise. It is this. When you start Bonsai you are afraid that growing such a plant will take many years. Most folk can be put off by the fact that they believe they will need 30 years to produce a Bonsai that looks old. Craig Coussins new book explodes that myth.

In his first book, Bonsai for Beginners, Craig Coussins covered a vast range of subjects up to intermediate but in Totally Bonsai, the title used in North America, ('Growing Bonsai' elsewhere)he uses Bonsai throughout the book that are rarely over five years old. But what Bonsai. Some of these trees are wonderful and extremely beautiful. Gone are the seedlings in a plastic pot, Craig Coussins really shows you what you are capable of. This shows the newcomer exactly how much they can achieve in a short period of time. Many of the trees are also shown in winter so that you can really see the branch structure and shape under the leaves. Most of the trees are easily available as shrubs or garden centre material which makes life a lot simpler for the complete novice.

The unique section written by his friend Salvatore Liporace and his student Luigi Maggione, highly respected Bonsai Masters from Italy, also shows how you can, within Craig's five year period, take basic raw material and turn it into a masterpiece when you have understood the basics and focussed on the techniques.

This well liked Bonsai International Teacher has kept to his remit in writing a book that is truly for the beginner and it is recommended as a very good read. A great present for a friend just starting out.

One interesting thing is also his sensitive dedication to his mentor, John Yoshio Naka, the respected American Bonsai Master and one of the top five Bonsai Masters in the world.

To coincide with my career change, I decided it was time to understand a little bit more about the mechanics of my favorite industry. Dessauer is a former Director of the Center of Book Publishing at the University of Scranton, as well as a past contributing editor to Publishers Weekly, and this volume is likely the beginning textbook for anyone who wants to make publishing a career. After a summary history of the evolution of publishing, Dessauer delves right into the meat of the subject (to mangle a metaphor), covering how books are created, how they are manufactured, and how they are sold. Creation, although most wannabes and some authors think begins and ends with their personal word processor, was an intriguing chapter, as it covers the acquisition process for both a major house and an independent publisher, as well as bringing in the artwork, how the book is "set," and designed. The marketing of books, presented here in a coldly clinical light, when we all know that the truth is darkened santums filled with black-hooded figures mumbling over bubbling cauldrons, provides some humorous moments where Dessaur discusses how publishing lines have tiers of publications and marketeers with rarely a clue about their product. Although long a whipping post for authors and editors alike, one can feel somewhat sorry for the poor marketing folk, who graduated college where their education how to do with the positioning of a new cereal by Post or a sneaker by Reebox. They try so hard to treat a book as a similar commodity, and are constantly dumbfounded by the illogical market. (That's not to say that all marketers are this clueless, as I know some sales agents who actually do read--I also know how they have to separate their personal tastes from their sales lists as well. As you go from large publisher to smaller publisher, and the roles of editor and sales agent converge, this lessens.)

But the most interesting part for me, and I think a section worthy of the attention of any serious reader, is the section on the manufacturing of books. From picking the type of paper, to the details of binding and printing, there is a lot more that goes on in the making of a book that was previously dreamed of in my philosophy. I finally understood the distiction between a hardcover and a trade paperback (both of them are printed from the same plates; the only difference is that one is put between hard boards and the other gets a paper cover), as opposed to the mass market paperback (which requires a separate set of printing plates from the hardcover edition). After reading this section, I look at a book quite differently--admiring the amount of labor and ingenuity that went into the object itself, quite beyond the words it contains.

Book Publishing is a little dry at times. Dessauer was once principal author of Book Industry Trends, and sometimes floats by a bunch of tables filled with numbers and doesn't go into much discussion about them. For research purposes, these facts are wonderful, but numbers are rarely equal to words when trying to learn something. All in all, I found this an invaluable book to have read, and plan to keep it for a little while as a reference work.

_Book Publishing: The Basic Introduction_ is exactly what it claims to be. Dessauer breaks his book into 7 major chapters: Publishing History, Creation of Books, Manufacture of Books, Marketing of Books, Storage and Delivery of Books, and Management Issues of Publishers.

He does a very good job of balancing the content, so that you feel as a reader that you get a reasonably comprehensive look at all the aspects of publishing, without going into too much depth. The book also provides an excellent glossary and well-constructed index.

The only trouble with the book is that some of the areas that (for me) were the most interesting (figures about the current book-buying population and habits, etc.) were also the ones that were most vulnerable to being out-of-date. While the book is in a new edition, the facts and figures still seem to date back to the late 1980s. It was a little bit frustrating when I didn't know how useful a particular interesting fact might be.

Recommended strongly for people who want to get a feel for the industry.

If you want to pubish your book, this is a MUST! I got my travel-book published after reading this, and now feel like a respected member of the publishing team; the knowledge gleaned from this book allows you to keep in the loop--even when and where the publisher doesn't want you to be.

As Keith Allen Daniels says in his introduction "most of these sonnets have a past life" but this reviewer found them all fresh and new and worth more than one visit. These three poets are clearly masters of this poetic form--which lends itself well to the diverse themes of horror and dark fantasy as envisioned by the individual authors.

But it is the distinctive storytelling of Ann K. Schwader that truly shines in "Pages from a Paperback Imagination". Her technique of overlaying contemporary heroes (Avalon, Avalon, Do You Read?) with the stuff of myth and legend is unique. The 14 lines of "Dead Girls Don't Cry" are filled with an in-depth characterization this reviewer usually only finds in novels -- and her monsters (Poraymos/The Devouring) are too real to ever be forgotten.

Powerful poetry here. Highly recommended.

Arthur C. Clarke is most well-known for writing 2001: A Space Odyssey; Lord Dunsany for his fantastic The King of Elfland's Daughter and serving as a primary influence for H.P. Lovecraft. For such gifted writers, this correspondance is remarkably dull - mostly an eager, young, as-yet-unpublished Clarke fawning to his hero, who seems grateful for the attention. This collection is well-meaning but almost completely meritless.

Fenbug needs to get hir facts straight. Arthur C. Clarke was already a published author when he began to correspond with Lord Dunsany in 1944, and by 1956 -- the last year of their correspondence -- Clarke had published some of his best classic fiction, most notably Childhood's End (1953).

If engaging in reasoned dialogue on topics as fascinating as space exploration and imaginative literature is "fawning," then so be it.

This book is a valuable resource for literary scholars, fans of Clarke and/or Dunsany, and anyone with an interest in the early years of the Space Age. Keith Allen Daniels is to be commended for his editorial and publishing acumen, and for his understanding of the importance of these letters.