First things first: AMG's rock guide is still the most comprehensive look at modern rock music of all styles. This honor is only won, though, by the default of Trouser Press to update their album guide after 1996.

If you're merely interested in exploring contemporary rock music, skip the purchase; refer to AMG's website, search to your heart's delight, and take their suggestions with a grain of salt.

If you're a die hard aficionado and looking to complete a well-rounded collection, AMG's guide serves as a checklist of sorts for choosing from the discographies of thousands of artists. Again, you will certainly find your opinions vary from those of the writers.* Do not buy blindly.

For albums produced prior to 1995, I personally refer to the Trouser Press guide or the 2nd edition of AMG's guide. In the 2nd edition of the AMG rock guide, the writing style is closer to rock journalism than fan fiction, and the reviews seem honest rather than celebratory.

*As for other users' comments that the reviews in the 3rd edition seem to be written by fans rather than journalists: that's because they are written by fans. At the launch of the AMG website, AMG began allowing fans to submit reviews; with the publication of the 3rd edition guide, they began including fans' reviews in the written volume. Personally, I found the reviews to be more consistent and fair when authored by the AMG staff.

The only problem is they like TOO much and seem to have a hard time being negative.

Besides that, this thing is the musical reference bible that provides endless browing, fact-checking, and (most inportantly) points you in the direction of great music.

If you love music, do yourself the favor of picking this up and you will not regret it.

This is the most complete history of rock I've ever seen--and I saw quite a few when I was researching for my book "Forever Retro Blues." This book has become indespensible as a tool for promoting my book also. I can get a call to be a guest on radio as few as three hours before. It's great to be able to look up an artist or record that a host mentions before or during commercial breaks. This book is organized in a way that allows me to do that.

As the other reviewers write, this is a great literary companion, especially to Ulysses. Nabokov writes wonderfully. I can imagine that most people would read this book as they read Mansfield Park, Madame Bovary, Bleak House, etc and would flip back and forth. However, my paperback copy was very poorly bound and fell apart. So my advice is get the hardcover edition.

In his opening lecture, Nabokov says, " ... great novels are great fairy tales -- and the novels in this series are supreme fairy tales." The tales discussed are Austen's "Mansfield Park," Dickens' "Bleak House," Flaubert's "Madame Bovary," Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," Proust's "The Walk by Swann's Place," Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," and Joyce's "Ulysses." In addition, there are lectures "Good Readers and Good Writers," "The Art of Literature and Commonsense," and "L'Envoi" -- the first being his opening and the last being his closing comments on the course. These are lectures not polished by Nabokov for publication. There is a companion volume on Russian literature.

The examination of the works here is purely literary. The works are examined in minute detail. For example, in "The Metamorphosis," Nabokov goes to some length to determine what insect Gregor became. Not a cockroach, as some suggest, but rather a beetle. And he draws pictures. He wants us to understand the layout of the rooms in the Samsa flat. The devil -- that is, the art -- is in the details. Some might object that there is more to some of these works than is discerned by such a point of view. Granted, but nothing precludes looking elsewhere for (say) a more philosophical treatment of "The Metamorphosis," or God forbid, thinking about it on one's own.

In his closing comments, Nabokov says, "In this course I have tried to reveal the mechanism of those wonderful toys -- literary masterpieces. I have tried to make of you good readers who read books not for the infantile purpose of identifying oneself with the characters, and not for the adolescent purpose of learning to live, and not for the academic purpose of indulging in generalizations. I have tried to teach you to read books for the sake of their form, their visions, their art. I have tried to teach you to feel a shiver of artistic satisfaction, to share not the emotions of the people in the book but the emotions of its author -- the joys and difficulties of creation. We did not talk around books, about books; we went to the center of this or that masterpiece, to the live heart of the matter."

just a correction: Nabokov wrote two different books "lectures on literature" and "lectures on Russian literature." most reviewers here are talking about the wrong book.

My friends and I were prepared to fall in love with Prague based entirely on this travel book. The street-by-street descriptions are right on the mark. The historical buildings are dissected to show you the interiors, a wonderful and unique way to give you the floor plans. There are also timelines throughout the quide to chart significant events of the major buildings and people of Prague. I read a large portion of the quide book before I left home, I kept it close to me the entire time I was in Prague for easy reference and I still keep it handy at home. This one is packed to bursting with all the information you could ever need. When I think of going on holiday now, the first thing I go looking for is a travel guide in this excellent series!

The series of Eyewitness Travel Guides (particularly one on Prague) has been highly recommended by several travel sites. With my forthcoming trip to Prague this summer, I immediately got curious & ran to the nearest specialty bookstore right after office hours. I have to agree that this is the BEST guide book I have ever seen. Not only does it have maps or the tourist highlights, but it also contains a history of the place, background of the famous sites & LOVELY photos! It also has a primer on culture, etiquette & currency, a guide on getting around via public transport, a suggestion on restaurants & a limited selection on housing (you can find more of this in the Net or other travel guides). This book is as good as a real souvenir from the trip itself with all its lovely photos & background. I will definitely bring this book (together with the other series I bought for Vienna & Budapest)with me when I leave in August.

After years of traveling in Europe and buying countless books and maps on every country, city and tourist site, finally a series of books that gives you a little of everything, but is small enough to carry easily.

This Eyewitness Guide, like the others in this series, gives you a way to quickly identify areas of interest and gives you enough detail and colorful pictures, that country, city and site specific guide books are no longer necessary. The maps in the back are correct and easy to use with an amazing amount of detail. The opening and closing times are always correct. The restaurant and hotel recommendations are right on. The survival guide in the back gives you quick reference on everything from what the currency is to how to use the telephone.

On top of all of the contents, the book itself is tough enough to be thrown around in that backpack or shoved into your pocket without hurting it. The paper is of high quality with sharp graphics. The cover is tough and has built in page marks.

I travel to Europe several times a year and have tried every travel series there is. After using the Eyewitness Travel Guide, these along with the Rick Steves' series is all I ever use anymore.

My friends and I were prepared to fall in love with Prague based entirely on this travel book. The street-by-street descriptions are right on the mark. The historical buildings are dissected to show you the interiors, a wonderful and unique way to give you the floor plans. There are also timelines throughout the quide to chart significant events of the major buildings and people of Prague. I read a large portion of the quide book before I left home, I kept it close to me the entire time I was in Prague for easy reference and I still keep it handy at home. This one is packed to bursting with all the information you could ever need. When I think of going on holiday now, the first thing I go looking for is a travel guide in this excellent series!

The series of Eyewitness Travel Guides (particularly one on Prague) has been highly recommended by several travel sites. With my forthcoming trip to Prague this summer, I immediately got curious & ran to the nearest specialty bookstore right after office hours. I have to agree that this is the BEST guide book I have ever seen. Not only does it have maps or the tourist highlights, but it also contains a history of the place, background of the famous sites & LOVELY photos! It also has a primer on culture, etiquette & currency, a guide on getting around via public transport, a suggestion on restaurants & a limited selection on housing (you can find more of this in the Net or other travel guides). This book is as good as a real souvenir from the trip itself with all its lovely photos & background. I will definitely bring this book (together with the other series I bought for Vienna & Budapest)with me when I leave in August.

After years of traveling in Europe and buying countless books and maps on every country, city and tourist site, finally a series of books that gives you a little of everything, but is small enough to carry easily.

This Eyewitness Guide, like the others in this series, gives you a way to quickly identify areas of interest and gives you enough detail and colorful pictures, that country, city and site specific guide books are no longer necessary. The maps in the back are correct and easy to use with an amazing amount of detail. The opening and closing times are always correct. The restaurant and hotel recommendations are right on. The survival guide in the back gives you quick reference on everything from what the currency is to how to use the telephone.

On top of all of the contents, the book itself is tough enough to be thrown around in that backpack or shoved into your pocket without hurting it. The paper is of high quality with sharp graphics. The cover is tough and has built in page marks.

I travel to Europe several times a year and have tried every travel series there is. After using the Eyewitness Travel Guide, these along with the Rick Steves' series is all I ever use anymore.

Let me preface this by saying I have never read Nabokov, and am only familiar with him thru second-hand knowledge of his works: that is, until reading 'The Eye'. He has quite a following of pretentious college students, and now I can see why. This book is not that great, but supposedly this is not his best work, so it's to be expected. I found that it was empty and devoid of meaning, but written in such a way as to make you think there was some sort of meaning behind it. Nabokov just threw together some very 'deep' thoughts and had the protagonist use irony to appeal to the sardonic in all of his readers. I've seen this done much better in REAL detective novels such as Chandler's, for crying out loud! This is literary? Literary my eye! (pun intended)

Closer to four-and-a-half stars. Spectacular; for a novel that tips in at just over one-hundred pages, "The Eye" is a marvel of imagery and literary sleight-of-hand. Nabokov, one of the most deviously ingenious writers of the 20th century, offers this short, but striking insight into the protean nature of human identity. Through the character of Smurov--a suicide victim whose thoughts go on even after his death--Nabokov explores the psyche of Everyman, the manifold ways in which we perceive ourselves, and are perceived by others. Standing outside his body, the detached first-person narrator observes himself (Smurov) in his daily interactions with others and longs to learn more about himself by learning how others see him. But even beyond its philosophical/existential implications, "The Eye" is simply great fun to read. Nabokov's writing, even in translation, is beautiful and his deft manipulation of character is unparalleled. It is unlikely that you will find another novel that delivers as much bang for the literary buck.

This is the best novel of Nabokov's I've read since Lolita. Though not as fine a work as that great novel by far you can see in the main character Smurov echoes of the later protagonist. What is more, being such a short book it is not too great an investment of your time.

Where else but between the pages of Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading could one find a story so well written and so exceptionally powerful that you beg for more. The story follows a lonely isolated man who responds to the name of Cinncinatus. He is charged for a crime rarely described and sentenced to death for it. And what more is reason does not exist in this world, it's inhabbited by irrasional, and rather frustrating characters. The characters are odd, granted, but they are described with such passion, and such enthusiasm that they truly come alive. This is an art I love about Nabokov (as well as the other Russian authors Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, etc). However there are some weak points to this story, One is the repitition of descriptions, and Two is the vague details of some events. I got confused at some points in the book (however I am only 17 and this is the first non short story I read by nabokov). All in all the book is fascinating, and a defenite read. -sorry for the spelling errors-

It's virtually impossible not to give Nabokov five stars...

Anyhow, Invitation to a Beheading is certainly a tricky book, but Nabokov's work always is. I don't see how it's harder than Lolita (in fact I think Lolita is harder to understand than this book), despite what people read as rampant symbolism.

Now, I'm not a Nabokov scholar, but I've read enough from him about writing to say that I doubt he spent huge amounts of time coming up with symbolic imagery for Invitation to a Beheading...that just wouldn't be his style. Instead, I'd bet that he wrote what he saw in his mind's eye and leaves it to the reader to apply meaning to what's shown...much as Cincinnatus is left to apply meaning to his existence without outside help.

What the theme of this book is isn't entirely clear, although of course the final scene in which Cincinnatus thinks his captors out of existence is a pretty obvious clue to it; I read it as a work about A) the arbitrary nature of assigned meaning and B) the individual's overarching authority over his own reality. It's also worthwhile to note that I read Cincinnatus as being insane and that most of what happens in the book as being delusional (including the end). I don't know if that was Nabokov's intent, but it seems to me that there's an underlying framework of a story that would make rational sense in what we consider the real world, masked by what Cincinnatus sees and experiences.

The insanity theory might be a stretch and I'd go so far as to say it's rather unimportant as it has little to no effect on the theme. The challenge of this book is to read past what's going on and move beyond trying to make rational sense out of a clearly irrational book and find the theme. The world of Nabokov's invention cannot be reconciled with what most of us consider the real world: it's a waste of time to try to reconcile the two, and to do so would be to miss the point.

What is the point, then? Well, partly to confuse us and make us question what we think of as reality and partly to tell us that reality is of our own invention. The real genius of Nabokov lies in his ability to achieve both these goals in one word, so to speak; by totally disorienting his audience, Nabokov in fact makes his point of the arbitrary nature of reality and perception.

Sounds heady, I bet, but don't let that turn you away from this book. Despite its oddity, it's very readable and with a bit of sensitivity it's a clear window into Nabokov's archetypal (the archetypes are of his own invention, of course) style and his complete genius.

It's almost impossible to give Nabokov anything LESS than five stars. He has become such a giant in the world of literature, that one ceases to be able to compare his work to other authors, and instead begins to hold them up against Nabokov's other works.

To validate the statements of so many below, "Invitation to a Beheading" is probably not good intro-Nabokov. Some will find the familiarity of his other works more palatable. As well, it may be unwise to tackle this text without a general knowledge of Eastern European politics.

The text is somewhat muddled in places, and I had a hard time deciding whose fault this was...the author's or the editor's. Some sentences were malingering, unclear, and broke up the natural flow of Nabokov's text, which usually reads easily. In the end, I chose sloppy editing and read on.

This text is HIGHLY introspective and symbolic, and I found myself actually applying pen-and-paper to the symbols I encountered, trying to sort out what Nabokov was saying. So saying, this book ended up being more academic reading than pleasure reading, but has nevertheless taken up quick residence on my favorite bookshelf.

Hugh Person returns to Switzerland in order to recapture those significant events in his life which happened or started in Switzerland. Person's past is a difficult one - returning stimulates uncomfortable memories (by this method, Nabokov reveals Person's story to the reader).

I thought that this novella was essentially an exploration of how memory can be invoked by both places and inanimate objects, and how unreliable our memories can be: we tend to elaborate our recollection of past times, actuality and our recall drift apart. It's often a shock when we find things are not quite as we remember them, when we cannot quite recreate what we imagine the past to have been like.

A short, yet interesting novella, reminiscent of Nabokov's earlier works.

Ok, it's not one of those change your life books like Ada or Lolita, but frankly, if you're considering reading Transparent Things, you've already read those anyway. If you've been burned before by Nabokov, you can trust this one, and better yet, it's 100 pages, so what's the risk? A good rule of thumb is that anything after Lolita is worth the time. Anything before is hit and miss.

Another nice thing is that this is a follow up to Ada and Nabokov's still cranking. There's new philosophical and stylistic ground covered, and one would have thought that there wasn't anything else to cover after the big A. It isn't another love story for the ages, but it's well crafted and entertaining. Oh, and this, unlike most Nabokov doesn't leave you with that, good lord he's a conceited (expletive) feeling.

If it’s true that the main reason Nabokov wrote ...“Lolita” was so its earnings would finance his more obscure efforts, I can’t but applaud his move. Simply referring to it as a novel does no justice to “Transparent Things.” The base plot is an excellent, witty representation of 1970s middle-class American culture, but Nabokov uses “the novel” to construct what I could best describe as a multidimensional, interactive game. Nabokov’s subject, Hugh Person, suddenly becomes YOU! The past, in the novel, is as open to reinterpretation as the future. What's most important, of course, is the now. Nabokov has designed such a cool game—he makes you want to play again and again. If I were ever asked to describe “post-modern” (a term I’m not too keen with), “Transparent Things” would be the perfect example.

My English not being my mother language has attracted me to Nabokov. And I admire him enourmously.But this novel was almost a disappointment, because, though it is so good at times, the almost plotless tale reaches a climax of the futile and bore when (we are already somewhere in the middle of the book)he narrator, who is by then in search of a lady, indulges in a series of inane dialogues whose aim eluded me. And the eighteenth chapter is wonderful, though I disliked also the final chapters, this simulacrum of impetus and parody of revelation on the very point of dying.

Nabokov intension, until he discovered for himself the wonderful world of pop-culture (cf. Lolita and Ada), was really to describe truth and beauty (see 'Luzhin's defense', 'Gift' etc.) in the tradition of the Old World, and play less with cheep riddles and collective phobias. His dealing with the issue of death, as in 'Ultima Thule' etc., appears also here; the last book written by Knight is, however, written about in a pale and uninspiring way (Nabokov could not make his vision clear?), and, surprisingly for Nabokov, is not free of commonplaces and dejavous. All in all the book is original and interesting, as nearly everything Nabokov wrote. And, by the way, the treatment of the relation narrator-genius (commonplace in itself, unfortunately) looks better than in Mann's Doctor Faustus, where it is taken quite heavily (one does not see the traces of the hammer blows).

Side remark: the stars practice is really annoying: isn't there a way to write about books without grading them?

Vladimir Nabokov is perhaps my very favorite author, and so I approached this work withthe mindset of "it must be at least good." It is. It contains the subtlety and puzzling qualities and droll humor of his great works and still manages to work in its own little bit of beauty. It also has its duller stretches, it lacks a real point, and it is more than vaguely pretentious, but nothing unforgivable. As his first full-length work in English, perhaps it should be treated more as an experiment in compositional workability than anything else.
The relative ease of reading this as compared to Nabokov's best, like 'Pale Fire' and 'Lolita,' may make it a good introduction to novices.

This is one glorious little romp of a novel. I personally don't agree that EVERY character in this book is dispicable, I thought Dreyer was perfectly tragic in his eventual realisation, but even so, I don't find the unsympathetic nature to be a fault. The physical world of King Queen Knave is something that pervades the existence of all the characters even to the most grotesque degree (see Franz's chronic disgust), but even though it may seperate their subjective experience to the extent that everybody refuses to understand anybody elses' position, Nabokov fights the deterministic cycle of the Naturalist novel and shows how these walls of relativism can be broken down, and further, that is is even NECESSARY that they be broken down. But more than that, Nabokov twists the arm of fate in his dark conclusion; he delights in showing the authour's mark behind the facade; and there's the expected round of lovely descriptive passages. One shouldn't take Nabokov's "this is by far my gayest novel" too seriously though; this is a farcical romp, but it is one darkly treacherous romp. The reader thanks God that the world around these three main players isn't caught up in the same downward spiral. That creaky boat ride upon the Lindy, the oars fighting, is sharply analgous the overall ride. This is a very good novel, a treat for anybody familiar with Nabokov, but it definitely can stand its own ground. Either by comparison to Nabokov's more brillant later work, or on its own, this novel is a dark little comic-tragedy.

This is the only Nabokov novel I have read, but it sticks in my mind as sensual and tragic... definitely reminiscent of Shakespeare.

"The Graduate" also comes to mind.

Nabokov's descriptive detail puts the reader into the rented room of the nephew, where the first sexual encounter takes place. He doesn't romanticize - he tells everything exactly like it "is" & makes it extremely real.

Very suspenseful at the end, although I see the description on this site reveals the entire ending, so it ruins it for any potential readers!

So don't read that, just read the book. It evoked strong emotion in me, suffering with the characters' situations, frustrations, and desires.

This was Nabokov's second novel, published when he was a mere 28 years old. Thirty-nine years later, after writing so many other fabulous books he said of King, Queen, Knave "of all my novels this bright brute is the gayest." By this he meant that he enjoyed contemplating its "rapturous composition" and reminiscing of how the idea for it first came to him on the coastal sands of Pomerania. The book maintained a special place in his heart. The theme is in many ways similar to Anna Karenina or Madame Bovary, as Nabokov himself admits in the Foreword to the revised English version. I love those other books dearly, but Nabokov's contains several twists and turns that are even more dramatic and less likely for the reader to detect ahead of time than either of those other classic husband/wife/paramour triangle stories.

The setting here is Berlin in the 1920's. The young, unsophisticated Franz arrives on the doorstep of his rich uncle Dreyer with hopes of securing a job in his department store. He gets the job and repays Dreyer's magnanimity by falling for his beautiful wife Martha. (Franz's aunt? Hello!) Martha's seduction of Franz seems to be motivated by something at least bordering on pure boredom, but at any rate, the triangle is set. Dreyer, oblivious to this development, plods on with his money-making schemes and inventions/diversions. Martha, in a departure from the more suicidal natures of Anna K. or Emma B. decides rather to begin clumsily plotting her husband's death so that she and Franz will be able to live happily ever after on his money. But things are not so easy in anything Nabokovian are they? Well, things don't work out the way they're supposed to here either, and that's all I will say. Far be it from me to unravel a rope the Nabokov has so skillfully stretched tight. By the end of this story Franz's conscience lies in tatters, and Martha is _____!

The only reason I don't give the book a perfect 5 stars is because the very ending left me a tad bewildered. I attribute that to a fault in my reading of it and trust that you, being much sharper than I, will rate your experience with King, Queen, Knave a star higher than I did.

They did a pretty decent job. Some problems crop up, however, as there are errors throughout the book on specific bands that even the casual fan would catch. Hey, I'm not a fan of all these bands, but I caught most of the errors. There are also proof reading errors throughout the book.

These points aside, most of the reviews are fairly well written and informed. Whether or not you agree with the opinions expressed, the authors generally have solid reasoning for their comments. Still, one could wish for better accuracy for a book that is supposedly so comphrensive.

Hey guys, if you're looking for an additional writer I'm available!

This is a good book but the guides to jazz, rock, and blues are much better and more complete. Also, the classical section is rather skimpy.

This book needs no review. Buy it