The Guards This books has some the best photography of the Guards both Calvary and Foot. Some great anecdotes on life as a member of the finest fighting force and traditions of the British Army. Also humor and the antics Guardsman have got up to during Ceremonial Duties. Such as the Guardsman who put an alarm clock in his bearskin, set to go off at the exact time Her Majesty was to ride by during the inspection part Birthday Parade or Tropping the Colour. There are stories and pictures of the Guards on duty in Northern Ireland, Belize and West Germany. This dispells the story that the Guards are just Toy Soldiers. A great book and truely beautifully photographed.

Much can be said about the spectacular photography. But to capture the real beauty of the golf clubs, you need to read the text. For all of us who have enjoyed a pint in a dirty bar, this book captures the essence of the gentility of the game.

This is the book that changed my life and got me interested in literature. I ended up reading so many other books because of this book. In my life,this was the book that changed it all. Will it work for anyone else? Probably

I do not mean to discourge pepole from reading this book if they are not Maugham's fans. I have read the book twice or three times. In the book he summarizes his life and he has something to say just about everything. I found his philosophical discussions intersting. He is also a master of literary criticism and you learn a lot about the art of fiction as well as many artists, writers and famous people of his time. This is not a book for people interested in his biography, but a philosophical book about how he lived his life and how you should live if you go by his opinions. I highly recommend it to Maugham's fans and people studying literature and arts.

I first read this book 12 years ago on a transcontinental flight and got hooked on Maugham rightaway.Since then I have devoured every printed word by the great man and haven't come across a dull paragraph____well, the only exception would be the novel "Then and Now" .This book is a veritable treat! It offers a broad panorama of his artistic evolution (without a trace of humbug___a typical Maugham trait) and is leavened with mordant observations on art,life,death,philosophy,free will,determinism,money,love and CONCUPISCENCE! ____the whole ball of wax !If this book turns you into a Maugham fan, as I hope it will, you might want to read the eminently readable biography of Maugham by Ted Morgan. Happy reading!

I first read this book on a transcontinental flight and got hooked on Maugham rightaway.Since then I have devoured every word by the master and have scarcely found a dull paragraph____well, the only boring one being the novel "Then and Now"....not a bad batting average for such a prolific writer!In this book Maugham offers us a broad panorama of his artistic development without a trace of frippery or humbug(typical Maugham!) These pages are leavened with mordant observations on the art of writing,life,death,the paintings of El Greco,philosophy,love(unrequited),money and CONCUPISCENCE !The scope of this short book is sweeping____the distillation of a half a century of civilised thinking .Highly recommended & happy reading!

First of all, its rather "stupid" to buy a book that appeals by offering the reader that it'll "boost their IQ". Your IQ doesn't simply skyrocket (or go up) by doing a book full of foolish exercises, in fact doing these exercises will do either of the following to you: 1) make you feel rather confident and elite OR 2) make you feel stupid and throw away the book because you feel IQ doesn't prove anything. In either case the reader has a right to feel that way, however, one should be aware that an IQ test simply serve as a rather easy way to determine a person's abilities because there are no better way to do so. If there were better, complex and accurate ways to determine intelligence abilities we wouldn't be wasting time and money and screwy pictures. Nevertheless, buy this book to amuse yourself with screwy pictures and exercises and feel insecure about your abilities OR laugh at others and feel good about yourself. In either case if the book has made you feel superior for the day then it is certainly worth your time and money, else don't buy it.

This is a comment on MENSA: CHALLENGE YOUR IQ by Harold Gale and Carolyn Skitt. As a psychologist who has administered thousands of IQ tests, I was intrigued (and disappointed) by the skewed nature of the IQ distribution used in this book. The standard deviation of most commercial IQ tests is 15. Thus, an IQ of 130 is two standard deviations above the mean, which falls at the 98th percentile and qualifies the examinee for membership in Mensa. The IQ scale used in CHALLENGE YOUR IQ is grossly inflated. The standard deviation appears to be 24! Thus, a person who scores 115 on a commerical IQ test would get an equivalent IQ of 124 in this book. This is a whopping difference and is bound to make readers think they are far smarter than is actually the case.

as per previous reviews, the only fault I have with the book is that it does tend to get repetitive and, as far as challenging goes - well, some of the problems are a measure of sheer tediousness rather than smarts. But perhaps that's good in developing EQ so a benefit to be gained anyway. If you like 'puzzles' then this is not a book for you. It is a series of IQ tests.

I have many LW books, and too was excited to see this one available (I actually bought it a yr ago and wanted to write a review as I was here). However this book does absolutely *nothing* in terms of teaching the necessities of Character Animation. NOTHING essential - No Character Rigging or techniques on Modelling for rigging, No Layout Setups of Rigs - NOTHING! Just a self indulgent chapter or two on how cool the author is for getting his own head scanned. And I can't believe the completely LAME and stupid waste of pages this guys goes to when he shows how to make a "Monster Eye" color map by stitching together 10 digital photos of closeups of his eye looking different directions in Photoshop. With the 2 CDs that come with this book you'd think he'd get something right. This Author has too much time on his hands and not enough LW chops - either that or he just has No idea as to what's important for Char Anim...- only LW 5 techniques. Skip this book!!!

When I upgraded from Lightwave 5.6 to Lightwave 6.x, I did so fully understanding that there would be a learning curve. Consequently, I did so armed to the teeth with all the publications I could get ahold of. I had read Doug Kelly's earlier Lightwave 5 book and found it helpful, so I purchased it along with Dan Ablan's "Inside LW[6]" and "Lightwave 6.5 Magic".
Fortunately, I read Newtek's manual thoroughly and worked through Ablan's book before I even opened "Character Animation w/LightWave[6]" I find it difficult to believe that Mr. Kelly even upgraded to Lightwave[6] before writing the book. Most of the tutorials are a throwback to Version 5, in fact I'll wager that most of the CD-ROM material was generated on pre LW[6] software. Features like Skelegons, infinite Modeler layers, Surface and Graph Editors are hardly mentioned, if at all. New tools like point extenders, interactive smooth shifting and the band saw are ignored. These features alone represent a fundamental shift in the way animators think. Anyone interested in expanding their Lightwave skillset would find this book and its tutorials a pointless exercise.

I was excited when I saw this book, being fairly new to LW6 (although experience in other apps). I saw it as a chance to get good with the character animation toolset. However, the book is mostly general character animation theory, and has little to with Lightwave at all. Sure, it has valid info on designing and storyboarding characters in 3D, but I already know that -- I wanted detailed information on how to apply what I know to Lightwave 6. I'd advise on skipping this one. There's better info out on the web, for free.