Mr. Banks has produced a fine how-to guide for anyone interested in the field of freelance writing. As with most books of this genre, he gives an honest, forthright evaluation of both the possibilities and the pitfalls of striking out on your own as a freelance writer.

The book deals with subjects such as finances for writers, dealing with the day-to-day routine of writing, and even has hints about what to do if your writing career doesn't go as far or as fast you'd like.

Although he does touch on other ways for a writer to pull in income, this book deals mainly with writing for publication. Writing for business is only mentioned as an additional way to make money but does not go into much detail as to how to get started in business/commercial writing.

Since commercial writing (writing for business and industry) is where the money is, and if you don't mind writing things that don't give you a byline, you may want to consider the "classics" on freelance writing by Bly or Bowerman in addition to or instead of this book.

However, this book is another fine introduction to the sometimes-difficult field of freeelance writing and you will benefit from it should you decide to buy it.

How To Become A Fulltime Freelance Writer: A Practical Guide To Setting Up A Writing Business At Home by professional author Michael A. Banks is a straightforward and practical guide to earning a living by writing full-time. Individual chapters address the skills and character traits necessary to supporting oneself through writing, financial planning for writers, relationships with agents and editors, sources of extra income, and much, much more in this well-thought-out compendium that should be required reading for all aspiring writers who hope to establish themselves professionally.

Great book for anyone in Virginia who wonders about snakes. I enjoyed it and reccomend it. It helps puts to rest worries about whether a snake is "dangerous" or not, and generally adds insight into these much maligned reptiles. It is also going to be a big help when my grandchildren visit me in the Roanake area from Manhattan and ask about "Mr. Snake."

I checked out this book from the library and liked it so much I had to have my own copy! It's a great reference book and has good pictures of the snakes and maps of the areas of Virginia they are found in. The text is informative and has subtle humor in places. These guys really like snakes, and it is contagious, even to someone who really doesn't like them! It has helped my daughter's fear of snakes greatly.

Written with style and love, this book paints evocative pictures of the Antartic. The way the book is put together enables one to travel as a freind and experience some of the awe and splendore of the place. A deep feeling of lose came over me when I had finished.

This is definately written from the perspective of the Antarctic traveler turned forever into the Antarctic lover. Though well written, with flavorful descriptions, I fear that its appeal would miss many. As I have traveled to Antarctica, I found endless identification with much of the text. I feel that its strength lies in its ability to evoke strong rememberance of such adventures, but perhaps some of the terminology would be lost on those without the same memory to draw upon! Too bad, it is like reading an old love letter...

Noted Roman military scholar Michael Simkins and illustrator James Field team up to give us a detailed if somewhat less than comprehensive history of the development of the Roman soldier from the late republic thru the rise of Constantine. After a concise introduction that sketches the basics of how a Roman soldier was recruited and lived, Simkins text then gives us detailed glimpses into some key campaigns of Roman history and how the progression of such campaigns influenced the development of the Roman military machine. Alas, the last campaign he details in this manner is Masada, omitting some key campaigns of the triumphant Second and tumultuous Third centuries that are so important in understanding the evolution of Roman arms. Some of this slack is taken up in the excellent closing chapters that survey individual items of legionary and auxiliary equipage ranging from military belts thru edged weaponry.

Linking all this is of course the beautiful illustrations of James Field coupled with extensive color and black and white photographs of sundry Roman military gear from both archaeological recoveries and reenactor reconstruction's. Field's plates are wonderfully fluid whether displaying legionaries on mundane guard duty or engaged in desperate close combat. Each plate of course comes with a detailed image summery to allow the reader to identify specific items in the course of their actual use.

All in all, this is a highly recommended work that if not quite in the league of Peter Connoley is nevertheless still well worth the time and expense of any Roman military history buff.

I am a fan of the work of Michael Simkins. His art both in re-creating the arms and armor of ancient Rome, and in the line drawings and explanations of the equipment, makes this a great addition to your library. His text is a basic starter for historical research, which I often refer to, just to save time in my studies! The color plates are in a style which shows equipment and the way it was worn, not fancy backgrounds. I appreciate this style. The photos of the recreated helmets, armor and swords are stunning

There are not many book about pet doves out there and this one is defintely the better one for someone who has a domesticated Ringneck or White Dove, as a house pet.

An unfortunately problem with what few books there are on doves is that wild and domestic species are often described in the same book. They may be biologically related species but they are so completely different as pets, in terms of their caging, care, and temperament. What I like about this book is that it does make a clear dinstinction between caring for domesticated and wild doves. Another thing I like it that the author describes something of the friendly nature of tame, domesticated doves and what great pets they make. The coverage of wild dove species is somewhat limited but there are better books for that, such as "Doves" by Matthew Vriends.

My only real criticism of the book is that there is still sometimes a lack of clarity as to when the author is describing domestic vs. wild species. Also, I cringe when some photos of domesticated ringneck doves are alternatively labeled "collared doves" and "indian ring doves". It makes it a little confusing as to whether these are all the domesticated "Streptopelia risoria" species or another, wild species, of the same genus.

Both this book and "Doves" by Matthew Vriends have a lot of good information. However, I wish one of them (or someone else) would write a book specifically on the domesticated Ringneck and White Doves. They really deserve a book of their own, that describes both their great pet qualities and their many new color varieties.

Good book for beginners,Informative with Lots of pictures

Gos does a good job of explaining, to the novice, the basics of dove behavior and care. It is a shame that one can practically count the number of books on doves out there on one hand. The prose is simple and clear, unlike another book on doves I have in mind. This book has helped me successfully acculturate my two pet doves, one ringneck and one white, into their new home. Highly recommended.

I own parrots, I have friends who own parrots, and I have a brother who breeds parrots. I feel I can knowledgably say that this is not a good guide to parrots. It is full of mistakes both in the text and in the illustrations. I was very disappointed when I went through this book and, fortunately, I did not buy it but got it through the library. If you want info about this group of birds buy the standard, Forshaw's Parrots of the World, and just realize that the information about ranges and scientific names might be out-of-date but overall this is the better book by far. It deserves no stars.

This is got to be one of the best guide books I have ever seen featuring over 350 different species of parrots on our planet. Being the bird lover that I am, and that includes domestic as well as wild birds, I own almost every book out there on birds, and I really love this edition by Tony Juniper & Mike Parr. It should really be called an encyclopedia because there is just so much information in these almost 600 pages. The 88 superb color illustrations of all the species by 5 different artists are so beautiful & true to life. As you already know by reading the editorial & other reviews, this book includes range maps of the species locations, their vocalizations, life expectancies, and much more fascinating information.

Remember, this is not a book about parrots in captivity, its information about birds in the wild. If you don't own a parrot and are thinking about one, this book is a definite help in learning about all the different species that are out there. The more knowledge you have the better it will be when you do decide to pick out that perfect companion parrot for yourself & family. Owning a companion parrot is a lifetime commitment that shouldn't be taken lightly. I know I researched many months before I found the perfect parrot for us. The love you receive in return from your parrot will amaze you. I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars. Highly recommended!

This is the first book I bought on Parrots and it is the only I would ever need to learn about the different types of Parrots in the world. It contains information and pictures on every type of Parrot from the African Grey to the rare Kakapo. I only wish they had an indication on the price range of each bird on the market for those who breed and sell. I would definitely recommend this book to the serious Parrot collector. A definite must on a Parrot lover's bookshelf and worth every dollar.

any time a book comes out that can help the average home owner to the professional with something that has to be done any where is some thing that you need to go out and get. this book shows you what is needed, when you need it, and at what stage of your project.this ,by no means, is to take place of actual codes or instructions from your local building code office.this is a tool that will help you but if used incorrectly will cost you.

Cheap, easy, and fun to read. Well-organized. It's good for simple stuff... stair/railing dimensions, distance from spa to cutoff switch, etc. But as another reader says, in such a small book, don't expect the entire building code to be in there. Still, if I lost my copy, I'd run right out and buy another one.

I read a couple negative reviews of this book and almost didn't buy it! If you have common knowledge of construction and building this book will be an invaluable reference for you. Many things are abbreviated, so it might look confusing at first. Using some common sense and the abbreviation key in front will get you through the initial learning curve. This book will help you comply with electrical codes, plumbing, etc., with sketches only where needed. I rebuild houses on the side, and this book is invaluable.

I could not identify all the butterfly caterpillars. I have many different kinds of caterpillars in my garden and would like to know what they will turn into. I recommend that each butterfly picture have on the same page a picture of the caterpillar. This would make identification of a butterfly to be much easier.

The book was not concise.

this is a wonderfull book with all that i need.

in the other books the butterflies shown are dead, and i dont like that. I mean, Iam a butterfly lover. I hate that.

This is a beatyfull book and i love it.

I use both Audubon Society and Petersons small wildlife identification guides and find that are quite good with their own plus and minuses. Petersons is better for taking into the field for things that move (animals and insects) due to the layout which allows for quicker identification. Audubon is better for things that can't get away (plants) and with animals and insects, for obtaining data about the creature's habitat. This guide is as good as any other in their series, which is to say that it is very good.

I like the style in which this book is written. Each chapter is self contained, i.e., you don't have to read earlier chapters for any other chapter to be useful. Thus, the book need not be read cover to cover if certain topics are not of interest to you. Each chapter deals with a specific topic such as drinking and driving, motivation, taking responsibility, date rape, eating disorders, etc. Each chapter starts of with a realistic scenario in which a problem dealt with by the chapter is set forth. Then, the authors discuss the general subject matter of the chapter in analytical terms. Finally, the discussion returns to the scenario and how the problems can best be dealt with and resolved.

The scenarios include dialogues between a teen and friends, teachers, parents or others who would play a role in the situation set forth. The authors later analyze how well the subjects of the dialogues handled the situations in the scenario. The book is very readible and the advice is genarally good, albeit not always in the greatest depth. As a parent and a school board of education member, I find the book useful and recommend it.

Many books of this genre fall into the trap of either being too clinical or too cynical. Thankfully, Drs. DiPrisco and Riera provide us with a wonderfully accessible and beautifully crafted inquiry into the American teenager. Having been a teenager once, (if I still trust my memory) I find their insight trenchant. While I cannot claim complete objectivity--I defy anyone who has read either DiPrisco's poetry or Riera's earlier books on teens to remain impartial--I am thankful for their effort and think it a national prize.

As the subtitle indicates, FIELD GUIDE TO THE AMERICAN TEENAGER is all about Appreciating the Teenager You Live With. That's a big concept: Appreciating the kid (not always an easy thing to do when you feel like you're at your wits end). Not dictating behavior or choosing career paths or keeping your kid from harm's way -- as if any of that were even possible by the time s/he's a teenager.

Riera and DiPrisco make it clear that there is no way to 'follow-the-dots' and come up with pat answers to the difficult subjects they tackle. Instead, this beautifully written book presents teens in their natural habitats. Real situations are depicted -- ones that anyone can identify with -- but rather than attempting to proscribe behavior, Riera and DiPrisco discuss each topic and scenario in an insightful section called Notes Home that will surely help parents bring a new slant to their thinking. It definitely opened my mind to new approaches.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with a teen -- or a soon-to-be teen. You won't be disappointed.

The book of Peskin/Schroeder represents in my view a major stepforward since Bjorken/Drell. Not only do they cover everything in moredetails but their book also reflect the considerable advancement and refinement of quantum field theory. In any case, one should still start with Bjorken/Drell in order to get a good understanding before moving over to Peskin/Schroeder. This is not to say that Peskin/Schroeder is difficult to read, quite the contrary, but the physics embedded in the mathematics will be much easier to master. The problems are very well tied to each chapter and are also clearly written for a further and deeper understanding of the subjects. Also, Peskin/Schroeder cover quite a bit in quantum field theory and one will never have the feeling that something was left out. This also makes it an excellent reference book as well.

I have used this book for the past five years, teaching a one
semester course on Intro to Quantum Field Theory.
I also taught the second half of the book two times.
I am still amazed by how well written and enlightening this book
is, and I regard it as a modern classic. After a years
worth of study, the student is really able to dive into research.
They know the Standard Model in enough detail to
perform radiative corrections in the electroweak model, and
where the Feynman rules come from in different gauges.
The book is accessible to experimental and theoretical students
in all areas of physics, and drives home all the essential
points. I wish this book had been around twenty years ago
when I was first trying to learn the material.

The authors give an excellent overview of the physical concepts and computational aspects of quantum field theory. They stress the situation behind the subject, and endeavor to remain as concrete as possible. Abstract mathematical constructions are left to more advanced texts in quantum field theory. The authors characterize their book as an updating of the two volume set of Bjorken and Drell.

The main emphasis of the book is on quantum electrodynamics (QED), the most successful of quantum field theories. The representation and analysis of the physical processes of QED is done via Feynman diagrams, with electron-positron annihilation leading off the discussion. Recognizing that the exact expression for the amplitude of this process is not known, perturbation theory is used to give an approximate representation for it via an infinite series with each term involving successively higher powers of the strength of the coupling between the electrons and photons (i.e. the charge). Each term is represented as a Feynman diagram. This is followed by a discussion of the quantum field theory of the Klein-Gordon field. The authors give one of the best explanations in the literature of why one must deal with the quantization of fields and not particles, the most important one being causality. Canoncial quantization is employed and the Feynman propagator for the Klein-Gordon field is derived. The Dirac field is also quantized using the canonical formalism. The authors show that Klein-Gordon fields obey Bose-Einstein statistics and Dirac fields obey Fermi-Dirac statistics. The all-important Wick's theorem is proven and higher-order Feynman diagrams are discussed. Most importantly, the authors show how to connect these results to experiment via the calculation of cross sections and decay rates. This entails the computation of the S-matrix elements from Feynman diagrams. The authors are very detailed in their elucication of the discussion, and those who have done these calculations know that it is great fun to do so. In addition, these "bread-and-butter" calculations give quantum field theory its ultimate justification in the modern particle accelerator. The discussion on radiative corrections is especially well-written, particularly the section on infrared divergences.

The authors do not entirely neglect the more formal aspects behind quantum field theory, and spend some time discussion renormalization and the amazing Ward-Takahashi identity. This important identity gives one further confidence in the consistency of QED in that is shows that timelike and longitudinal photons can be neglected in the actual calculations. The process of renormalization has been viewed with suspicion by mathematicians, but it has been given a firmer foundation recently using, interestingly, mostly 19th century mathematics. The authors discuss functional methods, and give an example of its use by calculating the photon propagotor. Viewing this as a constrained problem because of gauge invariance they use the Faddeev-Popov gauge fixing condition to obtain the correct results. In addition, they derive the important Schwinger-Dyson equations for QED using functional methods.

Effective field theories are also introduced in the book, with an explicit calculation of the effective action. The authors show the important connection between continuous symmetries and the existence of massless particles (Goldstone's theorem). Their discussion of the renormalization group is very understandable, and they motivate the subject well, by asking why the loop integrals over virtual-particle momenta are always dominated by values on the order of the finite external momenta.

Non-Abelian gauge theories are given a thorough treatment and Wilson loops are introduced as a comparator between gauge transformations at different spacetime points. The quantization of these theories is again done by viewing the quantization problem as a constrained problem, and the famous "Lagrange multlipiers", the Faddeev-Popov ghosts, are introduced. The authors show in detail how their introduction allows the correct Feynman rules to be produced, by showing that the unphysical timelike and longitudinal polarization states of the gauge bosons are cancelled by these fields. The BRST symmetry is discussed as a formal device to to this cancellation. The omit though how the Ward identities are derived from BRST symmetry.

The authors give the best explanation in the literature of asymptotic freedom by showing the effect of vacuum fluctuations on the Coulomb field of a SU(2) gauge theory.

The important operator product expansion is treated in the context of the Callan-Symanzik equation in quantum chromodynamics. It is applied to the deep inelastic scattering and electron-positron annihilation. Dispersion relations make their appearance here.

The authors also discuss anomalies and motivate the subject by analyzing the axial current in two-dimensional massless QED. The axial current is shown not to be conserved in the presence of an electromagnetic field, and they conclude that gauge invariance and conservation of axial currents in this theory cannot both be simultaneously satisfied. This is generalized to axial currents in four dimensions and the authors derive the famous Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomalies. The implications of anomalies for gauge theories are discussed along with observable consequencies.

The (mysterious) Higgs mechanism is also discussed and compared to the situation in superconductivity. To view it in terms of superconductivity I think gives it the most plausible and intuitive justification. Understanding the Higgs mechanism is a usual stumbling-block for newcomers to gauge theories, and the authors do a fair job here. The quantization of spontaneously broken gauge theories is then carried out, with emphasis on the Goldstone boson equivalence theorem. A brief discussion of the future of quantum field theory ends the book.

When reading this book, and others on quantum field theory, I am always amazed at the degree to which it works, and its elegance, despite the fact that it really is a collection of ad hoc strategies and sophisticated guesswork. One gets the impression that there is something profound behind the scenes, still waiting to be discovered, and which will be able to shed light on the major unsolved problem of quantum field theory: the existence of a bound state.