How right this advice was. This is an excellent book which walks you through the history and philosophy, then on to regional variations, landscape, interior, furniture, lighting and accessories.

These are all supported by excellent photography, glossary and sources for everything from auctions to books to Interior Designers, etc. A must have for the Arts and Crafts rookie.

The illustrations are so incredibly charming and evocative, I'm going to buy a second book, tear out the pages and frame them.

Also, in "Lady is a Tramp" I used the third person instead of the original first person usage to demonstrate the lyrics. The original "Lady is a Tramp" is written as "I get too hungry for dinner at eight. I like the theater but never come late....etc." I used the third person because it is the more familiar version.

AND AS A TESTAMENT to the timelessness of Rodgers and Hart's songs, listen to the current Ralph Lauren "Romance" perfume commercial. It features James Taylor and Carly Simon singing the opening and closing lines of "My Romance". It's a beautiful, heartfelt song nicely rendered by Taylor and Simon.

Hart wrote lyrics that are cerebral and sophisticated. His compositions are infused with wit and wisdom. He used complex rhymes. An example from "My Funny Valentine": "Your looks are laughable, unphotographable. Yet you're my favorite work of art. Is your figure less than Greek? Is your mouth a little weak? When you open it to speak, are you smart?"

Another example from "Bewitched": "I'm wild again, beguiled again, a whimpering simpering child again...." And yet another example from "Lady is a Tramp": "She gets too hungry for dinner at eight. She likes the theater but never comes late. She never bothers with people she hates. That's why the lady is a tramp."

Hart could be wistful and romantic as in "My Romance": "My romance doesn't need to have a moon in the sky. My romance doesn't need a blue lagoon standing by. No month of May. No twinkling star. No hideaway. No soft guitar."

Hart's lyrics are consistently observant and very often ingenious. They are the perfect match for the variety and intricacy of Richard Rodgers' superb music.

When you read through this collection of Hart's compositions, you will realize why this diminutive, gifted and endearing artist is a true giant of the musical theater.

Not only is what he says witty but how he says it is even wittier. There is no room here to give examples of his incredible rhymes. But turn to the single example of "To Keep My Love Alive" which might be the very last set of lyrics he wrote before a lifetime of alcohol finally took its toll; and then compare it with any Gilbert's "list" songs to see the genius of this artist.

On an other level, any student of psychology will pounce upon the self-lacerating images conjured up in his "love" songs. Because of his own physical problems, we have "My Funny Valentine" in which the love object is "less than Greek" with a chin that's a little weak. And being in love is little more than "broken dates" and "flying plates."

His out and out parodies rival Cole Porter's, as witness "Way Out West on West End Avenue" with its kitchen range and so on. And all this is helped by his "signature" trick of breaking up words in the middle to get rhymes like "Summer journeys to Niagra/ And to other places aggra-/ Vate, all our cares."

On the level of Broadway musical history, the value of this collection speaks for itself, especially with the fine photographs and annotations about every show and then every song within the show. A scholarly masterpiece.

So how come you don't have a copy?

This book is quite insightful, especially for a Southeast Asian media professional like myself. I recommend this book to everyone, even to those who work in the upper regions of the power sturcture of the media conglomerates critiqued in the collection.

For starters, it is a wonderful overview of how the media economy is shifting all over the world. The US market is saturated, as the book said, and the rest of the world is ripe for picking, especially my country, the Philippines.

This book is a tool to launch our own media analysis of what's happenning in our own countries. And from an analysis, we launch a critique, and from a critique, we launch steps to face the situation.

This book, published by New Media, is invaluable. I first read about it in an issue of Utne Reader. I took down the title and hunted it down in Amazon. I found it, bought it, and consumed it. I loved it because it gave me useful insights to work with.

This is a book I will dog-ear in my attempts to understand what to do in my field, and how to start my own media conglomerate from scratch. I already have my ideas, which I hope aren't just soundbites in my head.

This is an illuminating book. It shows how much the egyptian monuments have changed in the last 150 years. Not always for the better. The island of philae is shown with it's monuments all brightly coloured with the orginal paint. Today they have been stripped bare back to the stone by the waters of the Aswan dam.

Many of the monuments Roberts shows in here are partially covered by sand and it is interesting to see how different they look when they have been fully excavated, or in the case of the nubian monuments - quite literally picked up and moved.

For anybody interested in ancient egypt, 19th century travel or lovely monumental art this book is a must. This is also the best place to see these prints for most people as the cost of the original prints these days is wildly expensive. You get the beauty without the cost...