I first became aware of Rian a while back, but stumbled across his website and his excellent collection of fonts. Then I spotted the drawing on the front whilst walking past it in the bookshop and I couldn't resist but to get it.

It's filled with many of his excellent designs, enough to give anyone inspiration, with design commentaries on many of them establishing the reason behind them.

If you love bright bold vector based art, you'll love the book and the freebie CD!

I first became aware of Rian Hughes in the pages of a trendy independent comics magazine called ESCAPE, in 1983. The short strip I read there, NORM, is included in this book, but it's just a tiny fraction of a fraction of the broad range of Commercial Art Rian has produced during the course of the past twenty years.

Part Retro, Part Techno, Rian's Hip Fifties-influenced style remains remarkably unique and instantly identifiable. His negative space logo for the Vertigo comic book, THE INVISIBLES is just one of a thousand brilliant designs he has graciously collected together in this beautiful hardcover collection.

The book includes a CD of font samples and desktop patterns. Buy two and give one to a friend for Christmas.I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If you're not familiar with his work, you can get a taste of it over at his Device website.

"The Dictionary of Concise Writing" is a thorough examination of how to write tight, well-crafted prose. The book begins with a section on "Perfectibility of Words" which defines wordiness and provides various examples of the different types. The following section is "The Imperfectability of People" which discusses the prevalence and acceptance of wordiness in society.

The extensive dictionary actually begins on page 49. Each listed phrase or word combination is followed by suggested substitutions, an example using the "wordy" phrase, and the same example using the correct substitution. If you are wondering if your writing could be more concise or looking for a suggestion for a phrase that just doesn't feel right, or just want to learn better writing skills then this is the book for you. It is the largest and most useful compendium of excessively wordy phrases and practical, workable substitutions that I have had the pleasure of using. A highly recommended purchase for anyone doing any serious writing.

...Any writer worth his or her salt has heard of author Robert Fiske's books, created and designed to help the aspiring, novice and experienced writer alike to hone their craft. In his Dictionary of Concise Writing, Fiske shows not only how to avoid common pitfalls but also how to strive for originality. He is also an expert on one particular handicap of many writers'... the tendency to use redundant or extraneous, excessively wordy phrases in their narrative prose.
This compilation of experience and wisdom is divided into two major parts; the first covers identifying and correcting excessive wordiness, which in itself may take many authors several months to thoroughly peruse. The second part is a collection of the worst of these writers' sins and his remedy to rectify them. Of course, you don't have to take his advice, but it's strongly advised that you do. After all, he's the expert.
And lest this reader/reviewer succumb to the temptation to wax over long praising this neat, fun and easy to read example of terse prose, let me suffice it to say that no writer with any grit should be without this reference.

We used this book for an intro course on computer engineering.

The book, despite being the 1st edition, is very clear and concise, and I turned to it a number of times when the lectures weren't as clear and specific as they might be. Duecks book delves into a bit more detail with more examples {on things like flipflops, latches etc} than other similar books on the market. It also relates the material learned to actual computers looking at the structure of RAM in home PC's.

We didn't use the VHDL or CPLD portions of the book, so I cannot comment on their usefulness... but judging by the rest of the book they should be well written.

I recommend this book for a good introduction to digital electronics.

This is one of the best presentations of digital electronics in the CPLD Altera MAX Plus II design enviroment and VHDL I have ever seen. I do not know of another digital book like it.

It also includes Altera's MAX Plus II software on CD in back of the book along with design files for use with the book prepared by the author.

Even more helpful than edition 3, and I didn't think that possible.

This volume by Bignell and Donovan provides a foundational understanding for the beginning student in digital electronics. The theoretical and practical combine to lend a comprehensive introduction to the field. Each edition has offered expanded coverage that keep the contents current and relevant to the most recent discussions and advances. Clear objectives and a carefully thought out structure make the volume a pedagogical treasure.

There is a typo on the last sentence of my review that I did last week for this book where it states I I've, please remove the I.

Thanks Nate Richey

Although Duck Calls of Illinois, 1863-1963 by Robert D. Christensen is limited to Illinois calls made prior to 1964, it encompasses all of the early documented history of the modern duck call. This is because all of the documented history happened to occur in Illinois.

This is a fascinating and very well done book that no duck call collector could possibly do without. Over 100 Illinois call makers are represented including Charlie and Haddon Perdew, Clifford, Grubbs, Martin, Trutone,Barto, Olt, Allen, Ditto, Leonard, the Glodo family, and the Roseberry family. The great photography will help in identifying many of your unknown calls.

$65 might seem like a lot of money for a book, but considering the rather limited market it is a bargain. The best $65 I I've spent since I started collecting calls.

Nate Richey

Bob Powell's paintings are extraordinary and luminous, conveying both the ethereal nature and the earthiness of this ancient realm. The introduction by Roberto Vitali is a wonderful tour de force. He sums up the artist's work: " In some cases I am led to think that his documentary paintings are imaginary, while those that are imaginary seem documentary."

The magic and mystery of the Kingdom Lo, high in the Himalayan Mountains of Nepal on the border with Tibet ... this is as close as you can get without being there. More than a coffee table book, this book won't let you rest until you have stood and gazed upon the majesty which provoked the works. Rob's works are on display at the Smithsonian through September 26.

Like NilesO, I too have seen the show at the National Gallery. Some of the items on display, I have also seen at the Tokyo Museum of Art back in '96 as part of an exhibition called "Flowers in Japanese Art, Craft and Literature". I've gone through half my annual book budget for '99 (and here it's only February!)! I think I'll pass for now, borrow the library's copy and wait for the paperback edition.

The show is spectacular (check the review in the 12/1/98 Wall Street Journal), and the book (actually an expanded catalogue of the show that approaches being an art history text) is hefty and scholarly. It would seem a "must have" for serious students/afficionados of Japanese arts and culture of the Edo period. I have not read the tome, which is quite hefty and not yet available via Amazon.com, but did flip through it during my tour of the show at the National Gallery yesterday (11/30/98). My 5-star rating is, thus, based on the show, and not truly on the book. But the show is so brilliantly conceived by the author of the book (who curated the show) that I can't imagine the book would disappoint. It's pricey, but I think it's important enough that I have it on order. NilesO@AOL.com

I came across Hopper's paintings, when I was doing reproductions of famous artists as my partial work in high school. They immediately caught my attention and excitement, as they had an odd quality, which no other painters had in their work. Vast spaces, empty streets, newly-woke-up ladies in old-fashion motel rooms, extreme light conditions that contradicted the monotonousness in some way... These are some of the major images one is apt to see in Hopper's works.

Hopper's paintings seem to depict the 20s-40s of America, in the context of local towns, cafes, old rooms, within the frame of realism. He's usually painted his figures in an alignment, that does not let us see their faces nor fronts. Instead, the sun has the right to see them, which casts bright light rays into dark rooms.

I think that Hopper seems to be content with the way of living in America, and how people of it carry on their lives. The paintings may indicate some not-so-happy situations, but they do not depict depression. Therefore, I think that Hopper is the best representative of American culture in the early twentieth century in that sense.

I haven't purchased the book yet; but had a chance to look at it in the school's library. The book contains many of his paintings, and Goodrich's comments show some level of apprehension and knowledge of Hopper's work. It is concise and comprehensive, and I recommend it to everybody. Hopper is certainly one of the most affective artists of the twentieth century and all times.

Most comprehensive single volume regarding Hopper and his work, that I am aware of, and the reprints of the work are accurate and true to the originals. A significant book about a significant painter.

This a book about nothing, really. Hundreds of eletronic pre- video-game-era games photographed sometimes with its original boxes, fully illustrated, colored and detailed. But what is it about? It's about when you had 8 to 16 years, wasting hours, days maybe of your childhood trying to get Mario upstairs where Donkey Kong lives. It's about making 999 points in each and every "game and watch" adventure. It's about dream with the lights and sounds of those games. Maybe it's a book about remembering old friends.

This book covers the art and design of those crappy little handheld games that were so popular in the 1980s...we're talking pre gameboy. I remember owning a few of these machines and also remember seeing a few in the stores that I wanted....this book really brings back a lot of memories and shows that we really have come very far in video game design.

Would that it were so - that artists today understood, or at least vaguely approached, the metaphysical impetus that spurred artists through the centuries, up to and including the first modernists such as Kandinsky, Malevich, Klee, and Brancusi. Only a rare few artists today remain on track and seem to know what being an artist entails -- Martin, Steir, Colomar, Laib, Marden.... The vast majority are occupying themselves in meaningless egomania. Art is focused on, at best, a quick, zippy, kitschy riff on popular culture, no more or less engaging that a mildly clever advertizing billboard. Robert C. Morgan is on target in his diagnosis that art has lost its way, that it no longer even knows enough to seek to strike a deep and lasting internal cord, and that the establishment of curators and critics generally are clueless to find and present weighty art.

"To deal with serious art requires a certain preparation of the mind, a relaxed synthesis whereby the mind comes into contact with the body, where there is a rejuvenation of seeing, and where thought is required to pull the act of seeing into the sensorium of feeling..." - R.C.M.

It could hardly be better stated that body, head and heart must be up to the game of both making and perceiving art. Like Jed Perl's "Eyewitness", this book asks for a more personal art and art world, where the invisible threads of theoreticians no longer bind imagination, where art is done for kicks.

A sticky discussion of meta-critics (almost, but not quite, art philosophers) ends with the hope that criticism can help the quality of art by intervening between art and market/fashion manipulation. Morgan's guess for the future of art is more kitsch, but hopefully revealing rather than reinforcing market culture.