Like many of his more philosophical works, Jean-Paul Sartre dealt with almost taboo (at least in the 40s) social issues on the Age of Reason, usch as abortion, concubinary, the quest for personal freedom, and the government. The Age of Reason does drag somewhat, since it's a good 300 pages long, but it's worth reading, since some of the parts in this book are very well-written and keeps you in suspense throughout the length of the book.

The title of Jean-Paul Sartre's vividly realistic novel of Paris on the dawn of World War II refers to adults who have achieved sufficient maturity to accept responsibility for their actions. _The Age of Reason_ expertly weaves Sartre's philosophy of existentialism into a compelling story of people who desire freedom and responsibility but are extraordinarily incompetent.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines existentialism as "a philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe...and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts." Mathieu, the novel's lead character, is in his mid-thirties and proclaims that he would like nothing better than freedom but is curiously lacking in the necessary maturity. A penniless professor, he impregnates his girlfriend, Marcelle, then schemes to beg, borrow and steal to pay for her abortion. Mathieu even toys with the idea of marrying Marcelle. Mathieu is also in love with Ivich, a young woman whose self-inflicted wound Mathieu childishly emulates on a dare. Sartre's novel also contains a self-hating gay man, Daniel, who plans to save Marcelle, but only by further degrading himself and Mathieu in the process.

Sartre's writing style is true to life, naturalistic, and is never less than totally engaging. With the author we visit various Paris nightclubs and bars which have just the right touch of darkness and sleaziness. Sartre's characters are hopeless but recognizably human. Lola, a sad, aging nightclub singer, deeply in love with the completely useless Boris (Ivich's younger brother) evokes strong sympathy nonetheless. Even Mathieu, as despicable as his conduct often is, believes by the end that he has finally "...attained the age of reason."

The Age of Reason is one of those rare classics in literture that combine an interesting and readable account with a deep quest for understanding.Sartre has taken the disruptive world of Paris, on the brink of invasion by Germany in 1939, and used this backdrop to debate the meaning of freedom. Obviously the idea of freedom is subjective and Sartre certainly does not presume to have found the answer in absolute terms. He uses the protagonist, Mathieu, as well as the peripheral characters, to examine different view points; albeit, with mixed results. The Age of Reason can certainly be read as an independent novel, but if one is to truly understand Sartre's vision, it will be necessary to read the other works in the trilogy, The Reprieve and The Troubled Sleep. Both are excellent and follow up on the secondary characters that are first introduced in the Age of Reason. The three novels, known collectively as The Roads to Freedom, represent, to me, the most significant analysis of what freedom means to a given individual. It will force the reader to reexamine long cherished views and address their own concept of freedom. If you haven't been introduced to the writings of Sartre, The Age of Reason is an excellent starting point.

This may be a good book if you need a complete introduction to IPv6 (the first half of the book) and some Cisco specific configuration details (the second half).

I agree that it's easy to read and seems to be well organised, but it is certainly not well written.

There are numerous errors throughout the book ranging from the trivial to the totally misleading, and many IPv6 concepts are repeated as nauseum in the first half suggesting that they were written by different authors without consulting one another before the book was published. Worse, it seems to have been rushed out without any overall proof reading.

No specific target audience seems to have been kept in mind - if you need an explanation of how to convert decimal to hex (pages 122 - 124) then perhaps this book isn't your first priority.

If you want to know more about IPv6 in Cisco IOS I recommend you look elsewhere - especially to the authoritative guide from Cisco Press by Regis Desmeules.

I give this book three stars for the Cisco IOS specific material, but only two for the general IPv6 material.

Configuring IPv6 with Cisco IOS

I found this book to be excellent reading. It covers enough to help you understand IPv4 and carry that over to IPv6 very adaquately. I have to say I have a technical library of over 300 books and manuals, and this is a welcome addition. It is definitley the best book I've read on IPv6, and know that I will have it around for reference for some time. It is very well written adn organized.

I am a proffesional Internet Security Expert, and find this book Configuring IPv6 with Cisco IOS to be very helpful in understanding what to expect in the new version of IP.

I recommend the book to anyone who is serious about IT, and wants to be on top of the game.

This Book Is Helpful Becouse it shhows you how to win every battle. which is kind of bad becous than youdont have to think. Thats the bad part the good part is it it shows you how to do almost every super move. All and all this is a fairly good product.

This book is cool! I'm glad I got it becuse I have hard times beating it sometimes but not anymore. Save up your allowances and buy this book.

This trade paperback contains two stories: 'Hunting Ground,' which ran in issues 153 thru 155 of Dark Horse Presents, and 'Beneath the Surface,' which appeared in issues 8 and 9 of Angel. Both stories are by Chris Golden and Tom Sniegoski.

In 'Hunting Ground,' Cordelia finally gets a part in a film. Not just a bit part, but a starring role as one of a team of treasure hunters who are searching for the Helm of Haraxis. Deep in the woods things suddenly start to go wrong. Suddenly real life becomes too much like a horror film and Cordelia is desperate for Angel's aid.

'Beneath the Surface' finds Detective Kate Lockley in the middle of a series of killings that have all occurred close to underground accesses that Angel also uses. His investigations turn up a suspicious demon, but the case gets complicated when Kate decides to search the sewers herself. Worse, topping her list of suspects is the broody vampire himself.

Typical of Dark Horse Presents stories, which are originally done without color, the illustration for 'Hunting Ground' (done by Brian Horton and Paul Lee) is simplistic and two-dimensional. The coloring, which was added as an afterthought is also too flat. In contrast, Eric Powell's work on 'Beneath the Surface' is much more alive and the colors show much more modeling and shading. Even so, this is a case where both stories are much better than their graphic presentation.

I've had this book for about ten years now, and I am happy to see it is still available. I've used it for design projects (a college assignment comparing American and British slang), and just for fun. Slang is fascinating!

An excellent, concise review of many outpatient diagnoses encountered by the medical professional during rotations. A must for residents, PA's or nurse practitioners.

The poems in this book are meant to be read aloud by two different people. Each person reads one of the two columns aloud and lines written on the same line are said simultaneously. This volume contains poems about birds.

My 9 year old son, who doesn't like to read out loud, loves to say these poems with me. It takes a couple of readings to get the cadence right, so this becomes a wonderful way to work on diction while having a tremendous amount of fun.

Java Pitfalls is an average book that junior level Java developer may find useful. The book is divided into several sections, with each section containing one or more ideas, tips, advice, pitfalls, "what not to do," etc. Java Pitfall is a fairly dry read and is not as solid as other books on the market that follow a similar style (think Practical Java by Peter Haggar and Effective C++ by Meyers).

Java Pitfalls covers the obvious and mundane (variable scope, how to compare strings, and try/catch/finally), GUI topics, and a handful of interesting areas such as thread synchronization, deadlocks, and string concatenation inside of loops. Junior developers should find some of the topics useful, but experienced developers will find much of the book lacking - perhaps worth a cursory glance at best. With that said, maybe the book should be marketed to novice developers because my overall criticism of the book is that it is not useful book for experienced Java developers. There is always a place for introductory Java books, but Java Pitfalls does nothing to excel and stand out from an otherwise already crowded retail bookshelf.

The most disappoint aspect of this title for me is the GUI coverage - there is too much! Of the 322 pages, over 119 pages (a third of the book) are dedicated to GUI topics. My personal opinion is that GUI topics should have been relegated to another title because the authors could not dedicate enough space to be really useful for AWT and Swing developers. At the same time the included material is worthless for the majority of Java developers that work with some derivative of the J2EE architecture (J2EE is not the focus of the title, but I think the criticism is fair).

I found a few topics in Java Pitfalls interesting and worth reading, but most of the topics are fairly lightweight for anyone that is moderately experienced with the Java language. I cannot help but think that novice developers will find useful tips and practices within the pages of Java Pitfalls, but there are much better Java books on the market, which serve the same purpose. Java Pitfalls is not a book that I will keep handy in my day-to-day use, and I doubt that it will ever show up in my rotation of references that I turn to when I am stumped and need to research an issue. There too many good books on the market for me to recommend a title as average as Java Pitfalls.

I can not say enough good things about Java Pitfalls. I actually recieved this book as a gift and was overwhemingly surprised with the amount of applicable knowledge that this book provided me almost immediately after I started reading it.

The premise of Java Pitfalls is primarily to help those who are familiar with the langauge and have had some experience producing applications in Java. As with all programming languages, there are always better, more efficient ways to do things. Some are obvious and usually cross many languages, and some are not so obvious and are very language-specific.

Java Pitfalls points out a lot of common mistakes made in Java development as well as providing optimization and means of producing much cleaner code that runs faster and uses less memory.

The examples are very thorough and the book is very concise in its reasoning for why certain ways of implementing Java are faster than others, complete with benchmark results comparing the common ways of implementing solutions to their more optimal solutions. The book doesn't just show you how to write code more efficiently, it also explains to you why some methods are better than others.

Again, I can't say enough about this book. It's like having a group of experienced Java engineers sittings beside you as your program. A great book all around.

I've reviewed quite a few Java books about improving the attributes of Java software. Some concentrate on improving the design, others the robustness of software or the performance. While they usually start out promising, by the end of the book you're left with a good understanding of theory but little practical skills. Java Pitfalls : Time-Saving Solutions and Workarounds to Improve Programs, breaks free of that mould, by providing a wealth of techniques and code that has real practical application. The title does not do it justice, however. Not only does the book show you how to improve programs, the advice contained within also saves you time, frustration, and effort.

After reading through even a few pages of tips within the book, you understand that the advice isn't dry theory, but practical advice gained from real-life problems that Java developers face. Michael Daconta, and his co-authors, offer warnings gained from the trenches of software development using Java.

The book is divided neatly into eight sections, covering different aspects of Java programming. A wide range of areas are covered, from the obligatory Java language syntax, to more fun topics like graphical user interfaces (using AWT and Swing), the utilities package and collections, input and output (I/O), and even improving Java performance. The one significant area lacking from the book, in my opinion, is a section on network programming pitfalls, and perhaps other advanced topics like databases. These areas are fraught with pitfalls for the unwary. However, for readers not involved with such areas, this is a moot point, and it leaves more room for other tips.

There are a total of 50 individual pieces of advice, and each is packed full of detailed code examples. Whether you're a Java newbie, or an experienced Java developer looking to improve your coding and reduce the frustration and time of software development, Java Pitfalls is an ideal addition to your book collection. With the usefulness of this advice, you'll probably find it taking a place on your desk though, rather than the bookshelf. -- David Reilly, reviewed for the Java Coffee Break

I wish I had found this book before starting on Heidegger in a class. It is a simple (simplified) overview of the complex and integrated thought of Heidegger. But I believe it will give beginners an overview of what to expect as they dig deeper. Then the digging will be less painful and more profitable.

In our class, it became known as the "Heidegger Coloring Book", but others were eager to borrow my copy.

A good starting point, no matter how serious you are or are not.

For my American Literature Class, I have to choose a philosopher and then find examples of his ideas throughout 20th Century Noble Prize Winning American authors' novels. Having first read about Heidegger in a World History class while studying nazi Germany, I had always been interested in his ideas. This book served as a nice and entertaining overview of his philosophy and influences. For people just looking to expand their philosophical horizons or learn more information without having to read a boring text, I suggest this and practically any book in the "For Beginner" series.

Don't kid yourself and pretend you're too good to read these '... For Beginner' books. They're an ideal way to gather together and encapsulate the key ideas of the primary texts to which they refer. They read quickly, have a sense of humor, and are great little summaries of key concepts.

It goes without saying that they're no substitute for the real thing. That's a given. But Heidegger is difficult. (Are as most of the philosophers that these books deal with. Anybody who says otherwise is lying -- or has read so much Heidegger that he/she has started to get brain-blur.)

The great thing about this Heidegger book (and all the books in the series) is that they present the key ideas in simple terms. And bear in mind that there's nothing wrong with simplicity. Good 'simplicity' is a lot more difficult than one might think. Writing simply and thinking critically is what these books are all about -- and for these reasons, I can't recommend them enough.

I'm a few years out of graduate school, so I feel myself 'out of the loop.' These books are a great way to refresh key concepts, get a good solid fix on Heidegger's so-called project, and give you space enough to dive in (or at least poke about) in 'Being and Time'.

Plus, they make Heidegger's difficult ideas ('Being' 'Dasein') accessible -- and, quite frankly, that's what learning (and reading) is all about. Yeah, they're no substitute for the real thing -- and anyone who thinks otherwise is sorely mistaken -- but they're great contextualizers -- and for that reason, they're quite valuable.

Besides, everybody has hang-ups about the 'difficulty' of modern philosophy. What these books do is to say: Look, the ideas *are* difficult -- don't kid yourself -- but just because they're difficult doesn't mean they should be *inaccessible*.

And that's what you want a good teacher to say, right? You want someone to clomp you on the back, tell you not to worry, and assure that if you just keep at it -- keep reading, keep grappling -- you'll do fine. That's what these books do. They're the teacher clomping you on the back, telling you not to worry.

While Perl is an important language for web programmers, I feel that it should be learned in whole and not in a small reference. The "Visual Blueprint" series has its purpose, however "Perl: Your visual blueprint for building Perl scripts" does not explain many important advanced tasks that Perl programmers often get into.

I enjoy the aesthetic quality of the Maran Graphics' books, and have nothing against this book. However, serious programmers who want to learn much more of Perl and CGI should take a look at Perl How to Program by the Deitels. It is much more effective in teaching Perl theory as well as giving you a lot examples that are complex enough to use multiple ideas. The Complete Perl Training Coarse (also from the Deitels) is very effective as well.

I am still a child, but I have explored many server-side programming technologies (Java Servlets, Applets, JSP, CGI, and Perl) and feel that I am expierenced enough to review this book.

This whole series is great for Developers who learn from example. This book gets to the point, without boring you with too much text.... but gives you more information than just syntax. You don't get the "crafty commentary" as you would in the Wall/Christansen books that lets you into the background and practicality of Perl, but this one is still worth taking a look at.

This is an excellent book if you want a straight forward, no nonsense guide to building Perl scripts. The book does not go into very much theory behind Perl. It does exactly as the cover describes, it gives you a "Visual (step by step) Blueprint" for building problem solving scripts. I liked this book because it was broken down very well into modules that get right to the point and show you what you need to know to solve the problem quickly and efficiently. However, these are basic scripts. To learn the theory behind Perl I would reccomend Learning Perl by Randal L. Schwartz.