Includes chapters on every major rock-forming mineral, with sections on structure, chemistry, optical and physical properties, distinguishing features, and paragenesis for almost every mineral. All this is presented in a clear and organized fashion.

Extremely useful reference book. As a grad student studying mineralogy, I couldn't do without it. A+

An great book. I have the 13th impression of this book published in 1982. We used this book in second year mineralogy and found it very useful not only in mineraology but throughout the remaining years of our geology program at University. The book is easy to use and has all the different groups, ortho- ring silicates, chain silicates, sheet silicates, framework silicates and non silicates and provides information pertaining to properties, crystal structure, chemistry and paragenesis.

This book is an absolute must for anyone working with minerals in any way. Beeing an introduction to rockforming minerals it is very conprehensive. It is very valuable not only as a textbook but also as a handbook in the lab. As the title says it covers the rockforming minerals so dont expect to find exotic minearls. You can though expect to find a relatively detailed introduction to the most important minerals. It far surpasses any student minaralogy to my knowledge.

also describes influx of italians, germans and french fleeing the romish persecutions, similar to foxes christian martyrs.

well done history of the scots reformation movement. many side lights and details of the troubles.portraits & scetches of castles & churches of the times .

I've been a fan of football for years, but there are a lot of ins and outs you simply cannot learn from television and radio.

Howie Long (assuming he did in fact write this book) sets it up as a book for women wanting to understand why their husbands, boyfriends, etc. are so tied up in the game of football. Whatever. Its still a thorough read on the game, from the basics to the coaching strategy. Long is very detailed about each player's responsibilities, and the varied setups used most often on offense and defense (he also explains what the offense and defense are, in case you don't know that much yet). He has chapters devoted exclusively to college football and the NFL, and talks a little about high school football as well. There's also a chapter on conditioning and fitness for the game, and a chapter on fantasy football for the seriously hardcore.

Truly, Howie Long leaves no stone unturned here. Once you've read this book, you will understand this complex sport through and through. The only part of football he left out was the cheerleaders, but hopefully the XFL will take care of that.

OK, a few details: I swore I'd never buy a "dummies" or "idiots" book because -- well, I don't consider myself either of these. I know a lot about football already (played some in high school, watched more than any person should be allowed to). And I really, really like Howie Long, so I'm a bit biased.

Having said that, I'm getting into officiating high school football, and I wanted a book that covered everything I might need to brush up on, but not in such agonizing detail that I would never find what I wanted. There are a very few books available about officiating, rules, and penalties, but most of these are simply lists of rules -- no background or explanation. Then there are the "fan" books, on how to watch & appreciate the game -- fine, but I needed more detail than that.

Long's book does just fine in giving me the level of detail I want (and that would be "not much"), but covering just about everything I could think of. This is not to say that he glosses over anything; he promises to keep it short and sweet, and he does just that. I also enjoyed Long's stories throughout the book; kind of helps tie things together and make them more understandable.

I also thought there were two nice touches to the book: first, the list of "top ten" players, teams, and coaches will give old-timer football fans a little trip down memory lane, while educating newer fans about the history of the game. Second, the "football speak" appendix is a quick way to get a short definition of a word or phrase; very helpful not to have to look it up in the text of the book, when all you want is a definition.

I recommend this one for fans who want a more thorough knowledge of the game, as well as for the poor spouses/girlfriends/boyfriends of those who are fans. Maybe, with this book, they can understand (at least a little bit more) why their loved one acts so goofy for half the year!

The only thing I knew about football was from watching it on TV. I picked up enough information to enjoy the game, but occassionally I got perplexed by commentator remarks and wished I knew what they were talking about. So I bought the "Idiot's Guide to Football", learned a lot more, but still felt unfulfilled. Then I broke down and bought another book, the "Dummies" version, and got exactly what I wanted. This book covers much more detail and doesn't talk down to you. The Idiot's version, while trying to be humorous, succeeds only in insulting your intelligence. If one were to absorb all that is contained in "Football for Dummies", you may not get any calls for head coaching jobs, but you'll certainly better understand the jargon and the meaning behind a lot of the decisions that are made during and before a game. It even covers team motivation, player training and diet, fantasy leagues, the draft, game scheduling, high school and college football information, and a fairly large football- speak section that covers more ground that most other glossaries I've seen. This book contains everything you need know about football to understand and enjoy the game.

This is an introductory text of real analysis and it is kind of British Style (in term of the way they proved the theorems). Also, some advanced topics like "Metric" and "Generalized Riemann Integral" are not covered. If you really want to learn real analysis yourself, try Robert Bartle's "Introduction to Real Analysis", Manfred Stoll's "Introduction to Real Analysis", Apostol's "Mathematical Analysis" and Rudin's "Principle of Mathematical Analysis". Stephen Abbott's "Understanding Analysis" is also an excellent real analysis text.