I found this book at a garage sale. They were only selling books, because the sellers father had passed away leaving them a huge library they didn't want. They had all sorts of books. I was scrounging around and came across a small old green book. I read a little and bought it. I've reread it a thousand times it is the most insightfully hilarious thing i have ever read. If you haven't read it your missing out.

I came across this first when it was being narrated on the BBC's Radio 4 and just *had* to find the text. Since the book's out of print, and thus difficult to find, note it's also available through Project Gutenberg, which publishes out-of-copyright books on the Internet.

Jerome has the uncanny knack of looking at life in the l800's and unknowingly applying it to our life of today , a hundred years later. It is uproariouly funny, tearfully sad, but always true. His chapter on dogs and cats is enough to make you roll down the hall. Also not to be overlooked, his dedication in the front is to his friend, his PIPE. Oh, to be able to look forward to more of his writtings, but, alas, only three items were printed, it seems. A must in anyone's library for pure joy and insight.

This story of a know-it-all rabbit is jumping with slapstick illustrations and has an energetic, egotistical monologue by "Uncle Podger" that will have pre-schoolers out-guessing and out-knowing this silly main character all the way through the story. The expressions on the rabbits' faces are very cleverly drawn and match the exclamations of the characters perfectly. This story, illustrated and adapted by Wallace Tripp, is an excerpt from "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome.

My grandmother would read this to us when we would come over to her house, and it was always a instant favorite. Guaranteed to bring smiles to everyone!

This book is a short overview of some of the important mathematical techniques used to study genome sequences. In spite of the length of the book, the author does a fine job of introducing these techniques. Students of computational biology will especially benefit from its perusal.

The first section is a brief overview of the structure of DNA, m-RNA, and t-RNA. Recognizing that DNA is two large for direct analysis, restriction fragments are discussed in the second section, with emphasis on the restriction-enzyme fingerprint. The author's goal is to find the probability of occurences of a 6-letter word in a strand and the mean distance between occurrences of this word (assuming no overlap between the words or the occurences and equal probabilities for the bases). The effect of successive pair correlation (Markov chain effect) is considered briefly. This is followed by a calculation of the probability that a base pair is contained in a given clone. The author omits any discussion of algorithms for optical mapping, but does give a brief discussion of restriction maps.

The mathematics becomes more rigorous in chapter two, wherein the author analyzes a chain that exists as a set of cloned subchains with unknown overlap. This is the 'fingerprint assembly' problem the object of which is to produce a physical map of the full sequence. The fingerprint of the clone is a collection of lengths of a particular restriction fragments. This algorithm involves a sequence of contiguous clones called 'islands'; and 'contigs', which are two or more clones. The average number and size of islands are calculated assuming that the clones have equal length and identical overlap threshold. The method of anchoring is also discussed as a second method for obtaining the physical map of the genome. The author then considers the problem of covering the whole sequence by first placing n markers on a genome and covering by intervals centered at these markers. This is the restriction-fragment-length polymorphism analysis, the combinatorics of which the author solves by using Laplace and Fourier transforms. He also considers adaptive and non-adaptive pooling, in order to find a particular set of proteins on a large fragment.

The third chapter addresses sequence statistics, with the author addressing the nonhomogeneity of sequences and the correlation dependence in the bases. The chi-square test is discussed is some detail and the author discusses the accuracy of the Markov chain assumption. Noting that very long chains would be needed to determine the parameters for the expressions for the conditional correlations, he uses the maximum likelihood method to find the intrinsic correlation length, and then estimates the parameters by modeling the parameter set.

The author then studies the isochore regions and discusses their detection via the Jensen-Shannon entropy. Asking whether there are correlations between these long regions and within them motivates him to consider the long-range properties of DNA. This leads to the examination of a long fragment of a single strand of DNA, and with the assumption that strand-symmetry holds, the correlation coefficients are studied, with the decay properties of the auto- and cross-correlation discussed. Then, distinguishing only dual pairs, the author considers the probability that a pair is separated by an integer after an integral number of steps, a calculation that reduces to finding the largest eigenvalue of a 'transfer matrix', a procedure well-known in statistical physics.

Next, a consideration of simple sequence repeats leads to a difference equation that is solved by the method of moments. Windows of bases are then discussed, in order to improve on the statistics. Correlations within and between windows are calculated. Interestingly, the consideration of long-range correlations gives a power-law dependence for the correlations, which is related to the Hurst index for self-similar patterns. Readers get their first taste of hidden Markov models in this chapter, which are currently very popular in sequence analysis. Even more interesting is the discussion of walking Markov models, wherein a first-order base-to-base Markov chain is chosen to depend on a hidden parameter, and the time evolution is shown to satisfy a Fokker-Planck (diffusion) equation. Spectral analysis and information theoretic criteria are also discussed.

In the next chapter of the book, the author considers the most important part of sequence analysis, namely the comparison between sequences according to their linear ordering. The problem is to find the probability of a common subsequence of two linear chains with a given length. The first calculation assumes that the matches are mutually exclusive, and the result is an upper bound on the probability. The author then considers the matches to be independent events, and again bounds are given for the probability, the so-called Chen-Stein estimate). He also gives an estimate of the probability in terms of an asymptotic series. Extreme value methods are then used to calculate the expectation value and the variance of the length of the longest match. An interesting exercise is assigned for the reader; namely of finding the effect on the Fourier and Walsh power spectrum with the assumption that the base correlations are fractal in form. The alignment problem is then generalized to include replication errors, mutations, etc. The chapter ends, appropriately, with a discussion of multisequence comparison. The author poses the problem as one of finding the best match of a word to an n-tuple of words, which he tackles first using 'information content'. The category analysis of separating subsequence configurations into clusters is briefly discussed via simulated annealing, discriminant analysis, Bayesian analysis, and neural networks.

The last chapter is a short introduction to the biophysics of DNA. The Hamiltonian for the dynamics of DNA is given, thermal equilibrium is assumed, and the partition function is calculated. This is followed by a discussion of the dynamics at low temperature when the energy is given by RNA polymerase instead of the heat bath, and the dynamics is solved via the Lagrangian using Bessel functions.

This book provides a great look at the child life profession. Much of it consists of case studies of interns written in a journal-style format. If you are interested in Child Life, this book is worth getting your hands on--You get a look into the thoughts, mistakes, and rewards of a child life specialist.

J.K.J.'s Three Men in a Boat is a hillarious story about middle class Victorians travelling on a boat on Thames. The book is filled with many humorous stories about the "tribulations" and "disabilities" they have and had experienced. One the most comical moments is the trio packing their luggage. Unfortunately, to the end of the story, the author evidently runs out of humorous scenes to narrate. Still, this book is a comical classic.
The sequel to Three Men On A Boat, Three Men On The Bummel is less succesful. Despite, this it is still amuzing to to read J.K.J. describe the laws and customs of German people.
Both Three Men On A Boat and Three Men On The Bummel are comical, clasical gems. It is amazing how J.K.J. combines history, humor, philosophy, and descriptions together. Some of the greatest books ever written.

Warning: if you have any abdominal problems - for your own sake do not read this book cause you will die laughing! There are some great books, and then there are some all-time best. Three Men In A Boat unquestionably belongs to the latter category. This is easily one of my all-time favorites, and since I first read it when I was 11, I have re-read it well over 10 times, every time discovering new layers of Jerome's humor. It's a very different type of humor from the one we are used to from the contemporary sit-coms. This humor is very refined and sharp, always on the boundary with acid sarcasm. The characters in the book are so real and alive that you will definitely recognize in them someone that you know, or maybe even yourself at times. The overall quality of writing is incredible, and I must reiterate - hours of non-stopping laughter are guaranteed! If you haven't read it, you can't imagine what you are missing!

Warning: if you have any abdominal problems - for your own sake do not read this book cause you will die laughing! There are some great books, and then there are some all-time best. Three Men In A Boat unquestionably belongs to the latter category. This is easily one of my all-time favorites, and since I first read it when I was 11, I have re-read it well over 10 times, every time discovering new layers of Jerome's humor. It's a very different type of humor from the one we are used to from the contemporary sit-coms. This humor is very refined and sharp, always on the boundary with acid sarcasm. The characters in the book are so real and alive that you will definitely recognize in them someone that you know, or maybe even yourself at times. The overall quality of writing is incredible, and I must reiterate - hours of non-stopping laughter are guaranteed! If you haven't read it, you can't imagine what you are missing!

This is one of the funniest books I've ever read. So why only 4 stars? Because it's not consistantly funny. The problem seems to be that Jerome started to write a travel story, with some serious thought on history and life, and added a few humorous bits as he went along. His editor got him to tone down the history and emphasize the humor, but we, the readers, are still stuck with some dreary Victorian romantic musings.
But then there are the funny bits. And there are a lot of them. I'd say 80% of this book is funny, and a good 10% is hysterically funny. Well worth the dull patches.
WARNING: Do not read this in a public place. You WILL embarrass yourself by laughing out loud. The pages on cheese are especially deadly. I still giggle uncontrolably each time I re-read them.

I was given a copy of this book about 12 years ago. It has turned out to be one the best gifts I've ever received. Jerome's witty ramblings are the funniest I've ever read. Mark Twain, who I also love to read, comes close to Jerome's style but, in my opinion, is a poor second. Jerome finds humor in the commonplace and the every day occurrences which all of us, even a good 100 years later, can identify with. Starting with his self-diagnosis of every ailment, excepting house-maid's knee, to his singular insights into his friends, self, and surroundings; I never tire of rereading this book. It becomes clear quickly that the dog, Montmorency, is the only one with any sense. Three Men and a Boat always cheers me after a cold, bleak winter. It's the best Spring tonic--I highly recommend an annual dose. I shop now for gifts to give to friends so they can share my enjoyment in this wonderfully humorous and offbeat book. Read, enjoy, and laugh often.

Like other reviewers, I first heard of this book after reading the wonderful novel by Connie Willis, To Say Nothing of the Dog. That wonderful book inspired me to read Three Men in a Boat. A simple story set in Victorian England of three young men taking a boat ride down the Thames, and yet I laughed so hard and so often that I actually had to stop reading to catch my breathe. The writing is wonderful, with characters that everybody can identify with. The story of uncle Podger hanging the picture is priceless.

I can't believe that this book was written over one hundred years ago. The story is timeless. But the humor is such that few readers will be able to come away without loving this book. Already, I am trying to get hold of the author's other books. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Whatever you do, READ THIS BOOK! If not, you are truly missing one of life's greatest pleasures!