I enjoyed this book quite a bit and am somewhat sad to see it out of print now. I bought it only a while ago from Amazon when it was still in print. Perhaps it will return to print again someday.

Each chapter shows demonstrations from various UK pastel painters using different techniques and/or subject matter. One of the odd things is that many of the pastel paintings definitely LOOKED British to me. I don't know what it is but apparently a lot of Brits really like rather drab, dull colors (well, drab & dull to me anyway seeing as I'm from bright, sunny, and in the summer, blisteringly hot Dallas). Maybe it's something to do with UK weather. The landscapes in particular always look like they're painted on a cloudy, overcast day. Go figure...

One chapter demonstrates using pastel for tonal studies (the artist's subject was a landscape). Another chapter demonstrated using pastels for moving water or clouds. Still others for architectural paintings, portraits, wildlife or demonstrating how paper texture and color can change the end result of the same subject.

Practically all of the demonstrations except one are executed in a "painterly" style. That is, a loose manner that showcase the beauty of each stroke. The final demonstration showed one artist who prefers to use pastels in a very tight and highly realistic manner. One of the ways he achieves some of the sharp edges and high definition is the use of mechanical drawing aids such as clear plastic rulers and/or templates to mask out some areas.

This book is most useful to beginner or intermediate pastelists. Advanced pastelists would probably enjoy it more for the paintings shown than for any instruction it holds. The only downside I can think of is if you wanted to learn more about painting in a high definition or realistic style. In that case you'd really only find the last chapter helpful. Overall, I found it to be helpful for my own attempts at learning pastel painting and I think it could be for other beginners as well.

The deep set alignment so commom in USA rugby is the primary reason our offensive attacks fail!

Fast aggressive defenses drift along and contain and stop movements without being challenged!

This book is a must read for any rugby coach. I've implemented the tactics described within and completely refocused the team on applying pressure on the defense rather than vice versa.

The secret is the flat line offense which encoureges straight ahead running,easier decision making, preserves space, and makes it much easier for forwards to maintain support.

One of the biggest challenges faced by U.S. rugby is decision making! The deep alignment makes this more difficult by giving the illusion of both time and space. The net result is generally a stoppage of movement 5-10 meters behind the gain line and 30 or more meters away from forward support. Backs must engage quickly and close to support.

We Americans love the big play and all hands to the winger is an axiom, with "get it out" as the familiar battle cry. Unfortunately, what appeared like exploitable space disappears quickly in a sea of defenders,lost territory, and tenuous possesion!

This books helps! Expect resistance if your backs have "always" aligned deep! The American rugby mind does not accept change well and this more than anything contributes to our current condition!

He could have said the same thing in 50 pages and only repeated himself twice. He made it sound as though cost accountants were the greatest roadblock to efficient manufacturing without adequately offering alternative methodologies. He should have used some of the unnecessary 177 pages to discuss that further. I was quite disappointed.

I'm a computer engineering student and have been studying this book for 3 months and I've concluded that it's impossble to learn from. In almost all of the examples, the author skip steps that are vital for students who have never analyzed circuits in such detail before. The reading is difficult to understand, even after reading each chapter two or three times. It's as if the authors wrote this text to impress their colleages. I'm fortunate that my professor explains the material faily well. I'm definitely going to sell this book back at the end of the semister and use the money to invest in a useful circuits text. I highly recommend you do not buy this book, I wish I never did.

Take my suggestion: "Don't ever buy this book". I am a second year student and my school use this book as a text for Introduction to EE. Since my instructor is so bad in explanation, at the very beginning, I thought, I could rely on this text for understanding. I HAVE READ EVERY SINGLE WORD IN THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS AND REPEATED SO MANY TIMES AND STILL, I DON'T COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND THINGS. Very vey hard to follow. If you don't believe what I said, read it yourself before buying it.

This book is extremly difficult to learn from. The material that is covered is not explained very well for someone just starting out. There may be one of two reasons for this, either the authors know the subject matter so well they lost touch with the basics or they more or less wrote the book to impress their peers.