Perfect for anyone who wants to read Goethe's peotry in German and understand it as well. For those familar with the German language, Goethe isn't the easiest writer to understand in German.

This is a lovely little pack of information and music on Johann Sebastian Bach. The book is clear, concise and interesting and offers a detailed but not too demanding biography of a wonderful composer. The accompanying CD's (3) offer excellent examples of Bach's works and at the back of the book the author provides details of each piece of music choosen on the CD along with details for further reading. If you wanted one book to give you some insight into the life of Bach and his works I could not recommend anything better. I must state that I am no expert on this subject and this is the first book I have read on Bach but like I said it's a great way to start!

Since I teach Business Process Management I tried to find a book for the course, that would stress the essential practical perspective for this subject, which is also required at Master's level. The point was to give the appropriate practical insights of issues discussed in an academic manner anyway. I decided to use this book in the course and it turned out to be a successful choice, as my students remark also. I find the book excellent if combined with other typical literature on BRP and TQM. This book in no way covers EVERYTHING that a practitioner might need to redesign business processes but it certaintly gives a plethora of guides and tools/instrument -such as forms to fill in for specific stage in a BPM methodology- and also a continuous case in point to apply what is described in theory. In other words, tt does not cover all aspects needed in a real-life situtation, but is an excellent start for a practitioner. One thing is certain from my experience, that this book is suitable combined for lecturers or trainers on BPM issues. Finally, I would expect a newer edition and also some more real-life examples. Yours sincerely Nick Yagoulis yagoulis@city.academic.gr

This is one of the few book dealing with three components distillation. The subject of this book is actual for solvent recovery, pharmaceutical plants, fine chemical industries. It is recommended for professionals in these fields and for graduates with a strong background on distillation.

Johann's words are weaved into an intricate design that gives one a real peek into the life of Faust. With startling insights and a clear focused writing style, Johann has created a book that is easy to read, informative, and a must for your bookshelf.

Goethe is a bit like broccoli--one should like him better than one actually does. Goethe goes to great lengths to credit everyone who helped him become the most important German author ever. It moves at a very slow pace. It also is somewhat self-deceptive and misleading, as it ends when Goethe was in his late 20's. In order to get a more accurate view of Goethe's life, Dichtung and Wahrheit is best read in conjunction with a traditional biography. Goethe's autobiography appears in 4 parts, and this volume consists of the first 3, which were written earlier, and it is more thorough than the 4th part that appears in volume 5 of this series. Anyone seriously interested in studying autobiography as a genre should read it, even if it is slow going.

A very comprehensive book, full of information, detail, biblical and patristic references, and useful comment. However, I experienced the style as extremely dense so had to read it in bits. Useful to keep on the shelf for reference.

This is a book with an excellent analysis of the reasons behind Goethe's attempt to discredit Newton's Opticks, specifically his work on the generation of colour in the spectrum obtained by the refraction of a "ray" of light (through a prism) emitted through a small pinhole. It must be remembered that Dennis Sepper is a philosopher rather than a physicist which means that the actual analysis of Goethe's work on 'Colour Theory' is not so deeply studied, although he does say just enough to give the impression all is not well with the standard Newtonian view and that Goethe's observations, especially the fact that the spectrum obtained by the above technqiue is a product of two spectra obtained at the edges between a dark and lighter surface e.g. a card with half black and half white colouring, remain valid today. The spectrum then only ever appears at the boundary between the two and only certain colours of the spectrum, reversing the position of black and white shows some more spectral colurs and the meeting of the two produces the green seen in standard spectra.

Sepper separates the book into sections with the first an introduction explicating both Goethe's and Newton's ideas followed by the second section on Goethe's first work on colour: "The Beitraege" and its differences to the later "Farbenlehre" and the reason for these differences. The third section discusses the inherent problems within Newton's views and his experimentun crucis. The remaining chapters discuss how Goethe was right and where he was wrong as well as his very sophisticated ideas on the philosophy of science which makes him one of the earliest student's of the discipline; something which was not fully investigated until the 20th Century.

Its a superbly argued book and Sepper never at any point verges too much in either direction. Both weaknesses and strengths are highlighted, in both instances, whether Goethe or Newton. Sepper makes the point that there is still much to colour science, even as it stands today, that needs to be more fully explored. Even with the tremendously successful wave theory which explains most of the phenomena of light and colour. I say most given that quantum theory was needed for some cases and who knows what still remains to be discovered. maybe even some of the observations of Goethe may still need to be explained.

I would say that of all the books written on the subject of the so-called non-scientific science of Goethe, this is by far the best. Having read both critiques of Goethe by scientists and other books by proponents of Goethe this one is very clear and gets to the bottom of often vague statements made by others. Only Bortoft's book on "The Wholeness of Nature" does the same kind of justice.

A timely book describing the way of science practised by Goethe and still continued today through the talents of Bockemuehl, Schad and others. Thankfully Goethe's "way" has not died the seemingly natural death expected after the assault of scientific positivism/reductionism/mechanism which has been the mainstream approach associated with science since Galileo, Newton and Descarte. In fact science has come to mean this very method. Whether it is admitted or not by many scientists, they do feel a certain dimunition in the sense of life first experienced when exposed to the original dynamic ideas of science such as general relativity, evolution or the concept of the atom. This sense, well expressed by Blake's beautiful poetic lines "universe in a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower" is what drew them to a scientific career in the first place and shows that scientists just as much as artists are searchers for wonder in the universe. The question remains how has this sense of wonder been eradicated from the modern scientific approach. The answer is it hasn't, not completely, investigators still feel this sense of wonder as they investigate a new phenomenon for the first time and the associated flood of ideas emanating from it. However once past this initial stage scientific investigations progress in a very methodical way which leaches the life from the initial phenomenon. Goethe initiated a science which tries to maintain this "living" sense at all stages of the investigation without the influx of total subjectivity. This book demonstrates some investigators' own contemporary scientific investigations from the growth of plants to the evolution and structure of mammals. Hopefully such expositions will be read and digested by future scientists and lead to a new revitalisation of science in a creative living way, where this very approach becomes part of the life of the scientist rather than as a separate part of his world.

David Luke's edition of selected verse by Goethe provides the original German text and an English translation (usually in prose, though an exception is made in the case of "Nicolai on Werther's Grave," p. 27). This allows the reader who may not be fully conversant with German, or for whom it may be a bit rusty, to savor the word music of Goethe's original text. Significant excerpts from "Faust" appear, as well as a good cross-section of the other verse of this important world poet.