A long-time fan of Mark Twain, I had still managed to make it past my fortieth birthday never having read this book. But recently, when I needed something to read (you know the kind of days I am talking about), I stumbled across this book and set to laughing.

The story-telling is magnificent. Few writers can take the small things of daily life and make them breathe -- but Twain possessed that gift, and uses it well. How many others went West the same time he did, and never saw the gold dust, sunsets, and taverns the way he wrote them into our consciousness?

And yet, and yet... As much as I loved the stories he told, I see "Roughing It" as important in a different manner. Even when the truth is slightly embellished to make us, his readers (of whom he is always very much aware), laugh out loud, it still truly presents the era and place he put down in black and white. We can be so bombarded with romanticized movies about the gold rush and settlers heading West, that we lose sight of them as genuine people with the same faults and virtues we know in 2001.

But with Mark Twain's keen eye, our history -- our American history -- comes to life. And suddenly, we "get it", we comprehend that all that stuff we had to learn in high school was done by people, not daguerrotypes.

Twain's escapades in the West make fascinating reading. His encounters with the Mormons in Utah are particularly interesting. Anyone afflicted with Mormon missionaries on his or her doorstep ought to bring out a copy of this book and read aloud the chapter in which Twain discusses the absurd Book of Mormon. Nobody can match Twain in skewering foolishness and pomposity dressed up as religion.

There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of travel logs, journals, reports, diaries, etc. that tell about the American West in the mid-nineteenth century. This book by Mark Twain, however, is both unique and one of the best. This is travel writing as it should be. Twain, traveling across the plains from Missouri to Nevada in the early 1860's, and spending seven years loafing about Nevada, California, and Hawaii, collected and compiled his experiences into this extraordinary book. One of the best things about Twain, of course, is his unique view on things. This tale is told in Twain's wry, humorous style, and is very enjoyable.

This book is not quite as pessimistic as Twain's other great travel writing, 'The Innocents Abroad,' but it does include some interesting and unorthodox views which often prove hilarious. Twain spends time as a gold and silver seeker, a speculator, a journalist, and a vagabond (as he himself puts it), and puts a unique spin on each of these occupations. As far as travel writing goes, this book is indispensable, and it also proves quite valuable (odd as it may seem) in any thorough study of frontier life in the American West.

This could have been an excellent book and definitely explores some interesting possibilities, but the research is weak and does not follow solid scientific procedures. The book also spends a little too much time with anecdotal evidence of the power of Yan Xin's "healing powers".
It should be stated that it is possible that the experiments may actually be more complete than it appears in this book. Much detail may have been lost in translation from Chinese, but that still leaves this book mediocre at best.

As a Qigong practitioner I have studied a great deal. I was even fortunate enough to travel to China and take part in a collaborative exchange with the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine. So, I knew before reading this book that Qigong practice has a massive ability to increase human potential on all levels. However, I must say that the information contained in this book BLEW ME AWAY!!!
The experiments themselves are kind of dry reading but the implications they have on the potential for human growth are staggering. And the scientists who conducted these experiments are not people who are easily swayed by whimsical tales and flights of fancy, they are hard core scientists and physicists who are among the top the Chinese have to offer.
While this book is not a how to book for Qigong, I believe all Qigong practitioners should read it. My own potential has increased dramatically as a result of this book, simply because it presented me with information which allowed me to expand my own formally self limited realm of possibility.

I am really excited and shocked when I read this amazing book. Although the content of the book is plain, it show us a really exciting picture. I believe our life would make a great progress in every field when most of us understand and practise Qigong. One day, historians will record these great valuable experiments!

The book I read was called Someone To Love by Francess Lantz. It's a young adult novel about a girl with odd parents over their decision to adopt a baby, fifteen year old Sara finds herself drawn to the birth mother, who is having second thoughts about giving up her child.
What struck me that is so different about others books I have read is that I always read mystery books and romantic books I have never read a adoption book or a young adult book. None of the books that I read were similar.
" I love being the youngest child why do u have to adopt another child so that baby will take my place thats not fair," said Sara. My reaction compares to this because I am the youngest child and my parents were going to adopt a child but ai told them about my feelings and they understood so we never adopted one so that's how this qoute supports me.
I think this book is not for everyone it could be but I don't think it as to be because this book is about adoption so whoever wants to adopt a baby heres a book you should read. I think this book is great only for those who wants to adopt a baby.

Someone To Love
By: Francess Lantz

This is a fascinating story of a middle class family that wanted to adopt a baby from a poverty stricken unwed mother. This couple had everything to offer a baby. They were strict parents to their fifteen years old daughter Sara. Sara want to adopt Iris baby as much as her parent did but for different reason. She thought if her parents had a baby to look after they would have less time to be in her business. As the story unfolds, the couple's teenage daughter Sara envies the pregnant teenager lifestyle and want to be like her, and Iris wanted to have the life style that Sara had. After overhearing the couple discussing not wanting Iris around, the two girls ran off together. They both realize this was not the thing to do and they need the couple's help to get though the pregnancy and the birth of Iris baby. This is a great story about adoption and the love of a family. This book would be interesting to students in the seventh grade and above. Parents and teacher could use this book to promote the study of social relation, science, art, geography and health.

In the story "Someone to Love" by Francess Lantz, Sara, on of the main characters who is 15 is an only child. Sara's parents are really strict. Her parents decided that they wanted to adopt a baby. At first Sara feels bad because she thinks that she isn't good enough and thats why her parents want another baby. Later she realizes that maybe that her parents will give all the attention to the baby and they'll stop being so strict. so she agrees with it. Iris is an 18 year old girl who has very little money and is pregnant and decides that giving the baby up for adoption would be the best thing to do. Sara envies the freedom that Iris has and Iris envies the safe home Sara has. This story is written in diary format, Sara isn't writing to her diary, but to the "mystery baby", who is Iris' unborn baby. Even though we only get to hear Saras thoughts, the author still explores all sides of adoption. I would recommend this book to anyone because it keeps you interested and has a vey good plot I rate this book a 5 out of 5.

I actually found this book whilst browsing the shelves in a thrift shop in a village in England. I liked the look of the title and it cost me the princely sum of 50 pence sterling. What a find - Yutang's words of wisdom often comfort when the world seems like its turning upside down. This book has been on many of my travels, I often recommend it to friends hoping they'll get as much out of the prose as I did. In a Global World that seems to be moving ever faster - its a pleasure to take time off, relax and philosophize with the Author. This book is never far from hand, I often re-read chapters when in need of inspiration. Kick of the shackles, open up the pages, spark one up and spend some time alone - you'll be a wiser and more tolerant human being for having read this book.

I bought a copy of this book (the original 1937 edition) in a secondhand book store in the 1970s for the princely sum of $1.00. Through countless moves since then I have somehow managed to retain this book, which is surprising since I have lost or given away so many books, almost all of which cost me much more money than this one did. I can honestly say it was the most profitable dollar I ever spent. This is a wonderful book -- rambling at times, it is true -- but it contains many gems. Yutang is a superb writer and his quote of Chuangtse (as he spells the name of the famous Chinese philosopher) is classic: "Spit forth intelligence." This, along with William Strunk's famous dictum "Omit needless words," is a phrase every writer should live by.

I enjoyed Dr. Lin's books since I was a high school student. If you carefully read this book and apply the philosophy embedded in this book, your will discover the beauty of life more and live a happier and more sensible life. Strongly recommend this book to those who are always busy and don't have time to enjoy their lives. (if you still have time to read a book.... ^__^)

If you follow the Pardey's way of life you may save money, but this book is non-motivational. This book is mostly a listing of why cruisers don't need 90% of the high tech gizmos that people imagine they need to stuff into or tie onto their boats. But from the mud-brown cover to the coarse paper to the few poor photos, this book is visually unappealling and not something you will want to pick up to read again.

I don't have a small boat, in fact mine is 38 feet long. But I definitely agree with the majority of what I read in this book. Not only that, I enjoyed reading stuff like the pros and cons of tiller vs wheel even though I would never give up my wheel (first because it came with the boat, second because I don't like using tillers.) The Pardey's have hooked me and I plan to read more of their books. In fact I gave my sailing partner their Care and Feeding of the offshore Sailor book and she complained because I kept reading it. Good solid advise with a good bit of humor. Their ultra simple life style appeals to me, but I don't plan to duplicate it. On the other hand, they don't seem to expect people to - but they do remind potential voyagers that taking care of a cruising boat/home is not easy when you get away from stateside facilities. Good read, good info and logical presentation.

This and all the other Pardey books are the core curriculum for the particular cult of sailors that believe that the most important thing in sailing is to be small and self sufficient. After all, the whole point of sailing is to use the inexhaustible wind to drive you along. So why clutter up your already cramped boat with gadgets that (1) you don't need in the first place and (2) you can't repair when they let you down? Their advice that, if you can't fix it then it probably shouldn't be on the boat, is some of the sagest crusing wisdom around. And the fact that they have covered the globe in safety and comfort without an auxiliary engine is inspirational. For those who poo poo this, listen to the Pardey's spin you some tales of some of the hundreds of heartbroken sailors they have seen, up to their elbows in a diesel engine, missing out on paradise because of engine failure. Too often these unfortunates can't sail their boat well enough to do without the engine (in other words they can't get it out of the marina) and therefore are stuck in a hell of their own making. And it isn't just engines: it's radios, electronic systems, electric anchor windlasses, roller furling, refrigerators, all the doodads we are told we can't sail without. Nonsense. The Pardey's will innoculate you against such tragedy.

Wireless and Mobile Network Architectures is an excellent introduction to fundamental concepts of mobile communications. The book's co-authors, who are leading experts in the field, provide a well-written, thorough description of today's wireless mobile systems. Emphasis is on mobile network protocols and standards rather than radio technology. In particular, the book provides in-depth explanations of IS-41 and GSM protocols. Topics covered include international roaming, short message services, OA&M, mobile number portability, mobile prepaid services, mobile VoIP and WAP. 2.5G technology such as GPRS and 3G systems/trials, Bluetooth, and aspects of signal handoff. The explanations and descriptions of architectures and protocols are made clear through the use of many diagrams. Each chapter includes questions that can be used to reinforce the material, or for course assignments. There is also an extensive bibliography for those wishing to further explore mobile networking issues. This book is a comprehensive resource for anyone interested in understanding wireless and mobile networks. It would also make an excellent advanced undergraduate or graduate course textbook.

This book provides an excellent background materials for mobile network architectures, mobility management (handoff and roaming), network management and services provisioning for wireless and mobile networks. Unlike many wireless and mobile networks books that focus on radio (physical layer) aspects of the systems, this book emphasizes on network protocols and services facilitating personal communications services (PCS). Topics covered in the book include PCS architectures, mobility management, GSM, GPRS, 3G, VoIP for mobile networks, mobile number portability, WAP, wireless local loop, and others. This book can both be used for an one-semester PCS course for seniors and graduate students, and serve as an informative reference for networking professionals.

I found the book to be very informative and well laid out for use as a reference. It has been a life saver in giving a good background on each technology. I have been asked by several of my wireless networking peers about the book and all have found it an excellent reference.

This book is pretty good to get a novice up and running. Its definately not an advanced book so if you already know thsi stuff skip it.

But for beginners its a good place tro get started

I have to give the author enormous kudos for tackling this project. Over the course of two volumes (I'm referring to this book and his companion "Advanced" Linux 3D Graphics Programming), he builds, from the ground up, a complete working 3D engine, complete with texture mapping, collision detection and world editing capability.

His writing and explanations on the topics at hand are very well written, and whenever the reader needs a diagram to make sense of something, there's invariably just the right one at hand to help him through it.

It's really amazing, when you step back, to see just what is covered in these books. Not only are all major 3D graphics programming issues dealt with, but the author also takes time to discuss programming topics such as design patterns and why he uses them in his code.

Having said all this, I did find some problems with the books, problems which kept me from giving 5 stars:

1. Some of the code is difficult to follow. Really difficult. The polygon engine created by the author uses double-pointers indexed by arrays, and folks, that gets tough to read after a bit. In particular, I couldn't follow his polygon clipping code very well at all, nor his screen creation code, which involved a lot of bit-shifting, none of which was really explained all that well in the text. A bit of a lapse from the author I thought, very atypical.

2. The author wanted his code to work with fixed and floating point math, and for that purpose he created macros for doing things like multiplication and division. All well and good, but again it hurts readablity to have all of those macros in the code when all you're trying to do is multiply two numbers together. Almost any CPU made in the past five years can handle floating point math very well, and so I don't see the need for fixed-point adjustments in the code. Just an opinion, others can disagree.

3. The sample programs seem a bit lacking. After 300 pages, your reward is to see a program with a few flat-shaded polygons spinning around. It's hard to work up enthusiasm and bull through the book when that's your reward. Sorry if that sounds too harsh!

4. The world editor was written with Perl, and... well, it adds another layer of complexity that maybe didn't need to be there. The syntax gets very scary very quickly.

I could also say something about the fact that the author seems hot to trot for free development tools (Blender for modeling, xxgdb compiler, etc.), when maybe using some low-priced commercial products would have allowed for quicker progress and better results. I'm talking about expensive... tools here, not 3D Studio Max. Again, only one man's opinion here.

Overall, it's a fine two-volume set, and if you want to see a 3D engine built from scratch, take a gander at this and prepare to learn how the magic works. Just don't expect to skate through it with no effort on your part.

Norman Lin's Linux 3D Graphics Programming book is an excellent book for those with a programming background who wish to dive into the world of real time 3D graphics programming. The book is very well written and gives step by step explanations of all the concepts introduced as well as the most of the source code. 3D graphics is a complex subject and the author realizes that (lots of) hand-holding is very helpful in understanding the concepts introduced. This book covers the basics, i.e. rasterization, transformations, projections, and some modelling. In teaching all of these subjects, the author provides what is constantly missing from other books and what I feel is very important in the learning process - rationale for why things are done a certain way. The author clearly realizes this, and this is among the strongest points of the book. Other strong points of this book include:

1) Some books simply discuss the concepts behind 3D graphics without providing incite into actually implementing them, i.e. accessing the screen, creating offscreen buffers, which data structures are best suited for a task. This books, aimed toward novices, does both.

2) The author starts out by giving an introduction to graphics under Linux, with background on software as well as hardware rendering (using OpenGL/Mesa as well as the aging Glide API). This is great for those who aren't yet familiar with graphics under the Linux operating system.

3) The code is object oriented - the author dedicates a section to explain the benefits of an object oriented approach in creating a graphics library.

4) Software rendering is stressed, althrough hardware rendering is covered as well. Very important in creating a 3d engine - using OpenGL without understanding how it does the things it does will only get you so far.

5) The book is NOT just Linux specific. Linux is the author's choice of implementation but all the concepts can be applied to other operating system. The object oriented approach allows for the graphics library to be implemented in other OS's - the appendix even discusses compilation under Windows.

6) All tools to get started are available on the companion cd-rom as well as free on the internet. The source code used in the book, the Debian distribution of Linux, the compiler tools and libraries, and the modelling software Blender (for use in the chapter that discusses modelling) are all included.

7) The author is very knowledgable in Linux and is clearly a advocate for the operation system :).

The author assumes you are sufficient in C/C++ programming. This is a fair assumption as you really have to be in order to do graphics programming. Be warned however, that the source code may not compile right away under other Linux distributions besides Debian and newer versions of gcc. Some modifications in the source code (very minor) may be required in order for the code to compile correctly - something you should be able to do. If not, perhaps you should hold off on graphics programming and get some more programming experience first (harsh but true). All in all, Linux 3D Graphics Programming is an excellent introductory book.

this book contains 3 great stories and a cuple of good ones. some are more fantasy than horror. kuttner can be a little bit obvious, a little bit simplistic, but the suspence, and he knows when to focus - when he should move forward and when he should stop and describe more vividly (his writing style focus concerning timing is excellent), his descriptions are good when they should be, and he knows how to hold our interest and how to avoid being boring.

This book contains a number of stories by one of the lesser-known disciples of Lovecraft, one Henry Kuttner. Although the stories are not classics of the genre, showing development in a new direction, they rise above pastiche and provide good reading. Kuttner is certainly able to grab the reader's attention and hold onto it, and tells a good tale while he has it.

"Bells of Horror" is the high point of the volume; it is a fine story set in California, a locale the author clearly enjoys. It is this setting in a number of stories that gives the stories a unique flavor; Kuttner's descriptions create a new millieu for the eldritch horrors that are the center of the Cthulhu Mythos.

It is also "Bells of Horror" that first mentions The Book of Iod, a volume which belongs on the shelf with the usual suspects--De Vermis Mysteriis, Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Cultes des Goules, the Book of Eibon, the Pnakotic Manuscripts, and, of course, (all together now) the horrible Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred.

Kuttner's ability shows itself most in his ability to create a mythology. Instead of a few separate stories, the contents of this anthology fit together in intriguing ways--but they don't fit together seamlessly, just as other myth cycles don't. All in all, this collection is a very worthwhile read.

I thought this book was excellent! Most books have stories with happy little endings, but never a few unhappy endings. This book provided a mix of both. simply the best book of short stories ive read

This book is packed with information, everything from the forms (although the book prefers 'sequences') to the basic kicks punches and stances to the points to hit, what they do, and what moves are good for hitting them. You can learn quite a bit just by picking it up. If you're looking for something less complex, try "Shantung Black Tiger", which is a book about a fighting art less complex. However, if you want to get a good start and learn up to a certain point at home, this is definitely the book to start with.

Not just a list of forms and stances, Shaolin Long Fist KungFu provides practical (yet traditional) training exercises and reccomendations. Instead of giving the reader a sequence of movements, and leaving it up to him/her to discover the uses, each motion has at least one practical use explained in pictures and words. For those with little martial arts background, the text is very descriptive of stances and movements so the reader can be sure they are performing the motions correctly. While a good portion of the book covers sequences and their solutions, attention is given to the history of the art, and the importance of internal force. While the reading sometimes feels like a technical manual, the detail more than ballances a somewhat difficult read. I've read far too many books which describe the horse stance as "Spread the legs apart and lower the body slightly." This excellent book prefers "Place the feet 1 1/2 shoulder widths apart, with the feet parallel. Lower the body by moving the knees inward and to the front until a 90-degree angle is formed between the thigh and the calf."I prefer the second explanation as well

I am a begining student of long fist kung fu, and this book was an immense help. It contains abundant information on long fist kung fu, sets, kicks, punches,etc. with many good pictures and detailed descriptions this is a great book

I liked this book a lot and would highly recommend it apart from their attitude towards safety. Their advice on self-sufficiency is valid, but I feel their attitude on safety equipment is irresponsible. In particular their suggestion to do without an EPIRB. With their experience they may get away with it but most of the readers will be relatively inexperienced.

There should be no compromise on safety equipment. It is no use saying you don't want anyone to come looking for you if you get into trouble, because the SAR orhanisations have both a moral and legal obligation to do so. In addition there is the feelings of loved ones to consider.

Some countries are sensible enough to insist on minimal standards of safety equipment. New Zealand's "Category 1" standard provides a good guide to minimum requirements.

World class advice from world class cruising sailors.

According to expert and experienced small craft sailors Lin and Larry Pardey, successful cruising is the result of the right people on board the right boat, along with proper preparation, gear maintenance, and seamanship. The Capable Cruiser is a compendium of thirty-three informative chapters divided among such issues areas as "Preparing to Go"; "Maintenance at Sea"; Safety Aloft"; At Anchor"; Choosing Gear"; Care of Self and Crew"; and "Seamanship". The Pardey's analyze cruising disasters such as the Cabo San Lucas, discuss finances and how to pay your way on a voyage, and a great deal more relevant to anyone who has ever set sail on a cruise of their own. If you are considering embarking on a cruise with family or friends, begin with a thorough and careful reading of Lin and Larry Pardey's The Capable Cruiser.