After reading this book, my kids have the urge to go out and become handy, just like Wally. They had a real big intrest in being creative! I was very impressed! The story's main character Clumsy Wally is great!

This is a fantastic story for all the little handy people out there! The illustrations were very well done, and the content was fun and exciting! My children and I loved it!

My kids thought this book was great! They really thought Clumsy Wally was funny, and they would love to have a treehouse like Wally built!

I can't recommend Kare Kano enough! And this third book in the series is awesome! This book introduces Maho, a girl in Yukino's class who doesn't like her and knows she's the vanity queen! What's going to happen?!!(I know, but you have to read to find out, I wouldn't want to spoil it!) The anime is just like the manga, but you should watch that (It's fantastic!) and read the manga b/c the manga came first and it has extra stories!! Have fun!!

As a successful attorney and businessman I have long taken pride in my skill at resolving conflicts, but I have also been haunted by some puzzling failures. As is normal, I tended to attribute those to the failings of the people I had to deal with. This book very quickly (in less than an hour) helped me to see what I might have done differently and how I contributed to the failures. It also conveyed this information gently enough so I could hear it! The book is positive--it suggests effective technics rather than attacking problematic behaviors. The book is about process and it convincingly conveys the notion that in conflict resolution process is the key--how we deal with differences is more important than the specific disputes over facts or logic. A successful conflict resolution is one in which all parties feel good about the resolution and about each other. In this respect, it is consistent with another marvelous short book, "Justice is Conflict," which first helped me realize that in maintaining civilization and civility, the process for decision making is more important than the substantive differences between hotly disputed issues.

The book would have benefited from one more round of editing to eliminate some very minor but irritating clerical errors, however this did not detract from its value enough to cause me to reduce its rating from five stars.

This title belongs on your bookshelf, next to "Guerilla Marketing." The author has packed valuable information into this volume and done it very concisely, often breaking down the text to simple, easy-to-digest lists and bullets. Owners and managers of small stores will find this information easier to apply than the broad, theoretical stuff that fills most retail how-to's. Cross-promoting is often the easiest and least expensive way to take your business from the minor leagues to the majors. I've worked in and around marketing for years, and this book compares favorably to many that cost five times as much. (I noticed in Amazon.com's list of other buyers that one of the top authorities on nonprofit retailing bought this book!) After several decades working in and around marketing, I learned a lot myself.

An original book (yes there are with e-something) about dedicated "click and mortar" companies approach to the web.

It comes with a full set of tools (tests, frameworks, ...) that are very useful to practicionners

Most of the facts at the detailled level are relevant and informative the only pitfaall is that most analysis are initiated not truly deepens.

De Kare-Silver wrote "E-Shock" to help retailers and manufacturers understand the online marketplace evolution. Full of case studies and examples, he provides practical guidelines, tools, checklists, and strategies for decision-makers.

This book gives you the information to make informed choices, formulate heads-up sales strategies, and create savvy 21st century marketing plans.

This book stood out when I first saw it at an American Management Association book store. The author focuses on the successful pioneers of the E-commerce revolution, and he helps us anticipate the future. A number of practical e-commerce business strategies are also offered for aspiring Web-preneurs. You can't ask for much more!

Many people talked so much about this book. All good. I don't mean that it wasn't, but it didn't live up to all the hype. The artwork was wonderful, no doubt. You have to have something to draw you in beside artwork, and Kare Kano didn't do it for me. It wasn't was wonderful as everyone says. Kare Kano isn't one of my favorites.

The story was not very appealing. The characters left no lasting impression on me. They were bland. Nothing note worthy. They are suppose to be perfect and than we are suppose to be so surpise when they aren't. I wasn't connected or enaged in the story. Last chapter and story was the only one that intrigued me.

I haven't seen the anime and don't plan to after reading the manga.

This is one of my favorite Mangas... It is a good story that is easy to get into. It really talks about how people sometimes people act differently just to fit in and that you always have to be true to yourself...and that your unique qualities are what draw people to you and show what you offer to the world.

Yuniko and Soichiro appear to be very different in the beginning but later they realize that they have a lot of things in common...this story also illustrates the difficulty of taking risks and showing who we really are inside...

Good manga! get it!

I'm not usually a fan of this sort of manga, but I picked it up and thought I'd give it a spin, anyway. As I read through this book, I was in awe of how well Masami Tsuda beautifully (and rather comically, too!) portrays feeling! I had to pause more than once as I read because the entire time I'm thinking to myself "Yes! I know exactly what this feels like..." And the short story in the book was just as beautifully done as the main story. It seems that Masami Tsuda is pulling some of her inspiration from operas (of course, you know, I inferred this all on my own ^_^) along with real life, giving her stories a very real, strong, and passionate feeling to them. I can't WAIT until I get the next one...

This book carries an important message -- one that all people can relate to.

In the book, "A Boot Fell From Heaven," by Kare Bluitgen, God loses one of his boots and travels down to earth from heaven asking others if they have seen it. But no one has the time to speak with him. Finally, a young boy tells God that he has his boot and the time to listen to his story.

MyParenTime recommends this book -- the collage-style illustrations help explain the story, which carries the message that we should all strive to achieve our goals no matter what obstacles get in our way. It also reminds us to slow down and take the time to listen to one another.

Our heroes think about why they love each other--not a lot of action, more reflection--Arima has to be one of the prettiest boys in manga. Minor conflict as we meet Hideaki, Miyazawa's rival for maybe 10 pages(he wants Arima to help him score a bunch of girls), but then he becomes a regular feature as each lover runs into him, observe the same thing about him, commenting on it in their own way(Arima's usually involves reprimands for not studying) & leaves before the other arrives. The artist's comics of her trials making the book are cute, as are all the chibi versions.

This book makes more sense than most of the rubbish out there on the America's before Columbus. Prytz sheds new light on how the myth was ever started that Columbus "discovered" America (which most of the world now believes is bunk.) If you want a fresh yet scholarly perspective, read this book! By edict of the Pope, only royalty were allowed to "discover" new lands, so Columbus had to have the backing of some King or Queen - not for funding but for discovery rights. Prytz actually forwards a thesis that Columbus had already BEEN to the new world, BEFORE he "discovered" it in 1492. This thesis is based on naval records held in Rome, ancient Sagas of the Viking explorers, research on the Atlantic seaboard of the US and Canada, and even the folklore of British sailors. Unfortunately, this book was originally published in Norwegian and didn't receive much attention when it first came out over a decage ago. Interesting that none of the major on-line booksellers seem to carry it.

Panic! Alert! Paradigm shift! "E-shock" originates from that obnoxious time period when everyone with a mouth, pen or posterior spouted Darwinist warnings of extinction for any business that failed to embrace the Internet and its associated New Economy. "The new game in town means some of the traditional barriers are breaking down and new ones are taking their place," de Kare-Silver states. "Understand these new rules and win. Ignore them and die."

DIE!

"E-shock" is clearly intended to arouse Joe Businessman's survival instincts. For a college geography student like me, it fails to get the adrenaline pumping. Fortunately, it is a quick read. De Kare-Silver writes about modern consumer time poverty -- one of the reasons you're reading this may very well be that you're too busy and pressured to bother making it to the bookstore -- and the book is thus written for the person on the go. Its never ending bullets, lists and overviews would tidily transfer to a PowerPoint presentation. In fact, I think I would rather have received the book in such a form.

Without going into gruesome detail, "E-shock" is concerned with the implications of the e-commerce revolution for the retailer, manufacturer and business in general. The Internet has spawned a New Economy and with it come all sorts of changes that you'd better consider. You need to change your operations. You need to rethink your strategies. But don't worry; consultants such as De Kare-Silver are out there to help you.

You need to realize that E-commerce investments can actually be earnings diluting. You should forget PE ratios when evaluating an e-business. You should consider internet flotations as part of the formula for delivering shareholder value.

You should also do away with commas.

"E-shock" finds this form of punctuation antiquated in the context of the new business-writing environment. When I read sentences such as, "Bursting onto the scene in 1994 it has caused a major rethink on how to sell products and services to consumers," I can't go any further without penciling in a comma between '1994' and 'it.'

But I'm just a stodgy old dinosaur lumbering along shackled to the Old Punctuation. If I had an ounce of self-preservation, I would adapt and invest in the New Punctuation, which I suspect goes something like this:

1) Because they take up time and space do not bother with commas and in order to remain competitive you may have to do away with semicolons hyphens and 10% of your periods.

2) Not only is "e-" an acceptable prefix to any word, concept or phrase, it is the New Prefix. It is the e-new e-way of e-doing e-things so e-get e-with e-the e-program e-.

3) A major issue will be punctuation distribution. In a virtual sentence, how do you deliver your periods, semicolons and exclamation points to the sentence's consumer? You may have to try novel approaches such as starting sentences with ampersands or centralizing all of your paragraph's periods next to one word with a high demand, such as "the."

4) Some forms of punctuation will be easier to adapt to the virtual environment than others. A big factor is familiarity. Consumers will be quite willing to see periods, commas and question marks in their virtual sentences, but more obscure things like tildes (~) will seem less trustworthy to online readers.

5) Accept the fact that cannibalisation will occur. For example, semicolons may be used in many instances in which a period would suffice instead. You may not use as many periods as you used to, but that's simply part of the New Punctuation.

I hope you invest in this book so that you'll be more prepared for these sort of changes. As de Kare-Silver says, "It's a bit like staking out the ground for the future and the market recognises to survive ... [one must] do that and to do it now. Like the gold rush, there is only going to be so much territory, so ... [one must] stake out [one's] share."

Of course, the gold rush only lasted a few years. This book is already in its second edition and I wouldn't be e-shocked if it needs updating again soon.

In the book, E-Shock: The New Rules ¡V Internet Strategies for Retailers & Manufacturers, the author, Michael de Kare-Silver, not only presents a lot of e-commerce pioneer¡¦s examples, but also quotes data (from leading journals and newspapers) and interviews (from business executives and think tanks) to help answer those questions. As a whole, the book is not a theoretical but practical, up-to-date volume and, especially, will help retailers and manufactures answer whether their companies are ready for virtual selling and how to proceed opportunities for e-commerce.

De Kare-Silver acknowledges that forecasting future market development can never be an exact science, but he argues that he has been enormously encouraged in his conclusions and convictions by a number of people. In the first part of the book, de Kare-Silver cites a bunch of reports from newspapers and magazines (e.g. Business Week, Reuter News Service, etc), interviews of CEOs (e.g. Bill Gates) and research or report (e.g. A.C. Nielsen research) to support his assertions. For example, he quotes Gate¡¦s words: ¡§The internet is a tidal wave. It will wash over nearly all industries drowning those who don¡¦t learn to swim in its wave¡¨ (p. 40). Moreover, Jagadish Sheth, professor of marketing in Goizueta business school, indicates that ¡§the combination of technology sophistication, equipment power and ease of use plus the supporting infrastructure will make electronic purchasing widespread in the U.S. by the year 2005¡¨ (P. 42). Those consolidated assertions give de Kare-Silver a stronger ground to say that it¡¦s time to go shopping on line.

Also, de Kare-Silver believes, ¡§survival of the fittest.¡¨ Timing, keen observation and real-time decisions decide if you will be a winner or a loser in the future e-shopping competition. So he also gives the readers some innovative companies (e.g. 1-800-FLOWER, First Direct, Levi Strauss) that pioneered changes in the electronic selling arena. They have a history of innovation and they are learning on e-commerce at every step. He strongly recommends that it is important to be at the forefront as the internet develops. That is to say, you lose one minute, and you may lose forever in the e-shopping era.

Then, he tries to analyze the far-reaching impacts of the e-commerce revolution and provides essential survival rules for retailers and manufacturers. Facing up to the skyrocketing growth in online shopping, he argues that some of old business administration models are no longer applicable, and as a result, winners in the future need to learn new rules early and learn to play by them. The soaring growth in e-shopping has generated a new set of survival rules for retailers and manufacturers. De Kare-Silver tries to pinpoint some rules and strategies for those who are interested in e-shopping to abide by. Some of these new rules include ¡§be ready to cannibalize,¡¨ ¡§be prepared to become a multi-channel operator,¡¨ ¡§get on interactive TV,¡¨ ¡§think in terms of convenience, convenience, convenience,¡¨ ¡§create a sense of community service¡¨ and the like, is a blueprint for the retailers doing business in the 21st century. Indeed, he tells retailers and manufacturers how to seize the competitive edge in time to help their business.

De Kare-Silver highly recommends retailers and manufactures take ES (electronic shopping) TEST into account when propelling e-shopping. The ES TEST, which provides simple step approaches (including product characteristics, familiarity and confidence, and consumer attributes) will help the retailers and manufactures to evaluate products and services best suited for online selling. As De Kare-Silver put it, ¡§the marketplace is dynamic, things are changing rapidly¡K, those who watch their marketplaces carefully and evaluate the trends rigorously can put themselves in the best possible position to respond electronically if and when demand
grow¡¨ (p. 117).

The book¡¦s most intriguing chapter is ¡§ the next wave in e-shopping.¡¨ De Kare-Silver reminds us of thinking about the next wave in e-shopping in the last part of the book. In addition to sophisticated consumer demand, rapidly improving technologies are the key forces driving the changes in shopping habits and the arrival of new wave in e-shopping.

With the development of digital TV, de Kare-Silver wonders if this new technology will be the winner of e-shopping in the future. Consequently, he interviews leading experts and commentators including Curtis Kopf ... Mike Nevin (from Dixons), Bruce Lynn (from Microsoft¡¦s Web TV), and James Ackerman & Julian Eccles (From BiB TV) to help answer the question. They dare not disagree that the wave of the future in e-shopping is digital TV because many large corporations are investing heavily in TV interactive shopping channel. Digital TV, undoubtedly, will become omnipresent quickly and play a significant role in e-shopping in the future.

By and large, the author prefers giving empirical cases to building theories, so it is easy to read even though your background is not related to business. The rules or strategies previously mentioned teach retailers and manufactures how to respond to changes and competition. This book targets retailers and manufactures: how to make profits and survive in the changing market. These are the important issues the author discusses, but I think the author can do more. I suggest that the author can mention the issue of business ethics. Are there any new strategies or rules that may invade consumer¡¦s privacy? Should retailers and manufactures adapt all the data of consumers they get on line for any purpose? These questions are needed to discuss more for developing a sound e-shopping environment. Business rules and strategies are necessary, however, business ethics cannot be neglected, either.

The author also mentions a bunch of examples from the UK, U.S., and some from Japan. However, people in different countries, of course, do not share the same attributes. Undoubtedly, you cannot assure if the rules and strategies workable in the western world will fit in the rest of the world. If the author can compare the differences of e-shopping experiences in different countries and create some alternative rules and strategies, I would be further likely to back him up.