Rilke's "Duino Elegies" form one of the most perfect collections of lyric poetry you can ever hope to get your hands on. Unfortunately for the David Young translation, however, there is much less Rilke than there ought to be; a series of strange decisions on Young's part casts a shadow over even the brighter moments of his rendering of this masterpiece.

For example, Rilke was a genius at enjambment; that is, he was a master at placing his most important words at the very end or very beginning of a line, in order to highlight them. Think of the first line, which ends with "Engel," splitting it from the first word of the next line, "Ordnungen." (Young merely gives these words together, as "angelic orders," at the end of the third line.) By divorcing the angels from their orders in the poem's very first line, Rilke sets the tone that not all is right in the heavens.

And Rilke's line breaks are even more important than those of other poets, because they are few and far between, since his lines are nice and fat, often more than 13 syllables. Young's lines, on the other hand, are broken up into tiny 2- to 8-syllable, bite-sized chunks. This changes not only the rhythm of Rilke's verse--which obviously would have changed anyway, in translation--but its compositional emphases, as the structure of the most important lines is simply whisked away. And that is a tragedy.

Young's excuse for this unfortunate decision? He happened, while he was working on the translation, "to re-read some of William Carlos Williams' late poetry," and he liked Williams' stubbier, tri-partite lines. Rilke, however, is not William Carlos Williams, and Young's rendering of Rilke as Williams suffers because of this incongruity. (Oddly enough, though, Williams is another poet for whom every line break bears an awful lot of weight; too bad Young didn't carry that respect for enjambment into his work on the "Duino Elegies.")

Those interested in Rilke should do themselves a favor and pick up Mitchell's translation. I simply can't recommend this edition. It gets three stars because, despite the muddle, there are SOME beautifully rendered lines, and some of the power of Rilke manages to squeeze through. And that's always a wonderful thing.

For me, at least, Rainer Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies are the very epitome of poetry. I know others who, even though they admire Rilke above all other poets, prefer other "Rilke" poems, such as "Evening." For me, however, it has always been, and always will be, the Elegies. Certainly they are the most extravagant and elusive of Rilke's poems, even for those who count others among their favorites.

Rilke, who longed for a place of solitude in the country, arrived at the fortress-like Castle Duino, high above the Adriatic, near Trieste, in December 1911. His hostess was Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis-Hohenlohe, who had invited Rilke to translate Dante's Vita Nuova with her. Princess Marie, however, soon left for more sociable climes and Rilke was left alone on the stormy, wind-swept cliffs of Duino. Rilke, at this time of his life, was known to commit himself to a strict regimen of work. Nevertheless, his poems, he has written, always seemed to burst upon him suddenly, like a thunderstorm on a hot summer's afternoon. And, one afternoon at Duino, the opening line of the first elegy burst upon Rilke like a flash of lightening.

There is no problem with the Duino Elegies...if one reads and comprehends German. If one doesn't, however, the problems of translation can be enormous. Translation, always a fragile task, becomes even more so when it involves poetry, and reaches its zenith with a work as sublime as Rilke's Duino Elegies. So many versions of these gorgeous poems exist (at least twenty), that the Elegies are certainly suffering from a case of "translation overkill."

In the original German, the Duino Elegies are the most sublime expressions of awe, of terror, of love, of splendor, of Life, that have ever been set down by the hand of man. In hands other than Rilke's, however, they can seem clumsy and more than a bit melodramatic. Rilke wrote delicately-calibrated poetry, without excess words and, the dread of all translators, the hyphenated word. But, all that aside, reading the Elegies in translation, any translation, is better than not reading them at all.

No matter how "angelic" these poems may seem, never doubt that they are expression of life in the here and now. As Rilke, himself, tells us, "the world exists nowhere but within us." These gorgeous poems are about the difficulties of living in this world, of not being heard by the angels, and of the tragedy that can so easily befall us. They are about Rilke's desire for solitude and his desire to escape it, i.e., the need and the utter impossibility of understanding and being understood completely in this life.

Although many of the translations are flawed, as translation by its very nature must be, the Duino Elegies remain the epitome of poetry. They are a cry of terror, of awe, of joy, of splendor at the lonely and solitary condition of man.

"For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror we can just barely endure, and we admire it so because it calmly disdains to destroy us. Every angel is terrible." - Rainer Maria Rilke, First Elegy

The Duino Elegies are quite possibly the greatest work of Rainer Maria Rilke, himself one of the greatest poets, German language or otherwise, of all time. The elegies, writen in the cold vast chambers of Duino Castle, deal with all the greatest issues of human existence: love, death, tragedy, God, and life's very meaning. Their language reflects their origin: like the Castle's empty stone hallways, the words are perfectly formed; they are fragile and beautiful; weightless and profound. Rilke's first elegy begins with a reflection on the awesome, terrifying power of beauty. He longs to experience it, but knows that it would destroy him. As he writes on, the reader grows to understand and feel not only Rilke's longing, but his fear. The terrible beauty, looming behind all the elegies, is present in the text. The poems inspire wonder, raise profound quetions with ineffable answers, and fills us with awe as it calmly disdains to destroy us.

The German text is perfect, but MacIntyre's translation is splendid and best conveys the work's haunting and desolate undertones. While it seems to me that everyone should own and cherish the Duino Elegies, it is an absolute requirement for anyone seeking to construct a serious collection of great poetry.

If you want a daily uplift but find little time to read in the morning, use this book. Each thought could be a discussion for the day. Thoughts that will help guide you with every decision you make. Each wisdon quote a little deeper a little closer your to spiritual peace. The mix of Masters quoted in here is proof to me that the message remains the same only the messagers change.

This lovely short volume contains nuggets of wisdom each of which could provide a day's worth of contemplation.Many of the sources come from non-western sages and mystics.There are many books of wise quotes out there but few as profound and beautiful as this carefully selected volume of mystical profundity.

I use this book in my classroom for the intermediate-level CS college student. It covers detail in a conversational way, giving the Unix novice a chance at absorbing such a complex operating system. While it has it's weaknesses (not much on shell scripting), it is certainly the "bible" of Unix books.

Although I have been using UNIX for years, and have half a shelf of O'Reilly UNIX books on various subjects, I still keep coming back to the Waite Group's UNIX V Primer. The reason being that although it is not a deep treatment of any UNIX subject, it gives you the information you need to know to actually *do* something. Typically I will use it to remind me how to do something in Sed for example. Something that I don't use that often, and just need to see how to do one simple thing. Instead of hunting around in a more complete technical book, I can go to the primer and get quick no-brainer instructions on how to do it. The examples are clear and well illustrated and the writing is excellent. Highly recommended for novices and anyone who bumps into UNIX a fair bit but isn't an avatar.

Yes, it is a book of highest print quality (printed in Italy), with some wonderful photos, and very true to the movie's original dialogue(I should know, I have seen it four times...). But, it is just that....Neither it is very insighful nor is it the best example of Mr.Fry literary wit. Overall, it is a fine gift for someone, who loves Jude Law or the movie itself VERY VERY MUCH... As for the man in question himself, i.e. Oscar Wilde, this book is nothing special, because so was the movie.

If you loved the glorious film that is Wilde, this is the perfect companion, reproducing the entire script, showing behind-the-scenes photos, and featuring an interesting introduction by the great actor Stephen Fry. Large photos from the movie are reproduced in full color, showing the intricately detailed attention to historical authenticity. Even if you didn't like the movie, buy it for the photos of Jude Law as "Bosie." He is absolutely beautiful!

Mitchell and Black provide a good introduction to the key personalities, theories, and topics of psychoanalysis. As a lay person interested in the human psyche, the work was too brief and compacted for my tastes. Yet the discussion did provide a solid foundation for further investigation.

This book is an excellent beginners text on the history of psychoanalysis. It is by no means exhaustive, nor could it be. It simply covers too many important personalities to be more than introductory, yet it fulfills that purpose admirably. The book traces the history of thought in and about the subject of psychoanalysis. It begins with Freud's discovery of the psychogenic nature of hysteria, to his discovery of the unconscious, some of his other theories, and how he applied them in clinical management of patients. Others studied under him, and came to realize new facts about the mind, and new dimensions in the way it operates. This, in turn, gave rise to newer theories. The book traces this expansion, synthesis and sometimes clash between theories to bring us to our present understanding of the mind. The meaning of these theories is demonstrated in concrete terms by the inclusion of clinical cases to demonstrate the various types of pathological manifestations. The book flows very well from one psychoanalyst to another, emphasizing the indebtedness of each to their predecessors. Sigmund and Anna Freud, Adler, Bettelheim, Jung, Sullivan, Bowlby, Kahn and many others are revealed. It is both scientific and historical at the same time, and is very engaging. A good read!

Mitchell and Black provide an essential guide to the major theoretical developments in the field of psychoanalysis since its founding by Freud. They do just what you'd want them to do: they introduce you to each major theorist as a person as well as a thinker, they put each theoretical development in historical perspective both in the context of psychoanalysis and the larger social picture, they show how each thinker developed and how they responded to challenges in the field, and they show how unresolved issues led to the next theoretical breakthrough. All this is done in an accessible narrative style that even educated beginners will find rewarding. Social work students in my classes found this book very helpful. Mitchell and Black are both seasoned clinicians so their writing sometimes sings with clinical insight.

Having read numerous books on eastern philosopy, I was only mildly interested in yet another. However, Stephen Mitchell was appearing at a book-signing at the Harvard Coop Bookstore, and I simply could not pass it up. Accompanied by my daughter, we went, purchased the book and listened to Mr. Mitchell read portions from it. What a find! I have read Meetings with the Archangel twice and will read it again, I'm sure. Watching the development of the narrator as he progresses through several stages of spiritual enlightment was fascinating. The challenge, of course, is to launch yourself on such a mission. The story is entirely entertaining and one not to be put down once started. I suspect there is a great deal of Mr. Mitchell in this book, and it is especially wonderful to have a memory of his own voice reading selections from this excellent work of fiction. Well worth your time. Enjoy.

Even before I finsihed with this book, i found myself going back and re-reading sections. The author has the most amazing talant with words that I believe I've read to date. While the book can be a little slow, it is definately a must read for anyone with an appreciaiton for fine writing. It is funny, moving, and more than worth the time I've spent re-reading and highlighting my favorite passages. I tend to loan out books after I've read them and sometimes don't get them back. This book hasn't left my room for fear that I'll never see it again. I plan to tell any would-be borrowers that it's worth their money to buy their own copy.

I knew I had to re-read this book even before I was halfway through the first reading. I found myself stopping to breathe between fantastically worded passages, only to dive in for more. The subtitle, A Comedy of the Spirit, best describes the book's unique voice. Meetings With the Archangel is the fictional autobiography of an author who pursues a meandering but intense path of spiritual training, from Hasidic Judaism to Zen training, with studies of numerous other writings on enlightenment and angels. The Archangel Gabriel visits him to reflect the author's own state of growth, as well as to amaze him with images of the heavens almost beyond comprehension. All this is done with unabashed passion and self-depricating humor. Even if you have little interest in angels, you will find a lot to chew on (and laugh about) from Gabriel's conversations. The character's exploration of the meaning of evil is also riveting and thought provoking. Stephen Mitchell balances mysterious thought-morsels with a light-hearted commentary that makes the consideration of spiritual journeys like playing frisbee with your soul. It is a goofy but rewarding challenge to catch what's being thrown at you.

"When you argue with reality, you lose-but only 100% of the time," Byron Katie says. To help us stop our painful and hopeless arguments with reality, Byron Katie gives us much more, or much less, than another psychological Band-Aid or superficial pep-talk. She gives us The Work, four penetrating questions that, when asked sincerely, can help anyone tear through years of painful beliefs -"I'm too fat." "My partner should love me more." etc.-leaving the peace and freedom that come naturally from "loving what is."

I found The Work a little slippery to understand the first time I heard of it (it's been spreading through word of mouth for years). How can asking myself some questions make any difference? But after I did it, I was blown away! Loving What Is makes learning this process fairly simple, through detailed instructional material, humorous anecdotes (Katie is famous for her sense of humor), and dozens of powerful examples of The Work in action. Co-author Stephen Mitchell's intelligence and precision are evident in the book's seamless structure, and in how naturally Katie's clarity and warmth make it to the page. This book still requires "active" reading-and you have to do The Work yourself in order to really get it-but for those who are willing to try something new, Loving What Is really could change your life. It changed mine. (I highly recommend the audiobook as well.)

If your spiritual practice includes self observation you will find that this book can help deepen your practice in subtle and surprisingly transformative ways. I have found release from many modes of suffering that have haunted me for years. Neurotic knots I didn't even know I had untied themselves and washed away. I have found the Work to be simple but very effective. The examples in the book are very helpful.

I feel that some commentary must be put here to counter the dreadful review offered by "jaguarwoman" below. Here is a quote from the review - "Granted, I did not read every word in the book, and perhaps she addresses this at some point, but after an hour of perusing this book....". How on Earth does this person think that an hours worth of shallow skimming and no practice qualify her to write a review? If "jaguarwoman" had bothered to study the book in detail she would see that Byron Katie says that her Work is not for everyone.

Astonishingly ignorant reviews aside, the best judge of this book will be you *after* trying the practice!

I have a large number of self-help books on my shelf, and it'd be worth trading all of them to get a copy of Byron Katie's Loving What Is. This book gets right down to the absolute fundamentals of human suffering -- it's all in our thoughts -- and how to undo that suffering.

This is what it comes down to: Nothing *ever* bothers you except your thoughts. It's not the fact that you lost your job that makes you miserable, it's the thoughts running through your head, like "I'm incompetent," "I didn't deserve that job," "I'll never get a job like that again." Who would you be, newly unemployed, without those thoughts? (Question #4.) The questions help you see with your own eyes that your suffering is *always* over a painful thought that's running through your head, and this firsthand knowledge eventually leads you to automatically drop that thought. Your suffering has nothing to do with reality. Katie likes to say, "The worst thing that could happen is a story."

On another note, one reviewer below says that Katie and Stephen Mitchell aren't married, since Katie talks in her tapes about her husband being uninterested in spiritual matters. I recently attended the School for the Work, and they are certainly married. She explained that her previous husband was not very happy living with her after her transformation, and she eventually decided that the kindest thing she could do would be to spare him from "that woman" that he thought she had become. She and Stephen met when he was assigned to write an article on her, and the rest is history.

This is the single most transformative book I've ever read. It contains the very essence of wisdom as I understand it, and I never felt I had to make myself believe anything or translate her words into something resembling reality, as I do with some authors, because she was already there. Simply incredible.

As a Taoist I am offended when I read people saying that it's irrelevant whether Mitchell's interpolation is a good "translation" of the Tao Te Ching, irrelevant whether this is a good introduction to Taoism -- what matters to these people, and nothing else, is whether this book "moved" them.

Imagine you're a devout Christian, and someone has read a particularly beautiful, but misleading and inaccurate, translation of the Bible. Suppose you complain that Christ's message has been garbled and distorted by the "translation" -- by someone who knows no Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek -- and this person replies: "It's pretty irrelevant to me whether this is a 'proper translation' of the Bible. If a piece of art, writing or performance touches you to the core of your being then all criticism is really obsolete," etc.

Okay, quick quiz: Who of you think it would be right for someone to misinterpret the Bible into having Jehova or Christ saying things They didn't say, and then defend that interpretation because it is relevant to them? Well, you might say, it's their right to see the Bible that way, but it's certainly not Judaism or Christianity, now is it?

Just as Mitchell's so-called "translation" is _not_ Taoism. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Of course New Agers simply don't care; if it makes them happy, "moves" them, and reifies beliefs they already have, who cares about us cynics complaining about the inaccuracies of the text itself? Just accuse us of being obsessed with textual criticism, languages, and with our petty, close-minded insistence on understanding Taoism and not twisting the Tao Te Ching for its easier but uninsightful digestion by Westerners with little or no concern about actually expanding their understanding of othr belief systems.

I could forgive Mitchell for simply comparing translations (apparently never looking at the original text at all!) in this interpretation. I could even forgive what are sometimes gross, totally unjustified alterations of the meaning of words or entire passages. The business of personal interepretations of classics is not new.

But this is *not* a good introduction to Taoism or the Tao Te Ching. What it is is a highly personal, biased, American Zen interpretation of the Tao Te Ching.

As such, it does work in its own way, though I found the notes garbled, unhelpful, and sometimes misleading, and I've seen more poetic translations. But as a good, bias-free introduction to *Taoism*, it's a miserable failure. The reader is *not* being given straight Taoism here. That's especially disturbing because it's the most popular translation in print. For an equally elegant, more accurate (that is, Taoist) rendering, check out Henricks' translation.

I repeat: You may like the poetry, you may like the ideas and the philosophy, but it's impossible to like the Taoism, because it simply isn't there.

If you choose only one Tao te Ching translation... this shouldn't be it.

BUT.... if you choose 2 or 3, this should definantly be among them :)
It is also the best for introducing a Westerner not familiar with Taoist thought to Taoism.

There have been complaints by many Taoists about this translation, and I understand their complaints, BUT some people are not interested in Taoism as a Dogma or "religion" or a history lesson.... but in the *WISDOM* of the Tao, which is what this book conveys perfectly.
Though it is not literal I do not find it to be in any way inconsistant with the spirit or wisdom of Lao Tzu's teaching.

The language, poetry, and insight in this book as well as the utter simplicity make it a WONDERFUL read... and the "liberties" help make Taoism more accessable to those not accustomed to interpreting the meaning of the literal translation and giving it modern application.
This is one of 2 Tao Te Ching translations I know by heart, I highly recomend it.

This book has all the potential of being a very useful offering as both a reference and teaching aid. Turns out it fails on both counts, because of the patchy nature of the chapters. This book cannot by any means be called uniform in quality. There are some excellent chapters and some simply average ones and some complete dogs!

By far and away best are the 2 chapters on Data Manipulation and Presentation, although these are let down by poor editing - in the form of a few missing source code listings. Another good chapter is the one on code-behind ("Separating Code from Content"). Also very good is the one on XML ("Using XML"). Although a single chapter on XML is not going to be sufficient for anyone, you will be happy to know that the writer of this chapter (Dan Wahlin) has published a worthwhile book of his own. There are also some rather useful chapters on areas that are usually left out of books of this type, and they deal with Error Handling ("ASP.NET Error Handling") and state management ("Managing State").
The chapters that are really awful and could do worse than being re-written are: "Web Services" and "Application-Level Programming" simply because they simply do not have enough in the way of quality code. One thing that I find quite curious is the chaper on "Enabling Better Browser Support" - which doesn't really have a place in .NET, which aims to reproduce uniform browser behaviour.

All code samples are in VB.NET with some consideration for the C# public, but certainly the source-code is not eqally bi-lingual- which I hope gets addressed in the future.

Overall a good book, although be prepared for some ups and downs in quality.

The book really stands for the title. I found in the book what I was looking for, something to get me started in ASP.NET without it beeing a begginers guide for novice programers. It takes you through every aspect of ASP.NET wich makes some chapters more interesting than others (ADO.NET, XML, Mobile Devices, etc..) almost all the chapters leave you greedy for more (specially passport authentication, webservices, managing state with SQL-Server) but the book is already 837 pages. This is the first time I see ASP.NET covered in every important aspect (web controls, caching and I never saw passport for example).
A mistake was made, by giving the framework sdk in the cd instead of the sample code, wich you can find in a million zip files in the web.
They also failed in telling the sample code is intended to follow your progress in the book. That means you won't see quality code untill chapter 16 (separating code form presentation). I think they made a good desicion, so if your looking for a source of sample code this is the wrong place (Go to the web).
I don't think this will become a reference book for me. As soon as you become proficient in the platform the book becomes shallow but this is the first time i'm happy with a book since i bought "Hitchhiker's guide to visual basic and SQL". This book succeds in having all the Tips, Tutorials and Code you need to get serious into ASP.NET today!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

As a serious developer, nothing is more valuable than nicely annotated code samples. This 878-page book is packed with code, with server-side code in VB. I bought this book together with Programming Data-Driver Web Applications With ASP.NET by Mack and Seven. (These two are among the authors of this book, Tips, Tutorials, etc.) Between the two I have a nice library to draw on for help on my current .NET development project.

I have found the SAMS Teach Yourself series very useful in spite of their beginner level content. This book is part of a newer series from SAMS (blue spines with glossy photos of the galaxy) that are intended as in-depth resources for professionals. SO far the six that I have rank with the very best professional series from Apress and seem a bit beyond the always timely and usually useful WROX books.