Author Tom Melham and photographer Farrell Grehan collaborate "synergistically" to give the reader a sense of who John Muir was and what drove him to be the preserver of nature that he became. Visiting Muir in his youth in Dunbar Scotland and traveling with his family to their new Wisconsin farm provides an early glimpse of the driving force smoldering within young John Muir to drink in nature for all its worth. With rich text and pictures Melham and Grehan follow Muir's trails across the continent. John's eventual focus on glaciers and the boundless energy and fanatical interest he demonstrated during his sojorns tells of the special man he was. The picture-stories help the reader to understand the greater call of the mountains that made Muir have to labor to the lesser call of writing to pen his passion for sharing and preserving. To have this book still in print and available to the public (I found my copy at a local auction) is a tribute to National Geographic. I recommend that you take up the adventure and read John Muir's America.

A must!!!
Take this wonderful collection of muirs wisdom with you whether you are walking among trees, meadows, deserts, or just thinking about a saunter. Chris Highland's compilation of varied writings from John Muir are wonderfully editited, capturing muirs wit, humor and peace of mind. I love this book!!

People seem to enjoy being scared out of their wits. Big-budget movies have done it with relative ease, but trying to portray terror in a 30 or 60 minute TV show, complete with commercials, is a bit more difficult. There have been some major successes ("Kolchak: The Night Stalker", "The X-Files", "Buffy" and "Angel", but there have been some real dogs ---anyone remember 'Manimal'? This author presents the definitive work on TV horror shows, starting with Rod Serling's "Night Gallery." He reviews each episode, gives complete cast/crew credits, and doesn't waste words in analyzing each show. "Boos" and "ghouls" of all ages will find this a treasure-trove of TV terror.

John Muir is simply the best naturalist writer I have ever read. His writing is clear, descriptive and interesting. I typically don't like this type of writing, but his essays make you hear, see, taste and smell the outdoors. I usually like to experience nature directly, but Muir is the next best thing to being there. A collection of his best works is presented here.

If I was only to buy one John Muir book (a tragedy), this would be the one. Excellent essays that demonstrate both his lucid writing style and the amazing country that he describes. He coherently describes his own life (and the times that surround it), in a way that makes me want to grab a cotton rucksack and a bag of food and head off for the High Sierra.

A great book and a wonderful gift for anyone who loves Yosemite. Rowell's photographs are wonderful, and are set to John Muir's observations and memories of the Valley.

I picked this book up and after reading realized I had read it years before, but what the hey! It is so very good and very interesting. The chapters on Grizzly Adams, and R.W. Emerson in the Mariposa Grove are truly interesting. John Muir was quite the dude and this park would not be the same without him. I found Carelton E. Watkins photos on the web and have used them as wallpaper for my computer. So when the going gets tough I go to Yosemite in cyberspace!!

The John Muir Trail runs through 210 miles of spectacular Sierra Nevada mountain range scenery. Trout-Fishing The John Muir Trail will enable the angler to plan and preparing for a trip to the John Muir Trail; fish along the trail; as well as assemble terrain appropriate fishing tackle and hiking gear. There are a wealth of hiking tips, a roster of 20 top trout streams; fly fishing recommendations, and more. If you are bound for the Sierra Nevadas and a trip along the John Muir Trail, begin by reading Steve Beck's Trout-Fishing The John Muir Trail!

It is clear in this compact guidebook that Steve Beck appreciates the special beauty of the Sierra, that he is a skilled fly fisherman, and that he has some fascination with John Muir. Almost every page has a fine color photo, and often a Muir quote. The scenery is spectacular, but there is plenty of solidly researched information for both experienced fishermen and hikers planning a trip to this area. I bought the book in preparation for an August vacation and it is hard to choose where to go with a limited amount of time. This book provides enough information for many trips!

Steve Beck's first book, Yosemite Trout Fishing Guide, was a really fine addition to my library. His latest publication on the beauty that is the John Muir Trail and its fishery is even better. I only wish I could get the book in a hard cover. This book is worth keeping and passing down to loved ones.

The reader comments on the Amazon site lead me to expect this book to be a serious academic study of "Doctor Who," exploring the themes and stories both as elements of the popular culture and as literary forms. Muir demonstrates an encyclopedic knowledge of science fiction television from "Captain Video" to "Red Dwarf." Sadly, he doesn't appear to have read many books, thus the scholarly critique I had anticipated was not to be found. He is not interested in sociological or psychological deconstruction, nor with any rigorous application of literary theory. You won't find any arcane academic language, references to Derrida or Freud, or other intellectual posturing. But neither will you find it to be a satisfying analysis of the cultural and literary interaction between the show and it's audience.

Instead, Muir mostly concerns himself with "Doctor Who" in relationship to other television shows which aired before, during and after it. Much energy is focused on the question of which show was first to address a topic or use a plot device, and how the same formulas have been recycled repeatedly.

He begins with a cogent analysis of the origins of "Doctor Who," identifying H.G. Wells' The Time Machine (specifically, the 1960 George Pal film with Rod Taylor) and Nigel Kneale's marvelous "Quatermass" stories (produced by BBC TV in late 1950's) as the two templates around which the vast majority of "Doctor Who" stories are built. However, he ignores any literary antecedents that must have had at least as much if not more influence on the original series writers. You will not find the names Jules Verne, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein or Madeleine L'Engle in his copious (and excellently thorough) index. For Muir, other than tangential references to the cinema, television is largely a self-contained universe.

Not surprisingly, his analysis is starkly without context. Although he has clearly read enough to understand the historical development of the series in England, he shows no real understanding of the culture which created and interacted with the show.

This lack of context is highlighted by the near complete absence of fan material - a shocking exclusion considering the massive amount of critical commentary produced over 30 by dedicated and intelligent fans, much of it not only well written, but literate and insightful. Indeed, Muir's few nods to a body of critical writing outside his own amounts to a few isolated pages of quotes, presented without comment on the remark or it's author (so if you don't already know who Harlan Ellison is, he's not going to help you). It is not until well past his review of the show's history that he mentions, almost in passing, that "Doctor Who" ceased being a kiddie show by 1975. In fact, it's that very change - how and when "Doctor Who" grew into an adult entertainment - that is the most important element in the show's history, not to say it's impact on popular culture. His failure to grasp this essential point as the appropriate focus of a critical history -preferring instead to draw out lengthy parallels between "Doctor Who" and the many science fiction TV shows of the sixties and seventies - reduces the book to a catalogue of plots and themes rather than a critical history.

Which is not to say that his observations are without merit. In fact, he has insightful and interesting things to say about a wide variety of issues, ranging from racism to jelly baby jokes. His discussion about gender and sexism, especially as it relates to the Doctor's female companions over the years, is extremely intelligent and well written. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the issues he raises are left largely unexplored, as though, merely by having brought them up at all, he has successfully addressed them. His preoccupation with other contemporary science fiction television does him ill service here, as many passages hinge not on the intrinsic merit of a "Doctor Who" story, but on how the same themes are treated in the "Star Trek" universe.

Muir is badly served, ultimately, by the structure he has chosen. The program guide format compels him to reiterate his previous ideas regularly, rarely adding any additional information or development to the original premise. This quickly become tiresome, unless the reader is absolutely fascinated by the number of time the name "Travers" has been used or which actors and directors also appeared on "Blake's 7" and "Space:1999." (The vast majority of this material is, of course, already abundantly available, in more complete and less expensive guides.)

Ultimately it's hard to figure out precisely who the intended audience for this book might be. The title is somewhat of a misnomer, as there is no attempt to survey the existing body of historical or critical writing on the topic. It is, therefore, insufficient as a serious scholarly study... it's a bit pricey for a highly subjective program guide. It offers nothing new in it's treatment of the show's history, and is neither particularly complete (ignoring the contributions of many writers, directors and actors who deserve greater prominence) nor scrupulously accurate (e.g. failing to identify uncredited writers and story origins, referring to the 1920's as "Victorian," misusing the word "empirical"). What it mostly amounts to is a book-length, library bound fanzine with a mild case of delusions of grandeur. The book is not really suitable to the neophyte fan, who would probably find it too expensive, but neither will it satisfy the most demanding aficionado, who will be irritated either by it's format or content.

Still, I would encourage people who fall between those two extremes to read it; if for no other reason than to promote greater discussion of the ideas Muir begins to address. This is not the serious scholarly analysis that "Doctor Who" deserves, but it's an excellent starting point.

Fans of the cult science fiction British film will find A Critical History Of Dr. Who On Television an essential reference which provides critical and historical examinations of the ideas, morals and philosophies contained in the hit television series. This provides anecdotes and fine insights, including series synopsis, guest lists and commentary for each episode, and an overview of critical reception. Essential for avid Dr. Who fans.

If you are an avid Doctor Who collector like I am, you probably have several of the many programme reference guides available to the fans already. Also, like me, you may wonder what makes a new reference work valuable; why should one buy THIS book; what does it offer that others I already own do not already say?

These were the questions I was asking when I discovered the publication of Mr. John Kenneth Muir's library-bound book, A Critical History of Doctor Who on Television. Like many other works, this book catalogues the 159 television serials extensively, and makes mention of the many other formats of the myth (the two 60s movies, the countless novels published both concurrently with and after the series' end, the 1996 television movie, the merchandise, the fan clubs and the internet resources, to name a few). The book also lists technical details of each episode, something exhaustive detail-seeking fans will appreciate.

But the thing that makes this book unique is its tracking of the themes of Doctor Who. We all are aware of at least some such themes in our treasured show : the alien invasions, the oppression and ultimate redemption of the weak, the evil imperialistic corporations, the evil threats from mythological origins, time paradoxes, environmental crises, or the question of interfering with known history. We are probably also aware of many of the show's antecedents, whether it be movies or programs we have only heard the names of (The Quatermass Experiment), or early USA science fiction that lent its own ideas - despite being launched later than Doctor Who (like the original Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica). This book makes a serious effort at tracking the various themes and their impact on not only the show's narrative style and tone, but also on the ultimate morality put forth in each decade, and traces how the show's morality changes with every distinct era.

The book also tracks the underlying thematic underpinnings of the show through the decades. One such example is the tracing of the development of the Time Lords - how they progressed from an almost supernatural and all-powerful force when we first meet (and fear) them in Troughton's era, to their almost self-parody existence through Pertwee's era, through their great demystification in Tom Baker's and Davison's shows, to the statement of their ultimate philosophies in Colin Baker's "The Trial of a Time Lord." It shows how our views of the Doctor's race have changed as we see them go from being almost Gods, to being stagnant, to being a bureaucratic mess, to ultimately being revealed as morally degenerate as many of the races the Doctor has fought in all his years. It links how seeing such things as this "See the Heroes Fall" motif might be a reflection of the times of that particular set of shows. Thematic strands such as this make for interesting reading throughout Muir's book. It also tracks antecedents to story plots from the obvious Frankenstein/Morbius references to not so obvious ones that give serious food for thought.

Something else that fascinates me about Muir's book is the tracking of seeming "offspring" of Doctor Who - where ideas original (or semi-original) to the series seem to have been lifted or borrowed to incorporate into other art forms on other series - Where was this idea explored in the movie Stargate? What exactly ARE the parallels between the Cybermen and the Borg in Star Trek : the Next Generation? Have you ever compared the Axons and the Borg? How is a scene from City of Death almost followed exactly in All Good Things from Star Trek : the Next Generation with "Q" playing the role of the Doctor? Nowhere in the book does Muir suggest that any of these ideas were blatantly "stolen" either for the series, or stolen from it for other series... but the parallels are amazing to behold as he delineates them (not to mention often humorously tongue-in-cheek; did I expect a "fully functional" Data reference when discussing Artificial Intelligence?). It makes for fascinating reading.

Finally, Muir uses the book to show the series in light of serious critical approaches, whether from literary or film-related schools of thought, making this a truly academic sort of study. His insights point out obvious plot flaws, "cop-outs" in resolutions, breaks in narrative flow, where obvious filler was used, and of course, the moments of sheer inventive brilliance that make us love the series so much - where it takes something stale and expected and transcends what we expect to make a unique, almost magical experience for the watcher. Muir injects doses of his own opinion, but backs these opinions up with a solid critical eye. Even though I personally disagree with some of his conclusions (e.g., the narrative value of "Ghost Light" and surrounding serials, the relative innovation of the stories of the Davison era), I can always respect what he has to say, because it is said so well. His discussions have made me rethink and reinvent my views of the Troughton era, and have re-affirmed my beliefs about Colin Baker's era. I have used this book many times already to start discussions with my friends over some of the more controversial aspects of the show's 26-year run, and I think that this has to be a good thing for a show that has not aired new regular episodes for 11 years.

Any venue that can stir debate and get people thinking about Doctor Who again must be essential for its fan base to continue. As Muir says, "It is only by debate and constant reinterpretation that these works of 20th century art will survive into the next millennium and be remembered." If keeping Doctor Who alive was indeed Mr. Muir's goal, I think that he has succeeded greatly. To incorporate SO MUCH information into one book and still have it be so readable and enjoyable is quite a feat indeed. So don't let the higher price tag than usual stop you from owning this book; it is absolutely essential reading for the Doctor Who reader, and you'll be glad it's in hardback when you find yourself going back to it time and time again.

If your a Kevin Smith fan, and interested in film in general check this book out. Despite many..many type-o's the book is worth a read.

An Askew View: The Films Of Kevin Smith by film and television journalist and expert John Kenneth Muir is an insightful commentary on Kevin Smith's cinematic works that have gone on to achieve a kind of cult-following, including his films: "Clerks," "Chasing Amy," and "Dogma", as well as such efforts as "Mallrats" and the ill-fated "Clerks: the Animated Series" (which was ultimately killed to make room for the then-megahit "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" game show). Interviews with Kevin Smith and other filmmakers form the backbone of this fascinating companion book that is highly recommended reading for students of filmmaking, as well as the legions of Kevin Smith fans.

This is a really fun book, loaded with new interviews with all the View Askew regulars, including Scott Mosier, Walt Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Jeff Anderson, Brian O'Halloran, Vincent Pereira Dwight Ewell, Ethan Suplee and others. And their stories are hysterical! More to the point, the book goes behind the scenes to reveal new stories behind the movies - direct from the horses' mouths, including some of the really early ideas behind CLERKS. A highly amusing and funny read. I laughed out loud so many times reading this book that people around me thought I was crazy. I've already let one of my friends borrow it and now I want my copy back...