This book not only appeals to recreational bikers who dream of biking in "other worlds", but gives an arm-chair traveler a glimpse into the backroads of countries, into the lives of real people living real lives. In a wonderful easy reading, humouous manner, Willie Weir has made us all believe that if we can dream it, we can do it..if we're willing to go for a week without clean underwear or everyday predictability.

This is a delightful little book that you will read and reread many times. But be cautious, it will cause you to dust off that bike and go for a ride yourself, even if it is just a spin around our own neighborhood. If you are one of the lucky ones, you just might find yourself at a Joe (Kurmaskie, the Metal Cowboy) and Willie show. Friends who have gone to the Joe and Willie Show gave it enthusiastic reviews. But no matter, get the book yourself.

Willie Weir is a wonderful story-teller. His lighthearted accounts of daily adventure in unfamiliar lands have an "Innocents,Abroad-like" quality that is very engaging. Read this book!

Clearly a grand advertisement & a fine way to take a peek at the transformation of The Hog. Along the way you'll catch glimpses of both ten decades of advertising & dressage styles.

If you're expecting to see the development of the mystique we've come to associate with The Hog, you will be disappointed for those who make The Hog are not necessarily those with whom it is associated. I don't think I've seen so many squeaky-clean, carefree people up close, sans helmets too!

Actually, a fascinating book & certainly one any lover of motorbikes, the open road & social styles will enjoy.

First class work from the top-shelf Harley Davidson Guy, grandson of the founder. If you buy any Harley book in your life get this. Don't miss the chance to read the rare Harely novel "THE SECOND COMING OF AGE" by: Vedrine. These books will be collectable classics; highly treasured and read at the next centennial celebration.

This book is written from the heart and soul of the one and only Willie G. It has great pictures and great stories. No one can tell them like the people who experienced it from within.
An absolute seller, and when you want to collect some 100th Anniv. books this year: this one may not be missed on your shelve.
Get it now!

GREAT BOOK, GIVEN AS A GIFT AND HE LOVED IT. READS IT AVIDLY EVERYDAY. WIFE TOLD ME HE ABSOLUTELY LOVES IT. I AM SURE IT WILL BE LOVED BY THE AVID BASEBALLL FAN. MAKES A GREAT GIFT OR IF YOU ARE JUST BUYING IT FOR YOURSELF ENJOY EVERY PICTURE AND LINE YOU READ.

Baseball is my favorite sport, and I love debating the greatest players of all time just like everyone else. And The Sporting News does a solid job of ranking the players, and offering why. The pictures are a wonderful addition to the text. And while they overvalue players like Rogers Hornsby and Pete Rose and undervalue players like Lou Gehrig, Honus Wagner, and Stan Musial, the idea of the book like this is to provoke arguments. Foolishy, they did not separate pitchers and position players, and I wish they would have written a little bit more about each player, but overall this is a great book. One final note: For the most part I believe that baseball's greatest players came from the bygone days, but Cal Ripken's 78 ranking in this book is an absolute travesty. He is a top 30 player. Overall, a great book.

Like their pro football book, this book selects what The Sporting News' editors felt who were the greatest 100 baseball players of all time. And it's very difficult to argue too hard with their choices. Babe Ruth at #1 is in my opinion a no-brainer. Ruth really saved the game at a time when it desperately needed a hero and he forever changed the way the game was played with his towering home runs on the field and his "carousing" off it. The book also features a nicely written foreword by the #2 all-time best player, Willie Mays. How honored I am that I got to see him play in his prime some 30 plus years ago as a boy.

I like that the choices in this book are unaffected by race, scandal or personality. Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Buck Leonard, Cool Papa Bell, and Oscar Charleston of the Negro League made this list. It's truly sad that so many talented ballplayers were kept out of the majors because of their race. Joe Jackson, is another "Top 100 member" who of course was banned after the Black Sox scandal. Others like Ty Cobb, who was a notorious hothead in his day are also here.

Reading through the book brought many smiles to my face as I recalled watching so many players, like Harmon Killebrew, Kirby Puckett, Willie McCovey (my all-time favorite), Ernie Banks, and Hank Aaaron just to name a few.

So many excellent choices, this book is well-done and a great momento to all the athletes who have made baseball the game it is today.

About three weeks ago I read a glowing review of this book at the Website Promotion Central web site. I went to a local book store first to see if it was suitable for my needs. The first book store did not have a copy but the second one did. Looking through the book I was pleased with the amount of information on each page. The purchase decision was easy.

I like the step by step format of the book, the marketing plan guide, the chapter on public relations and I particularly like the second chapter of 101 tips and the way it is organized. The cartoons at the start of each chapter are also a nice touch. I have looked through many marketing books at the book store in the past but this is the first one I have purchased. I doubt I'll ever need to read another one. +dana+

I don't know what book "A customer from USA" read, but it obviously wasn't Web Marketing Applied. I have some experience in internet marketing and found this book to be the best in my collection. Does the author express an importance at having a marketing plan? Yes. Not only that, but the author dedicates two chapters to creating a detailed internet marketing plan. This should be the foundation of any marketing effort. Period.

The organization of chapter 2 gets very high marks from me. Each 102 marketing tips contain detailed explanations and each one is rated on a scale of five stars then grouped into the type of marketing segment it belongs. This type of organization made it easy for me to spot ideas that would work best in my marketing.

I also really enjoyed the chapters on defensive and offensive techniques. My site is in a competitive field so I found these two chapters to be worth the price of the book alone.

I also agree with a previous reviewer about the responsiveness of the author. I had a question about one of his techniques and within four hours of emailing him, I had the answer to my question.

Even though I've read all the way through Web Marketing Applied, I find myself refering to it often. It's a book that serves well as a reference tool that I find myself using day after day.

If there was any disappointment that I had, it is that Joe's next book on Web profits, which is mentioned in Web Marketing Applied, isn't going to be done until early 2001. Of course that doesn't take away from my experience with this one and I highly recommend it to any serious webmaster or marketer.

I read this fine book while our new Website was being constructed, and since our launch I have referred to it many times. There are dozens of tips and techniques of which I was made aware, and some have already been extremely beneficial in our marketing. They do work. Others are on the back-burner, and will be implemented as we grow. The author not only reveals many useful aids, but also stressed several universal truths for sucessful marketing (honesty, promptness, etc), and it was refreshing to review them in print as web-marketing principles.

I've lived through 5 hurricanes and in 4 of them the eye passed over my home. Reading this book made me feel I was in another only this time Ernest Hemingway was there as well. A great read for anyone who has been through a hurricane or wondered what one is like.

This book captures both the tremendous power of the hurricane and the terrible suffering of the people who were caught in it. It presents what I think is a fair explanation of the deaths of hundreds of American veterans of WWI and the circumstances that brought them to the Florida Keys during hurricane season. This little remembered chapter in American history should not be forgotten and Drye has done a service in bringing it back to light. It is a wonderful book that should affect everyone who reads it. I highly recommend it.

What a great book. Drye takes the reader along on a fascinating tale of the most powerful hurricane to hit the mainland US and the political tempest that followed the actual storm. Effortlessly blending the story of the power and devastation of the hurricane, the personal stories of those who lived through the storm and political investigations and hearings that followed, Drye is able to keep the reader engaged throughout. Drye's analysis of the decision-making processes of the camp administrators, the role of the weather bureau and the actions of the Key's natives is thorough and thoughtful. Drye's vivid story telling brings life back to this mostly forgotten slice of national and natural history.

Everybody knows that when a person gets addicted to hard-drugs his dealer can make him do just about anything in order to get his next fix. But what if the one who gets addicted is Batman ?! That's what this story (collecting "Legends of the Dark Knight" #16-20) is about. When Batman oneday fails to get to a kidnapped child in time to save her life, due to psychical lack of strength, he accepts some strength-boosting steroid pills (like Bane's) from the girls father who engineered them, in order to never fail that way again. Only it turns out that the man is of ill will and the pills very addictive. In the beginning Batman gets the pills for free but the supply gets thinner and thinner and once Batman is fully addicted, and his supply of pills gone, he has to start following certain orders to keep getting them. The pills have some other nasty side-effects as well. One of them being Bruce losing a big part of his humanity, and the streets of Gotham get more dangerous than ever now Batman, the one who's supposed to be the savior of the streets, is more aggresive as ever before. And that's without even mentioning his sudden lack of any morality. Batman just isn't Batman anymore and something needs to be done about his current state of being or else the future looks very bleak for Gotham. And that's not the end of it because Batman turns out to be just a guinea-pig to test the effect of the pills, which are meant for an operation much bigger than this.

This book has a good and fluent story which will give most Batman fans a satisfactory read. The art is nothing spectacular but it's more than sufficient to get you through the story. However, compared to a lot of other stories collected from the early "Legends of the Dark Knight" series this is really pretty mediocre. The dialoguing and the motives of the characters could have been a lot better, more worked out, and most of all, more original. For example, the bad guys (mere men) wanting to rule the world , instead of having a more realistic and original goal, is pretty dusty by now. It's a real shame because the story starts very promising and full of potential, you really start to think you have something unique in your hands at one point, but turns into something we've seen so many times before halfway. It's like the writer goes on automatic pilot all of a sudden. If you don't have them already you're better off getting stories like "Gothic" (#6-10) and/or "Prey" (#11-15), and THEN this one (or if you're also open to get something that's not from the "Legend of the Dark Knight" series, things like 'The Killing Joke', 'The Long Halloween', 'Cataclysm', 'Dark Knight Returns' and 'Year One' are much better choices). It's like I said, it's a nice story for Batfans but it shouldn't be considered as a priority.

Back when I was around five or six my dad brought home a copy of Venom: Part 3, a free sample he recieved from a printing company. Venom stands out for me in many ways: It was one of the first three comic books I ever owned, the other two being Spider-Man. It introduced me to Batman, and I later traded in my Spider-Man comics for other Batman issues. It also included the most brutal, violent, death I had ever witnessed, and even today I still skip that page when I come to it. But reading 'Venom' changed me. I wouldn't go as far as to say it was mental scarring, but it was pretty dramatic nonetheless.

Unfortunately, as things turned out, I never got a chance to read the other parts of 'Venom' until well over a decade later. Dad may have given me my first comic, but he and mom weren't too keen on me constantly spending money on comic books. It wasn't until I had my own source of pocket money that I picked up the trade paperback.

As much as I want to give Venom five stars out of sentimental value, the story does have a few holes which bump it down a notch. The first two parts of the story are the best; Batman fails to save the life of a little girl, and his failure haunts him so badly that he decides to take strengh-enhancing pills to find the killers and bring them down. By part two, the pills have turned Batman into an amoral monster, which creates friction between him and Alfred. Part three marks Batman's attempt to cleanse himself, but besides the violent death I mentioned earlier, this part is merely transitional. The same goes for the fourth part, which finds Batman and Alfred tracking a rogue general and the creator of the pills to a small island called Santa Prisca. Part five fares much better, as Batman is put in a life or death trap, and must resist the temptation to use the pills during his escape. The artwork was standard fare for the 'Legends of the Dark Knight' series, but that book always had better artwork than the basic Batman titles, so there's no complaint here.

'Venom' might not be on par with other trade paperbacks such as "The Killing Joke" and "Dark Knight Returns", but as a general rule, any Batman trade paperback is worth reading. Batman is one of the most human of all superheroes, but constantly tries to overcome his own flaws, which is what this story is about. Recommended read, just don't show part 3 to young, impressionable children!

This series is the best story arc that I have read from thethe Legends of the Dark Knight series. It also introduces the venom drug, which Bane would later use in his successful attempt to break the Batman.
But this is a good story in itself. In it Batman becomes adicted to the same drug and struggles to overcome the addiction.
Dennis O'Neil proves he is still one of the greatest writers ever to work on Batman and the artwork is also great.

I was greatly surprised by this book. It is probably the best of the comics, and focuses on the survival of Hicks and Newt. I heard other reviewers say that the comics were better than the last two movies, and I must agree. ... The story focuses on the survivors of the Aliens mission, Hicks and Newt. After their arrival on Earth, they were seperated and unable to communicate with each other. But when an Alien Hiveworld is found the goverment needs Hicks expertise and drag him along. But not before he rescues Newt(who is much older due to the elapsed time spent on earth) and takes her with him. After barely escaping the alien mission, Newt and Hicks realize that the aliens are setting up a bigger hiveworld, a hiveworld on the planet earth.

Written before Alien3, this book is not in line with the films after Aliens. It is far better than any of them. The story is the best I have read in a graphic novel. Only one word need describe it-epic. We do not have cheesy INDEPENDANCE DAY type theatrics, we have a panorama of love, ambition, strife and perdition. The aliens' invasion of Earth is brilliantly portrayed, as is the subsequent collapse of civilization. We have human civilization and savagery juxtaposed clearly. Philosophy and terror go hand in hand in this extraordinary book. The most emotionally moving title in this series. This should have been ALIEN3. It has all the poeticism and emotional depth of that brilliant movie, while it dispenses with the plotting infelicities and sketchy characterization. Compared to ALIEN RESURRECTION, the latest title in the movie saga, this book is a prime piece of science-fiction. Ironically that movie was more like a cheesy comicbook, while this book is like an excellent movie. Comparisons th Kubrick's SPACE ODYSSEY 2001 would indeed be justified when talking of this book. The illustrations are beautiful, with special attention on the faces of the characters. One final note: this was rereleasd under the title OUTBREAK with changes made to fit it in with ALIEN3.

What can I say; an absolute classic tour de force, Paul Verheiden is Mr. 'Aliens.' for those who are in the know this is the where it all begins; the first book in the excellent Aliens graphic novel series, and it's an absolute stormer! It hits on so many levels, not just the obvious sci - fi horror of killer bugs that are born by bursting out of your stomach and grow to the size of men but also the meaning - and nature of life - what it means to be human (is a clone a human?), our psychology, the origin of the aliens, their psychology and social organisation, mankind's place in the universe, the problems of our planet, and more. Verheiden goes deep into what the aliens stand for, what they mean, their implications for us, as well as the obligatory comparisons between man and alien. He shows us that he knows aliens more than the filmmakers did. If ever there was a case study of how to take a concept and run with it, then this is it. Verheiden sensibly cuts out Alien 3 continuity: the two characters who survived Aliens along with Ripley (the girl Newt and the soldier Hicks) but were pronounced dead at the beginning of Alien 3 are central characters in this book. The book's underlying premise is the downward tendency of human nature when confronted with challenges and problems beyond our ken and normal frame of reference. We see twisted people trying to use the alien menace for their own ends: depravity that includes twisted scientific experiments, bio-weaponry and focuses for cult worship, with the resultant excesses of human suffering and dying. Indeed, it is humanity's collective weaknesses and baser desires that let the monsters in; that let them get a foothold on the planet (hence the title 'outbreak'), that causes earth's infestation as the aliens' - despite not possessing 'intelligence' - exploit our human failings. All too late do we realise that the aliens are a cancer, a cancer that has infected our earth and made it unliveable. Thus the scattered remnants of humanity have to flee, for earth is lost. A quite superb plot that leaves you speechless. A gripping, complex and ultimately tragic sci-fi horror saga from the one and only Paul Verheiden, who saw the potential in the Aliens phenomena and went into creative overdrive, giving us a timeless scince-fiction classic. Who cares about film sequels when the comics are this good?

First and foremost, Morris is an excellent writer and is particularly adept in my favorite genre: Creative Nonfiction.

The book starts with a short Medgar Evers history lesson culminating with his assignation and two hung juries in the subsequent murder trials of Beckwith. The book picks up in present-day Mississippi and details the reopening of the case, investigation, and eventual prosecution and conviction of Beckwith. That probably comprises the first third of the book. The next two-thirds detail the conception and execution of the Movie: Ghosts of Mississippi. Morris is detailed in his descriptions of movie making, from nuts and bolts film making to Hollywood politics. Of particular interest, is how the locals in Mississippi reacted and how Hollywood got along in the Deep South during the filming. He was able to deftly weave in pearls (as well as substantial blemishes) from Mississippi's past, much as he did in "The Courting of Marcus Dupree". Morris takes us through the filming of the movie to its nation-wide release and eventually to what he calls "troubles". The "troubles" piece is essentially a description and commentary on the reception (and substantial criticism) that "Ghosts" received in Hollywood, Mississippi and around the country.

If you enjoy nonfiction and have interest in the South, Hollywood, and Civil Rights I think you'll enjoy it (regardless of your opinion of the movie it describes).

First and foremost, Morris is an excellent writer and is particularly adept in my favorite genre: Creative Nonfiction.

The book starts with a short Medgar Evers history lesson culminating with his assignation and two hung juries in the subsequent murder trials of Beckwith. The book picks up in present-day Mississippi and details the reopening of the case, investigation, and eventual prosecution and conviction of Beckwith. That probably comprises the first third of the book. The next two-thirds detail the conception and execution of the Movie: Ghosts of Mississippi. Morris is detailed in his descriptions of movie making, from nuts and bolts film making to Hollywood politics. Of particular interest, is how the locals in Mississippi reacted and how Hollywood got along in the Deep South during the filming. He was able to deftly weave in pearls (as well as substantial blemishes) from Mississippi's past, much as he did in "The Courting of Marcus Dupree". Morris takes us through the filming of the movie to its nation-wide release and eventually to what he calls "troubles". The "troubles" piece is essentially a description and commentary on the reception (and substantial criticism) that "Ghosts" received in Hollywood, Mississippi and around the country.

If you enjoy nonfiction and have interest in the South, Hollywood, and Civil Rights I think you'll enjoy it (regardless of your opinion of the movie it describes).

Medgar Evers was a great man! If Martin Luther King hadn't been born, Evers would have been the one to change it all!

Ok, this book is quite eloquent in places and borderline brilliant, especially when writing about Mississippi. The second section of the book focuses on obscure 1960's Texas politics and gets rather dry and stretches on and on and on. The third part of the book focuses on New York and is depressing in that Morris reiterates over and over about how horrid the city is, ie the traffic, the dirt and grittiness, the noise, etc. Then he cuts on surburbanites who decide to commute to the city from farther up in N. England. Later, Morris does the same thing.
I guess my main concern with this book is the fact that Morris was only 30 years when he wrote his autobiography. Who knows enough of the world at age 30 to do such a thing? I question Morris for thinking he has lived some unique life by that age; I know the author passed away and all the reviews and tributes and obits were glowing and nostalgic, but I can't get over the fact that long stretches of this book were agonizing to get through.

These days, people are probably more likely to know of Willie Morris as the boy in the movie, "My Dog Skip." So if anything, they know he grew up in a small town in 1940's Mississippi. They mostly wouldn't know that years later, after an education at the University of Texas, he was a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford, a controversial newspaper editor in Texas, and the youngest editor of America's oldest continuously published magazine, Harper's.

Throughout his adult life he was a writer. His memoir "North Toward Home" is a recollection of a boyhood in pre-integration Mississippi, the rough and tumble of state politics which he covered for the Texas Observer, and coming to terms as a Southerner with New York City, which he liked to call "the Cave."

As a writer, Morris saw both the humor and sadness in the circumstances of daily life. He was fascinated by people and politics, and deeply committed to social justice. Growing up in the rural South, he also had a strong sense of how people are shaped by their history, traditions, and the terrain of the land they call home.

His many books include an account of school integration in his hometown in 1970, a tribute to his friend James Jones, author of "From Here to Eternity," and an account of the making of "Ghosts of Mississippi," Rob Reiner's film based on the murder trial and conviction of the man who shot Medgar Evers. One of the best introductions to Morris' style and favorite subjects is a collection of essays and exerpts from longer works, "Terrains of the Heart and Other Essays on Home," which was published in his later years and is currently in print.

A great companion volume for "North Towards Home" is "From the Mississippi Delta: A Memoir," by African-American writer Endesha Ida Mae Holland. Her book is a compelling account of growing up poor and black in small-town Mississippi and coming of age during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. Together, these two books provide a fascinating look at both sides of the racial divide in the Deep South of the mid-20th century.

After seeing the movie My Dog Skip, I bought this book to learn about a educated man who grew up in the South. I anticipated a recollection of why the South is great. What I read was a man recalling growing up in the South when it was a lazy, great place to grow up in. The first part of the book covers this and provided a perfect synopsis for the movie, My Dog Skip.

The second part of the book covers his time in Texas where he attended college and stayed to become an editor of a local liberal paper. He also was the school paper editor who became famous for his liberal stances taking on the administration. While this section gets long, it is the most interesting section as Morris is thrown in a foreign environment, becomes quite intimidated as many freshman do, and then grows in the process. This growth culminates in his acceptance as a Rhodes Scholar competing against many Ivy League namedroppers who once again intimidate him. He graduates and eventually writes for a liberal paper in Texas covering politics which allows him to see this magnificent state and challenge the beliefs of politicians and himself as he has grown into a full liberal in a very conservative state. Significant time is spent coloring the political landscape of the time and it's quite interesting to view this from 40 years hence. Anyone remember the John Birch Society?

The final section was an evolution as he moves to New York, goes through the humiliating first job search before he finds a low paying job working for Harpers Magazine. He describes what it's like working in New York, which he calls the "Cave", and living in substandard conditions where the sun never hits his building. He describes his first literary party and the pompous attitude of these intellectuals, particularly about the rest of the country. This becomes the fascinating introspective part of the book as he parallels his life in the South and his existence living in the "Cave".

This book covers the 40's,50's and 60's so clearly race was a central theme as the civil rights movement was in boom causing him to challenge so much of what he knew growing up. I think this culminates when he asks a German woman to leave his apartment after she makes some mild racist Jewish remarks. Morris really struggled reconciling the race issue given his background in Mississippi and at one point when he was introduced, he said he was from North Carolina as he had become embarrassed to mention being from Mississippi.

It's a fascinating story of personal growth that any reader will learn from. The book closes with him moving out of the Cave to a 70 mile, 4 hour commute daily to the city. And the last paragraph states the title "North Toward Home". I think many people will take the close differently but to me he was accepting his new home and turning over the page on the South which he would always appreciate and remember fondly.

This book will be of interest to Southerners looking to learn about their heritage and what living in the South in the segregated 1940's was like. Also, people with interests in journalism and political history will enjoy the book. But this book is also good for anyone looking for personal growth through the writings of others. I recommend books on whether they are entertaining and whether I learn much. I was pleasently entertained and learned a great deal. I strongly recommend this book.

Gifted, with a clear distinct voice, Willie Morris' TAPS while insightful to a time past, yet lacks a strong narrative drive. With all the well-drawn characters, Morris sets up the reader in a way that suggests something is going to happen. It doesn't. I would recommend the book, but don't expect to be riveted, rather rocked by the wonderful prose.

I had tears in my eyes as I finished this book, knowing that it would be the last love letter from the South from Willie Morris. The sheer beauty of his voice comes through in every line of TAPS, and in every character. This was an author who loved his home and the people around him. I'm so glad that JoAnne Morris was able to bring this final work to Willie's millions of fans and I commend her strength of spirit as well as his. God bless Willie Morris--he will be missed.

Tinged with elegiac feeling for the war-tossed small-town South of mid-century and with the memoirist's bittersweet impulse to prevent the younger self from making irreversible mistakes, Taps is as much a book of poetry as a novel of coming of age. The reader is borne along by the sheer felicity and dexterity of the writing as Willie Morris again proves, in his final work, that he was a grand master of the word.