The Art of the Playwright lacked direction. It did not contain enough examples of formatting and rather concentrated too much on the creative process. If you are already a writer who needs advice on the format (scenes, line spacing, acts, etc.) then I sincerely would not recommend this book. It explains how to create characters and storylines and for people who think they are already rather creative, it makes you feel like a preschooler. However, for the novice, it just may float.

Gave me the rundown on what playwriting involves. Great for the beginner and also as a reference to go back to. In a nutshell he emphasizes the three major elements over and over in different forms: Actions, Visuals, and Stakes. Emphasis on the technical and the bottom-line of a play: it must hold an audience's attention on stage. How to do that? That's what the book is about. He also gives us an overview into the history of theater and the different schools of playwriting.

Clear and entertaining read. Great great book.

William Packard conveys the essence of the art of playwriting needed to empower the imaginations of playwrights. He brilliantly teaches the central role of visuals and actions. His book is a precious source of enlightenment in a world of teachers who do more harm than good.

They say engineers (myself included) are generally poor writers; then David Packard must be an absolute genius. David Packard's book (as has his company been one) is an important contribution and a must read for company executives. But it does require patience and dedication -- like the one he and Bill Hewlette had to endure to make HP a success! Once you get through the first 6 or 7 chapters the book becomes and absolute GEM. Until then -- and unfortunately you almost have to read the first few chapters -- the book is a positive cure for sleeplessness. HP's dedication to innovation, its financial frugality (which shows up in Dave Packard not hiring a good ghost writer or editor) and the importance of Management by Objectives, Decenterlized Organization, and Management by Walkign Around, Expected Returns on R&D are only some of the Gems hidden in this book; but you do have to mine to get to them and IMHO it is a worthwhile pain to go through. What also comes through is how HP slipped their biggest chance of dominating the chip and computer market by not taking the risk and cancelling the OMEGA project. Reading David Packard's fatalistic justifications is worth 10 times the price of the book. Also little credit is given to the inventor of the calculator that made HP a house hold name, and no mention is made of procurement of Appolo(until in Appendix 2)!!! Admittedly, I am at fault for having difficulty with this book. I read it after reading "Hard Drive, Bill Gatees and the Making of Microsoft Empire" by Jamve Wallace and Jim Erickson. These gentlemen are professional writers/journalists that know how to grab ones attention and keep it. Reading them before "The HP Way", which incidently and surprisingly was rated the best business book of 1996 by Amazon readers, is like watching the movie Titanic, and then going home to suffer through 6 hours of Mr. Rogers!!! But I do still recommend the book not to mention that I am more inclined to one day work for the comapny! Cheers, --- Esfandiar

Considering that an electrial engineer like David Packard could have written a, boring, detailed account of how he and Bill Hewlett pieced together their very first piece of equipment in the now famous Pal Alto, California garage. This book surprises you with its simple down to earth account of how it all began and how they built this tiny garage shop into the multi billion dollar company that it is today. They did it not only with a strong belief in new and innovative products, but in the people that helped build the company. This simple belief built the foundation into the HP way of corporate greatness.

The book was simply written, but it is this style that allowed me to understand the friendship between David Packard and Bill Hewlett and the corporate culture that they developed at HP. I would recommend this book to anyone that is a manager or executive to benchmark the corporate culture that HP established or applaud yourself if you have already embraced the HP Way. I trully believe, as David Packard and Bill Hewlett did, that you need a strong belief in people to make a company succeed.

If you thought that companies become admired by magic then think again - or better still, read the book.

Bill Hewlett and David Packard created one of the worlds most admired companies and it has never stopped going from strength to strength, now with the likes of Carly Fiorina who has taken HP forward into the new millenium by going back to HPs roots.

This book describes the start-up HP company and some of the aspects of its rapid growth and global expansion. There's not too much detail in this book but it does make for interesting reading - although the style is rather dry - for someone who holds up HP as a benchmark against which other companies can and should be measured. If you like me, like HP, then buy the book.

Carly Fiorina has been quoted as saying "in this new world we must always remember that technology is only as valuable as the use to which it is put. In the end, technology is ultimately about people." - that, in a nutshell, is the HP Way. Regards,

martyn_jones@iniciativas.com

This is a greta reference book for poets and lit students/teachers, though its focus is mainly classical styles. It covers great territory when it hits the rarely-used forms (eclogue, epistrophe), but falls short on history. Since it's a bok of devices, however, you're going to want to look for poetry history somewhere else. Has TONS of examples of entries, which is invaluable for the poet wanting to branch into other forms and methods, and a nice launching pad for teachers looking to challenge students outside of ABABAB.

This is a great book and an easy read. Burrows makes you feel like he is sitting across from you as he discusses the merger, the HP Way, Carly and Walter Hewlett's motivations. He clearly brings recognition to the HP Way and how it made HP a great company, and the dangers involved in destroying HP's identity by merging with Compaq. Why would a company with a suffering PC division want to buy a PC giant that was suffering even more, in a market where consumers have stopped buying PC's? "Two garbage trucks colliding". And yet Burrows gives credence to Carly's abilities and talent and clearly offers both sides of the story.

The best part of this book is the general business understanding it offers of mergers gone wrong. This is a prime example and well portrayed.

Simply one of the best business books written in the last ten years. If you want to understand the true story of how an outsider invaded the HP culture and forced an ill-conceived merger that wrecked the HP that once was, read this book! If you want to read a piece of Carly p.r., read Perfect Enough.

"Backfire", Peter Burrows' remarkable chronicle of Hewlett-Packard's controversial acquisition of Compaq, marks an important milestone in the rich technology heritage of Silicon Valley. "Backfire" is far more ambitious than the pabulum typical of business writings. In order to build a cogent thesis, Burrows takes on a broad range of topics, including pertinent biographical background of the key players, the legend and lore of Hewlett Packard - the company and the founders - and the arcane mechanics of proxy votes and corporate government. But while the subject matter risks could easily yield a pompous and boring analytical tome, the author injects exactly the right amount of intrigue, drama, treachery, and humor while capturing characters that are wholly believable in their flaws, foibles, and ultimate victory or defeat. The economy of Burrows' prose, sharpened by years of reporting for "Business Week", yields a tale that is a true page-turner with much more energy, excitement, and personality than the standard business fare.

Any frequent "Business Week" reader knows that Burrows is no fan of Carly Fiorina. Consequently, the author was not granted official access to either Fiorina or HP officials (HP denies any connection, citing only "scheduling conflicts"). Notwithstanding, his portrayal of HP's embattled CEO is vivid and wholly believable. Fiorina, the marketer and master-of-spin with no prior CEO experience, is injected into the venerable but stumbling culture of Hewlett-Packard. A veteran of the politics and bureaucracy of AT&T and Lucent, she is an unusual match for the techno-nerd culture of HP, where products trump hype and integrity and loyalty are revered. But while Burrows' criticism of Fiorina is biting and unrestrained, due credit is given to her tenacity, oratory skills, and relentless dedication to completing the acquisition at all costs. Walter Hewlett, who rises from a coccon academic obscurity to fight-the-good-fight is treated much more charitably, but he only barely qualifies as the hero of the tale. While recognozed for his honor and integrity in refusing to allow the proxy fight to deteriorate into personal attacks on Fiorina, his actions and judgment as a board member in the weeks and months prior to the planned merger's announcement are rightfully questioned. If there is a villain in the story, it is HP's board of directors. It is the board that passively watched while HP failed to capitalize on the rise of the Internet in the mid-late nineties, allowing HP to degenerate to a position of significance only in its printers. It was the board that initiated a bizarre, if not amateurish, CEO search leaving Fiorina as virtually the only real candidate for this high-profile job.

Much is made of the demise of the celebrated "HP Way". But Burrows wisely resists the temptation to attribute all of the responsibility for this decline on Fiorina. While it is successfully argued that she failed to grasp the true significance of this unique culture, further alienating frustrated employees, by the time Fiorina arrived on the scene it was already in steep decline. What was once an honored tradition of mutual respect and pride in innovation had been replaced by a sense of entitlement and an excuse for sloth. It is unfortunate, Burrows notes, than in the age of Enron and WorldCom, with corporate America in desperate need of the principals and values that embodied the "HP Way", that there is little chance of resuscitation under Fiorina's reign.

In summary, "Backfire" is a masterful portrayal of the rise-and-fall of an American icon, and a revealing exposé for the behind-the-scenes machinations of history's largest technology merger and ugliest proxy fight. It is a must read for anyone interested in the history of Silicon Valley, executive leadership, corporate governance, or corporate culture. In the subsequent dissections of the HP/Compaq post-merger failures (or, less likely, successes) that are sure to come over the next several years, Peter Burrows' "Backfire" will serve as a frequently quoted and pivotal reference point.

On the dust jacket of this book, the word "curmudgeonly" is used. Don't bother to look it up, just read on and you'll get the idea. He begins with an overview of the history of poetry - very interesting and very informative - and then moves on to discuss the pros and cons of various schools of thought. Again, interesting and informative. He is however, quite merciless in his criticism of the things he dislikes - his section on Poetry Workshops is a good example. Unfortunately, you get the impression that he doesn't have much time for us ordinary human beings who find writing poetry a satisfying experience without actually aspiring to the Pulitser Prize. And while it is true that he addresses issues like 'when to seek publication', 'how to apply for grants' etc etc, he doesn't actually give you much information!

A good book as an overview of the history and purpose of poetry, with some excellent exercises ("triggers"). Not however a book for someone starting out in poetry, or for anyone who has even the slightest doubt about their own abilities as a poet.

I found that this book had little to say to the 'soul' of the poet but a tremendous amount to say about the craft. I first picked this book up several years ago, and since then the chapter on 'Verse Forms' is something that has stayed with me -- whenever I wonder just what a 'sestina' or a 'villanelle' is I pick up this book. I have also found the example poems Packard uses to be unusual and therefore interesting and occasionally inspiring. It is a reference and it's not a 'feel-good' book, but it's one I value on my shelves, and which I've given to other people who want a little more discipline in their poems than free verse provides.

This has a good explanation of regular expression search/replace and the Emacs regexp syntax. It also has a lot of little tidbits not in the O'Reilly book (which is still a better starting place). It's a bit older though (1992) and has chapters on Fortran and Pascal modes so a lot of trees are dying for nothing .

I bought this after reading all of the O'Reilly book and most of the O'Reilly "Writing GNU Emacs Extension" and have only gotten a few new things out of it, so it's good for completists like myself.

One of the neat things I learned were: when you C-x C-f to open a file, rather than backspacing to erase the path Emacs provided you can just type two slashes (//) and then the path to the file you want (of course C-a C-k would work too, but I want choice, damnit! :-)

The organization is also very different than the O'Reilly book; for example there is a whole chapter on "Administering Emacs" (how to find the parts of it on your system), a huge chapter that is nothing but a command reference (with keybindings), and "how to edit" happens in only three chapters, with the following chapters each devoted to specific things (except for the "Miscellaneous" chapter).

The print quality is not the best, if that matters to you, but it is a sizable book and a decent desktop reference.

I liked the depth of examples in this book. Where the O'Reilly book "Learning GNU Emacs" gave an excellent introduction and overview, this book gave more involved examples. For example in the regexp-search-replace, this book showed the use of \( and \) for grouping and \1 \2 \3 for where to place the each group in the replacement string. If your are new to Emacs, get the O'Reilly book; then get this book next.

While not having viewed the entire series of three volumes, The Ships stands as a very good introduction to the types of commercial merchant ships of the day. Now out of print, there is much to be updated. The new shipbroker or charterer may get some good points of insight to the industry from this work, but the experienced one probably won't derive much anew.