I don't feel that this is a good book for the beginner. As a beginning collector, I am more interested in how to find and/or buy pens not how to repair them.

This great book covers all the bases. It starts with a history of fountain pen development. This section is fairly brief but is thorough for its length. It gives a lot of interesting and necessary knowledge of how pens changed over the years. The book also covers how to collect, where to find them, storage and display, repairs, selecting a pen for use, inks, paper, and how to value pens. These sections are necessarily not encyclopedic but they do give all a person needs to get a good start with each of those subjects.

Then there is a nice, in depth discussion of the Major Manufacturers & Their Classics. This section is an excellent article about 7 of the most well known pen makers and their most successful or notable developments and pen models. It's also another look at the history of fountain pens. Of course, some people would say there should be other makers included, but I don't think anyone would say that these 7 don't belong here.

The rest and biggest part of the book is devoted to pictures of specific pens and a value for them. Most of the pictures are colored. The section is broken down into:

Early Fountain Pens
The Golden Age
The Modern Age
Contemporary Fountain Pens

The pictures are EXCELLENT! There are some representative reproductions of old fountain pen ads that give a good feel of the older pen era and also are valuable in identifying some pen models. These ad pictures are sprinkled through the book but are not overdone.

The pen prices, of course, go out of date fast but they do give an idea of the relative value of the pens. The prices are also given in retail, not street prices. This is a minor fault that is just about unavoidable in a book of this type. Prices would have to be issued at close intervals to remain current and street prices are nearly impossible to keep up with.

In my opinion, this is a classic book and the best I've seen about fountain pens. I don't see a single major fault. The quality of binding and printing is excellent also. While not a coffee table book as such and much more valuable, it could double for that if opened to the fine color pictures.

This book is not your usual coffee table book that elicits a sigh of possessiveness or, at best, a hope to one day procure the impossibly difficult to find pens, not to say unaffordable! I like Erano's book because it gives one the WORKS-- it tells us how to BECOME and flourish as fountain pen collectors. Of course, it does pay a good deal of attention to the zoological aspect of the hobby (or should I say passion), classifies pens and so forth, but to me the chief value of the book lies in its reality aspect, it gives us tips to be realistic collectors of any age or income group, and not just the snotty set looking for a psychological backup for their already rich and varied collection. In these days of online auctions (ebay and penbid come easily to mind), a book such as Erano's is not only a necessary tool (I have in mind the section on pen repair), but also a amply sufficient one. In particular, I would strongly urge you to not invest money in those highly regarded mindless "pretty pictures" books that cost about 5 to 8 times what this great book costs. I have them also, but i like Erano's the best!

The accusations don't make sense. How could the person who claims to have an admin friend use a random SSN to discover that Paul is the person they claim? Paul would not be linked to the SSN. All of the detective nonsense about the SSN is implausible. The fact is that a overspirited reader found a webpage for a student who redesigned Paul's site, and then assumed the student was Paul. I found the page too. It has all of the info the person claims to have obtained from Paul's SSN. The student even says that he was redesigning Paul's site. Even if it is Paul, what's wrong with using pseudonym? At any rate, the book is damn entertaining. The sleights are well described and the photos are superb. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is curious about street scams or street magic.

The book is damn entertaining. The sleights are well described and the photos are superb. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is curious about street scams or street magic.

This book has lots of information about sleight of hand from a street operator's perspective. I really enjoyed the Three Card Monte section. The effects Price describes are miraculous. Although they take a little a bit of practice, the results are worth the effort. I highly reccommend this book. He also talks about street scams.

yes it's a good book, not as good as some books i have on bsb but i love this book, it gives you alot back! it's a must for a bsb fan!

This book was really good the pictures were great. If you are a real backstreet boys fan you will buy this book. It is deffinatly worth the money.

First thought upon getting this, it's tiny! I've been waiting at least two months for this book to come out and I was a tad upset that the price guide is not up-to-date. NOTHING that came out in 2002 is in there, nor are any non-collector dolls listed.

If you need a pocket guide to carry to conventions, it's perfect. If you want something to help you figure out how much to bid on E-Bay, it's perfect. Otherwise, just get it for the vibrant color pictures (No black & white) , which strangly have dolls that haven't even been released yet.

What a wonderful book! The Warman's Barbie Doll Field Guide is packed with useful information and great color photographs. And all at a super affordable price. I'm impressed. The book is designed as a take-along pocket guide, yet it's amazingly complete and thorough. It covers six decades of Barbie dolls, provides several hundred color photographs, a history of Barbie, critical identification information, -- including how to identify Barbie No. 1 -- fashion sets, designer dolls and a price guide to more than 1,500 dolls. It's perfect for a gift or for yourself, or even as a gift for yourself. I have several Barbie books on my shelves, and that's where they stay. But this little dynamo is never going to leave my side.

As the wife of a train collector, I found this book very familiar territory -- but even better. Baumann's grasp of history, archeology, industrial technique and the esthetic of marble art is wonderful. This was a great read (and look--the color plates are a real asset), as well as an excellent reference.

176 pages with 1,200 color pictures and many black and white plates. This book really provides a comprehensive history of marbles including how to classify and collect them. Details on clay and crockery, china, swirls, solids, opaques and sulphides. Transition and machine-mades, reproductions and toys are discussed. A comprehensive price guide is included, and a marble club listing. Add this book to your collection if you're a new marble collector or a long time collector. A great reference source.

Few twentieth-century writers on architecture and design have enjoyed the renown of Reyner Banham. Born and trained in England and a U.S. resident starting in 1976, Banham wrote incisively about American and European buildings and culture. Now readers can enjoy a chronological cross-section of essays, polemics, and reviews drawn from more than three decades of Banham's writings. The volume, which includes discussions of Italian Futurism, Adolf Loos, Paul Scneer Dart, among others also generally provides incisive accounts of the contemporary architecture by Frank Gehry, James Stirling, and Norman Foster. It conveys the full range of Banham's belief in industrial and technological development as the motor of architectural evolution. Banham's interests and passions ranged from architecture and the culture of pop art to urban and industrial design. In brilliant analyses of automobile styling, mobile homes, science fiction films, and the American predilection for gadgets, he anticipated many of the preoccupations of contemporary cultural studies. Los Angeles, the city that Banham commemorated in a book and a film, receives extensive attention in essays on the Santa Monica Pier, the Getty Museum, Forest Lawn cemetery, and the ubiquitous freeway system. Readable, provocative, and entertaining, this book is certain to consolidate Banham's reputation among architects and students of contemporary culture. For those acquainted with his writing, it offers welcome surprises as well as familiar delights. For those encountering Banham for the first time, it comprises the perfect introduction.

I first looked at this book at the library, then decided it was informative enough to purchase for my own china collector's library. It doesn't have prices which many do...but it has wonderful descriptions of the manufacturers and good color photographs. Used in conjunction with a Warman's book, you will be able to identify most major china manufacturers. I reccommend this highly.

Who should buy this book? The real question is who shouldn't buy this book. For the Phd Quant this book is a tour de force in how to explain technical topics clearly and concisely. For the newbie, this is simply the lowest barrier to entry available.

Interestingly, QF does not "replace" a bookshelf of quant books -- rather it nicely compliments many that you're likely to have such as Taleb, Neftci etc. As sales of QF increase, it is likely that readers will be less likely to buy a derivatives book that is over their head.

Volume 1 covers 37 chapters of the equities/currency derivatives world, While Volume 2 covers the Fixed Income World, Risk Measurement , Miscellaneous Topics and Numerical Methods.

Chapter 10 has an excellent and all too rare discussion of Probability Density Functions and First Exit Times, whilst Chapter 14 has an outstanding Trading Game invented by one of Paul Wilmott's former students.

Chapters 16 through 21 cover the Path Dependent world while the balance of the chapters cover extensions to Black Scholes.

Its in these sections that Wilmott delivers some surprising thoughts and insights into Stochastic Volatility Surfaces that are currently the rage.

Throughout both volumes I continue to be astonished at how clear, concise and effective his explanations are. The icons are not annoying at all -- rather I found myself skimming the icons to find out what was required to be committed to memory in each section versus what was background.

As obvious as it sounds, a glaring weakness in Derivatives texts is the inability of authors to elucidate what must be memorized as rote for the student to make further progress. Paul's easy to follow icons lay out a precise plan of study.

I can't say enough about what a leap this is over competing texts.

In Volume 2, Chapters 38 through 50 cover models that Wilmott likes as well as ones that he doesn't [again, a rather novel approach]

Some surprises in Chapters 51 and 52 are an excellent overview of Portfolio Management and a survey of Robert Merton's Asset Allocation in Continuous Time.

Sprinkle in outstanding chapters on Derivatives Fiascos, Real Options, Energy Derivatives and 5 chapters on Numerical Methods and an astonishing survey of Quantitative Finance is complete.

Throughout the books Paul's practical use of Term Sheets and quick and dirty VB code and spreadsheet tricks [you just have to see his Excel shortcut for approximating the Normal distribution] leave the reader constantly wanting to rev ahead.

To round out a tremendous effort, Wilmott also pays homage to authors that he's found helpful and he's generous with suggestions on further reading. This builds sorely needed confidence when attempting new material.

The comparison with Richard Feynman is apt but misses an important detail...Feynman was not noted for turning out hordes of talented understudies. Paul Wilmott has turned out enough talented graduate students that maybe he will be a bona fide cult leader someday.

I have been an appreciative reader of the previous books by Paul Wilmott, and I eagerly bought this updated edition of Derivatives right away. There was no surprise: this is possibly the most comprehensive book on mathematical finance up to date. Several new chapters have been added, some of them addressing very interesting subjects such as stochastic control (one of my favourites), and many others have been expanded. For instance, American options are explained more thoroughly in this edition. You won't need a PhD in math to read the book: it takes little mathematical knowledge to understand the models to a good level of accuracy (strange as it may sound, the author succeeds in demonstrating it is so), and the derivation of more subtle quantitative subjects is straightforward. Wilmott as usual includes some funny lines throughout the text that make the reading light and enjoyable. The drawing boxes depicting the author himself providing concise advice on what issues to focus on may certainly look childish, yet I think they are of some help to the reader. Actually, I think it's impossible to conceive a topic in derivatives theory (and practice, as the author reminds) not covered in these volumes. Do not expect Paul Wilmott on quantitative finance to provide a useful quick reference for formulas and basic ideas, though. The thick and heavy two volumes are a nightmare to carry around (despite the stylish box that accomodates them) and you won't like to browse through the index jumping from one book to the other. Overall, I think this book is a must for all those interested in financial mathematics. Students and first-timers can not, in my humble opinion, find a better textbook for developing a wide knowledge of mathematical finance, and they will certainly read it cover to cover and will have hard time putting it down. More experienced readers might find the level of exposition, especially in the first chapters, quite introductory, but they certainly will appreciate the broad scope of the book and the unconventional yet very enjoyable style with which the subjects are explained. Moreover, Wilmott is available for answering questions and exchanging ideas and opinions, and I think that's a huge resource, considering how greatly knowledgeable he is. There are only two small drawbacks with this book: the price tag and the ugly suit worn by the author (who, surprisingly enough, seems proud of it) in a picture on the back cover of one of the volumes, but serious Wilmott enthusiasts will happily accept both. As a matter of fact, I'm already looking forward to hear about his next (4 volumes, 2K pages?) release.

It makes difficult material easy to understand.

A first rate book to accompany the likes of Hull. Wilmott has produced a comprehensive piece of work which address' the subject matter in a less formal approach with accompanying thoughts on the practical relevance of the theory. The inclusion of Bloomberg screenshots and workable examples in the form of a CD rom has resulted in a book more relevant to the real world. For those who can't get enough there is even a discount included to upgrade to the double volume set entitled 'Quantitative Finance'. Well worth the read.

A delight to read, makes understanding of even the most complicated subjects easy. BEST CD IN A TEXT BOOK EVER! WHY ARE YOU READING THIS REVIEW WHEN YOU COULD BE READING THIS BOOK AND BECOME A QUANT!!!

Excellent book for laying foundations. Both theory and practice are covered. Read this first and then follow with the same author's more advanced volumes. Beats Hull for sophistication and ease of understanding. This book is coherent, unlike Hull which is just a random collection of disjoint chapters. Very modern.

I think the authors are full-of-it, trying to present themselves as brilliant. Somewhere, I believe the authors have found papers with theoretical derivations using partial differential equations and matrix multiplication symbols. However, there are no practical examples from derivations that are more complicated then algebra. I suspect the authors may not understand many of the derivations they present in the book.

I am annoyed with the book. It has been a while, but I have had quite a bit of math. I know a good math textbook. Good math textbooks will define the terms well, and the derivations will be followed by good examples to help you understand the derivations. I do not recommend this book to anyone that does not have more than an undergraduate degree in math or engineering. Professors of mathematics will probably understand the derivations and may not examples or a clear definition of all the terms.

The authors do present a lot of good general information. For those who are interested, in addition to American and European options, there are Russian options, perpetual options, compound options, binary options, chooser options, Asian options, lookback options, and "out-of-space" options (just kidding on the last).

Most people wishing to price options, which is quite complicated, need more than the theoretical derivations of this book. Also, they should have more than just a method to follow blindly without understanding that some options programs provide. If after the theoretical derivations, this book had provided specific derivations, followed by practical understandable examples with clearly defined terms, I would recommend it highly.

The statement on the back this book that all the reader needs is some basic calc and a bit of probability is, as when you see it on most other similar books, false. To truly understand what is going on you need a prior knowledge of PDEs as well as some stochastic calculus. If you read this book after you have studies these you will learn a lot from it, but without this prior knowledge the book is too difficult to follow. I would recommend it to a reader who has seen the martingale approach to the subject before, and has at least studied ODEs and has a book on PDEs to refer to when the PDEs become too difficult to follow. The book manages to cover a lot, but you can't read a chapter and expect to have a good understanding from only reading the material. Most derivations, and even formulas, are left as exercises, and you need to complete at least 30% of the end of chapter exercises to firmly understand the material that the authors have covered. If you already have a good grasp of mathematical finance, this book can be a good way to further enhance your understanding, but don't buy this as an introductory book unless you are very strong in PDEs.

This book covers the formulas describing the mathematics of derivatives, and does a good job of it. It introduces the basic concepts in a fairly comprehensive form. While I like this book a lot, I gave it only four stars, because it falls short on practical applications and descriptions of current products.

For example, I bought and recommend "Credit Derivatives" by Tavakoli, since I was looking for material on this subject, and this book didn't give any description of the types of products.