This book is the definitive book on the thought behind Art. It states the thought procces, and the Art and Science dualisum of the last 600 years and the reasons behind it all. If you want to be a real artist, this is the way to go. It speaks of truth and genius.

"The natural appetite or tast of the human mind is for Truth"

"Art is a point of view, Genius a way of seeing."

If the artist can grasp the truths in this book they will recieve the keys to the kingdom!

I orginally purchased 4 of these books to give away to friends. A lot of the people I work with go traveling around the world on various adventures. I thought they could all use a copy of this. ...mainly because you never know. What if something they read in the book someday saved their lives?

I also purchased the book because they discribe situations that could easily happen in my hometown of Juneau, Alaska. These topics include: How to Treat Frostbite, How to Treat a Leg Fracture, How to Survive an Earthquake, How to Survive Adrift at Sea, How to Survive an Avalanche, How to Survive When Lost in the Mountains and How to Make Fire Without Matches. As you can see, this would be very valuable to anyone, who goes out exploring in our area to know.

There was only one item I didn't agree with: their comments on How to Escape from a Bear. First, they only address the black bear. Another very commonly run-into-while-hiking-on-a-beautiful-day kind of bear is the brown bear. And the way you respond to these different bears can make a difference. But, as an Alaskan, we already have these bear rules burnt into our minds.

I bought this book because I was intrigued with some of the titles of the "worst case scenarios". Some examples include:

How to: land a plane, hotwire a car, wrestle an alligator, escape from a sinking car, leap from a motorcycle into a car etc.

While some of these scenarios could address deep-seated fears in all of us (the sinking car gives me the willies), it was really fun to read some of these aloud at a recent gathering of friends because some of these situations are really absurd and funny. The author's intent was definitely not to be funny as he works to portray the survival procedures and information in a matter-of-fact way and gives his sources in the back of the book.

But really, how often are we likely to have to know how to manuever on top of a train and get inside (sounds like a movie) or leap from a moving motorcyle to a moving car? Other areas are definitely more practical--how to survive an earthquake or avoid being struck by lightning.

In some areas, I wonder whether the capsule information would give a false sense of security to the person in the situation. I have a private pilot's license but I don't see how a person can realistically expect to land an airplane with 6 pages of text and drawings.

So here is my advice--enjoy the book for what it is--a conversation starter and a source of some practical information.

This is one of the most entertaining books I've ever encountered by chance. I saw it on the counter standing in the checkout line at an Office Depot store, if you can believe that, as these are not really bookstores, and the title caught my eye, and I'm glad it did.

This book would be a little discovery if only for the entertainment value. However, the book has useful advice on getting out of many situations, although it's unlikely that the average reader will ever have much use for the more James Bond-sounding scenarios, such as "How to maneuver on top of a moving train and get inside," "How to jump from a building into a dumpster," "How to survive if your parachute doesn't open, and so on. However, these are probably the most entertaining part of the book.

Other tips such as "How to treat frostbite," How to get away from a mountain lion," How to wrestle free from an alligator," and "How to escape from killer bees," might be more useful. I also liked "How to deal with a downed power line," and "How to survive an avalanche."

Anyway, there is some practical advice here for emergencies but I think the book was worth the money I paid just for the laugh factor.

I was hoping this would be the sequel to the awesome beginners asp database book by John Kauffman. It was not even close. This book trys to cover so many platforms that it ends up not covering anything very well. The examples are terrible and confusion will set in after the second chapter. I have found that with Wrox books, if there is more than one person on the cover, then it will stink up the place.

My favorites were Section 5,7 and 8. The case studies were okay. Good cover on MTS and Novell Directory Services with ASP.

As a reviewer for this book I have read the book from cover to cover. The strong point about this book is that it covers many different aspects of data access. If you are somewhat new to ASP this book will show the ropes on ADO, XML and how to mix data from many different sources. If you are an experienced developer this book covers many areas that will interest you - data warehousing, the use of several different DB other than the very familiar SQL Server and non-realtional data sources. I have taken my copy of this book to work and everyone wants to borrow it.