I'm a botanist/naturalist, and a botanical collector from North Central Texas. I find the Illustrated Flora of NC Texas invaluable to anyone who wants to learn about plants of their region and their ecosystems, plant communities, etc. The book has an excellent introduction, over 70 pages along, to introduce you to nomenclature, toxic and exotic plants, endangered and threatened plants, geology, climate, etc. It also includes excellent information on some of the history of Texas botanists. It is a must for any naturalist or botanist, and a bargain for a book with over 1600 pages!

As a student of Rangeland Ecology at Texas A&M University, I have used this book extensively to identify numerous plants for my classes, as well as my own collection. This book is very precise and the line drawings on each plant are invaluable. It is well worth the price for this plant "Bible."

I am a botanist and have a collection of many books on floras. I am currently working on a flora of Northeast Alabama and using the Flora of Texas (1999) as the standard to follow.

Since my daughter saw the movie "Barney's Great Adventure" she could talk of nothing else but this new Barney character named Twinken. He is cute and cuddley and made her 2 year old heart twinkle with love. Twinken is not so easy to find, so when I found this book, she was so surprised to see it. When my friends saw it they immediatley wanted the same book. It was great being able to find it here .... The book has great colorful pictures and an cute storyline that my daughter was able to follow along with. She reads it everyday!

My 2 year old son received this book for his birthday and loves it. It's very colorful and bright and keeps his attention! This is a must have for young Barney fans!! And, of course, it has the Barney sentiment!!!

As everyone knows, Barney Fife was a high-strung bundle of pride, petulance and braggadocio, an infuriating but lovable man-child. On the other hand, Don Knotts, the comedic genius who created one of the funniest characters in television history, is apparently the nicest, least complex actor of all time. The man doesn't have a discouraging word to say about anyone or anything, and nothing earthshaking to say about himself.

This book is slighter than either Knotts or his alter ego, and that's saying something. Sure, it's interesting to read about Knotts' upbringing in depression-era Morgantown, West Virginia, his years in the service, his first taste of the limelight as a ventriloquist, and his glory years on "The Andy Griffith Show." But the book doesn't make even a token attempt to try and figure out what makes Knotts tick.

After a while, the barrage of ho-hum anecdotes and warm/fuzzy show biz acknowledgements gets mighty old. Even the chapters devoted to TAGS are rather dull. Undue attention is paid to Knotts' so-so movies for Universal, particularly "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken," which Knotts dissects as if it were a screen classic.

It's to his credit that Knotts didn't seize the opportunity to dish the dirt on the amazing galaxy of stars he's worked with in over fifty years as an entertainer. One gets the heartwarming impression there's nothing fake about Knotts' humility and niceness.

Still, you'll find yourself wishing Knotts had lapsed into his reckless Barney persona to write a few pages he might regret.

I really enjoyed reading Don Knotts' autobiography.It was a very fast paced book. There weren't any chapters, instead it was a series of headings that chronicled his life. It was very straight-forward and easy to follow. Readers should be prepared to read a lot about Don's life leading up to the Andy Griffith Show. His home life as the youngest child in a poor family and how he survived that to begin a career in show business as a ventriliquist. He spent time overseas entertaining the troops and later got into radio which led to stints on Steve Allen's various TV shows and ultimately led to his role as Barney Fife.I was a little disappointed in the section on The Andy Griffith Show. I wanted more details of how he felt about the other actors and what it was like to be on such a popular show. Mr. Knotts also skimmed over his time on Three's Company as well but he did devote a lot of space to his movie career. I must reiterate that although I longed for more "dish" on Aunt Bee I thoroughly enjoyed this glimpse into the life of a TV legend.

I have really enjoyed reading this book, and have read some of the other reviews of it. I think Andy Griffith summed it all up in the foreword he wrote for this book, when he stated..."Don was not Barney Fife. Barney Fife was a character that Don created. I know Don to be a bright man and very much in control of himself. As everyone knows, Barney Fife had very little control of himself." Obviously Don did not write this book as Barney would have, but there are little traces of that personality hidden in it, if you infer it that way.
People who buy this book expecting to hear the caustic ramblings of a Hollywood burnout will be sorely disappointed. Mr. Knotts seems as warm and fuzzy as your favorite stuffed toy, without a harsh word to say about anyone. If you want more real background information on him from a more objective standpoint, watch the excellent Biography Channel special on his life and career. Or visit the website www.interestingideas.com and look for the essay someone wrote about him, that was gritty and much more candid and philosophical. You will be fascinated!
However, if you are new to watching the Andy Griffith Show, like I am, and this is the first book you read on the show, like it was for me, this book is a great way to get introduced to the show, and prepare you for the more theoretically advanced books you will read about it in the future. Especially if you are a "Trained Noticer" like me!
Now, if Howard Morris (Ernest T. Bass) would just write his autobiography...

This could have been a great book except for one thing. Obviously the publishers did not care enough when updating this book to update or even take the time to use quality photo's in their book. I would like to see what is going on in the book but most of the photo's are so awful you can only see shades of grey and black. To let all this effort by Loveless go to waste is a shame!
Save your money and buy an older version, one that hopefully has clear and quality photo's so you will know what R.W.Loveless is building or what step he is using.
The book itself is a great instructional tool. However you just can't get all that Loveless has to offer in this new version because you can not make out many of the photo's.

If you want to make knives with modern tools this is a good book to buy. Alo if you want to smith a blade using old techniques this book has little information to learn how. The chapter on forging gives a vage view on makeing one kind of simple blade ,and even then the author still talks about useing modern equipment. Even in the chapter on makeing knives in a modern shop he only desribes one kind of knife. Which was a single edged simple blade. He never mentioned in the entire book anything about throwing knives or more egzodick knives such as parrying dagger with moving parts. Infact he never mentioned a simple dager or dirk. Even in how vage the book is and leaves you with many questions about many other kinds of knives this would be a good book for someone who wants to make hunting knives or other simple blades.

This book was a big help in giving me ideas getting started in knife making. Book was recomended to me by a Mastersmith out west and it was well worth the money.