This is one of the most interesting books I have read in a long time. The main chapters cover C. S. Lewis, R. G. Collingwood, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and J. A. Smith, the teacher of the first two. All of these men were influential, interesting, and taught at Oxford. They were prolific writers and held similar philosophies. The style of James Patrick is worthy of the subject. You will find it well-written, superbly researched, and fun to read. There are in addition a number of nice photographs of the men who appear in the book.

It is a good book for both new and experienced researcher in biosciences. Reading this book had exposed me to many areas and important findings related to biotechnology. And had been the first reference for me when I faced many difficult problems.

An excellent book to collect.

This is a very good book on reef aquarium keeping, I just wish that I would have known before hand that volume one is clams and stony corals, and that volume two is soft coral. This fact alone would have been helpful in determining which volume I needed first.

This book should be an example by which all other marine and reef aquarium books follow. Current and relavant information from cover to cover. This is the stuff you need to know if you are serious about being successful in this hobby. Great book but a great group of people.

The Reef Aquarium has information for all degrees of reef keepers. Being a first timer in the field,I found this book to be as vital as the tank itself. This book has all the information that you will need for a great tank. It goes into depth on information with regards to aquascaping, lighting, and water parameters. It also deals with the diseases and pests of the reef tank. When setting up a tank listen to one person or book. I recommend this book to be that one book.

Loved the book. I can easily imagine the fate of this book could have been that of a dry and boring read. But, thanks to the writing style of the author the book is fantastic. It starts out slow and you wonder if all the intro info is really needed - but you later find out that it was all important background info. Once the book gets going it's hard to put it down.

This is not quite a great book but it is a great story. It is the story of a man, Jay Carsey, who walked away from his life -- his job, his friends, his responsibilities, his wife. He didn't do it the way most people would, by quitting his job and getting a divorce. He just walked away, after months of planning, telling no one, and leaving no forwarding address. And he didn't do it for any of the obvious reasons you might first imagine. He and his wife had no children so he wasn't trying to avoid child support. He was the president of a local college but there was no embezzlement of funds, no crime he was running from. If that story appeals to you, or fascinates you, if you want to understand it, or if part of you thinks you already understand why someone would do this, then you will like this book.

You learn early on (and so it's not giving anything away) that he was eventually found, and much of the book deals with where he went and the life he led. And, of course, why he left in the first place. The author, Jonathan Coleman, had almost complete access to the people involved in the story. Everyone had opinions and everyone talked. People who thought they'd been close to Carsey for years were shaken by the fact that he could leave so easily and so abruptly, and they struggled to make sense of it, giving one psychological piece of the puzzle after another.

Coleman also interviewed a private detective who says that this sort of thing is more common than we like to believe. If that's the case, I think this would have been a stronger book if Coleman had taken a step back from this one story and devoted a chapter or so to other occurrences of people walking out on their lives. He could have interviewed experts who have some understanding of why a person might do this. Relying on just the people in Jay Carsey's life yielded little understanding, probably because Carsey himself didn't understand his own reasons and after a point this became exasperating. I found myself wishing the book had been written about someone with more insight into himself. But then again, in a way this is the truest kind of story: the guy is found but still there remains a mystery.

"Exit The Rainmaker" is a mystery that unravels one page at a time. Even more exciting: it's a true story, full of twists and turns and unexpected events. The human mind is a complex and compelling puzzel -- we think we know ourselves, we think we know others close to us. This book explodes the myth that we truly know anything about human behavior and the cycle of life. The plot of "Exit the Rainmaker" is thought-provoking: could any of us seriously plan our own disappearance so thoroughly and so meticiously without guilt, without thoughts for those who love us, and with such abandon? The "Rainmaker" in this story did, and we are taken in by the journey he undertakes, the decisions he made, and ultimately the consequences to everyone he knew. I found this book to be the ultimate horror story, but also fascinating and riveting. We are somehow made to care about the characters, even the Rainmaker himself, thanks to the writing of Mr. Coleman, the investigative reporter who chooses to delve into this story and find out the how, and more importantly, the WHY of planned disappearance. This book is for everyone, but especially for those who have ever fantacized about just "taking off" and leaving it all behind. I've recommended this book to many, many people and each one has thanked me profusely. I had to buy another copy because the last person I loaned it too kept loaning it out to his friends!

As a beginning reef aquarist (but not at all new to the hobby), I ordered Volume 2 of this series because that's the volume that contains information on soft corals--which was what I wanted to start with. But I was also looking for other, "introductory" type information on reef keeping.

What I found in Volume 2 was a complete wealth of information on the soft corals (as well as anemones, and other inverts). When I looked for the more introductory information, what I found were several references to Volume 1 of the series. At first, I found this quite irritating, as it seemed that for the price (and based on the publisher reviews) that I should also get the intro material.

When I stopped and thought about it though, it made more sense. Imagine the irritation if I had bought Volume 1, only to have much of that information repeated in Volume 2. Volume 1 is now on order, and I'm sure that if it is half as well written and informative as Volume 2 was, then between the two works, I'll have all the answers I need to continue my exploration of this fascinating hobby.

Buy Volume 2 if there's anything you need to know about soft corals. It is well written, well researched, and well documented. My copy had none of the "fuzzy" pictures mentioned by some. The language is a bit technical, but the glossary is *outstanding* and almost worth the price of the book! Buy Volume 1 for reef system and setup, and information on hard corals. Better yet, buy them both for a complete reference set. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

This is a great book on anemones, zoanthids, mushroom polyps, and soft corals, with lots of practical help on care and troubleshooting. The text and layout are very clean and easy to follow.

Unlike Nilsen and Fossa, this is a book you can read through and enjoy, then read over and over again. It may not contain as much information as Nilsen and Fossa, but it is much more accessible.

They should have named this "The Reef Aquarium Bible, Book II!" Current information from an author who knows a thing or two about keeping these corals alive. Not to turn this into an affirmation workshop for Julian, but I really wish he had more time to write. This hobby needs more books like this.

Darwin's "Origin of Species" is in fact an abstract of a 20 volume thesis containing the evidence gathered over many years which support the concept of evolution by natural selection. This way of describing the evolution of organisms on earth has by now become the standard and, in fact, one hardly ever thinks of evolution without automatically connecting it with Darwin's ideas.

At first, upon commencing reading this small book, I continued to ask `where is the evidence for that' but on realising that he had gathered a large volume of data to support this theory I simply continued to read on. Its not either an easy read or that complicated. Darwin looks at evolution in a very comprehensive way: first, linking the main idea with the variation of animals under domestication, something he himself had extensively studied in the case of pidgeons; second, associating this with variation under nature and the struggle for existence; he then goes on to describe in detail natural selection and the laws of variation. He follows this like any good scientist by an analysis of what may be the theory's weaknesses, such as the scarcity in the geological record and the lack of organisms in a state of gradation. He then applies the ideas to instinct, hybridism and then discusses in great depth the imperfections of the geological record. He also considers how geographical distribution can alter the results of evolution and how the embryos of various animals have a resemblance to that of other animals and how they also appear to repeat previous evolutionary steps as they mature.

Its too bad the 20 volume set was never published, even the incomplete version would have been better than only the abstract. Nonetheless it is well discussed and written as a comprehensive summary of the main thesis. At times the style can be repetitive and even dull but this is compensated for by fascinating little excerpts which are present throughout. This was, remarkably enough, my first reading of "The Origin of Species" and I do believe that every practicing scientist should read it as part of their education rather than accepting its tenets without question as is the wont. However rather than being a description of the true origin of species, it actually takes a change which occurs (by whatever means) and then describes the process the species undergoes from then on. Darwin never actually said anything about how new variations are formed, this was left for others to consider and eventually led to the modern Darwinian thesis including the idea of mutation caused by radiation, viruses or chemical agents. Much has also come to light over the last century such as the symbiosis of organisms producing the merger of cell and mitochondria seen in every cell today and similarly the recent evidence of gene swapping going on between bacteria and now also larger organisms, see "Lamarck's Signature" by Ted Steele. Since Darwin did also not explain form but rather the possibility of how form came about Brian Goodwin's Form and Transformation is a good place to start.

It must also be remembered that in his time the thesis was new even if many others were working on similar ideas Darwin was the first, in conjunction with Wallace, to expand on natural selection and obtain strong evidence for it. An essential read for any scientist.

It feels odd reviewing such a historic work as The Origin of Species, yet some warnings must be espoused regarding this volume as Darwin's work is often cited as the central document (along with the bible) in an argument over creation versus evolution. It is bad enough that people who so often are the most vociferous in this debate (on both sides) are relatively unread, but worse is that The Evolution of Species as a scientific manifesto is really of very little value today. Although Darwin was a brilliant naturalist, it would be as improper to call a scientist who studies evolution a Darwinist as it would be to call all computers Apple II's. Darwin has no working model of genetics, and while he proposed many excellent hypothesis about various forms of selection--he even wrote a book on behavior and facial expressions in animals!--we would be hard pressed to find Darwin as a citation in any of the modern literature. My rating of four stars is not entirely fair. I feel that people who wish to learn about evolution should seek out modern authors (I strongly recommend John Maynard-Smith's 'Theory of Evolution' as it is robust in its degree of current biological theory and will leave the reader not only understanding the biological theory of evolution, but also a lot of general biology.) On the other hand, if you are a person who is interested in history and in people, do read Origin or perhaps The Voyage of the Beagle (which I imagine must be an interesting read). Darwin sets a fantastic example of the dedicated naturalist, unbiased and thorough. His theories, which came later, were elegant--to such an extent that many of the detractors (even modern day) do not understand them. Darwin's biogeographical arguments for instance (I am thinking here about 'Darwin's Finches) stand unmolested by the diatribe of those who would make poor of a man just because they disagree with him. Neither do his opposers note Darwin's unwillingness to bring forth his theory. Truth be told, I care little whether or not people believe in evolutionary theory, only so much as they might at least understand how his ideas, humbly presented, changed the entire landscape of science. But most importantly I think people miss that Darwin was a good scientist--and there are a lot of bad ones. Science has recently taken the turn toward being all experiment and theory driven, with many of the funds in biology going more to 'gene splitters' or whatever you might want to call them than toward what little remains of descriptive science. Indeed it seems there is little room left for naturalists anymore--even to an extent that naturalists are sometimes not considered scientists. There are no more scientific works that are purely descriptive, or they are very rare, or worse done mostly for placement on coffee tables and not for the furthering of our understanding of the natural world. Darwin then is almost a sort of fatalist to his own kind; ushering in the modern age of a unified biology, he inadvertantly relegating the Conrad Lorenz's, the Jane Goodall's and (fill in the blank of your favorite naturalist) to antiquity or at least near-poverty. It might also be nice to remember that Darwin was above all interested in understanding the natural world, something he shared with a long history of zoologists before him who were of course creationists--and I see more in common between these people then I do between Darwin and the modern day evolutionist. Given all of this it seems very unfortunate the connotations and burden that Darwin's name has take on. Instead, it would be very kind if the name Darwin were flung about with the sort of respect I think it is due instead of attached to ugly terms like 'social' or as though the man had little red horns and a tail.

There is only one other book that is so widely known, discussed, and debated, yet so rarely read: that other book is the Bible. To make my point, here is a little quiz:

1) Which name is most closely associated with the theory of evolution?

2) Which book did this person write on evolution?

3) What claims are made in that book?

4) What else is contained in that book?

With astonishing regularity, the average literate adult will respond as follows: 1) Darwin, 2) Origin of Species, 3) Humans descended from apes, and 4) I have no idea. The first two are correct, the third is absolutely false, and the fourth is an admission of complete ignorance. Considering that "Origin of Species" is over 600 pages long, and took nearly two decades to write, one would expect it to contain something more than the four simple words "Humans descended from apes," which, in fact, it neither contains nor implies. So, what DOES it contain? There is one word that best summarizes the bulk of Darwin's magnum opus: "observation".

It is a lengthy book; at times it is tedious, at times politically incorrect, and at times scientifically off-base. But, despite its numerous flaws, it is one of the greatest achievements in the history of mankind. Even if you are among the few who refuse to accept Darwin's ideas, you cannot deny their impact. The theory is the cornerstone--if not the very foundation--of modern biology. Whatever your preconceptions, you will likely be surprised by this work. Darwin was the consummate naturalist and scientist, as well as a refined and articulate gentleman. "Origin" is a delight and an epiphany to read. It's amazing how much Darwin got right, despite the fact that he had essentially no idea of how inheritance worked. It's amazing how much data Darwin carefully assembled, analyzed, and described. It's amazing how meticulously Darwin weighed the evidence, noting when competing theories made different predictions, when the available evidence was not what he would have expected, and what future evidence could completely discredit (falsify) his theory. It's amazing in its honesty.

The misconceptions about "Origin of Species" are not merely rampant, they are effectively universal, fueled (largely in the US) by the rise of creationism, which seeks first and foremost to vilify the theory of evolution as well as Darwin (often failing to distinguish between the two). It's worth the time to read this enormous but meticulously crafted volume, if only to allow you to form your own opinions about such an influential book. Once you have, take the little quiz again. You may need 600 pages to answer the last question.