I was totally absorbed by this book. It is not often that I find a book that my whole family is fighting over to read! Every page was an absolute delight. I particularly enjoyed that the author did not speak down to his audience in his explanations, and that I gained some insight into how these illusions work, which for me was the most interesting part. Of course, the illusions were very very cool!!!!!

Its not often you find a book that challenges the intellect, is fun to read, yet appeals to many age groups. Al Seckel has accomplished this demanding task with his book "The Art of Optical Illusions". Seckel presents the illusions as if you were touring an art gallery. He acts as a guide who lets you explore the visuals freely yet helps you understand them with succinct explanations if needed. Seckel does this by dividing his book into 4 gallerys. Each gallery includes a number of illusions, one per page. At the end of each gallery there are notes that help further explain the visual. You are able to enjoy and explore the illusions and reference the notes if you wish to know more. The illusions range from the simple to the more sophisticated. Each illusion is beautifully rendered thus enhancing its effects. I was delighted to find an old favorite,"the floating finger" and fascinated by many I had never seen including "gesture of a dancer"! Approximately 150 illusions are included, some in black and white others in color. The book is in large paperback format making it reader friendly. The quality of the pages, texture and thickness enhance the pleasure of discovering each illusion. This is a book that will stimulate creativity and provide hours of pleasure for young and old alike! A nice coffee table book that will be used!

This is the most striking collection of illusions that I have ever seen. I have taught perception and visual cognition at the university level for decades but many of the illusions were new to me. The production is so masterful that the viewer not only experiences the illusion at full strength, but obtains an aesthetic treat as well. This book would be a wonderful gift for anyone with an interest in vision science, visual art, or visual experience. Short creator/explanatory sketches are provided for each of the illusions though, as the author notes, a complete explanation is wanting for many of them. Perhaps Al Seckel would consider opening his extraordinary web site for more discussion/explanation as to the basic visual mechanisms underlying these illusions.

Professor Al Seckel of Caltech has put together an excellent book of many delightful illusions. The book contains both photographs as well as drawings, paintings, collages & sketches. Virtually all of them will trick your eyes the first time you see them.

A very nice feature of the book is that it also includes scientific & pyschological explanations for how & why our minds interpret various geometrical drawings as having dimensions that are not possible under the laws of physics in our universe. There are many others which show either 2 faces in one or 2 objects in one. It is fun to recognize one of them right away, then search diligently for the other one; it will appear if you give it time.

As advertised, this is a wonderful book for people of all ages. It is a delightful book to show to pre-schoolers and adults alike. It would also be of particular interest to graduate students in pyschology, physics and philosophy. Some of my favorites are the chessboard illusions as well as #5, #54, #69, #71, #78 & #104. I would recommend that you buy your own copy of this delightful book so that you may pick out your own favorites!

As a Christian who has studied math and philosophy, I am quite familiar with Bertrand Russell's contributions to logic and philosophy, I am quite impressed with his brilliance. When I first got this book, I was afraid of what kind of powerful arguments he might present against my beliefs, instead I was shocked to find his arguments poorly constructed, his premises, shoddy, his logic full of holes. I expect much better from a man of his genius. It is quite obvious that his atheism wasn't based on a reasoned analysis of philosophy, a rigorous deduction from the evidence, rather, it was the result of a strong emotional bias against Christian ethics, particularly sexual ethics, period. A disappointment through and through. Whether you are atheist or theist, if you are looking for a good, through, reasoned arguments against God, you should look elsewhere than the writing of Bertrand Russell.

It appears in these selections that Russell was a very complex person who thought a great deal about religion. His views are not always consistent and they are pervaded by emotion. His general tendency is against religion. He especially hates Christianity as it has been practiced throughout history and the idea of Christian faith. He takes faith to be a set of related beliefs, on substantial issues, for which one has no good reasons. This selection is light reading, but it is too unfair to be used as an introduction to the philosophy of religion. Of course, this is one of the features of Russell's thought on religion that makes him psychologically interesting.

After reading 'Why I am not a christian', I was excited to find that there existed an even larger collection of Mr. Russells essays. Some of the essays in this book are already in 'Why I am not a christian', including that particular essay. The others I had not read before were informative, well-structured, and balanced. He was truly a man ahead of his time.