Adrian Plass has definitely earned the title of Sanity Preservation Specialist with this book! Throughout the pages of The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass Aged 37 3/4, Plass brings the lifebuoys of hope and joy to Christians who are struggling to keep their heads above the turbulent waters of modern day Christianity.

The combination of Adrian Plass's incredible sense of comedic timing and deep insights into Christian living, will leave you apologizing OFTEN to family members for interrupting their activities with your recurring outbursts of irrepressible laughter. The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass Aged 37 3/4 proves once again that Plass can dish out consistently humorous insights, while at the same time challenging the reader to seriously examine his/her own Christian walk.

If you're feeling like you can't possibly fathom attending even one more church (dis)function, The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass Aged 37 3/4 is an absolute must read!

Sam D.

P.S. Addrian's a hysterical read - an anagram of "The Sacred Adrian Plass Diary".

(Alright. You caught me! I spelled his name with an extra "d". It's better than the alternative anagram though, which is "P.S. Adrian's a hysterical adder". His work DOES have bite, but it's far from venomous.)

I just finished The Sacred Diary for the fifth time. The verdict was in the first time through, but life seems to brighten so much more on subsequent readings that it has now become part of my daily quiet time (jk). I have loaned my copy to over 40 people, every one of whom raved about it, but I finally loaned it out once too often and it never came back. Thanks to a friend who loaned me his copy, I was able to reattach myself to this excellent read.

What I can't understand is why the book is unavailable, at least in the States and so far here in Singapore. I've never seen a book with more popular appeal and yet 40 people are forced to read the same copy of the book. When will a bigger publisher grab this book up and distribute it as it should be?

All I can say is that this book will get at the funny bone of all Christians (except, perhaps, the Mrs. Flushpools). But it will also help you shake off some of those rags of religion that you were never intended to wear.

Plass summarizes the gospel succinctly: God is nice and He likes you. Let's not complicate it more than we have to. Start by reading this book.

I first read this book after reading the Secret Diary of Adrian Mole and was expecting something along the same lines. What a surprise. This book was one of those that you pick up and read and while the tears of joy roll down your cheeks the message seeps into your heart. An absolute delight Mr. Plass and a real mirror to ones own views on churchlife and Christianity. If you haven't already savored this treat you should!

This is a great book. I have written two ad copypieces using Mr.Kennedy's ideas and let me tell you they have pulled fantastically! If you contact me I will send them to you. Mr.Kennedy's plain language and simple style walks you through the thought process step by step. He opens your eyes to how to put yourself in your customers shoes and to understand their psychology. For someone who never went to college he understands business writing tremendously. I can literally attribute his book to refining my sales campaign.Our futures company ... is indebted to him.

This book is an amazing resource for anyone who writes sales letters. I own a business that sells high dollar OD/HR consulting. I bought this book based upon the reviews it got from other readers and the title. At first, I was very disappointed because the book is really directed mostly at direct-mail, reach-out-and-grab-the-buyer type businesses with products or services for consumers. My target audience is much more sophisticated and specialized.

I put the book on my shelf until recently. I picked it up again, mostly forgetting what I didn't like about it the first time. I quickly remembered, but I kept looking for different and new ideas. I found them. All I needed to do was to open my mind and use my imagination on how I could incorporate the ideas he has and use them. The results were amazing! I realized I had limited myself because I was really looking for a letter I could simply copy and change. Once I dropped that attitude, my whole view of the book changed.

Also, the formula for writing a great sales letter is the same whether you are writing something like mine or other types of copy or sales letters...

I highly recommend buying this book. Use it in the right way and you will see results.

Although designed primarily for the direct-mail market, the principles and techniques of "The Ultimate Sales Letter" can be adapted and applied to a wide variety of situations. Kennedy covers all the important topics and techniques on how to write the letter so that it not only gets opened but read and acted on.

One of the most common mistakes a poor salesman makes is trying to sell a product based on features. This is totally ineffective when compared to selling based on the benefits the product will provide the customer. Kennedy does an excellent job of demonstrating the difference and how to write a sales letter that focuses on the benefits to a customer. The result is a highly effective letter.

Add to this the tricks of the trade, writing style, revision information and multitude of other tips that fill the book and you have one of the best books on writing sales letters that I have ever read. Well organized, well written, and easily understood, Kennedy takes you through a complete and repeateable process from concept to followup to sale that does not miss a beat. If you want a sales letter that can produce leads and then convert the leads to sales there is no better book on the market today.

The author, Dan Kirby, goes through the normal steps of teaching golf but he also goes much further. He delves into the mental and spiritual aspects of the game that are rarely addressed in other instructional books. He has taught me to relax and stop trying so hard. The game of golf, in my mind, is 25% mechanical and 75% mental. He focuses on the mechanical side of golf of course, but more importantly, he explains the importance of concentration, the enjoyment of playing golf and just being alive. This new outlook on golf that I learned from reading Dan's book has greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the game and has shaved a couple of strokes off my scorecard!!

Dan Kirby's book, "The ABC's of Golf," does what golf books should do, but don't. His book is simple, easy to understand, and is loaded with common sense. The hight light of Dans book is that he keeps the point sharply focused on the original goal of golf....and that is to have fun and enjoy yourself. Jim McLellan, golf professional...

"I appreciate the simple basic approach that your book takes to the game. Too often authors try to teach their readers to adapt to their particular style of play; whereas you recognize that not everyone has the same physical abilities and encourage the reader to take this into account. Your book should be able to help me knock 3 or 4 strokes off my score and perhaps enjoy the game even more than I do now".

Sam Chaif,Technical Service Rep.Alliance products Inc., Montreal,QC

I have read this book twice and will probably read it again. Everytime I read it I gain a little more insight into this great foundation and n-tier development. I especially like the explanation of the step-through logic in Chapter 10 and the explanation of each method in the various objects.

I think that if you buy Visual FoxExpress and buy this book, you will reduce your learning curve by several months.

This book is clearly a "must have" for anyone developing with VFE. Despite spending a fair amount of time on the VFE Tech Support Conference, attending 2 VFE DevCons, etc., I have found this book to be invaluable. In particular, I like the narratives on the Instantiation of the Application object and Form, along with the discussion of various key properties and methods of the major classes. To the extent that one spends time actually studying these narratives, properties, and methods in conjunction with stepping thru the code, I feel this will reap rewards in the form of better productivity and higher quality applications. For those who aspire to get some depth of understanding of this framework, this book is for you.

This book is great for both new users of the VFE framework and experienced users alike. Not only does it provide step-by-step guidelines for building your apps with the VFE framework, but it also contains numerous tips and tricks for experienced developers. A required reference for all VFP/VFE developers!

Let me say that I am a NASCAR and huge Dale Earnhardt fan! This book is a must have for ANY Dale fan. There are other stat books in the making by the same author of other great NASCAR drivers like Jeff Gordon. I had to have this book. This book is a testimonial of how great of a driver Dale was. You can't compare Dale to Richard Petty and you can't compare Jeff Gordon to Dale because of the different eras and technology in stock car racing but Dale was the best of his era and many other great NASCAR drivers like Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson think he was the best ever. I agree!!! This book has every imaginable stat of Dale. From year by year to track breakdowns and even his IROC stats. A must have for any Earnhardt fan. We miss you Dale! Thanks for the memories!!! Rest In Peace!

I beleiv I speak for all race fans when I say Dale Earnhardt was a great man. He drove better than anybody. He was number three. He was called the inimidater. Then he crashed which is a trajity.

A must be read book for all true race fans.

This book has them all. Year by year,track by track,track type breakdowns, percentages. The numbers boggle the mind. An excellent statistical record of Dale's career.

Take your great stylists of humor today -- your Molly Ivins, your Bob Shacochis, your Carrie Fisher, some would say your Dave Barry, you get the idea -- take those great writers and know that Dan Jenkins is second to none of them in creating his own universe of language, a convincing land where jocular wit reigns and finely drawn characters live, where the fun is wild but never eclipsed by love. Jenkins shows off best in "Semi-Tough," about ready for revival as a piece of hilarious '70s nostalgia. It's the story of a woman and her two lifetime friends, both Giants stars about to play the Super Bowl. It's told by Billy Clyde, taping some comments for a game-week diary with a hilarious casual honesty and the best eye for detail a reader could want. While the redneck backdrop and the laughing, cynical use of sexist, homosexist, ethnic and especially racist slurs might get hard to read even in this context, the ribald high-life and football hype life are a constant, sly hoot. Most important, though, is the subtly drawn family of friends at the book's center; love has seldom gotten such an affectionate treatment without too much sweetener. Careful readers will find layers of psychological meaning revealed in Billy Clyde's monologues, giving this book a depth to go along with its colorful lifestyles of the studs. If you're a football fan, or if you're a friendship fan, or if you just like to laugh out loud while you read a tightly paced book, "Semi-Tough" has got something for you. Join the readers who know this little book is one of the unheralded gems.

It is incredibly politically incorrect, replete with satiric racial and sexist slurs, full of (as an old song goes) cigarettes whiskey and wild, wild women, but despite that, and more likely in part because of that, this is the single funniest sports book ever written. Nominally about two characters from Texas who play for the New York Giants in the 70s, this is wonderful satire about sports, athletes, and life in general, and the fact that it is out of print is mind boggling. Burt Reynolds gave a pretty good performance as the immortal running back Billy Clyde Puckett, but youve GOT to read this book to truly appreciate Dan Jenkins' biting satiric wit.

Without question, Semi-Tough is Jenkins' masterpiece. As a high school kid, I wanted to be Billy Clyde Puckett...the bursts of laughter still erupt each time I pick it up.

Two stud hosses from Ft.Worth, having starred at TCU, find themselves together in NYC and playing for the football Giants. They've got themselves a little old date in LaLaLand with the...Jets in what you call your Super Bowl. Puckett tells the story (in first person) of the days leading up to the game by taking a small tape recorder wherever he goes. Along with his counterpart, one Marvin "Shake" Tiller, and the gorgeous and talented Barbara Jane Bookman, Puckett waxes poetic on everything under the sun, particularly the hypocrisy associated with such an event as the Super Bowl in LA. It's lewd, raunchy, politically incorrect, and about as funny a read as you'll ever find...

This book is a great look at the "Yoda" of college hoops. Carril's biography is a good look at a blue collar coach who got the absolute most from his players. He reveals no "mysteries" of the game-he stresses hard work around a solid philosophy. It is NOT an X and O book-don't buy it for that reason. It is a great basketball philosophy book. If you love the college game and the personalities that coach in it, buy this book.

I am not a fan of the Princeton Tigers but a Wisconsin Badger basketball fan, Pete Carril is a tough, tenacious basketball coach who beleived in certain principles that went beyond the game of basketball. These principles gained the trust and confidence of his players. Which explains why he was able to coach basketball for so long in an age defined by "image over substance"... shoe contracts, commercials, etc. I wish that I could have played for a coach like this.

What can you say about Pete Carril, The man is bringing the skills back into the game. Now, with the defensive rules in the NBA going back to their original state persistance with philosophy like this is the way the game will be played for years to come. This offense and its principals are great for any age group. The lost art of passing and cutting to create opportunitys for your teammates is no more. Buy the BOOK, see the VIDEOS and realise how you can aim to perfect your team at the basics, and beat teams that you otherwise shouldn't by teaching instead of coaching. For the love of the game, Edward Worrall- Ranger Coach in Australia

Just bought "The Unofficial Guide to PCs" from Amazon and found a couple of good ideas in it already. To me "Recovering from a PC Disaster", "Taming Tech Support", and the "Resource Directory" plus "Important Documents" in the Appendix alone are worth the bargain price I paid Amazon.

This book is great. The depth of the detail provided allowed me to actually get questions answered without ending up with more questions than I started with. Salespeople who would normally just go through the motions can't do that any more because I now understand, in some detail, how the black box works. That's really all that I ever wanted. If I wanted to be an electrical engineer with interests in circuit design, I'd have gone to school for that. I just want the box to work, without spending a fortune in time or money on it. Finally I can pick up a book, read the right section, and get the box to work right.

There is no fat in the writing, and the book is packed with information. The entire PC process is covered; purchase (a great component description, including moneysaving tips), use (including software), upgrades and replacements. In a review there really is no way to convey an adequate description of all that is there. Just think of the time that you have spent talking to disinterested salespeople, looking at help screens, manuals, third party books, on hold on customer service lines, bugging friends, etc. Then think of a book that actually provides detailed, well-written guidance that answers questions. Get the book.

Whether you've put off moving up from a Windows 3.1 machine, haven't owned a computer before, or want more information about using Windows 95/98 and working with common packages, this book is a tremendous resource. It distills the years of experience the authors have had with Win9x and presents general methods to use when purchasing your computer, fixing hardware and software conflicts, and working with applications. It also contains a good set of web sites as starting points for learning more.

Win9x experts probably won't gain much from this book. However, they're not the intended audience, and I wholeheartedly believe The Unofficial Guide to PCs is well worth the price for any new Windows user.

It's a shame Kathy(his mother) never wrote this book.
By far the most imtimate and well written part of this book was the last chapter that Kathy Eldon wrote.
Obviously Jennifer New loves Dan's life like we all do but unfortuneatly she never met him and that glaringly stands out in the biography. There is way too much creative license here,the fact he is raised to almost sainthood can be squeemish at times.Jennifer's writing leaves a lot to be desired, but through the clumsy writing you can't helped but be inspired by the life of Dan Eldon.
Dan is amazing!! His photos say more about him than any bunch of words can. 'The Journey is the destination" is a must have book!!
Flip through that and I guarentee your life will be changed forever!

The books is amazing. I was doing an internet search and happened to come across Dan Eldon's web site. After which I saw his journals and then purchased this book. Gosh, I left so inspired. I recommend this to any person that is ever in doubt on where they should be heading in life. Great transition book.

Sometimes in life, we come across somebody who resembles in us everything we love, or envy, or just understand. Well, while reading "The Art of Life", a story about the travels of the young and corageous Dan Eldon, I stumbled upon all of these emotions and more. The book, a collaboration of work about Dan's travels, views, and passions, written by jennifer New and Kathy Eldon, is sure to spark a fire in each who reads it. This book is filled with more energy and spirit then I think I have ever possesed in all my years of being. Filled with colorful photographs and intelligent words, this story has been like a symphony to my weary eyes. After reading "The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon" (the first book published about Dan's miraculous travels and premature demise), I thought to myslef, "nothing could possibly be more beautiful or enchanting than this." I was proven wrong as soon as my hands glided over the pages of "The Art of Life". It has been wonderful to read while sitting outside in a park on a warm afternoon, as well as inside on a rainy day when you feel all hope is lost. It has been a glorious gift, reminding me that all which stands around us is something to celebrate. My only hope is that others, even if it is one small being, find this book....it will open up a genuine desire for life in you, that is sure to last for as long as you stand beneath the blue sky which hangs above.

This is an excellent read...if you know someone who doesn't understand POMO this is the book you need to point them too.

There's another book (and author) that is yet to be discovered... the book is "A Mobile Church For E.P.I.C. Times: Crossing Faith Community Borders" by Fred Peatross. Leonard Sweet wrote the Foreword and Brian McLaren and Sally Morgenthaler wrote back cover blurbs. Pick the book up here at amazon.com.

I was nodding my head vigorously (in the affirmative) while reading this book. I agreed with so much of Kimball's insights into the emerging church, and what churches may look like in the future. However, the pragmatic tone of the book left me a little confused.

I felt that the most helpful contribution of Kimball's book to the conversation on the postmodern church was in drawing the clear distinction, as Webber does in The Younger Evangelicals, between seeker-sensitive megachurches and post-seeker-sensitive postmodern churches. The temptation that the conversationalists are all trying to avoid is that of creating a postmodern "method", which is a contradiction in terms. And while Kimball takes pains to include provisos against interpreting his more logistical suggestions as a new church growth method, and while including reviewer notes in the sidebars encourages the spirit of dialectic, I think McLaren in Church on the Other Side does a better job of making sure his suggestions are interpreted as discussion points - suggestions to jar our thinking and get us to think in new ways - and not as a new church method.

For example, I can't decide if it was a good idea or not for Dan Kimball to put a diagram of a postmodern worship service layout in a book on postmodern church. I was so tempted, as many would be who think about these things all the time, to go right to the diagram and then read the book through that lense. And the flashy cover with numerous callouts within the text is unnecessary, I think, for Kimball's intended audience. Postmodern Christians are ready to be challenged, and not be spoonfed.

As Webber relates, "The point is not to do postmodern church; the point is to meet the needs that postmoderns have."

to infuse ideas on the way to reach out to people not only from the post-modern generation, but to all ages.

Too often the young are dismayed by the lack of biblical principle in church, where the goals of the pastors are to have a new piano, PA or plastic flowers. In Kimball's book, he offers insights into how to design and worship in a way that attracts people to Christ in an innate way, not just in an expected two times per year visit (i.e. Xmas and Easter).

I found it an honest and refreshing look at how emerging churches have potential to unite and heal and bring spiritual growth to a community.

It seems clear that Kimball has gained experience through his work, and I believe that he is onto the right direction in bringing the message to the emerging culture.

Kimball has some great insight on how to achieve that, based on his own struggles, thoughts, and successes.