"Latin forms an integral part of our daily lives," says Dr. Jon R. Stone, "and its use is foundational to our major branches of knowledge from law and medicine to literature and commerce." _Latin for the Illiterati: Exorcizing the Ghosts of a Dead Language_ is a personal reading list of terms that the author encountered in his days as a graduate student. As such, it is a good reference book to keep on hand for looking up basic Latin words or Latinate expressions. Compared to Dr. Eugene Ehrlich's _Amo, Amas, Amat and More_ and _Veni, Vidi, Vici_, this book is not as humorous. Further, Dr. Stone has taken the excellent _Cassell's Latin-English/English-Latin Dictionary_ as a guide and added his own parenthetical translations.

_Latin for the Illiterati_ is like a phrase book, except it is for a "dead" language. If one wants to learn Latin, then _Wheelock's Latin_ is the best. The penultimate reference book for Latin is the _Oxford Latin Dictionary_ [OLD]. However, Dr. Stone's handbook is quite comprehensive: 6,000 entries, with 300 abbreviations; geographical place names, colors, calendar months and days, and Roman numerals (written out); an English-Latin index, (which is not as useful as the Latin-English section); and a quite good guide to Latin pronunciation. (It really is "weenie," "weedie," weekie.")

The Latin-English section has two parts, with listings in alphabetical order: "common words and expressions" and "common phrases and sayings." I recommend this book for people who read books on philosophy or religion; for crossword puzzle fanatics; and for those whose work or worship includes the use of Latin.

This is a book which might well bore the serious student of Latin for whom it was not written. It serves well those who have never studied Latin: here you can find those maddening phrases which appear in literature, tombstone epitaphs, legal documents, medical records, etc. Anyone who reads will find this book a ~sine qua non~.

No explinations or verb conjugations in this book. Just tons of latin phrases and their meanings. Short book with A LOT of information. Not a Latin training guide by any means. Entirely a reference. But after reading through this book I feel like I have a much better understanding of the _English_ language. I'm amazed at the how many Latin terms and phrases are already familiar to me.

This book gives you an understanding of Latin and English roots in a very short time. You won't be writing any Latin though. Unless a simple "Et tu Brute?" will suffice.

Tony

what a wonderful book. the watercolor is enchanting and the book is beautifully written. the subject matter of sharing and rebuilding a community not only teaches children to love their neighbors, but it also reminds adults to live in harmony.

Stone Soup.....what a lovely retelling of an old tale. I like that it takes the simple message of one by one sharing, gaining happiness and all sharing to gain community. I bought this book for my nephews. We very much enjoyed reading the story and examining the wonderful pictures. They very easily noticed the beautiful color progression as the story develops into something full, warm and sweet. The best part was reading all about the same foods we have at home. It is good to know that we too can make Stone Soup.

My two children and I loved this book. They enjoyed following the little girl and her cat and finding them on different pages. It works very well to read out loud at bedtime. The monks were sweet. I don't know how they could have scared anybody. It was nice to see these faces in this story. Some of them were very funny. I was surprised to see how well it all fit. This was a nice retelling.

This is a huge book with lots of bands and solo artists inside but many are not here. Where is Weird Al Yankovic, Ben Folds and others? This book does have some basic information on the bands contained such as when and where they formed, were signed etc, but nothing you probably don't know if you're already a fan. It is also missing albums such as for example Bon Jovi's One Wild Night Live album. This book is good maybe for school assignments if you are researching bands that you have no knowledge of but this book's competitors have much better information. There's also no index or contents page which makes finding who you're after take a bit longer. The paper the pages are written on is also fairly cheap ... feeling yellow looking white paper. If you want a book on this sort of thing try Q Rock Stars Encyclopedia and others. They're much better.

We purchased the original one and are thrilled that they finally came out with an update! Such a great tool to learn about your favorite groups, their history, their top hits, etc. Music selection is so much easier and really helps refresh your memory of the great Rock and Roll you grew up with!

Now, if only we could get it on CD (would make quick lookups a breeze, especially when you know a hit song but can't remember who sings it, or vice versa).

I bought the first addition of "The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll" and have been hooked since.

This encyclopedia is filled with the, "Who, What, Where, When and How's" of the rock and roll world.

It's a must for any hard core rock & roll fan. You'll pick it up to look for one piece of information and next thing you know an hour has past.

I can't imagine anyone being disappointed.