This book is poorly written and slow going, but offers just enough interesting information to keep you reading. Apparently this guy spent a number of years hanging out with and gaining the trust of this local biker gang and then, with their permission, used them as the subject of his anthropology thesis. The book seems to be a quick re-formatted/re-write of his thesis and as such often contains boring socialogical analysis and an overall plodding style. In many chapters he makes a single point and then bangs it into the ground for 10 or 12 pages as if he was getting extra credit for the number of pages instead of the quality of the content. Additionally, he repeats himself several times, with the same quotes and anecdotes popping up over and over in the book.

In spite of the tedious and shoddy writing style though, the book does offer enough genuine first-hand observations about biker club life to reward your patience, but they are few and far between.

Additionally, for those interested in learning about organized crime aspects of biker gangs this book contains no information on that aspect, since the club the author was riding with apparently did not engage in these types of activities.

If you are interested to find out what the day-to-day lifestyle of your average outlaw biker is like, then this book provides some honest, unsensationalized info.

Canadaian anthropology student and motorcyclist Daniel R. Wolf fascinated with the biker lifestyle chose the Rebels MC of Edmonton as his subject in his incredibly thorough study of the outlaw motorcycle club subculture. After attempting to prospect ('strike', in Canada) undercover with the Rebels MC to write this book, he re-thought his plan and came clean with his intentions to the club members after feeling the love and respect of his brothers one can only acquire in a tight-knit motorcycle club. Much to his surprise, they allowed themselves to become the subject of his antropological study, and revealed never before known facts about this incredibly secretive society known as 'one-percenters'. With most the emphasis on the positive aspect of belonging to a motorcycle club, you feel tremendous admiration for the members, and wish ALL bikers could give the respect and honor to each other as the outlaw clubs do amongst their members. Unfortunately, this is the real world in which that could never be. This is the very reason clubs are formed, and membership requirements are so stringent. An extremely well written documentary of the inner workings of a typical motorcycle club, this is a must read for anyone who has ever fantasized about or had the notion of joining one. Fabulous quotes and references which are useful to bikers and citizens alike. Well documented observations of actual events, all categorized and properly footnoted with extensive biliography.

Daniel Wolf's look at the dynamics of an outlaw biker group is bar none the most comprehensive and well-written analysis I have found to date. He is refreshingly objective even though he shares many of the same characteristics and drives of his brother bikers. I am a Harley rider and a biker at heart, though not a one-percenter in reality; Mr. Wolf's book has provided me with as close and detailed an experience of riding with the one-percenter crowd as I'll probably ever get.

Note, some of the concepts and conclusions presented by Mr. Wolf may seem too abstract or unimportant to a reader not intersted in the study of human behavior. One can tell that he wrote the main chapters of this book as his dissertation and that his intended audience were fellow scholars.

Overall, this is a fantastic book, even if one skips some of the more technical portions.

Five stars and a strong recommendation!!

I use this information every day. My cat and I thank you.

Most books that call themselves "technique" or "method" books, usually don't deliver the goods. This one does!

I enjoyed this book. Lots of methods and lots of good advice.

Lejendary Rules For All Players By Gary Gygax. Time to start anew. Start with a blank page, create a new game system from scratch, building on decades of experience, and what you end up with is a system of role playing which is easy to learn, fun to play, and all encompsaaing. Gygax has done it again.

The Lejendary Rules For All Players is THE Players Guide. Forget everything you thought you knew. Get this book! Period.

This game system is so easy you can learn while you play, but don't mistake ease of play for a incomplete product. All bases are covered here. The rules are straightforward and complete. Gameplay will be fun again, no more searching endless volumes for that missing "rule on battles where undead masters cannot be affected by certain spells when within their lair......" Get back to having fun playing the game, and away from trivial disagreements on "the average airspeed of an unladen swallow".

A fair assessment: scale of 1 to 5 (one being lowest)

Book: Lejendary Rules for all players

Binding: 3 Paperbacks are okay, but for the price a hardcover should be standard.

Design/layout: 3 Could be better indexed and have color section tabs.

Content: 5 Excellent work all around.

Cover art: 3 Nice, but not engaging.

Interior art: 2 No color, no race pictures, no armor/weapon pictures, uneven quality.

Editing/proofreading 2: typos/misprints exist, and some numbers don't add up.

Price: 2 $24.95 For a Standard edition, $29.95 for a Premiere, both paperback.

Overall : 3 Summary: Great content, poor execution. This project would be better if done First Rate; hardcover, better design, better art, full color.

A true prince in paupers clothing.

The Lejendary Rules for All Players--along with Lejend Master's Lore and Beasts of Lejend--is one of three books that form the nucleus of the new Lejendary Adventures system launched by Dungeon's & Dragons creator Gary Gygax. It is a basic rules manual intended for players and game masters alike and introduces gamers to the fundamentals of the game system.

Sections in The Lejendary Rules include an introduction to the Lejendary Adventures system; "The Avatar," a guide to character creation; "Avatar Abilities," what characters can do and how; "Equipment Lists," including starting equipment tailored to characters' backgrounds and skills; "Extraordinary Abilities," such as spells and paranormal powers; and "The Journey," the basic rules of play. Other elements include reproducible character sheets and "Forlorn Corners," a short introductory adventure. Creation of Lejendary Adventures characters is described in a clear, step-by-step manner, and is intended to allow players to design exactly the characters they want by allocating points for characteristics and selecting an appropriate mix of abilities.

Lejendary Adventures characters have three basic characteristics, or "base ratings," Health, Precision, and Speed. An optional characteristic, Intellect, also exists, but is more applicable to nonplayer characters. These base ratings, along with race, are used to determine a character's level of proficiency in more than three dozen Abilities (e.g., Commerce, Divination, Weapons), which form the basis for character development in Lejendary Adventures.

Races available to players in The Lejendary Rules include familiar ones, like Human, Dwarf, Elf (Wylf) and Gnome; some traditionally not open to characters, such as Kobold and Orc (three varieties); and others that are fairly unique to the game, such as Ilf, Oaf (three types), Trollkin, and Veshoge.

Lejendary Adventures characters have the option of either joining various orders (reminiscent of the character classes that form the basis of systems like Dungeons & Dragons) or of remaining "unordered." Either course has its advantages, increased proficiency in various abilities for the members of orders, and greater flexibility for unordered characters. Characters with the prerequisite abilities can select from the Demonurge, Desperado, Ecclesiastic, Elementalist, Forester, Jongleur, Mage, Mariner, Noble, Outlaw, Rogue, Soldier, and Warlock orders.

One especially interesting aspect of The Lejendary Rules are the various lists that players use to select initial weapons and equipment for characters based on their abilities. For example, Minstrelsy allows a selection from the Low list, Hunt from the Middle list, Learning from the High list, Enchantment from the Magical list, Weapons from the Military list, and Alchemia from the Special list.

Incidentally, this softback, perfect-bound book is durable and certain to last a long time, something inadvertently brought to our attention after a cat knocked our copy into the toilet one night. The next day we fished it out and let it dry, after which it was a bit warped but completely intact and usable.

If this book has a palpable weakness, it lies in its artwork, which includes a full-color illustration on the cover (depicting a traditional adventuring party) and hundreds of black-and- white illustrations inside. Unfortunately, quality of the latter are somewhat uneven, and many are coarsely rendered or poorly scanned. Many of these are reminiscent of the cruder illustrations in the old AD&D Monster Manual, and generous souls may allow that this similarity is deliberate.

Aesthetic flaws aside, this system has no substantive deficiencies to speak of. Like the Lejendary Adventures system as a whole, it is a solid, enjoyable, easy-to-use gaming component that is sure to provide years of entertainment to a great many gamers.

Gary Gygax, whom many see as the father of modern roleplaying, has created a new and masterful FRPG, "Lejendary Adventure". This book is the first in a series that will represent the core resources for this game. The other two are: "Lejend Master's Lore" and "Beasts of Lejend". You'll want the player's rules first, then purchase the LML if you are planning on LMing this game--don't buy it if you only want to be a player, it is full of key information that only the LM should read and know.

Regarding "The Lejendary Rules for All Players" I found it to contain all the needed information to play the game. This system is great fun, and it is a nice fresh change to D&D. However, don't compare this game to D&D they are VERY different. Lejendary Adventure is "skill" based not "class" based. Armor not only makes you harder to hit, but also absorbs damage. Weapons--there are plenty to choose from--do roughly the same amount of damage no matter what type or size.

There are many other things that make this a great system and a Must Have for serious RPGers, too many to mention here in fact.

Dan Hays captured the spirit of Whale Island very well. As someone who appreciates the nature writing genre, I was impressed by his graphic descriptions of the scenery and of events as they unfolded. Maybe the biggest compliment of all is that it rarely dawned on me that Dan Hays was working on the book each day, as the story unfolded; in other words, I became entirely engrossed in the story of a small family living their lives on an island off the Canadian coast.

Dan Hays might also be recognized for his honesty. I appreciated the way -- both positive and negative -- that he let himself, his wife and his son come through. All this adds up, in my mind, to a very realistic and engaging story.

I LOVED this book! So few memoirists are able to write completely honestly, instead usually holding up some kind of complimentary or tidying prism on the experience with the effect of sanitizing and fictionalizing the end result ... not so here. I am actually surprised at a couple of the other reviewers' comments...misogynist? Just because he's honest enough to look at how he and his wife respond differently to the same situation? And anyone who lives with dogs will laugh out loud at Dan's detailed descriptions of some of the drawbacks of living in close quarters with them - and yes we love them but it can get disgusting. I think in a way it was as brave of Dan to choose to live in close quarters with his family on an island for a year - without the buffer of modern comforts - as it must have been to round Cape Horn in a sailboat. Anyway, anyone who likes to read about family, dogs or is interested in one person's examination of his attempt to get closer to an honest life experience by escaping the mainland should read this.

It was as if he was in the room with us. We listened to Daniel Hays read from On Whale Island and it mesmerized us! We smiled, we cried and nearly pee'd in our pants at the stories he told. Stories about his brave adventure on a deserted island with his small family. I personally loved it so much because they did what I always wanted to do. Throw off convention, wake up and go 'out there'.
Told with honesty, humor and tenderness. I did not want it to end!

I turn to this massive hard cover volume contiuously. HTML, Dynamic HTML, JavaScript, VBScript... this volume brings it all together. I have read some of the previous reviews that state that this book has omitted some things; perhaps so, but speaking as one who spends well over a grand a year on books I can say that this is one of the best values ever. Being organized alphabetically like a dictionary, it is extremely quick to use and enables me to "drill down" to what I need right away. I highly recommend it to all web authors, both novice and pro.

Honestly, this is the book that God used to create the world. It's got everything a web developer could ever want....HTML, DHTML, CSS, JavaScript, VBScript ... It's a complete A-Z reference of ever attribute, method, event, tag and opject. It does have a few errors, and a few startaling ommisions (it's missing for example, and some of the older netscape-only tags). But everything taken into account, I can only pray that they come out whith a revised edition to fill in some of the newer syntax, and expand the browser version differences for the 5.0 browsers. (the book has more than you want to know about the 3/4.0 browsers on both PC and Mac) and to break down the browser support detail for individual properties and methods (not just by tag or object).