This book could be read in conjunction with Kerry Noble's Tabernacle of Hate. It is less of an emotional tale of fall and redemption than Noble's book, but it is gripping nonetheless. Martinez tells in detail how he was slowly drawn into The Order (the most organized and violently active neo-Nazi group in American history) and convinced of the importance of its cause by the now-dead leader, Robert Matthews. The book shows how the Order eventually collapsed in on itself due to treachery within its own ranks. (Like all organized pro-white terroristic groups.) It is a good book for gathering information on how the groups operate, where their thinking (or lack thereof) is headed. It's a good reference for preparing for the coming battle in which the non-Aryans will rise up and exterminate all Neo-Nazis, (the real result of the future racial war that Nazis are dreaming of).

One word to describe this book? "Amazing."

Tom Martinez gives an inside look of the far-right, from his fundraising days with the National Alliance to how he helped the FBI bring down Bob Mathews, leader of the Order.

Besides learning the inner workings of such organizations, what amazed me about the book is Martinez's personal experiences. For example, his shattering the myth that hate and racism is learned at home. Martinez makes it clear that hate is a form of fear...in his case, his fear of black gang members in his high school led to his support of David Duke and a downward spiral from there. Not once did his parents ever utter a derogatory word about minorities, Martinez says.

Martinez could have easily written this book in a spiteful manner, blaming his felony conviction for passing bad money on the members of the Order. But he doesn't. Martinez takes full responsibility for his actions and even has compassion for some of the Order members who he brought to justice...even Bob Mathews who was killed in an FBI shootout.

Unfortunately, I missed the Showtime movie based on this book...but I recently won a copy of it on eBay and cannot wait until it arrives!

Tom Martinez' story is terrifying and uplifting. It's frightening to learn how easy it can be for someone to become a neo-Nazi. It's exalting to see the same person change. Martinez is one of the bravest characters you'll ever meet in the pages of a book, and he's real, not fiction. I bought copies for every teenager I know.

A master work which starts off slowly and then fizzes into unexpected space. Pregnant with insight.

The Critical Edition of Q : A Synopsis Including the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Mark and Thomas.

This is an exceptionally clear and easy to use book.

The section on the history of "Q" research is a splendidly clear and concise review of the work done today and would bring you up to speed very quickly.

The layout of the synopsis in 8 columns is actually a great deal easier to understand than at first glance and quickly becomes user friendly.

The Synoptic Gospels, Q and other canonical texts are paralleled in Greek with the gospel of Thomas being paralleled in Coptic. Q is translated into French, German and English with the parallels of Thomas being translated into Greek, French, German and English.

I would not hesitate to recommend this work to anyone who is studying in this field or has an interest in it.

This newest updated version of Q is a MUST read for all!

Informative and thought provoking;for all serious thinkers..... this book clearly settles the case....once and for all.

Mike in Melbourne,Fla.

This is an excellent collection of essays by the greatest preachers in the Reformed tradition today. Some of the topics include The Primacy of Preaching (Mohler), The Teaching Pastor (Sproul), Evangelistic Preaching (Alexander), and The Foolishness of Preaching (Boice). John Piper's essay on Preaching to Suffering People is one of the best things he has ever written and by itself is worth the price of the book ten times over. Derek Thomas' essay on Expository Preaching is full of very good instruction. Joel Beakes' contribution on Experimental Preaching is also excellent. I highly recommend this book for pastors. If you are not a pastor, consider purchasing it for your pastor as a gift. He will be appreciative.

The Fact that this book is excellent should be no surprise, merely take a glance at the authors. This book will probably offend pastors who are in to the modern pop pyschology, but then they probably wouldn't be reading it anyway. Granted, that was probably unfair but...
Naturally some chapters are better than others, here are a few:

"The Lasting Effect of Experimental Preaching"--the essay on spiritual formation--worth the price of the book.

"The Primacy of Preaching"--by Albert Mohler--very good, a wake up call to the church.

"Expository Preaching"--good and bad examples of expository preaching, very fun chapter.

"Preaching to Suffering People"--by John Piper. It is by Piper, enough said.

"A reminder to Shepherds"--By John Macarthur, a fitting close to a fine book.

Absolutely essential reading for upcomming (as well as seasoned) preachers. A true gem, very informative, and a must for all who proclaim God's Word.

This book does an excellent job in pointing out some of the real stuggles of Thomas Merton. It is very helpful in seeking to understand the person Thomas Merton. If one reads Merton, it is evident that Merton loved God and was committed to his vocation. However, it is very clear in this work that love for God and commitment to vocation does not eliminate personal struggles with right and wrong. Griffin does a good job showing a side of Merton that so many seek to ignore. Also, the book has many good pictures. This is a good book to read.

I purchased this book after reading the review from the reader in New Orleans. This is a loving look at the final years of Thomas Merton's life. (1965 - 1968) I have only recently delved into the writings and life of this incredible man. John Howard Griffin was a close friend of Merton's and writes about his friend from within Merton's hermitage and Merton's personal journals. It is a shame that Grifffin's health prevented him from completing what was to be an authorized biography of this fascinating mystical monk. The photographs taken by Griffin are a terrific addition to a very readable book on a man and a spititual figure that I greatly admire. If you have any interest in Thomas Merton the man, then you will cherish this book. One of Griffin's lines is a nice summary of Merton, if Merton can be summarized - "What mattered was to love and to be in one piece in silence and not to try to be anybody outwardly".

This book is a must-read for those seeking to understand the final years of Merton, whose importance for contemporary spirituality cannot be underestimated. Based on Merton's own journals (to which Griffin had full access during extended stays in Merton's hermitage after the latter's untimely death in 1968), the material in this book was originally intended to be part of the officially authorized Merton biography, which ill health prevented Griffin from completing. This book is not for those whose love of Merton is confined to such early works as The Seven Storey Mountain and The Sign of Jonas. However, those who seek insights into the struggles underlying the writings he produced from 1965-68, encompassing subjects such as the Vietnam war, the evils of racism, and the practice of Zen, are likely to find this book very rewarding. John Howard Griffin (author of Black Like Me) was an excellent writer in his own right, a skilled photographer, and a friend of Merton. All three of these characteristics contribute to Follow the Ecstasy, which includes a number of intimate photographs of Merton and his hermitage. Griffin's own contemplative bent shows itself in empathic descriptions of Merton's hermit existence, with well-chosen quotations from the monk's journals. Of particular interest to some will be the very detailed account of Merton's extended involvement with a young nurse he encountered while hospitalized following back surgery. This relationship, which is referred to in very vague and sometimes sinister-sounding terms in other works on Merton, is laid bare here in all its emotional splendor. Those who love Merton may be astonished at both his vulnerability and his capacity for self-deception. For most of us, to fall deeply in love with a young woman whose feelings are reciprocal, and to arrange trysts that do not include sexual consummation of such love, would not constitute a major moral dilemma. But most of us are not world-renowned spiritual writers vowed to lives of celibate chastity. To top it all off, Merton had only recently (the year was 1966) been granted long-sought permission to live as a hermit on an isolated piece of monastery property, in order to deepen his experience of solitude. Anyone who has ever fallen in love can identify with much of what Merton went through, but few can ever have known the exquisite anguish engendered by his circumstances at the time. It is almost comical at times how he struggles both to rationalize his behavior and to see through his own rationalizations. He is a man deeply and painfully torn. On the one side, he is beset by a tide of emotions he has never before experienced and is ill-prepared to handle, while on the other, he is solemnly vowed to a life he not only loves, but believes is his divinely given vocation. Although some would be scandalized by such revelations, others will see in them yet another poignant example of the divine mystery played out in the arena of human affairs. What Griffin makes clear is that Merton fully expected this episode to become public knowledge after his death, and that he wanted those who might have idolized him to see him, warts and all, in all his human frailty. It is plain that Merton was less interested in adulation than in honesty, even regarding events in his life that show him in a less than flattering light. If there was some degree of duplicity in the machinations he undertook for the sake of spending time with his beloved, I believe it is offset by his ultimate fidelity to his Beloved. Griffin handles all of this with consummate sensitivity and grace, explicitly noting that he obtained full permission from the woman in question prior to publishing details of her relationship with this celebrated monk. Although this chapter alone, with its touching descriptions of Merton's internal spiritual combat, would've made the book worthwhile for me, there are gems scattered throughout, and an informative introduction by Robert Bonazzi. A must for real fans and/or scholars of Thomas Merton.

This book is a collection of some of the best-preserved, non-Irish Celtic stories, which makes it a valuable resource for anyone studying Celtic literature and culture. Not only that, but the stories are wonderful! The Guide to Welsh Pronounciation was excellent, making it easier to read names like Blodeuwedd or Yspaddaden.

To be honest, this reviewer who studied classic literature in several college classes never heard of this Welsh anthology collected during the fourteenth century. The book contains eleven tales translated into English short stories that link Welsh myths and medieval life in Wales with a world of fantasy. Fans of King Arthur (who appears in several tales) or Beowulf will fully enjoy the tales that divide into three sections with each one very colorful while providing the life of a bygone era by bards of a later but also bygone period. Different, but quite good for readers who enjoy Celtic legends. THE MABINOGION will definitely entertain this select audience.

Harriet Klausner

This book is absolutely necessary if you want to learn more about the Welsh through literature. Writers like J.R.R. Tolkien and Lloyd Alexander have drawn inspiration from this ancient classic. With this translation and edition, you also get some of the oldest Arthurian Romances. Order it now!

The many glowing reviews given this book over the years are well-deserved. John Clive gives his readers a deep and rich picture of Macaulay. I agree with another Amazon.com reviewer of this book that a volume II by Clive -- a volume that details Macaulay's life from his return from India to his death -- would have been a fantastic addition to the literature.

My only real reservation about Clive's biography is his attempted psychoanalysis of Macaulay. I find Freudian explanations to be wholly fanciful. They don't work, in my view -- and this fact seems especially true in the case of Macaulay. Fortunately, Clive doesn't resort to psychoanalysis too much.

Again, overall this is a truly excellent biography.

John Clive's biography "Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian" is one of the finest biographies of the last 30 years. Although Macaulay is not widely read today, he was a major essayist and influential historian -- Winston Churchill's prose style seems to have been greatly influenced by Macaulay. Clive's book takes Macaulay from his days as infant prodigy, learning foreign languages as a child and writing histories before he was a teenager, and ends as he is beginning to write his enormously popular "History of England." Macaulay was also an important figure in the passage of the First Reform Bill, which was the first major alteration in the British Constitution in hundreds of years, and set the country on the road to a truly democratice form of government. Clive provides a superb description of pre-Victorian England and of Macaulay, one of those amazing people of the 19th Century whose capacity for work seems to have been endless. I don't know if Clive ever intended to write a second volume that would have covered the rest of Macaulay's life, but in any event he died before doing so. However, we should be grateful for what we have here. For me, the book was so interesting that I purchased a copy of Macaulay's Collected Works from a used bookstore, and thoroughly enjoyed them. Clive's biography is a model of the genre; while well-researched, he does not overwhelm the reader with useless facts simply because he knows them, but rather concentrates on the key facts to bring Macaulay to life. You do not have to have read Macaulay to enjoy this book.

I have never seen a book better done than is this magnificent work. It tells of the earlyier life of Macaulay, from his birth on Oct 25, 1800 till the time he returned from India on June 1, 1838. How I wish there were a volume II! This book won my award for best book read in 1975, and after I read it I knew that it was a shoo-in winner for that award, even though I read in July of that year.

This is a truly fascinating and engaging work. The meaning of indepence from Great Britain is much more profound that one would think on first thought. With this idea in mind, Morgan penetrates to the fundamental ideas and characters of each three men. For both Washington and Adams, I must say that he is right on target. His account of Jefferson is also good, although I cannot help but wonder why Morgan spends some much time and space castigating the man for what he views to be his short-comings. Regardless of the actual merit of his criticisms, he clearly strays rather far from the subject of the work. Nevertheless, the piece as a whole is gem.

Edmund Morgan is perhaps the most readable American colonial historian. Best known for his books on the Puritans and colonial slavery, Morgan here presents three lectures on what three founding fathers thought about independence. George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson are three very complicated individuals, and no short lecture is going to completely explicate their ideas. But Morgan brings his typical verve and clarity to the subject, and speaking as a AP history teacher, I found them to be well worth my time.

I first encountered Morgan's wonderful book in a college history class (thanks, Dr. Bourdon!), but this is no dry academic tome (personally, I think that there is no reason an academic book has to be dry, anyway). The book's three essays--one each on the named presidents and their points of view on the struggle that produced this nation--are both insightful and pleasurable reading. For the casual reader, there is Morgan's gift for anecdote. His description of the personality conflict between Adams and Benjamin Franklin is hilarious, as is Adams' timeless description of the tedium of legislatures (some things really do never change!). That said, there is also serious analysis of these three men, and what each contributed, thought, and said, written with a critcal but respectful tone. It's hard to say which essay is the best, but those who despise Thomas Jefferson for hypocrisy should certainly read his section, and learn about his genuine, if tempered, idealism--a trait we could use more of in the 1990's. This is an excellent choice for anyone who wants to broaden and deepen his or her knowledge of the origins of this country.

Self-help is big business. According to Gerald Rosen (1993) as many as 2000 self-help books are published each year. However, only a very few have been evaluated empirically. This sad state of affairs is a poor response to the appeal made by Rosen (1987) that self-help books should first be evaluated empirically before being sold to the general public. Additionally, the little research that has been done on do-it-yourself treatment books sometimes demonstrates major limitations in their usefulness. Yet psychologists continue to develop and market new programs with increasingly exaggerated claims. This is potentially a problem. Especially as psychologists often use self-help books as adjuncts to their clinical practice (Starker, 1988). The good news from research (e.g. Gould & Clum, 1993) is that certain self-help programs can be quite effective. Fairburn’s Binge Eating Disorder treatment (Carter & Fairburn, 1998) and the Albany protocol for Panic Disorder (Barlow & Craske, 1994) are two good examples. In Gould and Clum’s (1993) meta-analysis, fears, depression, headaches, and sleep disturbances were especially amenable to self-help approaches. Sometimes with effect sizes as large as for therapist assisted treatments.

How can busy clinicians keep up with the flood of new self-help books, and know which to recommend? Guilford Press offers a solution. In an attempt to help the clinicians a guide to self-help resources in mental health has been published. It includes ratings and reviews of more than 600 self-help books, autobiographies and popular films. It also includes hundreds of Internet sites, and listings of online support groups. The book addresses 28 prevalent clinical disorders and life challenges – from Schizophrenia, Anxiety and Mood Disorders to Career Development, Stress Management and Relaxation.

To determine the usefulness of the self-help resources a series of national studies have been conducted over the past 7 years. The methodology consisted of a lengthy survey mailed to clinical and counselling psychologists residing throughout the USA. A total of 2,500 psychologists contributed with their expertise and judgement in evaluating the books, movies, and Internet sites. The self-help resources were rated on a 5-point scale (-2 to +2). These data were converted into a one to five star rating (negative ratings were given a dagger). On this basis, 19% of the self-help books were rated as “very helpful” and fortunately only 1% as “very harmful” [e.g. the assertiveness training book Winning Through Intimidation by Ringer (1973) and the weight management book the Beverly Hills Diet by Mazel (1981). Interestingly, many of the books by Scientologist guru L Ron Hubbard are categorized as extremely bad].

When looking more closely at a specific disorder, let us say for example panic disorder, there are some good books that I feel are missing. This is probably because of the rating criteria. In order for a book to be included in this self-help guide the psychologists used as referees had to know about the book beforehand. It was their rating of previously read books that mattered. Hence, if there were good books out there that had not been read by many referees [like the Australian panic disorder workbook by Franklin (1996)], they would automatically receive a lower rating. Thus, a low rating does not necessarily mean that a book is less helpful than a higher rated book – only that it has not reached a wide audience. For example, an excellent book, An End to Panic (Zuercher-White, 1998), previously recommended in a review article (Carlbring, Westling, & Andersson, 2000) was described as “highly regarded by the psychologists in our national studies but not well known, leading to a 3-star rating.” (p. 79). Another thing that disturbed me was that this particular author’s name was misspelled. Instead of Zuercher the surname appeared as Luerchen. No wonder the book was “not well known”! One wonders how many other errors this survey included.

In a perfect world all self-help books would be scrutinized in the same manner as other treatments. However, as a majority of the published books still have not been evaluated, this new guide to self-help is a step in the right direction. Despite questionable inclusion criteria and a few errors I thoroughly recommend this excellent guide to self-help

From books and movies to the Internet, Authoritative Guide to Self-Help Resources in Mental Health provides a strong survey of self-help resources in mental health which reveals the good ones, bad ones, and how general consumers can tell the difference. Five national studies involving over 2,500 mental health professionals lends to a rating of over six hundred titles and films, along with Internet sites evaluated by a clinical psychologist.

This book contains reviews / lists of the best (and worst) of self-help books / movies and internet resources. It has been compiled using surveys of 1000's of mental health professionals and gives essential guidance on which resources are helpful, and which are best left alone.

The book is clearly-written and well laid out - each chapter relates to a specific problem area eg mood disorders, men's issues, abuse, anxiety etc.

I found the recommendations on books particularly helpful - one can immediately determine which are the best books to read on their own specific problem. Clearly, the input of mental health professionals gives a "scientific" basis on recommendations which in turn leads to a systematic process of choosing which resources should be given credence.

Essential reading if you want to build up a collection of serious (i.e. most useful) self-help resources.

In his preface to this book, Irving Younger applauds Darrow's systematic annihilation of poor, befuddled Bryan. "Analysis of this kind of drama is irrelevant. One can only smile, admire, and wonder," he says. Although Younger declined to analyze Darrow's examination of Bryan, the contemporary press (most of whom staunchly supported teaching evolution) were not so reticent to judge. Edward J. Larsen, in the Pultizer Prize winning history of the trial, "Summer for the Gods," summed it up thus: "[T]he nation's press initially saw little of lasting significance in the trial [whose centerpiece was Darrow's examination of Bryan] beyond its having exposed Bryan's empty head and Darrow's mean spirit." p. 202.

Some quotes from contemporary sources found on page 207 of Larsen's book: Walter Lippman of the "New York World": "Now that the chuckling and giggling over the heckling of Bryan by Darrow has subsided it is dawning upon the friends of evolution that science was rendered a wretched service by that exhibition." The New Orleans "Times Picayune": "Mr. Darrow, with his sneering 'I object to prayer!' and with his ill-natured and arrogant cross-examination of Bryan on the witness stand, has done more to stimulate 'anti-evolution' legislation in the United States than Mr. Bryan and his fellow literalists, left alone, could have hoped for." The Vanderbilt University humanist and champion of evolution, Edwin Mims: "When Clarence Darrow is put forth as the champion of the forces of enlightenment to fight the battle for scientific knowledge, one feels almost persuaded to become a Fundamentalist."

As Larsen explains in "Summer for the Gods," Darrow's examination assumed the status of a legendary victory only after the release of the McCarthy-era morality play "Inherit the Wind," which took great dramatic license in depicting the examination as having "won" the Scopes Trial.

When a lawyer performs as mean-spirited an examination as Darrow did of Bryan, the lawyer's rabid fans are enthralled, his enemies are enraged, and those on the fence are encouraged to join the enemy. Darrow's examination of Bryan should be studied as a fine example of how not to perform a cross examination.

The public recollection of what happened when Darrow questioned Bryan in the case of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes is a mixture of topics and outbursts. Most accounts of the trial, as well as the fictionalized version in "Inherit the Wind," include the discussion of the Bible Stories of Jonah being swallowed by the whale/big fish and Joshua making the sun stand still. The crucial point of the exchange comes when Darrow forced Bryan to admit the days of creation in Genesis were not 24-hour days, thereby forcing Bryan to deny the Fundamentalist's literal interpretation of the Bible. Scopes himself called it the "great shock that Darrow had been laboring for all afternoon." However, the actual exchange does not support such an interpretation. Darrow specifically asked about the number of days involved in creation. A fuller examination of the transcript, which this volume provides, indicates Darrow was trying to get at not only the length of creation but the DATE as well, intending to get Bryan to endorse Bishop Usher's infamous calculation the earth was less than six thousand years old in order to confront Bryan with evidence of civilizations considerably older. The key to the exchange is that Bryan gives a preemptive answer, declaring the days of creation were not 24-hour days BEFORE Darrow asked the specific question, in order to avoid agreeing to Usher's flawed calculations. More importantly, Bryan volunteered the information twice, each time cutting Darrow off from a particular line of question.

Moral of the Story: When there are primary documents available, such as this volume which provides the entire transcript of the trial as taking from the stenographers record, you are better served by reading them rather than secondary sources that tend to privilege a play/movie rather than what really happened.

Finally, you don't have to hear someone else's take on one of the most spectacular court cases this country has ever seen. Decide for yourself who outwitted who in this battle of the courtroom titans. This book includes only the exact words from the cross-examination of William Jennings Bryan by Clarence Darrow. A must read for all those who wish to know how the cross-examination really ran.

This answers the question, "When exactly did AMAZING SPIDER-MAN as a series go completely to HELL?" No-it WASN'T when John Romita stopped inking. It WASN'T when Gwen Stacy was murdered (which, after all these years, it turned out it was John Romita's...idea). And no-it WASN'T even when Stan Lee stopped writing "his" main character!!! NO!!! It was when GIL KANE started DRAWING the [darn] book, THAT'S when!!! Kane's people are UGLY, his anatomy is AWKWARD, and his storytelling has NO sense of fun or humor about it at ALL!!! Most of these I'd never read before, and I got the book mainly because it was a CHEAP way to fill these huge gaping holes in my Spidey collection. MY GOD!! Reading these is like watching the 6th season of HUNTER. Sure, Dee Dee McCall was still there, but the whole tone, balance and focus of the show had gone terribly astray, thanks to Fred Dryer's massive ego getting in the way.

There's a few issues with pure JOHN ROMITA art, which are a joy to behold compared to the rest. (Romita plotted "Vengeance In Viet Nam" all on his own, it was his big Milton Caniff tribute!) There's also a couple near the end which had Romita pencilling over layouts by JIM STARLIN! But overall, the tone of the series had gotten very dark, downbeat and pessimistic. In a word-- unbearable.

For anyone who'd wonder why I have NO interest in reading ANY new Spider-books ever again, here it is. I have BOXES of the stuff in my back room, and don't have the time for that right now-and that's the GOOD stuff! To me, there are 2 and ONLY 2 Spider-Man artists who matter-- Steve Ditko and John Romita. Everybody else is just wasting their time trying to fill their shoes. 30 years is a LONG time for a character to be living off his past reputation!

Volume 5 of the "Essential Spider-Man" covers the end of Stan Lee's run as the writer on his most famous comic creation. Lee wrote through issue #100, then Roy Thomas penned issues #101-104, Lee returned for issues #105-110, and then Gerry Conway (the man who killed off Gwen Stacy) became Spidey's scripter with issue #111. Spider-Man's artwork features some major revolving door action as well, with John Romita (Sr.) inking Gil Kane and then doing the pencils again, then Kane taking over with a different inker, then... (you get the idea). Anyhow, the cover is wrong because John Buscema does not do any of the artwork (brother Sal does some of the inking); it is Conway's name that should be there instead.

Anyhow, this volume includes several pivotal moments in Spider-Man's history: the death of Captain Stacy, the infamous Green Goblin/Harry Osborn on drugs trilogy where the comic did not receive Comics Code approval, and the 100th issue where Peter Parker decides to concoct a magic formula to take away his spider powers and ends up growing two extra sets of arms instead (talk about weird science, huh?). The Marvel tendency to try and be realistic pops up as well as Flash Thompson returns from Vietnam with a story to tell. There is a nice bookend effect to this volume, which begins and ends with Doctor Octopus. I know the Green Goblin is the most important of Spider-Man's villain (knowing Spider-Man's secret identity sort of makes that a moot point), but overall I think some of the best Spider-Man stories involve Doc Ock, and it is not just because of the similarities of their animal totems. Also includes in these issues are Spider-Man visiting Ka-Zar in the Savage Land and the first appearance of Morbius the Living Vampire (a character that I could never take seriously). But then there is the Gibbon, a "villain" so bad even Spider-Man laughs at him.

It looks like Volume 5 might be the last of the "Essential Spider-Man" series, although this is just a bad hunch on my part. After all, Stan Lee stopped writing the comic at this point and the key issues of what would be the next volume are currently available as "The Death of Gwen Stacy." I have to admit that I do not mind that these comics are in black & white; certainly this helps to keep this a remarkably inexpensive series and the strengths of some of these artists (most notably Steve Ditko) actually stand out more without the color being added. There is also something to be said for not having to take your comics out of their bags to read them (or for having to pay big bucks to go out and buy all these back issues). I am looking forward to picking up some more of the classic Marvel comics from the Sixties in this format.

My only complaint is that the book opens halfway through a continued comic with Spidey battling Dr. Octopus that should have included the comic just before. I actually haven't finished reading this yet because I have been enjoying it so much that I don't want it to end! I have read a chapter or two (monthly issue) each night. After just seeimg the movie SPIDER-MAN, I bought this on an impulse. I found it fascinating to see the "real" story as told by Stan Lee of how Peter Parker felt about Mary Jane (MJ), and there is an exciting battle with the Green Goblin that explains much about that character. In fact, even the first storyline of how Peter became Spider-Man is retold. What made me sad, however, was to realize that the movie messed up a wonderful opportunity of bringing these "classic" comics to life and instead followed a mediocre script that was inaccurate to the early comics. No wonder I hate how Hollywood retells historical events just for "entertainment value!" Still, these are fun and priced inexpensively.