Charles Van Tuyl's translation of CHINA ILLUSTRATA is a literary piece of art. It provides the Modern reader in English with a powerful document through which to better understand East-West relations. It offers a thoughtful picture of "old China."

At last! Charles Van Tuyl's translation of Athanasius Kircher's "China Illustrated" reveals the finer nuances of a text almost 400 years of its time. This book not only shows how China appeared to the first European missionaries and travelers, but illuminates how the cultures of Europe and Asia influenced each other from the earliest times . . . most modern scholars and researchers are only beginning to understand these relationships.

This book is an extraordinary example of what is yet to come as more of Athenasius' works are uncovered and translated. This treatment is extraordinarily lucid and shares intimate glimpses of how this man lived his private life and shared his voracious curiosity with the world.

The Great Treasury is based on the syntopicon of the Britannica Great Books of the Western world; the syntopicon is an index of basic, central terms in the great books (the so-called "great ideas"), arranged in alphabetical order from Angel to World. In the syntopicon, each central term is assigned its own chapter, which begins with an introductory essay on the meaning of the term and its various interpretations in the great books, followed by an outline of topics falling under the great idea of the chapter; specific references to passages by the great authors in the series relevant to each topic follow. The Great Treasury mirrors the syntopicon's format, but includes a selection of topics, together with the text of the relevant passages from the great books. The Great Treasury is more than a book of quotations: it serves as a practical guide to the wisdom of the Western world, of particular use to anyone interested in philosophy not merely as a professional academic discipline, but as the ancients viewed it: as a way of life.

The Great Treasury is, without a doubt, the most useful and interesting book I have in my possession (it is my father's, but I "acquire" it from time to time). Brimming with insight into just about everything, this compendium is essential to any scholar or "backyard philosopher" you know. It contains insight from almost every major philosopher, encapsulating many topics (however, there are very, very few female writers). It is also brilliantly indexed, and flipping to your topic of choice is simple and easy. I believe that it is an essential part of everyone's library, and if its presence is missing, then it should be bought.

This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in ideas and prepared to distil the essence of what has been thought on major topics. There are thousands of entries. (The index alone is some 350 pages.) It's far more than a book of quotations although that too. Few books contain such extensive extracts running to several pages of normal print -- the type face is fairly small (My eyesight is poor but I had no trouble.) The content has been brilliantly categorized by theme and what I found invaluable was to sweep through history and notice the changing views of philosophers, essayists, and major poets over time.(There are relatively few female writers) Virtually all the major western thinkers are featured. If you are interested in finding out what major thinkers thought, this could be your starting point. It'll take you three months to read through if you tackle the whole thing at a go as I did. Excellent value for money.

how much easier could this guy explain music theory...

the content has taken me from being a mute..to being able to speak the language...

i have a ways to go, but i am on the road now...

thanks charles.

This is THE book to recommend to beginning music students who are completely and totally musically illiterate (as I was). The only knowledge that is assumed of the reader is the ability to count and the knowledge of the first seven letters of the alphabet. From that starting point he guides the reader step by step through key signatures, scales, intervals and chords. This is one of the most helpful books I have come across. I only wish he'd write a follow up volume taking it to the next level.

This is the most readable book on music theory I have come across. The book is written in a conversational style which makes it much easier to understand. Van Riper's approach to theory is unique in that it demonstrates relationships in a way that allows the reader to understand the entire concept, rather than learning by rote memorization. The book covers key signatures, scales, chords and chord progressions from a beginner through intermediate level. This book is a must for musicians who, like myself, do not have a music degree, but would like to gain a good basic understanding of music theory concepts.

The daily life of Kas Maine over 90 odd years on the high veldt of South Africa says more about the history of that part of the world than all the history books and newspaper articles and military actions that could ever be recounted. I felt as though I myself had lived those same 90 years, breathed the dust, lost my crops, driven my livestock from farm to farm trying to find sharecropping work, put up and taken down my corregated metal shack, been hounded by bureaucrats, maintained my dignity and kept my family together against incredible odds. Although the place names and indigenous family names were difficult and their abundance presumed some familiarity with South Africa, I learned to visualize rather than pronounce them, and they became like one of Kas's stony fields in the story and I liked the "rough footing." A unique experience in book form.

I have been taking my time with this book, savouring it while I can. The rhythms of the prose and the world it describes are so seductive, that I have often found myself reading "just a few more pages" at 3AM despite having to get up for work the next day. If you wish to have a sense of what life in rural South Africa was like over the past century, I can't think of a better book (or any other book for that matter). Kas was an exceptionally gifted farmer, a traditional herbalist and healer, and a patriarch who struggled against the almost impossible odds of being a black man in South Africa. As the insanity of apartheid took hold, he and his family were forced to move from place to place, his dreams of agricultural success and land ownership gradually eroding. Yet the book also portrays the rich, multicultural environment of the Transvaal, the varied relationships between Blacks, Boers, Englishmen, Jews and Asians; the shift from a paternalistic but, in many ways more egalitarian society to a racist police state. Kas is a complex man: wise, cruel, patient, tender, pragmatic, apolitical, opportunist, and honourable. The portrayals of his relationships with his ever expanding family are as complex and engaging as one could wish from a fine novel. Van Onselen makes no apologies for him: he simply gives us the man and, above all his humanity. Perhaps his greatest achievement with this book is in bridging the gap between the Western reader and an illiterate African farmer, in underlining our human commonalities rather than our differences. Despite occasional passages that are a tad purple, the author's prose is clear and flowing. He manages to make the ebb and flow of the seasons with their triumphs, tragedies, and ignominies absolutely gripping. I never thought that I could be enthralled by descriptions of the complexities of plowing and harvesting, or the purchase of agricultural equipment, but I was. No it's not too long as the reviewer in the New York Times claimed. In fact one often wishes that one could know more about this extraordinary yet very ordinary man.

I was fascinated throughout. Sounds and looks "dry" when you see it on the shelf, but so full of juicy bits that make his life very real. You cheer for him when he manages to think his way around the obstacles that apartheid and his own nature put in his way and you are continually forced to confront the "What would I have done here?" question.

Yes, it is long. But when you are through you want to know still more. What has happened to the rest of the family since the book was published? What was the effect of those years of scrutiny on their "real" lives?

I stared at the pictures and studied the faces. I have been selectively pushing the book on all the thoughtful people I know. It wakes up your brain.

I bought one of the first copies of this book and it was definitely one of the most unusual books of erotica I've ever seen. I couldn't stop reading it. This month I found that it had been reviewed by Forum and they actually agreed with me! A book "you can pass around to your friends without a flush of embarrassment" and a book "you can't put down!" I can't wait to see more from this pair!

Whispers. Whispers in the dark. Secret longings. Hushed giggles as the hinges on the closet slowly creak open. Beyond the door, in the darkness, carefully hidden, is the passage to a place more magical yet every bit as innocent as Narnia. When lovers pass through its portal what is fantasy becomes reality and what is reality becomes fantasy. It is the place of our hidden desires, a place where lovers' erotic passions are safeguarded and shared in the deepest moments of intimacy, away from prying eyes, and ears.Erotic passions are food for the erotic soul and best served dripping hot to your lover. Some dishes may be too spicy while others a bit bland, but here you will find a smorgasbord to satisfy any appetite. The Wedding is subtle, veiled, and mysterious like many Victorian stories. White Linen is naughty yet with an ironic twist of humour. Rue du 8 Mai 1945 is a romantic tale of fantasy fulfilled. Finally, Black Leather and Silver Chains is so extreme and shocking you may need more than a cold drink to tame the flames. All-in-all, twenty-five stories from two lovers are brought together for you to savour and share.

This book is by far the best faerie book in my library! It has the most wonderful illustrations. It also comes in a sturdy box that has more illustrations on it. It comes with three very nice notecards and a small poster and this wonderful book. This would make aperfect present for anyone interested in faerie folk! An absolute treasure of a book!

This came as a surprise to me when I recieved it from Amazon. Not only do you get a delightfully illustrated book but a nice box and three note cards and a blank journel all for only twenty bucks. This Canadian artist is a fabulous addition to library.

The first of Michael Lesy's books, 'Wisconsin death trip' is as harrowing and breathtaking today as when it was first published, back in the early 1970s. Utilizing a veritable treasure-trove of miraculously preserved glass negative plates taken in rural Wisconsin during the period of the 1880s-early 20th Century, and combining them with newspaper clippings and other snippets of local news from the area and era, Lesy has pieced together an amazing (if bleak) view of life in that day and age. Times were hard, and the challenges faced were many and daunting -- anyone bemoaning the state of life in America today should read this book...anyone who wants a truer sense of American history should read this book. You will never forget it.

On a related note, readers might be interested to know that this book inspired Stewart O'Nan's great novel 'A prayer for the dying' (also available through amazon.com).

The author discovered a huge cache of old glass photographic plates belonging to the town's photographer and writer, who, along with his son, published a local Wisconsin paper. One is struck by how such a simple collection of photographs and articles, offered without editorial comment, can be so powerfully affecting. Perhaps it is the haunted, mad eyes of some of the subjects, or the babies in coffins, their images preserved for posterity, or the intermittent reports from the state mental hospital, or the subtle way in which some of the photographs have been altered to emphasize some quality of the image. There is something powerfully haunting about this book - all the moreso since one gets the impression that small-town America of this time must have lived the same way.

There is relatively little I can say about this book.

The book is essentially photographs and news clippings from a newspaper in Wisconsin from about 1890 to 1910. Interspersed are snippets from novels dealing with life during the period.

Turning the pages, reading the articles, and looking not at the pictures but into the eyes of the people in the photographs, one gets a sense not of some sterilized, backward glance at these people as some great societal force, not as a band of pioneers, but as very human people, who die in childbirth, die as children, die of diseases that sweep through whole towns and infect the entire state with fear, go insane, murder, and still maintain enough inner dignity to be able to look into the lens of a camera and mask most of their emotions long enough for the half-second exposure but not long enough to pierce the heart of people living a century later. It is pain. It is a death trip.

The book speaks for itself. Actually, it doesn't. The people in word and image speak for themselves.

I first read lives of the musicians when I was about 7 yearsold or so. Then, I thought it was terrific. I still do. However, I amnow 12 years old, and now that I have paid more attention to it, I see several faults, but overall it is still a very good book. First of all, their choice of musicians is not the best. I would have recommended Debussy and Schubert, like the Kirkus Reviewer. Some of the composers I have hardly ever heard of, like Igor Stravinsky or Nadia Boulanger. And while Clara Schumann was a great pianist, I think they should have focused more on her husband, Robert, a prolific composer, whose works are among the very best. Also, some of the parts of the biographies are questionable. Frederic Chopin may not have actually been romantically involved with Aurore Dudevant (George Sand), but in love with the Countess Delphine Potocka. The book states that the Waltz in D-Flat, or Minute Waltz, was written for George Sand's dog, when in fact it was probably written for Potocka. However, the book was still very well written, and I enjoyed it, despite the possible mistakes. I recommend this book to anyone who likes music, classical or not. So sit back and enjoy!

I loved this book because it made those musicians seem like real people instead of great-all-star-super-geniuses. It is full of strange little facts about all the famous musicians like Bach,Gershwin,Beethoven and Schmann.

---Megan W.

This book provides interesting insight into the lives of composers. I teach music to elementary and high school students and I read this book to all of my students. They all enjoy learning the details of the composers lives. The book presents the composers in such a way that the students remember the information about the composers. The book does not provide information about what the composers' music sounds like, and that is something I also like to teach. A great book to gain kids'interest in famous composers.

This is a beautifully written and illustrated book on a noble subject. On the basis of that rarity alone it deserves five stars.

This book stimulated my interest in trying to figure out how music works more than anything else I have ever read. Sure, it is not the latest word, the most comprehensive or closely argued, but to get the interested amatuer started down the path of analysis of musical forms, why it sounds good, and what the big three Classical Era composers did to create a large chunk of our western musical heritage, this is the place to start. Rosen steered me toward many, many other books, cited in his bibliography and notes, on related topics, such as sonata form, how it works and does not. Sure, scholars can quibble and somebody else could and should write a followup to answer the complaints, but until then, Rosen is the place to start. His other books are just as good, but not as enjoyable. Dense, you bet, but worth it.

As a music lover with a superficial knowledge of the technical aspects of music-making, I found this book to be a real challenge. It took me several attempts over the course of a couple of years to get through it. But having expended that effort, I can say that every minute was worth it. I now have a good understanding of what "classical" music (in the stricter definition of "classical") is about, and why its three great Viennese exponents were such masters. I now can listen classical music -- indeed, to any common-practice period music -- with much more insight, understanding, and enjoyment than I could heretofore.

How To Read A Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren is a very useful book for anyone wishing to give their books a more thoughtful, in-depth reading.

The book does have an agenda to push. That agenda is to see more people go beyond high school reading levels. The authors begin by reviewing how America got to the point where almost everyone could read, but very few people could read well. They offer the techniques in this book as a path from this superficial knowledge of reading to a deeper understanding of how to read more effectively and more deeply.

The book breaks down the levels of reading. They present four levels of reading: Elementary, Inspectional, Analytical, and Syntopical.

The most time and attention is given to Analytical writing. The authors present ways to read more analytically. They also lay out rules for giving a book a fair analytical reading. I found this part very helpful personally.

The other three levels of reading are treated in much less detail. Each is more presented than taught. The authors demonstrate how each level is dependent on the one preceding it.

This book is very well put together and nicely laid out. One can tell that this was a labor of love by the authors. A feature that I found particularly interesting was the suggested reading list in the back of the book.

How To Read A Book will be helpful to any reader who desires to learn how to read more deeply. I recommend it.

This book picks up where your reading instruction in school most likely left off. In school you probably learned only the first, elementary, level of reading. In How To Read A Book Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren explain that there are actually three levels of reading beyond the elementary level (inspectional, analytical, and syntopical) and they demonstrate how to develop each of these levels of reading within yourself. In so doing they instill in the reader critical thinking skills that can be applied not only to the written word but to the spoken word as well. And after reading this book you will discover that you are not only a better reader you will find that you are a better communicator. In short, this book will provide you with the tools necessary to live a more fulfilling life.

After I read How to Read a Book, I wanted to re-read every important book I've ever read. It is a $40,000 liberal education in a $8.95 book.

How to Read A Book is an elegant guide to the lost arts of Active Reading, Conversation, and Intellectual Etiquette. Learn how to fairly and methodically assess an author's intentions and how the author fulfills (or doesn't) what they set out to do with the book. Learn how to interact with the book and make it your own...absorb its contents completely. Learn how to analyze and argue. Learn how to talk about disagreements.

This is one of those books you want to re-read every once in a while. It's a great gift for a high-school or college bound student. It should be required reading Freshman year.