I need this book.

What can I do?

If one can read through the author's interminablly sophomoric and condescending attitude(s); perhaps a nuggest or two of knowledge can be gleaned by those who can perservere. The commercial reviews are terribly outdated. This book is for those who have unlimited funding for building exotic telescopes and accessories. I cannot recommend this book and wish I had not read it so I could return it for a refund.

A great referance for the advance amateur covering the history and methods ( applied and theoretical ) of astrophotography. A definite must for all amateur astronomers that photograph the sky.

This book pre-dates CCDs but still gives the best coverage of the theory and practice of all aspects of astrophotography. A must-have for your reference library.

This was the third Goddard title I read .. & I was a little disappointed. I wouldn't recommend reading this title first .. try (say) In Pale Batallions or Hand In Glove first. I've given it 4 stars because the writing/language is still superb Goddard. I deducted one star only because (personally) I found the ending a little far-fetched.

I have been a book addict since little and specailly a mistery novel fan. Recently, I often got so bored with junk publication of mystery novels but When I first encountered his book I knew that he was genius! TAKE NO FAREWELL, PAINTING THE DARKNESS, PAST CARING, INTO THE BLUE, HAND IN GLOVE, BEYOND RECALL, OUT OF SUN.... I still have more Goddards to read but my personal top 3 so far would be PAINTING THE DARKNESS, PAST CARING and INTO THE BLUE. CLOSED CIRCLE is a good book although it may lack the twist and mystery compared to other books by Goddard. But I am so attached to this book and keep reading in order just to reach the ending, which is my favorite part and the most beautiful ending by Goddard which envoke visual and emotional sensation as if I were there. The last few sentences, I can even recall as it is so beautiful and so sad. (This novel is not as sad as other Goddard's books, though) I would love to read sequal if any.

Robert Goddard's books are all pretty much alike - and they're all pretty good: Crimes committed in the past coming back to haunt the protagonists later on.

Written in beautiful prose, the likeable and believable characters in Mr. Goddard's novels stumble through twists and turns, uncovering truths that turn out to be lies in the end.

A lot of research and a great feel for the times that the story takes place in (the 1930's in this case) are another trademark of Mr. Goddard's skills.

Reading any Robert Goddard novel is like watching a Hitchcock movie, and "Closed Circle" is one of the best.

In 'Greek and Roman Philosopy After Aristotle', there is and extended excerpt from 'Octavius' by Marcus Minucius Felix. Its summary of pagan Roman views on Christianity was so dead-on accurate, I just had to read the whole thing. Unfortunately, the Christian response isn't as incisive as as the attack. It is primarily a defense of the idea of a single creator god, coupled with the idea that Christians are restrained, ethical and good people. Jesus is not really menitioned at all. Felix's view might be called "Ethical Monotheism". The second work in the book, Justin Martyr's 'First Apology' is very revealing of 2nd century Christian thought, and touches on many practical and philosophical issues, not only regarding Christian practice and paganism, but Jewish uses of Greek philosophy. This book is quite a find. While it is not a new translation, it is a modern, idiomatic, if somewhat oversimplified, rendition of the translations contained in the hoary, 130-something year-old 'Ante-Nicene Library'. Portions of 'Octavius', and Justin Martyr's 'First Apology" are rearranged, to a degree, on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis, and other portions are relegated to appendices, but both works are present in their entirety, and a bit more logical, to modern readers, than the originals. At the price of $..., you'd be silly not to check these accessible, yet ancient works out. See what they were thinking in the 2nd century. They won't bite!

The idea behind this book is great, but its information could easily fit into a 3-page article in Woman's Day or a similar popular magazine. I expected to learn much more than I did from this very repetitive book. (It almost made me feel like I was aging on the spot: "Hey, didn't I just read that a few pages ago? Am I forgetting or imagining things?")

I stumbled upon the book strictly by accident and ended up paying full list price at Barnes and Noble. After seeing the really great prices on Amazon, I reluctently sat down to read a few chapters to try and get my monies worth. Wow. To say the book was enlightening would be to offer a dis-service to the multi-year McArthur Foundation Study. I picked up a few things from the book that most readers will not and that is basic assumptions that Private Foundations and Private Research gathers far more information about a subject than Government sponsored projects. It occured to me that Government has pretty muched screwed up Social Security as well as providing for long term health care in America. Successful Aging gives an alternative to spending your final years in a Nursing Home. The book is very well thought through, well researched and backed up with countless citations that give credit where credit is due. I found the book an enjoyable read, almost a primer. After reading this book, I ordered out about three hundred dollars worth of additional books on aging. That should tell you something. By the way, I ordered another copy of the book in out of print library edition to add to my collection. Great Book! Great Read! Don't get old without it!

The research findings reported in Successful Aging have been supported in a new 20-year study by an independent group of researchers. The study by Becca Levy of Yale Univerisity, et al, was reported in 2002. Simply stated, we can decide now to live longer and better. Having a positive attitude about aging is alone responsible for extending life by 7.5 years, and years of activity and involvment, not suffering. This is a very worthwhile read, despite what some stupid old fools have written before.