My only regret is that this book is out-of-print; however, if one is planning a ski vacation anywhere in the Alps, this book is priceless. Claire Walter, of Skiing Magazine, lists ski areas for each country as a chapter. Each area is decribed succintly including statistics and trail maps. Each resort is rated from 1 to 10 for snow and skiing conditions,apres-ski, other sports and value for money. The pictures of each resort area make one drool! We have used it 4 times and it works. Pray for a new publication of this guide.

Library Journal's review of this guide: "Combining encyclopedic coverage of destinations with loads of practical information and atlas-type maps, the series illuminates the wonders of nature but emphasizes the peculiarity of a place's people and their folklore."

I own a lot of summer and winter trail guides, and this is one of the best. It's quality and quantity, with dozens of trails all over the state, and also tours, races and even a few tips on cool places to eat and stay. It has maps showing the trailhead locations, but I wish it had topos too. Oh well, you can't have everything--and topos are the only thing missing here.

It is the only book I've seen of its kind. The info. is great. The maps are useless. It could use to have its section on deals on lift tickets (and the like) beefed up.

If you are a ski fan (like me), and you are eager to ski in great West Coast ski resorts in California, Colorado, and Utah -- look no more. You get this book and you have all the information you need for a few years.

Gets to the meat of the subject quickly. An easy breakdown of the mountain by ability levels and recommended places to eat and sleep. 1 drawback are the shadowy trail maps.

I need an intro book on fitness that covers all the basis well, and in the bookstore it quickly came down to the Dummies book vs. the Idiots.

Similar quality contents on both sides, and the Dummies has a cleaner layout. But I ultimately chose the Idiots for the following reasons:

* The Idiots has a whole chapter on Martial Arts, where Dummies has no coverage at all. It also goes over jazz and a few other dance forms. This is very important to me as I consider the usual machine-based workout too soulless.

* I did not notice this myself, but the editorial pointed out a very important area - how to prevent injuries. The topic is not addressed in the Dummies as far as I can tell from the online TOC.

If you want to begin exercising but don't know where to start, this easy-to-use book can help you sort out different kinds of exercises. It covers all kinds of aerobic activities, weight training, stretching, walking and running, sports for fitness, and is realistic about all the fads that come along. The book talks about the importance good nutrition and stress management, but it doesn't dwell on these subjects. It also gives some information about injuries, a subject that most fitness books avoid. If you have just one fitness book on your shelf, this is a good one.

Waverley, Walter Scott's first successful novel, concerns Edward Waverley, the scion of a noble, landed family in England. He's a Romantic young man, in the formal sense of belonging to the Romantic movement and in temperament--the relative ease of his life and his passionate dilettantishness land him, eventually, in the service of the Jacobites during the rebellion of 1745. He discovers the wild landscapes of the Scottish Highlands, the curious manners of the Highland folk, and learns that life and war are not exactly like all those romantic books about adventure and glory he loves to read.

Scott's book can be interpreted as a critique of the Romantic temperament, and I think the book succeeds best when it contrasts reality with the puffed-up imaginings of Edward Waverley's literature-addled perception. He is not quite Don Quixote, according to Scott, but he suffers from a milder version of the same disease; the most amusing parts of the book center around Waverley's naivete toward battle, ceremony, and love. He is feckless, to be sure, and abysmally undisciplined--but he is a decent fellow in the end, and learns from his mistakes. The people that populate Scott's novel are generally civilized, noble, and upright people, even the fierce rebels; while Scott doesn't approve of rebellion, the rebels are portrayed as misguided at worst, and of equal nobility to the English at best. Scott's purpose was to peer into the world "sixty years since" his own time, and helped give birth to the historical novel. It has confusing and near-unreadable parts (especially when the pedantic Baron shows up), but as a historical novel, it certainly sets the template for all other books of its type to come.

The first several chapters were a bit slow. But once Edward Waverley goes to Scotland, the story picks up. I enjoyed Scott's romantic portrayal of Scotland and, as someone who's not much of a student of history, I also liked learning a little about the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. But most enjoyable was watching the maturation of Edward Waverley. He begins his adventures as a young dreamer whose passivity and romantic notions allow him to be swept into the Jacobite uprising on the side of the rebels. But adversity teaches Edward a sense of responsibility and the value of a realistic outlook. The ending of the novel is almost too neat and satisfying, but through it Scott reconciles the novel's divisions - romanticism and realism, Scotsman and Englishman and the old world, so attractive to Scott but which was speedily disappearing, with the new world and the stability and order it represents.

With Waverly, Sir Walter Scott virtually invented the historical novel. The story is based around mostly fictional characters that participate in the Jacobite uprising in 1745 in Scotland. It's also the story of friendships, courage, divided loyalties and of course love. Edward Waverly, the hero gets unwittingly caught up and swept along in a marvelous drama in which he comes of age. As the book progressed I also found myself getting more caught up in the novel and its characters. For me, that's the mark of a very good book.

Both the author and editor's notes were very helpful and I used them often.

Enjoy!

The book was too simple for my tastes. I have been skiing for about a year and most of the information was way below my "beginner" level. There is really very very little information on actual skiing. The book basically covers the snow plow and simple turns as related to your ski lessons. There were some interesting tidbits in the book but on the whole I found it very lacking. If you have never ever been skiing and know absolutely nothing about it then the book might be helpful....but if you have skiied once in your life I don't think it will be that much more helpful.

I've been skiing for a long time, so I don't need this book, but I think it's great for new skiers. I've given it to a couple of beginners and people who said they wanted to try skiing. It covers all the basics--clearly and succinctly--but it doesn't overload new skiers with more information than they need.

Excellent book for someone who has never skied and is not used to snow activities.

All the basics are in there, not aiming to replace a real ski class. The author fully achieved the goal proposed.

At the beginning, Scuba diving is full of mysteries. The equipment, the physiology, the underwater world all seem complicated. This book sorts out what beginners need to know--especially women who approach new sports differently than men. I'd recommend this for any woman starting to dive.

A tough read but the book is particularily rewarding for the notes in the back. They give a great overview of the life and times of the characters.

The note's while being very thorough can be a little convoluted. At least twice I was refererred to notes on notes on notes!!

Sir Walter Scott's 1818 novel, "The Heart of Mid-Lothian" deals with events in the lives of the Deans family from 1736 to the early 1750's. The novel begins with the 1736 Porteous riots, in which disgruntled citizens of Edinburgh storm the local prison to take revenge on a needlessly cruel official. With Anglo-Scottish relations in a tailspin and Queen Caroline levying a rash of punishments against Edinburgh in the background, the action of "Mid-Lothian" commences.

The principle heroes of the novel are Jeanie Deans and her longtime suitor, Reuben Butler. The two rustic born youths are from differently oriented Presbyterian ancestry - their parents' religious differences force an almost interminable delay in the progress of their affections. Butler's extensive formal and ministerial education notwithstanding, his financial position is such that he cannot comfortably propose a union to Jeanie's father. Further complication arises when Jeanie's younger and more impulsive half-sister, Effie, is seduced and later accused of murdering her child. The majority of the novel details Jeanie's attempts to question the impropriety of the judgement against her sister, and her interactions with the world outside of provincial northern Scotland.

As always, Scott deals with a range of social, economic, political, and legal issues. Among these in "Mid-Lothian" is the right of the Scottish to control their own internal disputes - are Scottish law and British law compatible? On a related tip, the novel calls into question whether the governors of the people have sufficient sympathy with and understanding of all the people they govern. Scott also examines the nature of language - with plain English, various Scottish dialects, and quotations from classical Latin and the Bible - the characters in the novel often have to understand each other before they can adequately communicate.

"Mid-Lothian" has a number of quirky and interesting minor characters: from the soft-spoken, yet intently-staring Dumbiedikes, to the hardline theologian-father David Deans, to the rake George Robertson, to the tragically mysterious Madge Wildfire, to the courtly, wistful Duke of Argyle. These minor characters add substance, humor, and diversity to Scott's intricate plot. In "The Heart of Mid-Lothian," Jeanie Deans, an unpretentious young woman, takes on a world beyond the enclosed experience of her home, bearing the troubles of her family, her community, and her nation on her back. The result is a great, if sometimes gregarious novel which you will certainly enjoy.

No much more than a compilation of generally available information. Was hoping for reviews, tips, insight, etc.

This book is a little out of date now, but it includes all the basics we needed to plan our ski trip. We wanted to do a road trip through several Western states, and with the information in this book, we were able to plan where to go and where to stay without breaking the bank. It helped us balance our trip between big resorts that everybody knows about a little resorts that we hadn't even heard about.