When I search the Transport sections of bookstores for a decent book on traffic I am usually disappointed. The shelves are usually full of books on each individual model of motor car... and not much else. Not a single one details the risks which these autos present. "Autogeddon" was therefore a rare find.

This book answered two questions which I had been asking for some time, namely; how many people have been killed globally by the automobile, and what is the annual death rate in traffic accidents? "Autogeddon" put the figure at 17 million people dead (at the time this book was written), and people are being killed at the rate of 500,000 per annum. According to the World Health Organization the number is now 25 million dead ........and counting. The number may be far higher when premature deaths due to pollution from traffic are included.

"Autogeddon" by Heathcote Williams is a brilliant poetic diatribe on the havoc which cars can cause but it offers no solutions to the problem. "Risk" another excellent book on traffic accidents analyses in detail why we take the risks which cause this havoc, but equally offers no complete solutions.

"The Joy of Motion" by John B. Gilmore goes a step further and offers a solution to the problems of transport which allows us to take risks and enjoy the thrill of motion at the same time. ...

I won't bother to review Dante's "Divine Comedy". The fact that it has withstood the test of time, and its depicitions of heaven and hell have become ingrained into our mythology, reveal far more than anything I could say.

This translation, however, was simply too difficult to read. It was too full of "thees" and "thous", and quite frankly did not flow at all. Reading it was a real struggle for me. The annotation and Canto introductions, however, were very helpful, and gave me a better picture of what Dante was saying than the actual text itself. The book also has the advantage of being compact (all three parts in one average-sized book), and reasonably priced.

However, I would recommend searching for a translation written in a more modern style, so that Dante's message isn't obscured in a linguistic haze. What he said was too important to be lost in a struggle with the langauge.

Dante's "The Divine Comedy" is an allegory of the range of human potential from the depths of sin to the heights of grace, and the journey a man must take -- that is, the way he should live his life -- to make himself worthy of the ultimate rewards of Heaven. In a way, it contains the prototypical visions of the afterlife, images of heavenly and hellish realms that would remain definitive and powerful to centuries of readers. Structurally, it is a poem divided into three parts: Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Heaven). The protagonist, Dante himself, must travel through these three realms in order to reach God, the ultimate beatitude.

The poem begins with Dante lost in the woods, like a man who lacks spiritual guidance or is uncertain how to live his life. He is approached by the Roman poet Virgil, who offers to lead him out of the wilderness. They have to travel down through the depths of Hell and face Satan himself (Inferno) before they can escape to the outside world and scale the mountain of Purgatory (Purgatorio), at the top of which is situated the Garden of Eden, where Beatrice, Dante's earthly love, will guide him up through the celestial spheres towards Heaven (Paradiso).

Dante's great inspiration is his concept of the physical and spiritual aspects of these realms. Hell is composed of nine circles arranged in an inverted cone, each circle representing a mortal sin such as violence, theft, treason, witchcraft, blasphemy, suicide, heresy, etc., in which souls who committed these sins in their lifetimes are punished. Even the topmost circle is a sort of Limbo reserved for pre-Christians like Virgil himself, pagans and the unbaptized. Having envisioned this infernal masterpiece, Dante could be considered Hell's greatest architect.

The mountain of Purgatory consists of seven terraces, each representing some corrigible sin like envy, pride, anger, etc., on which souls who committed these sins in their lifetimes do penance. The Garden of Eden represents living man's ideal state of existence, that of perfect wisdom and nearness to God. Admission to the Garden of Eden must be earned by doing penance for earthly sins, hence Purgatory. In the Paradiso, the celestial spheres, each representing a virtue (ambition, love, prudence, fortitude, etc.), consist of the moon, the inner and outer planets, the sun (based on the Ptolemaic model of the solar system), and finally Heaven, wherein dwell God and all angels.

The poem could be considered a morality tale or a series of object lessons, but it's a little more purely narrative than that, given its creative illustration of the hierarchy of souls and its effortless synergy of classical Greco-Roman mythology and Christian theology. It is an essential Medieval literary landmark, and it is difficult to imagine how European literature would have evolved without it.

Dante, with the Divine Comedy, has produced a work that has endured for centuries and influenced many of the greatest Renaissance thinkers. This is quite a testament to his abilities. The Divine Comedy is divided into three basic sections: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Dante begins his travels in hell. Guided by the Latin poet Virgil, he sees kings, monks, popes, and an assortment of other people, all of whom are tormented in ways fitting the level and type of their sins. After leaving hell, he continues to the mountain of Purgatory. Here he encounters those souls who must be purged of their sinfulness in order to reach heaven. Finally, he enters into Paradise, where the lovely Beatrice now guides him. He travels through the seven planetary heavens (an interesting note on the science of Dante's time) where he dialogues with the Saints, beholds the radiance and glory of the Triune God and is told the mysteries of Heaven. Dante presents his poem with vividness and great detail allowing the reader to comprehend the horrors of Hell and the otherworldly beauty of Paradise.

I particularly enjoyed reading about the many colorful people he encounters on his journey. It is interesting to see the people he puts in hell, purgatory, and paradise and to hear their stories. Many are famous historical figures. His comedy has many examples of allegory, prophecy and even theology. He tackles issues such as the Atonement, divine justice, and free will. The story includes many references to both classical pagan stories (e.g. Greek mythology) and Christian writings (e.g. Thomas Aquinas). The only downside (in my opinion anyway) is that Dante devotes too much time to philosophical discussions relating to Aristotle, who was popular with nearly every prominent medieval thinker. These discussions slow the pace of the poem at times.

This particular edition contains all three parts of the comedy and is unabridged. The low price is a plus too. It is in prose, although the language is pretty stilted. It uses "thees" an "thous," for example. This is not necessarily bad because it makes the story quite dignified, but some of the sentences can be very difficult to understand. Here is an example: "Thy kindliness not only succoreth whoso requesteth, but doth oftentimes freely forerun request." Fortunately, there are long introductions that summarize each chapter (canto) and numerous endnotes, which explain in detail the people, places, things, and ideas of Dante's work. Overall, I highly recommend the Divine Comedy to every reader, especially for those interested in medieval literature. Still, you may want to find another edition.

Although I'm not much of a horror fan, I decided to read Dracula since it was considered a classic and was hopefully pretty good. I'm glad I read it. It was a very interesting story. It wasn't what I was expecting. The whole novel is written as if you're reading someone's diary, telegram or news article. It starts with Jonathan Harker(a lawyer if I remember correctly) who is summoned to Count Dracula's castle to help Dracula obtain a home in London. He soon realizes Dracula is no ordinary man, but some kind of beast. This section takes about 1/4 of the book and then, after some deaths surrounded with unusual and frightening circumstances, Jonathan, along with some other interesting characters commit to not only prevent Dracula's move to London, but to kill him. This book was interesting in the fact that it was almost as if Dracula is not the main character of the novel, and I suppose in some ways, he's not. The book focuses much more on this group of people's attempts to hinder Dracula's actions and to cause his demise. Also, I liked reading the book and discovering the original story behind Dracula, not just all of the spoofs and parodies one sees today. I liked finding out that besides not liking garlic, crosses and sunlight, vampires also can't pass running water and can turn into wolves as well as bats. Although I can't say I was ever particularly scared reading this novel(probably because I don't really believe in vampires), I did find this novel to be very good, especially considering horror isn't one of the genres I'm particularly fond of. I definitely think it's worth picking up this book and reading it.

Everyone knows the name "Dracula," but the majority have only seen the legendary Transylvanian Count on the silver screen or through pop culture; few indeed have actually read the work that started it all.

One cannot claim to be a fan of vampire literature or of Dracula himself without having read Bram Stoker's tremendous work of gothic horror. Think that Dracula and other vampires can't be out in daylight? Wrong--they simply have no powers during the day, which you'd know if you read this extraordinary book.

Written in epistolary form (that is, as a series of letters and diary entries), the story is presented from the viewpoints of the main characters, from Jonathan Harker to his wife Mina to Dr. van Helsing. Rather than detracting from the story, this format breaks up what would otherwise be a rather long manuscript into manageable chunks and adds to the historical character of the novel.

Modern film interpretations have presented Stoker's story through the eyes of each producer, director, and screenwriter, with nearly all making wholesale changes--Mina Harker, for instance, is NOT the reborn lost love of Count Dracula as Francis Ford Coppola would have us believe. Many others who have "read" Dracula have done so through abridged texts that distort the story through omission. Pick up and read the story that started it all in its intended format... Bram Stoker's Dracula. You won't regret it.

One of the scariest books in history, DRACULA is nevertheless misunderstood. Our civilization is removed from the Victorian era. We think of it as somehow distant and quaint, and ourselves as modern. But when Bram Stoker published DRACULA in 1897, the Victorian era _was_ modern. Stoker meant to make the book more frightening than most books by bringing an ancient horror into a modern, anti-superstitious world. He uses typewriters and phonograph disks the way a modern writer would refer to the internet and e-mail. DRACULA's first readers might've looked out of their town or country houses and expected to see Dracula's gaunt figure emerging through the fog.

He tells the story through a series of diaries, letters, clippings. Normally this is an unweildy method of storytelling, but in this case it is most effective.

The novel is divided into three broad sections. In the first, young Jonathan Harker and Dracula have the stage almost alone. Though Harker's diary we learn details of his journey through eastern Europe to meet a Count who wants to travel to England, and Harker carries him certain important papers. Count Dracula's character comes across very strong and well-defined, and grows ever menacing as Harker slowly learns he is not going to be allowed back to England, but will become food for Dracula's vampiric harem.

The second part of the book, set in England, deals with Mina Murray, who is going to marry Jonathan; Mina's friend Lucy; three men who are in love with Lucy; and a good-hearted but mysterious Ductch doctor, Abraham van Helsing. The bulk of this part deals with Lucy's mysterious disease, her decline to death, and her transformation into a vampire that her suitors must destroy out of love. Dracula appears only fleetingly through the book, but the reader knows what happens, and suspects the cause of Lucy's decline.

In the last part, Jonathan, Mina, and Lucy's three lovers band with Dr. von Helsing in a pact to destroy Dracula before he can spread his contagion throughout England; and meanwhile, Dracula wreaks his vengeance on them for taking Lucy from him.

Stoker uses many ways of approaching his subject. Occasionally the horror is direct; but once it is established, he makes it subtle, working behind the scenes, in a way that may be even more frightening. Though he also uses different voices, his prose is invariably fine. And as each character has to overcome his aversion to ancient superstition and face Dracula with a mind open to the fact that there's more in the world than science and technology and late-Victorian materialism can contain, the book becomes eerily meaningful for the twenty-first century.

Modern purveyors of vampiric fiction dispense with the blatant Christian symbolism used to fight Dracula's ilk, such as a crucifix or sanctified host, or prayer. They also turn the evil of Dracula topsy-turvey and somehow invent sympathy for soulless monsters who view living humans as food. Stoker doesn't hesitate to show Dracula as an evil, totalitarian horror; as a contagion that must be eradicated; as an enslaver of women, like Lucy, and men, like poor Renfield. And Stoker has reason enough to realized that only Supernatural agencies could fight the supernatural. The saving Blood of Christ on the Cross, blood of which a soulless terror like Dracula cannot drink, is the most effective symbol for fighting and defeating this brand of evil. It was part of the novel's consistency that as the characters have to come to grips with the reality of ancient evil, they must also return to the symbols of good that they also have rejected in a narrow-minded embracing of the modern.

Dracula, the strongest character in Victorian fiction, does not weaken himself by the need to be "understood" or "pitied". He will destroy or be destroyed. And the worst destruction that could happen to him would be mitigation.

DRACULA may be the scariest book ever written; it's certainly the best of the classic horror stories. It's well-crafted and exquisitely constructed enough that it stands as a great novel even without genre pigeonholing.

With three first-rate actors at its disposal, Naxos Audiobooks could have created a lively and compelling examination of Buddhist philosophy. Unfortunately, not enough time is spent quoting from the original source material, thus drawing from its rich, innately dramatic quality. Instead, we have what is basically an essay by Naxos producer Duncan Steen (under the pseudonym Jinananda) on the basics of Buddhist thought. This essay is divided into three parts, focusing on the Buddha's life, on his teachings and, finally, on the teachings and religious practices of his followers. Occasionally, a brief passage from Buddhist lore is dramatically read by the fine cast, and the recording comes brilliantly to life. More of this would have made a five star album that would repay frequent listenings. As it is, Steen's commentary, though lucid and thoughtful, comes off like a reading of an encyclopedia article, without an encyclopedia's documentary authority. Steen should have trusted his sources and his cast more.

Being largely ignorant of the religion, I always found Buddhism to be little more than an odd philosophy masked as psuedo-religion. I bought the CD so that I could get a quick rundown of the the religion for my Easter Religion class (Religion 102). What I ended up doing after listening the the CD a few times was absorbing more literature on buddhism, and I have now converted. The CD was compelling--and it is so without sounding or being a overzealous propaganda recruiting tool. Loved it.

I never knew what's Buddhism is about. Well, may be common knowing: re-incarnation, white clothes and Buddha was a king. My friend gave it to me. I listened it in my car for 3 month, from work to home, every day. Especially the second CD - Dharma, to me is a teaching. This set simply changed my life. I recommend it for anyone who is in any stage of life. Stop, realize and stop the drama of your life. Today I've read many other books, scripts and famous Buddhist works, but this will be always favorite.