Average customer rating:
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Nitrogen Fixing Organisms: Pure and Applied Aspects
Janet I. Sprent , and
Peter Sprent
Manufacturer: Chapman & Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Biotechnology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Molecular Biology
| Biology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Bacteriology
| Agricultural Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Biotechnology
| Bioengineering
| Engineering
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0412346907 |
Book Description
Shine your best half-smile on Mona, transport youself to the hill town Van Gogh loved best, play once-upon-a-time at Sleeping Beauty's castle, sniff out a truffle workshop with Provence's finest food critic, buy a grape work of art at a Bordeaux winery —Fodor's France 2005 offers all these experiences and more! Our local writers have traveled throughout the cities and countryside, to find the best hotels, restaurants, attractions and activities to prepare you for a journey of stunning variety. Before you leave for your trip, be sure to pack your Fodor's guide to ensure you don't miss a thing.
The San Francisco Chronicle sums it up best —"Fodor's guides are saturated with information."
-New compact trim size make these guides even more portable
-Two-color interior design makes it easier to find the information you need
-Fodor's Choice Ratings flag must-see sights and hidden treasures
-Hotel and restaurant reviews cover all budgets
-Plus multi-day itineraries to help you build the right trip for you and/or your family
Customer Reviews:
You're Going To Love France!.......2005-07-07
I've made >20 visits to France all together. Here are my reviews of the best guides....to meet you r exact needs.....I hope these are helpful and that you have a great visit! I always gauge the quality of my visit by how much I remember a year later......this review is designed to help you get the guide that will be sure YOU remember your trip many years into the future. Travel Safe and enjoy yourself to the max!
Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet has City and Out To Eat Guides. They are all about the experience so they focus on doing, being, getting there, and this means they have the best detailed information, including both inexpensive and really spectacular restaurants and hotels, out-of-the-way places, weird things to see and do, the list is endless.
Blue Guides
Without doubt, the best of the walks guides.... the Blue Guide has been around since 1918 and has extremely well designed walks with lots of unique little side stops to hit on just about any interest you have. If you want to pick up the feel of the city, this is the best book to do that for you. This is one that you end up packing on your 10th trip, by which time it is well worn.
MapGuide
MapGuide is very easy to use and has the best location information for hotels, tourist attractions, museums, churches etc. that they manage to keep fairly up to date. It's great for teaching you how to use the Metro. The text sections are quick overviews, not reviews, but the strong suite here is brevity, not depth. I strongly recommend this for your first few times learning your way around the classic tourist sites and experiences. MapGuide is excellent as long as you are staying pretty much in the center of the city.
Time Out
The Time Out guides are very good. Easy reading, short reviews of restaurants, hotels, and other sites, with good public transport maps that go beyond the city centre. Many people who buy more than one guidebook end up liking this one best!
Let's Go
Let's Go is a great guide series that specializes in the niche interest details that turn a trip into a great and memorable experience. Started by and for college students, these guides are famous for the details provided by people who used the book the previous year. They continue to focus on providing a great experience inexpensively. If you want to know about the top restaurants, this is not for you (use Fodor's or Michelin). Let's Go does have a bewildering array of different guides though. Here's which is what:
Budget Guide is the main guide with incredibly detailed information and reviews on everything you can think of.
City Guide is just as intense but restricted to the single city.
PocketGuide is even smaller and features condensed information
MapGuide's are very good maps with public transportation and some other information (like museum hours, etc.)
Michelin
Famous for their quality reviews, the Red Michelin Guides are for hotels & Restaurants, the Green Michelin Guides are for main tourist destinations. However, the English language Green guide is the one most people use and it has now been supplemented with hotel and restaurant information. These are the serious review guides as the famous Michelin ratings are issued via these books.
Fodor's
Fodor's is the best selling guide among Americans. They have a bewildering array of different guides. Here's which is what:
The Gold Guide is the main book with good reviews of everything and lots of tours, walks, and just about everything else you could think of. It's not called the Gold guide for nothing though....it assumes you have money and are willing to spend it.
SeeIt! is a concise guide that extracts the most popular items from the Gold Guide
PocketGuide is designed for a quick first visit
UpCLOSE for independent travel that is cheap and well thought out
CityPack is a plastic pocket map with some guide information
Exploring is for cultural interests, lots of photos and designed to supplement the Gold guide
Book Description
Find a hidden gem in the Western world's greatest art collection, nab a seat at the existentialists' favorite café, wander the most bohemian streets, inhale the aroma of the biggest cheese tray, or hit one of the last authentic cabarets —Fodor's Paris 2005 offers all these experiences and more! Our local writers have explored Paris, to find the best hotels, restaurants, attractions and activities to prepare you for a journey of stunning variety. Before you leave for Paris, be sure to pack your Fodor's guide to ensure you don't miss a thing.
The San Francisco Chronicle sums it up best —"Fodor's guides are saturated with information."
-New compact trim size make these guides even more portable
-Two-color interior design makes it easier to find the information you need
-Fodor's Choice Ratings flag must-see sights and hidden treasures
-Hotel and restaurant reviews cover all budgets
-Plus multi-day itineraries to help you build the right trip for you and/or your family
Customer Reviews:
Another great book from Fodor's..........2005-01-21
Once again, Fodor's puts out a great all-around travel guide. Fodor's divides its books into easy-to-use sections about everything-you-need-to-know-about-Paris-but-were-afraid-to-ask: the beginning section covers the practicalities of traveling to another countries (NO NEED TO TIP). The chapters are as follows:
EXPLORING PARIS: The city is divided into sections. Suggested walks are given with maps of the area and detailed descriptions of the sights.
WHERE TO EAT
WHERE TO STAY: Maps are also provided for both of these.
NIGHTLIFE & THE ARTS
SPORTS & THE OUTDOORS
SHOPPING
SIDE TRIPS FROM PARIS
UNDERSTANDING PARIS
I found this to be an indispensable guide to finding my way around a city I've never been to before. Especially helpful was the suggested walks for seeing Paris in five days. This book also covers Versailles and other Paris side trips. The "Fodor's Choices" at the beginning list the top places to visit in the city.
BEWARE: Fodor's lists "budget lodging" and "budget restaurants." I found that - especially with the current exchange rates - even the "budget" hotels, restaurants, and cafes to be a bit on the expensive side. If you really need to economize for a place to stay, you may need to do some additional internet searching.
You're going to LOVE PARIS! .......2004-10-24
I've made >20 visits to France all together. Here are my reviews of the best guides....to meet your exact needs.....I hope these are helpful and that you have a great visit! I always gauge the quality of my visit by how much I remember a year later......this review is designed to help you get the guide that will be sure YOU remember your trip many years into the future. Travel Safe and enjoy yourself to the max!
Fodor's
Fodor's is the best selling guide among Americans. They have a bewildering array of different guides. Here's which is what:
The Gold Guide is the main book with good reviews of everything and lots of tours, walks, and just about everything else you could think of. It's not called the Gold guide for nothing though....it assumes you have money and are willing to spend it.
SeeIt! is a concise guide that extracts the most popular items from the Gold Guide
PocketGuide is designed for a quick first visit
UpCLOSE for independent travel that is cheap and well thought out
CityPack is a plastic pocket map with some guide information
Exploring is for cultural interests, lots of photos and designed to supplement the Gold guide
Michelin
Famous for their quality reviews, the Red Michelin Guides are for hotels & Restaurants, the Green Michelin Guides are for main tourist destinations. However, the English language Green guide is the one most people use and it has now been supplemented with hotel and restaurant information. These are the serious review guides as the famous Michelin ratings are issued via these books.
MapGuide
MapGuide is very easy to use and has the best location information for hotels, tourist attractions, museums, churches etc. that they manage to keep fairly up to date. It's great for teaching you how to use the Metro. The text sections are quick overviews, not reviews, but the strong suite here is brevity, not depth. I strongly recommend this for your first few times learning your way around the classic tourist sites and experiences. MapGuide is excellent as long as you are staying pretty much in the center of the city.
Time Out
The Time Out guides are very good. Easy reading, short reviews of restaurants, hotels, and other sites, with good public transport maps that go beyond the city centre. Many people who buy more than one guidebook end up liking this one best!
Blue Guides
Without doubt, the best of the walks guides.... the Blue Guide has been around since 1918 and has extremely well designed walks with lots of unique little side stops to hit on just about any interest you have. If you want to pick up the feel of the city, this is the best book to do that for you. This is one that you end up packing on your 10th trip, by which time it is well worn.
Let's Go
Let's Go is a great guide series that specializes in the niche interest details that turn a trip into a great and memorable experience. Started by and for college students, these guides are famous for the details provided by people who used the book the previous year. They continue to focus on providing a great experience inexpensively. If you want to know about the top restaurants, this is not for you (use Fodor's or Michelin). Let's Go does have a bewildering array of different guides though. Here's which is what:
Budget Guide is the main guide with incredibly detailed information and reviews on everything you can think of.
City Guide is just as intense but restricted to the single city.
PocketGuide is even smaller and features condensed information
MapGuide's are very good maps with public transportation and some other information (like museum hours, etc.)
Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet has City and Out To Eat Guides. They are all about the experience so they focus on doing, being, getting there, and this means they have the best detailed information, including both inexpensive and really spectacular restaurants and hotels, out-of-the-way places, weird things to see and do, the list is endless.
Frommer's
These are time tested guides that pride themselves on being updated annually. Although I think the guides below provide information that is in more depth or more concise (depending on what the guide is known for), if your main concern is that the guide has very little old or outdated information, then this would be a good guide for you.
Rick Steves' books are not recommended. They may be an interesting read but their helpfulness is very poor. They don't do well on updates, transportation details, or anything but the first-time-tourist routine and even that is somewhat superficial on anything but the mega-major sites.
Average customer rating:
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South Carolina Jography (The South Carolina Experience)
Carole Marsh , and
Kathy Zimmer
Manufacturer: Gallopade International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
History
| Subjects
| Books
| Africa
| Americas
| Ancient
| Arctic & Antarctica
| Asia
| Audiobooks
| Australia & Oceania
| Europe
| Gay & Lesbian
| Historical Study
| Large Print
| Middle East
| Military
| Military Science
| Russia
| United States
| World
General
| History & Historical Fiction
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Questions & Answers
| Games
| Sports & Activities
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 4-8
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 4-8
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| History & Historical Fiction
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Questions & Answers
| Games
| Sports & Activities
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0793398398 |
Book Description
Statistics say most kids know less geography than ever - don't let that apply to your students! Start by making sure kids know the main places & geographic features in their own state. Give them activities that pretend they are taking a cross-state bike tour, using free football game passes, jogging through the state, etc. - & they'll find their way around in a hurry! Geography activities include info on South Carolina counties, rivers, museums, historic places, sites of interest, colleges, bordering states, climate, topography, crops and more, all ready to reproduce! Approximately 30 activities and 200 geography-related places and facts are covered. Students work alone or in groups and use maps, reference books or resource people to complete challenging riddles, matching games, word searches, fill-in lists, scavenger hunts, and completion exercises that reinforce learning, sharpen research skills, and provide a lively introduction to South Carolina. Free teacher's guide gives specific suggestions and instructions on how to get max educational value from this book. Geography is critical - make learning it fun!
Average customer rating:
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Norman Foster Sketch Book
Norman Foster
Manufacturer: Birkhauser (Architectural)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0817628371 |
Average customer rating:
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Sketches
Norman Foster
Manufacturer: Birkhauser Verlag AG
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Drawing
| Instructional & How-To
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 3764325461 |
Customer Reviews:
excelent book!!!.......1999-03-31
i've just reviewed this book and i think this book can enhanced the technical of sketching. Step by step we can learn more about sketching by the author.
Average customer rating:
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Norman Foster: Sketches
Manufacturer: Birkhauser
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Drawing
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Drawing
| Instructional & How-To
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0817625461 |
Book Description
At last, a book to kick-off your hobby as a Koi-keeper. From how to build a Koi pond to choosing breeding stock, Koi: An Owner's Guide to a Happy Healthy Fish, provides the answers. You'll learn how to choose from the many pond materials on the market, how big your pond needs to be and where to place it in your yard. You'll also learn where to buy your fish, how to select healthy specimens and how to feed them to keep them in top form.
Koi: An Owner's Guide To A Happy Healthy Fish gets you started in identifying the many different types of Koi and acquaints you with the many Japanese terms you will need to understand when purchasing fish. Sidebars filled with interesting facts and exceptional color photos make this book easy to read and a visual delight.
Customer Reviews:
Beggining koi book.......2000-06-29
this book is very helpful in giving a begginers look at koi keeping. it gives information about all sorts of things including informationg on breeding, feeding, classification, deiseases and their cures, pond maintenance, and just some basic information that helps give an idea of what koi keeping is like.
I gave this book four stares because i feel that people with limited experience will like tis book but people with extensive koi knowledge will not find rthis book helpful. Regardless this is a book that should be in everyones books shelf.
Book Description
America’s #1 consumer advocate for coin hobbyists, collectors, and investors is Scott Travers. His mission is to make sure you never fall prey to unscrupulous buyers or sellers. Now he has created a guide that provides comprehensive facts on all U.S. coins, advice on collecting trends, and a complete listing of the fair market value for your coins today. Plus, he teaches you to be the expert with information on:
• Understanding coin grades and what they mean in dollars and cents for collectors
• The advantages of a “certified coin” from a grading service
• Essential specifications—diameter, weight, composition, edge, and designers—for popular U.S. coins
• Comprehensive listings of coin periodicals
THE MOST COMPLETE AND CURRENT PRICE GUIDE ON THE MARKET TODAY!
Book Description
America’s #1 consumer advocate for coin hobbyists, collectors, and investors is Scott Travers. His mission is to make sure you never fall prey to unscrupulous buyers or sellers. Now he has created a guide that provides comprehensive facts on all U.S. coins, advice on collecting trends, and a complete listing of the fair market value for your coins today. Plus, he teaches you to be the expert with information on:
- Understanding coin grades and what they mean in dollars and cents for collectors
- The advantages of a “certified coin” from a grading service
- Essential specifications–diameter, weight, composition, edge, and designers–for popular U.S. coins
- Comprehensive listings of coin periodicals
The most complete and current price guide on the market today!
Book Description
America’s #1 consumer advocate for coin hobbyists, collectors, and investors is Scott Travers. His mission is to make sure you never fall prey to unscrupulous buyers or sellers. Now he has created a guide that provides comprehensive facts on all U.S. coins, advice on collecting trends, and a complete listing of the fair market value for your coins today. Plus, he teaches you to be the expert with information on:
• Understanding coin grades and what they mean in dollars and cents for collectors
• The advantages of a “certified coin” from a grading service
• Essential specifications—diameter, weight, composition, edge, and designers—for popular U.S. coins
• Comprehensive listings of coin periodicals
THE MOST COMPLETE AND CURRENT PRICE GUIDE ON THE MARKET TODAY!
Average customer rating:
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1994 Insider's Guide
Scott A. Travers
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Coins & Medals
| Antiques & Collectibles
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Antiques & Collectibles
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0440217385
Release Date: 1993-12-03 |
Customer Reviews:
The Insiders Guide to U.S. Coin Values 2000.......2000-07-06
This book is great. It is loaded with important information for beginning and experienced coin collectors. It is mainly actual value tables for all US coins in addition to fantastic explanation of coin collecting terms and basic information about coin collecting.
Average customer rating:
- The Essence of The Insiders Guide To U.S. Coin Values
- This book is great for everyone...beginner to expert.
|
INSIDER'S GUIDE TO U.S. COIN VALUES 1998 (Insider's Guide to U.S. Coin Values)
Scott A. Travers
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Coins & Medals
| Antiques & Collectibles
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Antiques & Collectibles
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Crafts & Hobbies
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 044022568X
Release Date: 1997-12-01 |
Book Description
From the only expert hobbyists and investors can trust ... The most up-to-date, comprehensive coin book in America
• Current 2002 fair market value for all U.S. coins
• Insider’s information for the best deals in buying and selling
• Over 200 clear, authoritative photos
Don’t be overcharged when you buy. Don’t be shortchanged when you sell.
America’s #1 consumer advocate for coin hobbyists, collectors, and investors is Scott Travers. His mission is to make sure you never fall prey to unscrupulous buyers or sellers. Now he has created a guide that provides comprehensive facts on all U.S. coins, advice on collecting trends, and a complete listing of the fair market value for your coins today. Plus, he teaches you to be the expert with information on:
• Understanding coin grades and what they mean in dollars and cents for collectors
• The advantages of a “certified coin” from a grading service
• Essential specifications — diameter, weight, composition, edge, and designers — for popular U.S. coins
• Comprehensive listings of coin periodicals
The most complete and current price guide on the market today!
Customer Reviews:
The Essence of The Insiders Guide To U.S. Coin Values.......2000-12-31
Well, i think any, and i mean any recent or long time collector of coins should read this book is because if you want to know anything about coins like how many mints has there been, or why you shouldn't ever clean your coins this is the perfect book for you. It is also the most up-to-date coin book you will ever find because it has the most recent coin listings ever!
This book is great for everyone...beginner to expert........1998-09-21
I am new to coin collecting but found this book easy to understand. It is categorized in a manner that is easy to follow. I would reccommend anyone looking to evaluate their own collection or someone else's purchase this book
Book Description
Natural Garden 0-517-550466
Average customer rating:
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Eighty Great Natural Garden Plants (Ken Druse's Natural Garden Guides)
Ken Druse
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Flowers
| Gardening & Horticulture
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Garden Design
| Gardening & Horticulture
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Gardening & Horticulture
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
By Plant
| Gardening & Horticulture
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
| Begonias
| Berries
| Bonsai
| Cacti
| Citrus Trees
| Clematis
| Dahlias
| Ferns
| Grapes
| Grasses
| Greens
| Hostas
| Hydrangeas
| Irises
| Lavender
| Lilacs
| Lilies
| Magnolias
| Orchids
| Palm Trees
| Peppers & Chiles
| Roses
| Tomatoes
| Tulips
General
| Techniques
| Gardening & Horticulture
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Plants
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Natural Habitat Garden
-
Ken Druse: The Passion for Gardening
-
Making More Plants: The Science, Art, and Joy of Propagation
ASIN: 0609800426
Release Date: 1997-04-22 |
Book Description
Award-winning gardening expert Ken Druse offers a personal selection of 80 ideal plants for the natural gardener, drawn from his best-selling classic The Natural Garden.
This companion guide is illustrated throughout with 130 of Druse's spectacular color photographs. All-new descriptions discuss the origins of each plant, supply the pronunciation of their Latin names, and offer information on their ultimate size, time of bloom, light and soil requirements, cold hardiness, and special interest, such as colorful berries or butterfly attraction.
Here, too, is indispensable advice for using these plants with companions to create striking designs. Each section has an original introduction presenting valuable techniques for making your own natural garden. An appendix gives mail-order sources.
Book Description
One of the earliest and most important works of biblical interpretation is a Latin text that is commonly known as the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum. It was written in the first second century C.E. and is thus a great source of illumination for the period and milieu out of which arose various Jewish sects and Christianity. This book offers the Latin text of LAB, a dramatically new translation, a commentary that deals extensively with LAB's place in ancient biblical exegesis, and an introduction that treats the major problems associated with LAB (e.g. date, original language, manuscript tradition, exegetical techniques). The author seeks to illuminate LAB in new ways by reconstructing the original Hebrew when that is useful, and by bringing new and pertinent evidence from the Bible, from Rabbinic literature, and from early Christian literature.
Customer Reviews:
Kudos to Jacobson! A triumph from the heartland!.......2000-07-21
Building on scholarship of the likes of Leopold Cohn, M. R. James, Charles Perrot, Pierre-Maurice Bogaert, D. J. Harrington, and Louis Feldman, Jacobson has crafted a captivating critical commentary, rivaled only by his masterfully reconstructed text and meticulous sourcing. A must-have for fans of The Exagoge of Ezekiel. Pick it up this summer for a pleasant stroll down exegetical lane. Look out Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire....
Kudos to Jacobson! A triumph from the heartland!.......2000-07-21
Building on scholarship of likes of Leopold Cohn, M. R. James, Charles Perrot, Pierre-Maurice Bogaert, D. J. Harrington, and Louis Feldman, Jacobson has crafted a captivating critical commentary, rivaled only by his masterfully reconstructed text and meticulous sourcing. A must-have for fans of The Exagoge of Ezekiel. Pick it up this summer for a pleasant stroll down exegetical lane. Look out Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire....
PSEUDO-PHILOISM AT IT'S FINEST!.......2000-07-03
THIS BOOK IS ONE OF THE FINEST I'VE EVER READ! THE AUTHOR IS CLEARLY A SCHOLAR OF HIGH CALIBER THAT ONE RARELY FINDS IN TODAY'S WRITINGS ON PHILO. THE RESEARCH WAS IMPECCABLY THOROUGH AND THE CONCLUSIONS ARE SOUND. A MUST-READ FOR ANYONE WHO'S EVER PICKED UP A BIBLE AND WORTH EVERY PENNY OF IT'S HEFTY PRICE-TAG!
PSEUDO-FILO-ISM AT IT'S FINEST.......2000-06-26
THIS WAS ONE OF THE FINEST BOOKS I HAVE EVER READ! THE RESEARCH WAS IMPECCABLE AND THE AUTHOR'S CONCLUSIONS ARE SOUND. RARELY DOES ONE FIND A WORK OF SCHOLARSHIP AS INVIGORATING AS THIS ONE. A MUST-READ FOR ANYONE WHO HAS EVER PICKED UP A BIBLE!
PSEUDO-FILO-ISM AT IT'S FINEST.......2000-06-26
RARELY HAVE I SEEN SUCH AN EXCEPTIONAL WORK OF SCHOLARSHIP. I FOUND THIS BOOK TO BE WORTH EVERY PENNY OF IT'S RATHER HEFTY PRICE TAG. RESEARCH WAS IMPECCABLE AND AUTHOR'S CONCLUSIONS ARE SOUND. A MUST-READ FOR ANYONE WHO HAS EVER PICKED UP A BIBLE!
Amazon.com
Like a cross between a linguistic spy and a lexicographic Olympic athlete, journalist Stefan Fatsis gave himself a year to penetrate the highest echelons of international Scrabble competition. Word Freak is the account of his journey. It's a wacky grab bag of travelogue, history, party journal, and psychological study of the misfits and goofballs whose lives are measured out in Scrabble tiles.
Fatsis gives us all the facts about Scrabble--from the story of the down-on-his-luck architect who invented the game in the 1930s to the intricacies of individual international competitions and the corporate wars to control the world's favorite word game. He keeps the reader turning the pages as we get involved in the lives of the Scrabble obsessives: men and women who have a point to prove against the world and have chosen Scrabble as their playground and their pulpit. As Fatsis goes on his own quest to attain the coveted 1600 rating, we actually get obsessed with him as he lies awake at night pondering moves and memorizing lists of words. For anybody who is interested in words, Word Freak provides an entertaining and absorbing read. --Dwight Longenecker, Amazon.co.uk
Book Description
Stefan Fatsis, a Wall Street Journal reporter and National Public Radio regular, recounts his remarkable rise through the ranks of elite Scrabble players while exploring the game's strange, potent hold over them -- and him.
Scrabble might truly be called America's game. More than two million sets
are sold every year and at least thirty million American homes have one. But the game's most talented competitors inhabit a sphere far removed from the masses of "living room players." Theirs is a surprisingly diverse subculture whose stars include a vitamin-popping standup comic; a former bank teller whose intestinal troubles earn him the nickname "G.I. Joel"; a burly, unemployed African American from Baltimore's inner city; the three-time national champion who plays according to Zen principles; and Fatsis himself, who we see transformed from a curious reporter to a confirmed Scrabble nut.
He begins by haunting the gritty corner of a Greenwich Village park where pickup Scrabble games can be found whenever weather permits. His curiosity soon morphs into compulsion, as he sets about memorizing thousands of obscure words and fills his evenings with solo Scrabble played on his living room floor. Before long he finds himself at tournaments socializing -- and competing -- with Scrabble's elite.
But this book is about more than hardcore Scrabblers, for the game yields
insights into realms as disparate as linguistics, psychology, and mathematics. WORD FREAK extends its reach even further, pondering the light Scrabble throws on such notions as brilliance, memory, competition, failure, and hope. It is a geography of obsession that celebrates the uncanny powers locked in all of us.
Customer Reviews:
A "Paper Lion" of the logophiles.......2007-10-06
A friend loaned me this book about the time we were attempting to create an intraoffice Scrabble tournament (and she was in the process of proving how very much better she is than I am at this game). The most obvious thing Stefan Fatsis' skilled reporting demonstrates is the vast gulf that exists between casual players like us and the handful of top players for whom the game can be a time-consuming, even life-consuming, obsession.
It's a world that's hard for me to understand, in part because my competitive gene is relatively underdeveloped. What makes "Word Freak" particularly interesting, however, is watching the author himself slowly transforming from outsider into one of the inner, obsessive corps of championship-level players. Unlike, say, "Wild and Outside," in which Fatsis was able to retain reportorial objectivity, here he becomes part of his story -- "new journalism," of a sort, and Fatsis makes several references to George Plimpton and his sojourn in the NFL.
On the whole, "Word Freak" is a fairly remarkable piece of writing -- part memoir, part history, part nature journal. The author paints memorable pictures of his central characters, one that made me want to look them up and see how they're doing (or even if some of them are still alive) five years after the fact. Equally memorable is his portrayal of himself, and his ability to retain a certain distance from the change he's undergoing while, at the same time, experiencing it fully. For the reader, the ride can be simultaneously entertaining and disturbing as we see Scrabble as both a game and a mania. It's a combination that makes for a book most readers, I'd expect, won't soon forget ... particularly since so many of us probably have a Scrabble set of our own gathering dust in a bookshelf or closet.
Like looking under a rotten log.......2007-07-18
Word Freak is an impressive job, maybe even amazing. How in the world could someone crank out a 372-page book on Scrabble that more or less lives up to the reproduced blurbs: can't-put-it-down narrative; marvelously absorbing; impassioned; thoughtful, winning; etc. Bob Costas summed it up: "Scrabble. Who knew?"
But they forgot to mention: no fun; disgusting; revolting; no missed opportunity to rub an obscenity in the reader's face; America's most beloved board game befouled by uncivilized worms; like sitting down to Mark Twain and getting the Godfather. I doubt I'll ever feel clean again. As an English player said about the Americans: "I can't imagine being any of them."
Sordidness aside, it's hard to imagine anyone not already brainwashed into the cult of tournament Scrabble not coming away from the book with a feeling of serious Scrabble being a perfectly ridiculous activity. Scrabble was invented as a word game, but you'd have to look mighty hard at a tournament Scrabble board to find anything to do with one's spoken, written, or reading vocabulary - no matter how intelligent or educated, or how much of a word lover, you are.
Early on, Fatsis tells about watching a game between two experts that seems to be in a "foreign language." He reports that there are devoted Scrabble players, even, who think more people would join up if the dictionary "didn't include so many strange or obsolete words." How could they not?
A top player says, "It's very frustrating to me that we have not yet managed to develop an audience for the game." Gee, I wonder why that is. This player's own brother points out (112 pages later) that a tournament Scrabble board "would look like Greek to its prospective audience."
The list of valid Scrabble words for international play is called SOWPODS. Players opposed to SOWPODS say that its supporters are "a handful of elitist snob experts who play in the world championships and are trying to ram 40,000 ridiculous words down the throats of the masses." I second that. Or, I would if it mattered. All my Scrabbling is with a collegiate dictionary, and I don't see any signs of an apostasy on the horizon.
Fatsis states, "It's just about impossible to play high-level (or even low-level) competitive Scrabble if you're hung up on the game's use of odd words." His saving grace there is the hedge, "just about". I offer myself as living proof that there is no problem whatsoever playing competitive Scrabble with a collegiate dictionary. None.
American tournament rules allow bluffing, and so a bluffing game Scrabble has become. Whoopee. Fatsis reports on some of the highest scoring Scrabble games. A Chicago player scored 792 - "but he used four phony bingos." A Cincinnati student scored 724 - "but his opponent was an 83-year-old newcomer... who let him get away with five phonies."
How can anyone write that or read that without turning all shades of red with embarrassment? Where else in all of our competitive sports and games is there anything like it? Did Babe Ruth get credit for home runs by striking out? Did he rack up his home runs in sanctioned games with kiddies and grannies and a 150-foot fence?
Here's one of the author's own anecdotes from a tournament: "I open with a deliberate phony, MEAOW. On her next turn, she takes the bait, pluralizing the fake word, and I challenge that off the board and gain a turn... At the next table, one of the old-timers watches the sequence. 'You've become one of us,' she says." Sounds like too much fun to me; guess I'll never be "one of them."
In another passage, a former top-rated player explains why he quit Scrabble. He objected to having to play inferior players, from whom he had almost nothing to gain, rating-wise, and everything to lose. "Given this environment, one must play phonies... to steal games that are seemingly out of reach." In other words, if he were constrained to playing real words, he would lose now and then. Excuse me while a grapefruit-sized tear rolls down my cheek.
You know from my Scrabble pages what I think of phonies. If that asinine component of Scrabble were eliminated, Fatsis' book could have been half as thick. And maybe a reader or two might have come away thinking, "Hey, this Scrabble, it could be a pretty neat game!"
Actually, world competition uses the "free challenge" rule, what I call "no-risk challenge" (or simply "double-checking"). In one game a player challenges ZAMIAS, a baby word for the pros. He's accused of "buying some time to think." Fatsis declares, "It's one of the perils of the free challenge rule." Somehow, in the other 371 pages of the book, he forgets to list all the other perils of such a lame-brain rule, which, by the way, was the box-top rule until the mid-1970s. Hmmm, mid-1970s . . . tournament Scrabble emerging . . . Who tricked or strong-armed Selchow & Righter into changing the box-top, and thereby turning Scrabble into a barroom bluff game after 25 years of class?
If Fatsis recognizes the two-letter words as anything more significant in Scrabble play than teensy words, he doesn't let on. He writes near the beginning, "Armed with the two- and (most of the) three-letter words, I can now beat casual players handily." Right. And armed with an AK-47 you can beat a guy with a water pistol at 20 paces. Handily. The two-letter words are the game's basic equipment, the tools. Any game in which a player is "unequipped" with the acceptable two-letter words is a meaningless exercise, a total waste of everybody's time.
Fatsis counts the K among the power tiles. I remember people in the Bowie Scrabble Club (Maryland) who did the same. I don't get it. It's nowhere near the category of the J, X, Q, and Z. Any one of those tiles played on a triple-letter score, all by itself, nothing else, would score 24 or 30 points. That's far greater than the average points per turn of an excellent player (using a conventional dictionary). The K would score a piddly 15 points. That's about equal to the average points per turn of the weakest novice in a Scrabble club. The K - you can have it.
Fatsis made use of a funny little word, "pesty", in his text. Twice, even. This was not a word in the original OSPD, a concoction of five major dictionaries. Back then, if anyone accidentally said "pesty", he was really trying to say "pestiferous". But it sounds so right that PESTY was always popping up on Scrabble boards. I wonder if it became a real word somewhere along the line largely because Scrabblers willed it.
Worth the price of admission was the chapter on the inventor of Scrabble, Alfred Butts, and the man who put the finishing touches on it (including the name), James Brunot. Now there's a classy story! The chapter stands out like an enchanted isle inthe middle of an ocean of sewage.
It disappoints me greatly that Scrabble players are ranked according a "rating" with an obscure and complicated calculation. I trust it shows where the players stand relative to each other, but what sort of absolute meaning does it have? If there's some reason not to simply calculate average points per turn (PPT), it eludes me. What makes PPT perfectly valid is that you always play the same number of turns as your opponent, on the average. It's insensitive to opponent, except maybe in the far-fetched case of collusion. And how long can you hope to go around playing the same chum who blithely spends his life setting you up? To be the best player, you have to be able to extract a fraction of a point more per play than anyone else. Period.
So if somebody calculated these guys' average points per turn, I would have an idea how I compare. But since their scores are so affected by the arbitrary 50-point scrabola (bingo) bonus, I'd also be interested in an average points per turn without the bonuses added in, and a separate scrabola statistic, such as average number of turns between scrabolas. If you say, "But they throw away a lot of points in order to make scrabolas!" I say, so do I.
I wish I had enough money to run a major tournament using my club rules: a collegiate dictionary; no-risk challenge; 3-letter minimum; and tiles dispensed to the players from a drum with a mixture of a hundred sets. Now that would be fun to watch and play along with. Just think, all those guys who spent years memorizing tens upon tens of thousands of official Scrabble letter combinations having to downshift to a real dictionary to go for the biggest Scrabble pot ever offered! Heeheehee. The winner might even be a reasonably smart, regular person.
Fatsis observed: "Recruiting new players is Scrabble's toughest task." No mystery there; just read the book. He gives 372 pages of reasons.
An edge-of-your-seat read........2007-07-14
Stephen Fatsis writes a fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat book on the quirky, obsessive, very male-dominated world of competitive Scrabble playing. Although the cast of characters is fascinating enough, I was more interested in Fatsis' own transformation from "living room" player to a high-ranking qualifier in major tournaments. He describes his initial frustration at losing to the blue hair set to even more frustration at not grasping expert game strategies. He learns that in order to become a champion Scrabble player, you have to make it your life: study constantly, develop anagramming skills, memorize 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 letter words and their modifiers, and learn and re-learn the combinations of letters to make all-important bingos (the 50 point bonus earned by using all 7 letters on your rack). Some of the ways that top players study range from obvious (flash cards) to the insane (memorizing complex pneumonic phrases).
The game is also not without its controversies, not the least of which is the Official Word List which is in need of major revisions, cites often obscure words some of which are not in any dictionary, and is censored of "objectionable" words. Not to mention that overseas competitions use British words as well, allowing thousands of additional playable words. Included in all this is a fair chunk of Scrabble history including the odd fact that it is owned by two games companies. (Hasbro only has the North American rights, Mattel the rest of the world). "Word Freak" contains the elements of riveting sports writing told by the aspiring insider
Interesting And Informative.......2007-05-14
As a pretty good 'living room' Scrabble player, I have recently learned that there is a world of difference between even very good hobbyist players and tournament players. I began playing occasionally with a medium rated tournament player who is leaps and bounds ahead of me. In comparison to the top tier players highlighted in this book, even my competitor (who seems like an expert to me) is a journeyman.
That leads to me to getting this book which focuses on a number of players who are among the very top tier in North America. They are quite an interesting lot. Mr. Fatsis has done a good job of making this book highly interesting and informative. Some of the characters here are rather quirky, which is not surprising when many of them live their lives around a board game, no matter how good. He does also portray some of the top tier players who are quite well balanced and would be considered more normal to the general population.
Not only is this book very interesting about a very unusual subculture, it also has several rather good tips on improving one's game. I recommend it for anyone who is a big Scrabble fan.
Informative & humorous!.......2007-04-20
Just love this book! being a Scrabble lover, I couldn't resist it! I learned a lot about techniques, but above all I felt I'd experienced what I'd always wondered about: what it would be like to go far in the world of big-time scrabble. I've improved my scores by 50 points+ since reading this enjoyable book!
Book Description
Maud Gonne is part of Irish history: her founding of the Daughters of Ireland, in 1900, was the key that effectively opened the door of twentieth-century politics to Irish women. Still remembered in Ireland for the inspiring public speeches she made on behalf of the suffering—those evicted from their homes in western Ireland, the Treason-Felony prisoners on the Isle of Wright, indeed all those whom she saw as victims of imperialism—she is known, too, within and outside Ireland as the woman W. B. Yeats loved and celebrated in his poems.
Customer Reviews:
attention!.......2002-03-06
On the top of everything else--Maud Gonne was never Yeat's mistress in the ordinary sense!
Average customer rating:
- A book by a lady decades ahead of her time
|
A Servant of the Queen
Maud Gonne MacBride
Manufacturer: Colin Smythe Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0861403673 |
Customer Reviews:
A book by a lady decades ahead of her time.......1999-01-29
Maude Gonne is the beauty that inspired the verse of Yeats. She lead a fascinating life, and lived through some fascinating times. In this book, written late in her life, she tells of all her adventures, her struggles, and her times. A woman who would be contemporary today, never mind 70 years ago!
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