Color Drawing: Design Drawing Skills and Techniques for Architects, Landscape Architects, and Interior Designers, 2nd Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)OK, I will be honest. I have the older edition. It's got some campy early 80's scenes in it, but I found it essential in understanding how color hits building materials. If you are an architect or architectural student, you will need this book so that you can put some life into your drawings. If you are just an amateur like me, you still need this book.
Learning how to draw using Doyle's techniques is useful for travel diaries, sketching, and so on. Since you are using color markers and pencils and blending the colors, you get a kind of richness and depth in drawings that don't come from just one medium alone. Also, the media (markers and pencils) are dry and won't spill in your backpack or attache when hauling it around places to do sketches and so on. (I took a mess of pencils and markers to Europe and it was easier to deal with than the trip I took after, where my watercolor paint froze on the travel diary!)
I'm gonna put the latest edition on my wish list and hope Santa is good to me this season :-)

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Stunningly updated, totally redesigned, practical, and ready to use This new edition of Michael Doyle's classic Color Drawing is the ultimate up-to-date resource for professionals and students who need to develop and communicate design ideas with clear, attractive, impressive color drawings. In an easy to use, step-by-step approach, this comprehensive guide presents a total system of color design drawing that encompasses approaches to sketch communication as well as more finished presentation drawing. Totally redesigned to provide quick, easy access to key information, this Second Edition covers the basics of color phenomena, media, techniques, and approaches to illustrating materials necessary to communicate design ideas. With nearly 400 new color illustrations, it contains a new section on color and design principles for creating more sophisticated presentation drawings and offers innovative ideas for the reproduction and distribution of finished drawings. Color Drawing features:* A complete body of illustrated instruction that demonstrates the development of design ideas from initial concept through presentation drawing* Finely honed explanations of each technique and process* Faster and easier ways to create design drawings* Methods for combining hand-drawn and computer-generated drawing techniquesThis remarkably versatile volume is both an illuminating textbook and a completely reliable self-teaching tool, as well as a handy quick reference. It is an excellent guide for students at any level and an unparalleled resource for design professionals.

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Expert Card Technique: Close-Up Table Magic Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is comprehensive in scope-it covers about all of the basic techniques the card worker needs to know. It goes far beyond this, however. All techniques taught are described in *excruciating* detail so as to leave nothing to the imagination. It also includes ongoing words of advice on and entire chapters devoted to the _real_ secrets of magic: misdirection and presentation. As if all this were not MORE than sufficient to recommend the book, it's written in a very witty, eloquent, and entertaining style that makes it a joy to simply read. But wait! There's more! Please find enclosed numerous card effects worthy of the most discriminating audiences at less than the cost of your favorite magic dealer's Trick O' the Day. With regard to my own experience I've read this book near to tatters and have annotated nearly every other page-I got my money's worth and so will you.

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Scores of methods - previously known only to card experts - include passes, palming, false shuffles, false cuts, changes, crimps, jogs, reverses, rear palms, and more. Altogether, 341 sleights and tricks. 318 illustrations show exact position of fingers and hands.

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The Life Cycle of Civilizations Review

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(More customer reviews)A great new approach to civilizations. It starts by developing a genetics foundation for civilizations and then develops a math theory with lots of explanatory diagrams that show an amazing pattern that all civilizations seem to follow - not just European and Asian civilizations but also isolated African and American civilizations. This incredible theory predicts the general future of civilizations. It seems to have predicted recent trouble areas such as the Mideast and the Far East. It describes the dynamics of interacting civilizations and cultures. It predicts the response of human civilizations should SETI contact an ET civilization. A great book. It covers all bases on civilizations. Actually makes a great reference book since it covers the history of most of the world's civilizations.

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The book shows that a long-term social behavior pattern of mankind (based on four generation trends) causes civilizations to develop and "oscillate" in patterns of routs and rallies. Civilizations rise and fall due to their internal human dynamics. The theory of civilization is developed using equations and 68 diagrams that show a close detailed match between the theory and the actual history of all known Asian, European and African civilizations over the last 5,500 years. The theory projects the future of today's civilizations (including the future of Western and Islamic civilizations).It also successfully describes the interaction of barbarians and civilizations, the interaction of two civilizations, the impact of modern technology on civilizations (it accounts for the Luddite reaction to the Industrial Revolution), the impact of major environmental events on civilizations (e.g. the collapse of Minoan civilization due to a volcanic eruption), and the disintegration of civilizations. It also accounts for the tremendous growth phases seen in many civilizations such as the building of the great pyramids in Egyptian civilizations. Based on the theory fifteen new civilizations are identified including new prehistoric Chinese and Egyptian civilizations.

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Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: Theory and Technique (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu series) Review

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(More customer reviews)I've got a few BJJ books, but this one takes the cake. It's a virtual bible of technique, clearly explained and demonstrated (hard in a book sometimes) and with a typical Gracie attention to detail. You won't be able to learn BJJ from a book, but if you're a student--like me--you'll LOVE this because how many times have you learned a new technique and then forgotten it? Or at least a key element to it? You've got it just... up... to... this... point... and then you can't remember the finish.
That's why this book rocks: go look it up! You'll find yourself saying "AHHHH... dammit! THAT'S it! That's what I forgot!" It's awesome for that reason.
It's not particularly loaded with super-advanced techniques, but you ought not be worried about those until you've mastered all these--and this will keep you busy for a long, long time.
I saw this book at my BJJ school and came home to order it ASAP. This is as good as it gets. I know the Grappler's Manual is also supposed to be incredible, too, but I have not yet seen that.
Buy it. You'll be using it for years.

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While most martial arts deal only with the initial punching and kicking stages of combat, Brazilian jiu-jitsu concentrates on ground combat. This guide shows how to use Brazilian jiu-jitsu to increase combat effectiveness. Photographs and step-by-step instructions show how to master the techniques used in this exciting new form of combat.

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The Secret Techniques of Bonsai: A Guide to Starting, Raising, and Shaping Bonsai Review

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(More customer reviews)In short, my opinion is that this is an excellent book if you are serious about bonsai and would like to get started, or to complement your knowledge from other books.
Before I purchased this book, I checked out several books from my local library. Some books seem to show many pictures of finished bonsai without really getting into details and I feel as if I still don't have the knowledge to even start on a bonsai. This book is a bit more helpful with step-by-step pictures from repotting to pruning, diagrams of undesirable branches, and methods of propagation.
There is a lot of information in this book that I read in this book that other books brush by, but I found helpful to me. Without a doubt, it is important to read different books because each author has their own views on certain issues.
Other books that you might want to look into are "Bonsai (101 Essential Tips)" by Harry Tomlinson and "The Bonsai Workshop" by Herb Gustafson.

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In The Secret Techniques of Bonsai, the author of the groundbreaking Bonsai With American Trees teams up with his son to offer not only the basics for creating perfect bonsai, but also secret techniques they've developed over years of careful work and observation.The Kawasumis provide detailed, easy-to-follow information about growing bonsai from seedlings or beginner plants; expert advice on shaping, pruning, training, grafting and repotting trees; and new techniques for using tools. And, although the Kawasumi family is worldrenowned for their bonsai tool design, their instructions allow gardeners to improvise with other readily-accessible bonsai, gardening or even simple workshop tools. Step-by-step photographs accompany the text, many in full-color.Masakuni Kawasumi III, the first qualified tree doctor for bonsai in Japan, contributes his unique insights to make this an invaluable resource for beginners and experienced enthusiasts alike.

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The Book Of Paper Quilling: Techniques & Projects For Paper Filigree Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a great basic book for learning to quill. There are many projects and numerous techniques, not just the flat scroll work, but also free standing miniatures and some leaf cutting, etc. However, I find most of the projects to look very old-fashioned in a way that is tacky rather than charming--wall hangings of chickadees and the like. This book is particularly good for making more complicated Christmas designs or variations for many basic flowers. If you are learning to quill, this book is a good place to start, but if you are already familiar with quilling, you might want to go for a book with more contemporary ideas and patterns.

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"Roll, scroll, flute and fringe your way to an exquisite design....Quill enchanting miniature plants and flowers, dangling earrings....Paper filigree makes excellent deco-rations for gift bags and cards....Simply overflowing with ideas!—Crafts. "The craft of paper quilling...is recaptured in a series of more than 70 projects."—Booklist.

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Bereft of Reason: On the Decline of Social Thought and Prospects for Its Renewal Review

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(More customer reviews)Halton offers us a convincing approach to answering the questions of postmodernism through a path of moderation (extremism being a mark of modernism). Halton argues that the tightrope between many of the dualisms of modernity is misconceived. In the case of rationality/irrationality, what is ignored is human reason which is extra-rational. In the nature/nurture debate, what is ignored is the biological development that takes place in social contexts between infancy and toddlers in humans. This work is far more convincing than others dealing with the important questions that postmodern theory proposes without the theoretic weaknesses which cripple postmodernism.

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In this radical critique of contemporary social theory, Eugene Halton argues that both modernism and postmodernism are damaged philosophies whose acceptance of the myths of the mind/body dichotomy make them incapable of solving our social dilemmas.Claiming that human beings should be understood as far more than simply a form of knowledge, social construction, or contingent difference, Halton argues that contemporary thought has lost touch with the spontaneous passions—or enchantment—of life. Exploring neglected works in twentieth century social thought and philosophy—particularly the writings of Lewis Mumford and Charles Peirce—as well as the work of contemporary writers such as Vaclav Havel, Maya Angelou, Milan Kundera, Doris Lessing, and Victor Turner, Halton argues that reason is dependent upon nonrational forces—including sentiment, instinct, conjecture, imagination, and experience. We must, he argues, frame our questions in a way which encompasses both enchantment and critical reason, and he offers an outline here for doing so.A passionate plea for a fundamental reexamination of the entrenched assumptions of the modern era, this book deals with issues of vital concern to modern societies and should be read by scholars across disciplines."Bereft of Reason is a thoughtful critique informed by a passionate commitment to the renewal of critical concerns. For this reason alone it should be widely read and inform current debates."—Lauren Langman, Sociological Inquiry"Halton takes the 'ghost in the machine' as a dominant defining metaphor for modern thought and life, and criticizes it with gusto, wit, wide reading, and philosophical acumen."—Robert J. Mulvaney, Review of Metaphysics

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