A Victorian Housebuilder's Guide: Woodward's National Architect of 1869

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Insightful vision

Wrong Title

A Victorian Perspective...

For the house lover, the house restorer, the house looker

A reprint of a detailed 19th century pattern book

A Victorian Housebuilder's Guide: Woodward's National Architect of 1869
George E. Woodward , and Edward G. Thompson
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Residential | Building Types & Styles | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Specific Styles | Building Types & Styles | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Reference | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Projects | Woodworking | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Design & Construction | Home Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Home & Garden Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0486257045

Book Description

Plans and specifications for 20 distinctive Victorian structures, from a simple cottage to an ornate brick villa. Over 580 black-and-white illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Insightful vision.......2007-05-03

An insightful little book on the construction of these beutiful homes. However it does lack complete floor plans. Otherwise a delight for those interested in architecture or this wonderful period.

Wrong Title.......2007-01-25

Titling this book, "A Victorian Housebuilder's Guide" is a bit off the mark. It would be better titled, "A Victorian House Buyer's Guide". It includes great illustrations showing both elevation and dimensional views, floor plans with dimensions that are larger than most, specification lists for the carpenters, masons, and plumbers, and some sectional views for some details. What it lacks is more of those sectional views to educate you as to how these things were built. Overall this book is better than some, but not as good as it could be.

A Victorian Perspective..........2005-01-14

Dover's edition of Woodward's National Architect is and excellent resource for those who wish to know what went into building those 1870 period Victorians. It is interesting from many perspectives- historical, aesthetic, and even chemical! The Victorians used a surprising amount of lead in their homes- in their paint and in their pipes. The book contains many illustrations as well as instructions for contrators and even a suggested contract! One of my favorite illustrations are the two pages of Victorian mantle designs towards the end of the book. Great for someone needing to restore, reconstruct or replace a mantle from that period. Most are in the Eastlake style. I would say it would be more useful for someone restoring a Victorian home, but the historical tidbits do make for an interesting read for anyone curious about how those beauties were created.

For the house lover, the house restorer, the house looker.......2003-08-13

This reprint of "Woodward's National Architect of 1869" is the earliest example of its kind I've seen Dover bring out yet. Like all the Dover paperbacks, it's technically excellent, well bound, printed on sturdy paper, and clearly reproduced. What makes it valuable to me is the era it focuses on. There are plenty of plan books dating from the mid-'70's onward, but these transitional years aren't so well covered.

The only thing that keeps me from ranking it at four stars is that it is somewhat "lumbered" (pun intended) with carpenter's and mason's specs explaining how the houses are to be built--something most historians and architecture mavens aren't likely to find very useful. This means it includes only 20 designs, plus a rich assortment of architectural details in the back of the book. For the most part these are what we would call "middle-class" houses--not too big, not too small--plus an icehouse, a boathouse, a scholhouse, and a tidy family stable, and wouldn't seem out of place in any community, East or West, in the land. This is a book that would be useful to the researcher as well as the casual lover of Victorian architecture.

A reprint of a detailed 19th century pattern book.......2001-01-13

This is one of the better Victorian pattern books reprinted by Dover. It consists of 100 plates covering designs from small homes to a large brick mansion, and several auxilliary building designs. The book also includes several example contracts for finishing some of the homes; with carpenters', masons', and plumbers' specifications.

The designs themselves are fairly detailed; with cross sections, interior, and exterior details. One of the best features is the superimposed cross sections on fretwork details; showing how many of these complicated peices are constructed from simple boards.

If you are intrested in Victorian buildings, for whatever reason, I suggest buying this book. Although not exstensive the the number of designs covered, only twenty, it offers one a good source of information. This book is far more detailed than the later Woodward's also reissued by Dover, and most later pattern books. If you enjoy the books by Vaux or Downing you should find this a nice addition to your library.

Book Description

Over 400 royalty-free designs from 80 artists, selected from the periodical Keramic Studio, a major forum for the American Arts and Crafts movement. 436 illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Misleading Cover.......2006-06-07

I thought this book would be mainly drawings similar to the cover, individual drawings that could be reproduced. They are not. MANY of the pages are china designs (patterns around the edges of teapots, plates, etc). The drawings are not reproduced flat, making them difficult to use. In some cases, I felt the drawings were a little dark as well. I was thinking they would be a little more like a coloring book style - outlines or solids so that the pattern is clear(much like the objects on the cover), but that's rarely the case. Some of the drawings are quite nice, but I would check this book out in person before purchase to ensure it is what you are looking for.

I found this book to be very helpful........1999-06-09

Authentic Designs from the American Arts and Crafts Movement has proven to be a very helpful and inspiring publication. Luckily, it turned out to be just exactly what I was looking for! I have used several of the illustrations as inspiration to create logos or spot illustrations for brochures and business cards. The illustrations in the book are well-drawn and easy to see. The halftone screenings of the originally full-color illustrations are a little flat, but they are still nicely reproduced. If there were more full-color illustrations, I would have granted this neat book 5 stars. Thanks for the concise collection of many great design ideas.

A Bad Coffee Table Book.......1998-12-23

Misleading Title- This book covers only designs from Keramic Studios. No depth and no inspiration. I would rate it 0 stars. A waste of money and in the trash it goes.

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Authenticity in Kelty's Photographs

A must have for circus fans

Interesting

Photography gets an A, Copy gets a C

Step Right This Way: The Photographs of Edward J. Kelty
Edward J. Kelty , Miles Barth , Alan M. Siegel , and Edward Hoagland
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Photo Essays | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Circus | Theater | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0760737843

Customer Reviews:

Authenticity in Kelty's Photographs.......2006-08-04

As the son of a former circus (Ringling Brothers, Al G. Barnes, et al) employee who has a Kelty photograph of his father in a circus from 1936, who himself took photos during his time in the circus, I found the Kelty photographs captured much of the same ambience as in my father's pictures. In other words, authenticity and poignancy.

A must have for circus fans.......2006-04-07

If you wish you could go back in time to golden age of the circus (as I do), this book will at least make you feel a little closer. Kelty's photos are awesome considering the technology of the day and the prints look amazing!

Interesting.......2004-03-28

Though this is a large book, you will probably finish reading it in one evening. The only text is a breezy 34 page introduction, with accompanying pictures. The rest of the book is mostly full-page pictures with very minimal captions. At least half the time, the captions are no more than what is already written on the original picture - it makes me think that the authors (presumably Barth & Siegel, though there is no text by them, the introduction was written by Edward Hoagland) were told that a published book has to caption the pictures, so they did the minimum amount of work necessary. For the pictures without information written on them, the captions consist of a year and a location, circus or performance house...very minimal!

Though the introduction is a very nice read, it has no depth and skips all over the place, to wherever Mr. Hoagland thought to go next. It talks a little about some of the pictures, a little about Mr. Kelty, the circuses, the times and the challenges faced. This leaves the reader to look at the pictures and take them for face value, just like the people who came to the circus in the 30's. We have no background information, no introduction, and no inside information - all we can do is "stare at the freaks". I believe that is really the point of the book. Though I have no first-person reference, as the advertisement in the Introduction says:

"We have the fattest women in the world, and the tallest man, and a girl who has no arms or legs, and midgets who are married! Have you ever seen a camel spit, or seals play catch, or elephants stand on their heads? A man with reptile scales who was once just like you! And the Good Lord made him. Can you finish your ice cream after you have looked at him?"...Good question!

Looking at these pictures, I get an appreciation for the time and people. Cameras are new, and each picture is clearly an "Event". There are people who are very disturbing, some who are merely trying to disturb you, and others who just don't give a damn. Some of the people are no more weird than what you would find in any large city, others seem clearly different. Through the pictures, I get an appreciation for the packaging of weirdness.

Though you could peruse the pictures quickly, and laugh like the people who originally went to the circus; I was left with questions about what these pictures say about these people, and about the people who watched them. What do these pictures say about America, back then and today? This book has provided food for thought for me. I am divided on whether I wanted more of the back-story, or if the pictures tell their own story. No book can be everything so, since I am still thinking about these pictures, for me the book was a success. For people who want to know more, this book would make a good accompaniment to a more scholarly work.

Photography gets an A, Copy gets a C.......2003-01-03

Although it is fascinating seeing the photographs of Edward Kelty, the author of the book has done nothing to contribute to the knowledge to be gained here. Surprisingly, the captions list nothing except the words that are printed on the photographs themselves. Here you have some of the most amazing "Special People" of all times, and none of them are identified unless it was written on the photo. It is not a mystery who most of these people were if the author had bothered to ask any of the wonderful resources he cites. I have only read one other book (out of print)- "Very Special People" and many of them are identifiable from that book alone.

Edward Hoagland's intro is also a disappointment. Although he says he spent some time working in the world portrayed, I find it hard to believe that all the people therein were either pedophiles, itinerants and other seedy stereotypes to which he alludes. Many were lovely, talented people who overcame incredible hardship and handicaps and had optimistic and positive outlooks beyond belief.

What this book needs are carefully researched captions and an index - perhaps someone truly familiar with the subject will write one. As interesting as the photos are, the book shows a lack of respect for the photographer and the people he photographed.

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Step Right This Way : The Photographs of Edward J. Kelty
Miles; Kelty, Edward J. Barth
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000V2IK5E

Customer Reviews:

Make Sure You're REALLY In The Christmas Spirit............2003-01-06

At the risk of sounding Scrooge-like, I really can't go higher than 2 stars for this collection. DC has done a nice job of collecting 17 Christmas stories spanning more than 60 years, but the book is overpriced for such a slim volume, and most of the stories are nothing special.

The book starts out with the seldom-seen Denny O'Neil/Frank Miller "Wanted: Santa Claus- Dead or Alive!", which is apparently seldom-seen because it stinks...It's only noteworthy to see Miller's evolving art style, which he would soon perfect on his legendary Daredevil run. (It's also curious to see the resemblance this story bears to the Simon & Kirby Sandman story that comes later in the book; The plots are virtually identical...) After that we get tales that range from excellent (The Harley & The Ivy) to just plain BAD (A Swinging Christmas, starring The Teen Titans), with most of the book leaning towards bad. The Darkseid story is excellent, and the vintage Superman story is fun, but does the Green Lantern/Green Arrow story REALLY deserve to be reprinted? It was bad when it first appeared, and certainly hasn't gotten any better in the years since. Luckily, the book gets better towards the end, with John Byrne's excellent Enemy Ace story, and a touching Impulse tale. But couldn't DC have made room for the classic "Silent Night of The Batman"? Fans interested in seeing a retrospective of DC's long publishing career will doubtless enjoy A DC Universe Christmas; If you're looking for great stories, you might want to look elsewhere.

Super Hero Goodies From The Past, Present, & Future!.......2000-12-05

From a charming Superman story from 1940, to a "groovy" Teen Titans tale from the 60's, to a frenetic Impulse story from the 90's, this collection spans the entire history of Dc Comics. Included in this volume are 17 Christmas themed stories starring the legendary DC Comics Super Heroes!

The stories feature such "heavy hitters" as Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Flash, but space is reserved for minor characters such as Bat-Lash and Enemy Ace. The tales vary in tone: Some are quite somber, while others are hysterical. Each one serves as a reminder of why these characters have lasted for over 60 years. This is a book you must have!

Among the highlights-A Batman tale told in the "Animated Series" style featuring Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, and a story featuring Darkseid of all people! The latter story is the shortest in the book (2 Pages) and it is also the best. It's worth the cost of the book alone simply to see how Darkseid deals with an intruder to Apokolips on Christmas Eve!

"A Dc Universe Christmas" is one present every comics fan needs under their tree!

Book Description

Liebling was the best reporter of his generation; he became the conscience of American journalism. The first important writer to work in the area between fiction and objective reporting, where Truman Capote and Norman Mailer followed him.

Customer Reviews:

Portrait of a.......2001-11-10

Raymond Sokolov has written an extraordinary biography of A.J. Liebling, who was one of the most brilliant and elusive of the "New Yorker" legends. Writing about a writer is hard enough, but writing about this one required not only a thorough knowledge of his work (hard to find, some of his work) but a true ability to enter the man's head, as they say, and tell some of the story from that perch. A. J. Liebling was brilliant and a true connoisseur of all the things he thought were important: food, wine, friendship, writing.

Liebling joined the "New Yorker" in 1935, and wrote for it until his death in 1963. He was hired by Harold Ross and his editor was William Shawn. Both in his personal and his professional realms, Liebling was disordered and off kilter, often battered and turbulent, and generally quite exciting. He did not actually finish high school, but was accepted at Dartmouth, from where he was twice expelled for failure to meet the minimum attendance at chapel, so that he did not finish his studies there, either. But he wrote a great deal at Dartmouth, and at the insistence of his father he enrolled in courses at the Pulitzer School of Journalism at Columbia, where he managed to stay for a couple of years; while at Columbia he was assigned to cover police stories, and this lead him to serve as an assistant to well established newspaper reporters and to learn the mechanics of the trade.

He married three times, lived in France (wrote many "Letters from Paris") and reported World War II in detail (starting in 1939). He participated in the Normandy landings on D day, whence he produced a particularly memorable piece concerning his experiences on a landing craft. He was there when the Allies entered Paris, and this caused him to write afterwards: "For the first time in my life and probably the last, I have lived for a week in a great city where everybody was happy."

Liebling was probably the first to take advantabe of the penumbral area in which fiction and reality are barely discernible from one another, and to exploit it in his writing. Capote followed.

He wrote about writing, too, in his classical "Wayward Press" columns of the "New Yorker." He was, in fact, the first serious critic of the press, a job he clearly relished. In people he gravitated towards the odd, the slightly weird, and the eccentrics who had found niches in life from which they they sometimes prospered, often not: in other words, the low life. In New York and London and Paris he consorted and maintained society with strange people, in relationships that spanned decades. These people thought highly of Liebling and what he stood for; what he stood for contained much decency and a total lack of pretension. He spoke to people by remaining silent and letting them speak, something which appears easy but is not. He wrote about the many things he got to understand from these poeple, using clear, simple prose. He was meticulously accurate in his work, aided in this by a formidable memory which allowed him to quote verbatim hours of conversation, long after it had taken place.

Sokolov's biography of A.J. Liebling is as complete and exacting as no doubt his subject would demand. It contains a bibliography, an index and chapter notes. This is an enhancing book: one feels better after reading it.

Average customer rating:
Wayward Reporter, The Life Of A.J. Liebling
Raymond SOKOLOV
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000RJHHG4

Average customer rating:
Wayward Reporter: The Life of A.J. Liebling
A.J.). SOKOLOV, Raymond (LIEBLING
Manufacturer: Harper & Row
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IM0M9Y

Book Description

Originally published in 1984 by Alaska Northwest Books(r), this fascinating book about one of Canada's best-known northern pilots is back in print! Bush pilot Ernie J. Boffa was inducted into Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame at Edmonton and received the Order of Polaris medal and scroll, created by the Government of Yukon, for bush pilots who have given outstanding service to the northern territories.

Customer Reviews:

Skims the surface, not enough detail.......1999-02-01

This book does not give enough specifics or indepth information on any particular disease. It skims over the surface with just a general overview. Recipes look interesting though.

Good Guide to Food and Digestion.......1997-07-04

In this helpful and lively cooking guide, Baird, a registered dietitian, nutrition consultant, and food writer, has created delicious, nutritious, and healthful recipes that enhance motility--the movement of food through the digestive system--and help to minimize digestive problems. Nutritional breakdown included with each recipe

Book Description

The history of the Mongol conquests is a catalogue of superlatives. No army in the world has ever conquered so much territory, and few armies have provoked such terror as the Mongol hordes. So vast was the extent of the Mongol Empire that the samurai of Japan and the Teutonic Knights of Prussia had each fought the same enemy while being unaware of each other's existence. This book provides a concise yet thorough account of the Mongol conquests, including the rise of Genghis Khan and the unification of the tribes with up to date information on campaign logistics, tactics and horse breeding.

Customer Reviews:

First off I'll admit..........2005-06-14

I didn't read this book from cover to cover, but mainly dipped into the latter part, from which I learned about events such as the Mongol invasion of Java of which I was unaware, as well as learning more about the Mongol invasion of Japan than I had known before. I am not particularly a student of Genghis Khan and the Mongal conquests, but do feel reasonably well informed on events up to 1260. Thus the material concerning events after 1260 was what I was interested in, and I feel the book did a fine, informative job on that. So for me the book was excellent, and I give it 5 stars on that basis.

Genghis Khan, huh.... Sure....................2004-02-25

Genghis Khan & the Mongol Conquests is a book from a series called "Essential Histories." From what I have seen from this book, this series shows the essentially detailed and not the basics, which is often times much more useful. This book is titled Genghis Khan & the Mongol Conquests, yet there is barely anything at all of the great Khan's life. This is what the book says about Genghis Khan's childhood: "The nomad world he entered was a fierce and unforgiving one of rivalry and survival skills. Like all Mongol children, Temuchin learned to ride with great skill and to handle a bow and arrows." That's it. Any given internet site would give more information than that! In fact, for his life story, I often had to turn to web sites. The battles and campaigns were described in great detail. However, even with its immense wealth of knowledge about campaigns, I found the book unfulfilling. Half of the campaigns were Kublai Khan's, and whenever Genghis Khan's death was mentioned, it was no more than a paragraph. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU WANT A GENGHIS KHAN REFERENCE!!!

Not Turnbull's Best Effort.......2003-09-08

Although I am a fan of Stephen Turnbull's earlier works on the Japanese Samurai and the Teutonic Knights, there is something basically wrong with his latest volume for Osprey's Essential Histories on the Mongols. First, Genghis Khan himself is only the discussed in about 10% of the volume and Turnbull certainly provides no fresh insights on this famed leader. Indeed, basic questions such as whether or not Genghis Khan should be considered as one of the great captains of history are never raised. Second, Turnbull bounces around chronologically too much; he is continually discussing one campaign, then reverting to discuss an earlier campaign in another area. Third, Turnbull focuses strictly on the military aspects of the Mongol Conquests (virtually ignoring the economic, social and political aspects), then actually tells us very little about the actual military aspects. Fourth, the actual period of Mongol conquests was in 1206-1294, not 1190-1400, and the bulk of the narrative actually focuses on a 60-year period. Finally, Turnbull's entire overly simplistic hypothesis is that the Mongol's success was due to their amazing ability to adapt to new circumstances and learn new military techniques. However, Turnbull concludes that the Mongol conquests ended because of their failures to adapt to the harsh theater of war in Southeast Asia and their gradual conversion from steppe nomads to urban dwellers. Huh? They won because they were adaptable, but they eventually lost because they adapted in the cities but not the jungles. A look at the barren bibliography, with only four non-Turnbull sources, clearly indicates a half-hearted effort on the author's part.

Genghis Khan & the Mongol Conquests 1190-1400 begins with a short introduction and chronology, followed by a brief section on the rise of the Mongols. The three-page section on the Mongols and their adversaries is totally inadequate, although Turnbull strives to make the point that the Mongol armies were not immune to logistical constraints. The outbreak of war section covers the Khwarazm campaign in 1219-1221and the Afghan War, but then this is followed by the fighting in China in 1211-1234, making this narrative difficult to follow chronologically. Turnbull's 44-page narrative on the main Mongols campaigns of 1211-1281 is the best part of the volume, particularly the campaigns in Korea/Japan and the Mideast. Portrait of a soldier showcases the Mongol general Subadai, but also includes more campaign detail. The section on how the war ended focuses on the jungle campaigns in Burma, Vietnam and Java where the Mongol advance finally petered out. There are eight maps supporting the narrative: the Mongol Empire 1190-1400; the conquest of the Khwarazm Empire; Mongol conquests in Korea and China; the Mongol invasion of Europe; the Battle of Mohi 1241; Mongol campaigns in the Mideast; the Mongol invasions of Japan; and the Mongol campaigns in Southeast Asia.

There are a number of interesting episodes in the long Mongol wars that Turnbull highlights, such as the five-year long siege of Xiangyang in China and the odd situation of Crusaders, Mamluks and Mongols facing each other in the Mideast in 1260. Turnbull is particularly adept in demonstrating how the steppe-born Mongols quickly learned siege warfare techniques and naval expeditionary warfare. Yet while Turnbull succeeds in praising Mongol tactical adaptability, he fails on the larger issues, such as explaining the Mongol drive for conquest. How did an obscure steppe people, never great in numbers, conquer the greatest land empire in history? Why were the Mongol enemies so unable to offer effective resistance - why couldn't they learn or adapt? Due to the operational-level focus of Turnbull's summary, this volume will not be useful for readers asking questions on the macro-level of geo-politics. Furthermore, the "adaptability" thesis presented for Mongol successes by Turnbull does not really answer the question of why this whirlwind phenomenon was able to arise out of nowhere and conquer the bulk of Eurasia in a lifetime. While the "adaptability" hypothesis is certainly better than the old "Mongol horde" claptrap, it probably only addresses the Mongol side of the equation (just as suggesting superior armored warfare doctrine explains German success in 1940, but it does not explain French collapse).

Confusing and flawed.......2003-08-24

I recently bought this new book about the mongols - Genghis Khan & the Mongol Conquests 1190-1400 by the medieval historian Stephen Turnbull. This new book from Osprey was a bit disappointing; Turnbull often tends to be very careless with facts (like he confuses Subotai Bah'adur with Sükhbataar from the 20th century!) and he writes about the mongols solely from the eyes of their eastern asian adversaries, like the japanese and koreans. He also focus on mongol defeats, and fails to explain why they were able to expand so fast. Turnbull is a reknown expert on samurai and medieval japanese armies, and he claims that the Samurais were superior to the mongols, which I don't believe in. So this book is full of examples of heroic feats by the mongols' adversaries, but is confusing when it comes to describing the mongol armies themselves. Nevetheless, it was interesting to read about the korean and southeastern campaigns of the mongols, of which not that much is written.

/DK M

Book Description

In The Chinese in Vancouver, Wing Chung Ng captures the fascinating story of the city's Chinese in their search for identity. He juxtaposes the cultural positions of different generations of Chinese immigrants and their Canadian-born descendants and unveils the ongoing struggle over the definition of being Chinese. It is an engrossing story about cultural identity in the context of migration and settlement, where the influence of the native land and the appeal of the host city continued to impinge on the consciousness of the ethnic Chinese.

The Chinese in Canada is long overdue in view of the many previous studies that tend to describe Chinese people as victims of racial prejudice and discrimination and Chinese identity a matter of Western cultural hegemony. Ng's account gives the Chinese people their own voice and shows that the Chinese in Vancouver had much to say and often disagreed about the meaning of being Chinese.

In his concluding chapter, Ng looks beyond the Canadian context by engaging in a comparative discussion of the experiences of ethnic Chinese elsewhere in the diaspora. References to the Chinese in various Southeast Asian countries and the U.S. force a rethinking of "Chineseness." He ends with reflections about Vancouver's Chinese community since 1980.

Average customer rating:
THE CHINESE IN VANCOUVER.(Review) (book review): An article from: Pacific Affairs
Wang Gungwu
Manufacturer: University of British Columbia
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008I1DDW
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Pacific Affairs, published by University of British Columbia on March 22, 2001. The length of the article is 696 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: THE CHINESE IN VANCOUVER.(Review) (book review)
Author: Wang Gungwu
Publication: Pacific Affairs (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2001
Publisher: University of British Columbia
Volume: 74 Issue: 1 Page: 152

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Average customer rating:

"Ther looked for dung and found gold."

Go ahead, be astounded and make your day

Inspiring work!

A new edition of previously published books.

Strange Universe: The Weird and Wild Science of Everyday Life--on Earth and Beyond
Bob Berman
Manufacturer: Holt Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Astronomy | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books
Astrophysics & Space Science | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Science | Subjects | Books
Astronomy | Astronomy | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Astrophysics & Space Science | Astronomy | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0805075836
Release Date: 2004-12-09

Book Description

"Touches on a dizzying array of subjects, including UV rays, inert gases, fossils, meteorites, microwaves, rainbows . . . Like many a good teacher, Berman uses humor to entertain his audience and liven things up." Los Angeles Times Bob Berman is motivated by a straightforward philosophy: everyone can understand science-and it's fun, too. In Strange Universe, he pokes into the bizarre and astonishingly true scientific facts that determine the world around us. Geared to the nonscientist, Berman's original essays are filled with the trademark wit and cleverness that has earned him acclaim over many years for his columns in Astronomy and Discover magazines. He emphasizes curiosities of the natural world to which everyone can relate, and dishes on the little-known secrets about space and some of science's biggest blunders (including a very embarrassing moment from Buzz Aldrin's trip to the moon). Fascinating to anyone interested in the wonders of our world and the cosmos beyond, Strange Universe will make you smile and think.

Customer Reviews:

"Ther looked for dung and found gold.".......2006-08-07

This is a delightful little book for anyone who likes reading about Science .Berman is a scientist but also writes for popular magazines;so he is very adept at simplifying the complicated so that virtually everyone can grasp an understanding of what he is writing about.He writes for Discover and Astronomy magazines,the Astronomy editor of the Old Farmer's Almanac,appeared on TV shows and written and written other books.
He slips humor into his writings and catches the reader with a surprise when least expected.He tells us about two Astronomers at Bell Laboratories who discovered cosmic background radiation while using the radio telescope for an entirely different purpose. Berman asks,"Who would have imagined that the birth of the universe would have been discovered in New Jersey?" Then he goes on to say,"They looked for dung and found gold,which is just the opposite of the experience of most of us." I guess that just goes to show you that nerds like to see fun and humor,like the rest of us.
I have a little dog and I often watch her ,especially when she sees something different.She never seems to wonder why anything is as it is or where it came from. We like to think we
operate on a higher level than that,but when you see how most people wander through life,totally obilivous to the universe around them,you gotta wonder.
Then again, some people don't see where anything is complicated.Like the two fellows having a beer on a hot day.The "thinking" one says to the other."I wonder why my beer gets warm?" His pal responds,"What's to wonder about?,you're not drinking it fast enough."
So if you want to have the answer on many of the universe's great inponderables; like black holes,shooting stars,life on other planets,rainbows,why the moon looks flat,how big is the sun,or why things go wrong. Amaze your friends and become be an expert on Murphy's Law."Anything that can go wrong will go wrong".
"Right this moment,somewhere on our spinning globe,people are experiencing food shortages,water shortages,and certainly money shortages,but there's never a shortage of goof-ups.Government,corporate,personal,minor to monumental,there may be only one way to do something right,but an almost infinite number of ways to mess things up.
As an example Berman gives this gem;
"Goof-ups in space science are usually costly,often spectacular,and always instructive. The archetypal U.S.foul-up was the Hubble Space Telescope fiasco in 1991.Its 94-inch mirror was the most precisely polished ever made--except that it was polished to the wrong shape".This was a billion dollar snafu!
A great read,you might even learn something;then again,it might even scare you. One thing for sure,after reading this book,you'll never look at the moon or a rainbow the same way again;or for that matter--the Night Sky.

Go ahead, be astounded and make your day.......2005-10-16

"The briefest inquiry into even ordinary substances can rivet the mind."

A book that describes your entire morning in terms of science that, acc to the author, when you walk into the office and someone asks you "What's Happening", when you'd normally reply "Nothing Much", now you'd say, "Refraction, Reflection, Diffraction, Polarization, Bernoulli's Effect, Dopppler Shift, Electron Resonance, Pendulam effect on walkers...". And that's when you'd be cemented in to the Geek Hall of Fame.

No seriously though, geek or not, this is a good book to read, simply to be astonished that science breathes and walks amongst us every second and yet beyond the pedantic chore we are obligated to go through in school, we are rarely aware of Nature's curiosities in our everyday moments.

The book encourages you to find magic and mystery in commonplace things of not just our Earth, but the entire Universe, from shadows to water. For one small example, a building in North America is struck every fifteen months on average, by a small object from space - an asteroid rock or meteroid.

Inspiring work!.......2005-10-12

As a lifetime amateur astronomer, I can appreciate the mastery an inspiring insights of this wonderful author. Written with wit and scientific accuracy, I recommend this book without reservations to the lay audience and professionals alike. Excellent job!

A new edition of previously published books........2005-03-23

I read "Secrets of the Night Sky" and loved it. Then "Cosmic Adventure" was very good too, so I when I found this book I was thrilled... That is, until I read it.

Bob Berman decided he could "improve" many of the articles of Cosmic Adventure and Secrets of the Night Sky by twisting the text a little, and maybe removing a few words. Usually, when an author wants to update a book, a second or third edition is published. Instead, Bob Berman took his other two books and changed the cover, to fool people into buying the same articles again.

Below I compare the index of this book with articles in Cosmic Adventure. Some articles even have the same name:

* Look Out Below! - Unwelcome Surprises, from Cosmic Adventure.
* Physics in the Morning
* We've Got Gas - It's a gas, from Cosmic Adventure.
* The Man Who Fell to Earth
* View from a Window Seat - View from a Window Seat, from Cosmic Adventure.
* Fathoming Water - Everyday Alchemy, from Cosmic Adventure.
* The Underworld
* Odd Odds
* Measuring Madness
* Say What?
* Eat the Aliens
* Out of the Blue
* Sky Spectacles
* The Shadow Knows
* Egg-quinox
* Deadly Light
* Nature and Numbers, Rivers and Pi
* Now You See Us, Now You Don't
* Oops - Cosmic Blunders, Cosmic Adventure.
* The Discovery That Shook the World - The Most Astounding Discovery Ever, Cosmic Adventure.
* The Forbidden Light
* Our Nearest Neighbor
* Voodoo Moon
* Space Frolics - There are a couple of paragraphs coming from Strange Moon, Cosmic Wonders.
* The Big Stink
* Constellation Consternation
* Cosmic Name Calling - Naming the Universe, from Cosmic Adventure.
* BANG!!!
* Travels in Spacetime
* Light-Speed Magic
* Black Holes: Twisted Space, Frozen Time
* Going to Extremes - Going to Extremes, from Cosmic Adventure

The comparison is not comprehensive. A friend has my copy of "Secrets of the Night Sky", but topics such as the ones in Voodoo Moon and the eclipses from Sky Spectacles appear on that book.

This book was a complete let down. If this had been my first Bob's book, I might have given it four stars.

There are a few original articles, but most of the content is recicled stuff. To top it all, this book (compared to "Secrets..." and "Cosmic...") lacks illustrations, it's the shortest one of the three, and - I can't stress this enough - it is the one with less original material.

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