Dictionary Reviews

If my house were on fire and I had only sufficient time to rescue four books, I would likely grab my four-volume Encyclopedic Dictionary of Mathematics, Second Edition (EDM2). Truly, this is one of the most useful books I own. As testimony to this fact one need only observe that there are more bookmarks protruding from my copy of EDM2 than there are pages (well, almost).

If you are a mathematician, or if mathematics is central to what you do, you will likely appreciate this collection as it contains wonderfully concise yet informative and authoritative entries on nearly every branch of modern mathematics. Need to refresh your memory on Radon-Nikodym derivatives and their properties? No problem. Are you up on Grassman algebras? If not, you can look it up in EDM2. Interested in game theory? It's in there. What about semi groups, elliptic integrals, perturbation theory, lattice theory, Hilbert spaces, projective geometry, integral geometry, measure theory, geometrical optics, and non-standard analysis? All there!

But simply listing the topics covered in EDM2 will not give you an adequate picture of its utility. What is amazing about the book is how much information it can pack into very few pages, yet manage to keep the discussion quite readable. Don't get me wrong; it doesn't read like a Stephen King novel (nor would you want it to). But the entries are self-contained and cogent enough that you can actually learn a good bit about topics that are totally new to you. Of course, you will want to avail yourself of the many cited references to gain a more complete understanding of any given topic, but you will be well on your way to getting acquainted with fundamental definitions and techniques of a hitherto unfamiliar branch of mathematics.

Here are several examples: If you look up "polynomial approximation" you will find a succinct discussion that rigorously defines such terms Bernstein polynomials, Chebyshev system, Haar's condition, degree of approximation, moduli of continuity, approximation by Fourier expansions, trigonometric interpolation, Lagrange interpolation, and orthogonal polynomials, and all in FOUR terse but readable pages, with plenty of references at the end. The entry on "geometric optics" covers Fermat's principle, Gauss mappings, Malus's theorem, and aberration, all in TWO pages. The succinct one-page biography of David Hilbert is followed by a one-page synopsis of Hilbert spaces. In a mere eight pages on function spaces it provides what amounts to a condensed survey of functional analysis, covering norms, dual spaces, Besov spaces, the Sobolev-Besov embedding theorem, Kothe spaces, etc.

Of course, what you will not find in this book is a single proof. Nor will you find up-to-the-minute esoteric theorems. But then I cannot imagine how such a reference could encompass such things; mathematics is far too vast. Nonetheless, EDM2 has amazing breadth and depth for a meager four-volume collection. And it is written with mathematicians in mind, so the discussions are crisp and rigorous. It's exceedingly well done.

Prepared by the Mathematical Society of Japan, this two-volume set provides an outstanding reference of mathematics. It is considered by many to be the best available work that is both definitive and encompassing. Treatment is in depth, and presentations assume a solid mathematical background of the reader. This reference is excellent for the researcher working at the doctoral level. Cost of the paperback edition is very reasonable.

I've been using this book in my work as a mathematician since I bought the first english-language edition in 1984. The second english-language edition is not enormously different to the first, but it is an improvement. Both have been by far the most useful reference on my bookshelf for 18 years. I have always found that the coverage is in-depth and yet comprehensible (with a bit of pen-on-paper work). It's especially useful for accessing results from areas other than my own speciality. I've found the differential geometry coverage literally better than the dozen texts on DG which I have bought. It must be worth more than 100 books on the shelf. Indexing and cross-referencing are both excellent. Historical context is very good. I use this encyclopedia at least 10 times a week. Virtually every definition I need is here, and every important theorem is summarised.

This comprehensive dictionary of literary terms covers much, much more than any other book I've found. It concisely defines literary periods, critical schools, artistic movements, techniques, genres, structural elements, and the derivations of each. No term is too obscure for this volume. Want to know what a rime équivoquée is? Forget what is meant by post-modernism? What was the Florida Street group and with whom did the members identify? Need classic examples of a parody? How does the word "forensics" apply to poetry? You'll find it all in this book of nearly 1000 pages.

This is a highly valuable book for anyone deeply interested in literature and its expressions.

Under twenty dollars for a well thought-out, expertly assembled dictionary of over a thousand pages makes this Penguin an excellent purchase. As for the content, I will simply "second" the observations of earlier reviewers - and recommend that you look through their notes below to be sure this is what you want. This review is just to offer...

One CAVEAT: This inch-and-three-quarters paperback is extremely valuable and deserves to get well thumbed-over by any student of English literature or criticism in general. One could only wish that the publisher had released it in a "quality paperback" format that would better survive such thumbing. The present release (a 2000 paperback reissue of the 1998 hardback) is closer in quality to a mass market paperback, with newsprint grade paper, etc. Annotators and highlighters will find their inks bleeding severely through the pages.

Unfortunately, few of us will have the C-note to lay out for the (presumably much better produced) hardback edition... which would be a *real* treat to keep at one's writing table. Until you win the lottery(or Penguin releases a quality paperback), grab the affordable paperback: it's rewarding enough to keep you *wanting* to highlight, although disappointing when you do.

You get a lot of value for the money with this one. For a reasonable price you get almost 1000 pages of literary information. Every obscure literary term imaginable is here, but that's not why I am taking the time to praise this handy little volume. It's a browsers dream.

What I found most interesting were the lengthy sections on genres. There are pages devoted to specific types of novels, dramas, and poems. There are luxuriously long sections on science fiction novels, crime fiction, pastoral writings, short stories, gothic fiction, comic drama, and a host of other such topics. When you go to the short story section, for instance, you will find 12 pages dedicated to coverage of authors and their works dating from biblical times to the present (1998). I quickly found recommended writers that I hadn't known along with those I was well acquainted with. Although this book was inexpensive, I have spent many times its purchase price buying new books that I found referenced in this Dictionary. There are no individual entries for authors or their works in this book. For that you need to go to books like the Oxford, Cambridge, New York Public Library or Benet's literature reference works.

In poetry sections you will find examples of the type of verse being discussed. You will be amused at some of the entries provided under "light verse" and "limericks". There is even a heading for "shaggy dog story".

Any weaknesses to the book? Well there are a few. This book has a single author, unlike many reference works that have a group of contributors. This can lead to weak sections that are outside the solo author's expertise. Every reader will find a favorite author or two missing from the genre sections. I was appalled, for instance, to find no mention of Flannery O'Connor in the section on American short story authors. As the author is English, there may also be a slight bias toward English writers. I was also somewhat annoyed that Mr. Cuddon often -but not always- didn't take the time to give a foreign title its English translation. Would it have hurt him to list the Victor Hugo novel as "Toilers of the Sea" instead of "Les Travailleurs de le Mer"?

I am a hopeless book addict, and this little reference work really made my day(s).

This is the ESSENTIAL book for every New Yorker interested in learning about and understanding this complicated city. Two years after receiving the Encyclopedia, it remains among my favorite New York books.

If you are a student of New York City or among the millions who love it, Kenneth Jackson's mammoth Encyclopedia is indispensible. I began using it as a reference book for my novel, The Five Points. Before I knew it, I was reading it from cover to cover. What a ride! What an achievement! While loaded with gorgeous illustrations, this is no coffee table book. This is a fact-filled guide to assist the serious student and amorous admirer through the intricacies of the greatest city on Earth. And unlike most books about New York City, this encyclopedia actually covers the other four boroughs, not just Manhattan! The enormous effort that went into this book will be gratefully acknowledged by anyone who reads it.

Just make sure you have plenty spare time when you pick this volume up. It is so addictive - you look something up, then something else catches your eye and before you know it two hours have passed.
I love New York and this book has definately increased my pleasure and knowledge of the city.

Unlike other Swedish grammer books for English speakers, this book is both compact and easily "carryable" but also complete and full of fantastic examples. This book gives Swedish examples and translates all of them into English. The book tells you how English and Swedish are similar or different, which makes it easier to memorize the rules of Swedish. Furthermore, the book makes good use of bold print and different type sizes to draw your attention to the most important part of the rule being taught. Because of the great use of examples, this book is a very good choice for English speakers who can't define every part of speech; this book defines the parts and shows you how they work. (This book explains the difference between "who" and "whom" better than any English teacher I've ever had!)

As any native English speaker trying to learn Swedish had found out, there is a real lack of useful Swedish learning tools out there. One of the very few items that I can recommend without reservation is this basic grammar by Viberg et al. - it does a great job of covering all the major grammar points without bogging the learner down in obscure terms or arcane exceptions that will rarely be encountered in real, spoken Swedish. In a practically minded manner, limits itself to using the vocabulary that a person needs to pick up in their first few years of study. Finally, it is exceptionally well organized - do you need to find out how adjectives are declined in Swedish? Well, you can find the appropriate section very easily by looking in either the well organized table of contents or the detailed index in the back. Twenty minutes of no-fuss, no-muss reading and you'll learn all you'll ever need to know about adjectives. It's a great book to have in your backpack to pull out while riding the bus - it's such an easy read, it feels more like pleasure reading than studying. Highly Recommend!

Absolutely essential for learning more than just "travel" swedish. Easy to learn and layed out nicely.

This book is truly a complete guide to horse breeds. Unfortunately the quality of the book material was a disappointment. It was filled with photos; but only a few were color photos. The pages were not much better than the quality of a comic book, thin and yellow. I expected much more for the price. 4 stars solely on the detail and depth of it's information.

This book is wonderful. Lots of information, but a little pricy. Overall, it's a good deal for you if you love horses like me. One problem I had was I didn't know how many pages were in the book. All I know is it has more than 17 pages because there are 17 sample pages. I enjoyed looking at the sample pages. Thank you.

I would have given this book ten stars if they allowed it.

This is the book to get.

If you have not bought this book by this author, I highly recommend doing so. You will not be disappointed.

This book is now in my collection of horse book and plus it really helps you out when you are looking for a breed for your model horses. I have already found a breed for one of my model horses that I collect and live show.

This book is worth every single penny you spent to purchase this book.

If you can transpose a melody you hear into C major (or C minor, as the case may be), and you are any kind of semi-serious classical musician, GET THIS BOOK. My copy is almost 30 years old, and the binding is coming apart from frequent use. When you get a tune in your head, or hear one on the radio, and you can't quite place it ("let's see, that sounds like Mozart, but it could be Haydn..."), just brush off your music dictation skills, write down the theme in C, go to the back of the book, and look it up. "Dictionary" is not quite the right term for this work -- it's more like a Bartlett's.

OK, perhaps it's not absolutely indispensable. But it has prevented a few cases of temporary insanity ("Aaaarrggghhhhh -- what was that piece they just played?!?"). Yes, the book needs to be updated with 20th century material. (The tonal stuff, anyway -- Copland, Prokofiev, Vaughan Williams, etc.) And in addition to their companion volume of opera tunes, there would probably be a market for an additional volume for "pop" stuff -- Broadway show tunes, Tin Pan Alley, etc. But this is probably the oldest book I have that I still refer to on a regular basis, and with the large collection of books I have, that's saying a lot.

Do you want to identify the main themes of a well-known composition? Look it up here! Do you have a composition running through your mind which you can't identify? Look it up here! Did you tune in late on a classical radio station and wish to identify the composition which is being played? Look it up here!

I had to pay [$$'s] for this book because there were only 2 copies left. The other copy was [$$$'s]. Any music book publishers reading this review, will you please, please, PLEASE do us all a favor by re-publishing this book!

Fabulous, could not get along without it. Unique index. Got my copy when I was 12 and loved every page. This is where I learned what music was worth listening to and searching out the unfamiliar. Ws the basis for my first catalog of my records. On short list of essential music books, worth every cent. And best of all, it was written by lawyers, believe it or not. Copyright lawyers needed an easy reference to check on music piracy and here it is. The companion book on vocal music is just as good.

This is a terrific book for looking up all things Disney. It was last updated in 1998 so it could use some revisions and additions. So much has happened in the last few years with new theme parks, movies, characters, and animated films.

Despite some sections being obsolete, I can't think of a better book that's been published to answer any Disney question that comes up. I would've given this book five stars if it was just a little more updated. Here's hoping Dave Smith decides to revise this book on a regular basis.

This encyclopedia by Disney archivist Dave Smith has everything you would want to know about Disney's films, theme parks, television shows, and more. At a length of over 600 pages, this book overflows with information, most of which one might wonder why anyone would need to know. Questions such as "what Disney film was released on October 3, 1927?", "what Disney film stared Sean Conery before he landed the role of James Bond?", and "what stage show played at Walt Disney World's Tomorrowland Theater starting in 1984?" are all answered in this book, along with literally thousands of others. This book is a great resource for any Disney fan and a fascinating look at the evolution of the Walt Disney Company.

An incredible amount of detailed information. The problem is, like with every encyclopedia of something that still exists, it needs to be updated every few years.
But Dave Smith did a wonderful, wonderful job in writting this book, and does a wonderful job by keeping Disney Archives.

First off, this book is really not for beginners. It does do a good job of explaining grammar, however, if one is not already familiar with the language, it can tend to be a bit over one's head (as in my case). This was the first book that I found and purchased on the Finnish language around a year and a half ago, and I still have not found it entirely useful because I am not ready for it yet. I am sure it would be more useful as I get better, but this one is probably not for beginners.

This book is a comprehensive, yet concise reference grammar of Finnish. Karlsson starts with a brief overview of history, then turns to pronunciation and sound alternations. Following these topics, he presents the general nominal declensions and the conjugation of verbs. He then delves into much deeper detail with the case system and the verb systems, followed by the comparison of adjectives and word formation. He closes the main text with an extremely useful chapter on the colloquial spoken language, in which he explains which rules discussed above were only theoretical, and what people actually say.

This book has pictures of intonation patterns, nominal declension charts in all 15 cases in both the singular and plural, and a handy appendix of complete verb declensions. Important grammatical rules are printed in eye-catching boxes, while key grammatical endings are printed in bold in the numerous examples. I've found this book to be tremendously useful at all stages of my development in Finnish language skills. I read it intensively when I was first studying the language, and I continually turn to it for reference today, although I can now speak Finnish fairly fluently. If you want to learn Finnish or learn about Finnish, you need this book.

I've been a student of the Finnish language for years, and this is by far one of the most clearly informitave and easy to understand texts I've ever come across.

Not so much a "teach yoursef" book as it is a reference guide for students of Finnish, Karlsson's book goes into everything from word structure, verb conjugation, etc., to a wonderful chapter on colloquial Finnish.

I highly recommend this book for any student of Finnish. Next to your English-Finnish dictionary, this is the most important reference volume you can have!

Actually, I am not suppose to write a review for this record, but the unjustified responds from so many Jaco fans, forced me into putting my pen in this tiny review. This album is no doubt very good, great musicianship was displayed here, but by saying "The Birthday Concert" is a lesser album, that I can't agree. Take "The Chicken" for instance, the soloist playing here is a lackluster compared to Micheal Brecker who played in "The Birthday Concert", I don't want to go into techincal details but can't you all hear that? I understand for the fans who only want to hear the Jacobass, maybe the bassist was in a better form here, but for me the band gotta be good as a whole especially the soloist (M Brecker burns!). Don't get me wrong, this is still a good record, but the only thing that I can't agree with is "The Birthday Concert" a lesser album.

This is such a funky, rockin' CD! I still have my original vinyl copy (yeah, dating myself...), so it was just amazing to hear a clean, remastered CD.

Jaco is at his very best, and the rest of the band is right there with him. The timing of the rythm section is so clean, the brass is so *funky*, and Jaco does things with a bass that defy the laws of physics -- you're not supposed to be able to play *lead melodic lines and chords* on bass, are you? My two favorite tracks are The Chicken, and Fannie Mae -- if the brass was any sharper, or the rythm section any tighter, it would bring tears to your eyes!

If you're having a bad day, put in this CD, select and play Soul Intro/The Chicken, and crank the volume to 11! Your bad day will vanish after about the third bar. It really is *that good*! So, so good!

I literally climbed down into a sewer to retrieve my Invitation tape after it fell out of my car into the gutter. I didn't know if it was still being made and I wasn't taking any chances! It's one of those albums that I listen to over and over and over. The Chicken is so funky, Jaco's playing is so good. The pan solo is so fun. The whole band rocks - the songs are tight and together and the band seems to breathe as one thing. This album is far far superior to "The Birthday Concert" which seems like a mere warm up to this one. (oh, um, I guess it was!)

I'm fully fluent in French and find the dictionary comparable to the dictionaries one finds in a high school class. This is to say, words more archaic or technical, one may not find in the "Robert Micro" just as in English one needs the unabridged dictionary for such words more rare. Taken for its intended purpose, namely, a dictionary intended for one reading at a high school level in French "Robert Micro" is excellent. Naturally, the more educated Francophone needs a fuller dictionary, as a college-educated English-speaker would also need an unabridged dictionary. Nevertheless, taken for its intended level, the "Robert Micro" is excellent.

Ol' Dipper is a little hot around the collar with the French lately. My understanding of the French language is that, when someone speaks it up here in Medusa, New York, it sounds like they are choking and local children begin running away in terror. Speaking of terror, I used this book to try and translate into French a few phrases I figure we'll be seeing here in America again now that those true lovers of peace have had their say at the UN. This book is good for intermediate level translating and has an extensive vocabulary word range. I was successfully able to translate, "Run for your lives fellow countrymen! There is a radioactive cloud heading our way from the Capital District!" Short work was made of "No, I do not have any extra antidote for cyanide poisoning" and "Why is everyone in that shopping mall sleeping on the floor?" Overall, I am quite pleased with this book. My satisfaction was complete when "Yes, I bought this lexicon with money I earned before my taxes went up to 85 percent of my gross salary" rolled in perfect French onto my computer screen. I love this book. I wish I could say the same about anything else French.

This is a terrific dictionary for the intermediate student. I was recommended it when I studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. Now I require all of my students to purchase one as well. Enjoy!