Holden Reviews

I borrowed this book from my local library and I liked it so much that I realize that I'm going to have a hard time parting with it and returning it to the library. What really appealed to me about this book was that it was written for the thoughtful, intelligent reader who knows something about computers and the internet and who is interested in continuing to progress and expand in this knowledge. It doesn't give the reader a whole lot of useless, technical information that would probably be over the head of the beginner-intermediate computer user, nor does it approach the subject of the internet with the assumption that even a "dummy" or "idiot" can learn the material. The colorful graphics grabbed my attention, (yes, even adults like pretty pictures). There was plenty of useful, interesting information, including how to access some great websites and how to conduct various kinds of research. And most especially, I left the book wishing that it didn't end just then. This book almost compelled me to write the authors and demand a sequel !!

My husband does call it "keep it simple stupid" but really it is "series." :) I think that is a play on words and I appreciate not being called stupid for sure. I don't think anyone who is online is stupid, but there is so much to learn and it can be a bit overwhelming to someone just going online for the first time.

This book will help you master the basics of getting connected, help to unlock the secrets of the World Wide Web, e-mail, and chat rooms. You can discover how to shop, bank and do business online. If you want to navigate the Net with confidence this is the most informative book around. You can find the right service provider, access and download information, create your own web pages, enhance your family's hobbies, interests and education and even plan a vacation. One of the best parts of being online is meeting people in cyberspace. You are bound to find someone who has the same interests as you.

I "simply" love this colorful book. The pictures are adorable and "simple simon" who looks like a little dog appears all over the book. Sometimes he is found holding a VIP symbol and this points out a topic that deserves careful attention. At another page you might find him holding up a warning sign or telling you the inside scoop. When he gets technical he offers information on a deeper level in detail. There are little boxes which include specific web addresses which will take you directly to useful sites so you might want to be online while reading some of the book.

There are also little Trivia boxes which give fun facts and an extra appreciation of the cultural phenomenon that is the "Net." A definition box gives words and terms that are defined in an easy-to-understand style. There is also a complete Glossary at the back of the book with all the Internet lingo.

Part One is a Welcome to the Internet. It shows you how to get a handle on the Internet, how to get started, safety issues and smooth sailing guidelines. Part Two discusses communication online. You can also learn to put up your own Web site. Part Three is a fun chapter which shows you how to find the fun stuff. This explains advanced searching, specialized searching and how to download items. Part Four is especially designed for Families who love the Internet. It includes information on children being online, where to find special interests and how to get an education on the Net. Part Five could be a bit dangerous because you learn how to shop online. Once you have shopped online, there is no turning back! You can also learn to manage your money, invest in the stock market and make money online.

Amazon is listed as one of the online stores. There is also information on how to act when going to a board online. Bulletin boards act like a notice board. You can post a message and talk to many people all at once. Once a message is out there, there is no turning back!

Each "part" has a complete contents page at the beginning of the book in the contents section. Then, the pages are color coded so each chapter is easy to find. There are full-color pictures of Web pages and plenty of illustrations. This is one interesting book! The text is often in color and helps to make ideas stand out.

How do I love the Internet, let me count the ways...I also love this book. It is the best book out there. If you don't have it, you are missing out on one of the most brilliantly organized books about the Internet. This is a must have for the 21st Century. Can it get any better than this. I would live online if I could :). Being online really expands your world. Once you get there, you may never want to leave. It can be a bit addictive, so do try to sleep now and then. It sure beats watching TV. Being online will make you smarter, I can guarantee it. There is so much to learn that for some people it becomes overwhelming. I didn't get online until the year 2000. So, if I can do this...you can too.

Jump in baby and enjoy surfing. Hey wait...you are already here :). Oh, you will still need this book and love it!

On the back of "The New Penguin Opera Guide", it quotes an endorsement from the Boston Globe--"...The best one-volume opera guide...". This is absolutely the truth! I haven't seen another one volume opera guide that doesn't shamefacedly pale before this one! It covers composers and operas the others don't even get close to. It also includes information that is really valuable to a dedicated opera nut like me, such as premier places and dates, the name of the publishers and whether a full score or only a vocal score has been published, and a list of recordings.

Does all this praise mean I don't have any gripes? Far from it! Some of my complaints may reflect my own operatic interests, but others really are flaws. My thing is late romantic opera, so I can only comment on areas that I know.

First of all, while they've wisely chosen a wide range of experts to write the descriptions of the composers and operas in question, some composers are treated with much greater sympathy than others of a similar historical importance. For instance, most of the German expressionists make out quite well. Zemlinsky (who's one of my favorite composers)is reviewed by Antony Beaumont, who not only knows about Zemlinsky (he's written an excellent biography), but completed the orchestration of his final opera! You could hardly expect Beaumont to say "'Konig Kandaules' sucks!" On the other hand, it's hard to find a single verismo composer, Puccini excepted, for whom the guide has much sympathy...Giordano "lacks resoursefulness and inventiveness". Mascagni's creative impetus was "short-breathed and lacked continuity". Zandonai showed "dangerous signs of repeating himself". Montemezzi was a "relatively minor, conservative composer", who's later works are "disappointing...unassuming, and unadverterous". You get the idea. The guide also gives far more weight to modernist and recent works than their performance histories seem to justify, while neglecting important works by expressionist, verismo, and American romantic composers. Alfano's "Cyrano de Bergerac", which has two available recordings, and upcoming productions starring Roberto Alagna and Placido Domingo, doesn't have an entry. Neither do the operas of American composers Victor Herbert or Deems Taylor, though they were of some historical importance, and Taylor's works were popular successes. Henry K. Hadley, who's "Cleopatra's Night" was successful at the Met, isn't even included in the book. It also lacks a meaningful table of contents.

These things aside, this is a must have title for the serious opera fan. The CD-rom version of this book has even more information as well as some sound samples and more pictures.

Years ago, I found a copy of "The Viking Opera Guide" on the shelves of a large bookstore. I was astonished by how superior it was to every other opera book I'd ever seen. I looked at the back and was discouraged by the price: .... But the book was so great I would have bought it anyhow, except the book was not in very good condition and I'm a stickler on that point. So I investigated a little further, and quickly discovered that the book was out of print! Why on earth, I wondered, since it was so obviously superior to any other book its size in print?

At any rate, I decided not to buy it, thinking that it was so good that another edition must be forthcoming. I waited a couple months to no avail. I broke down and decided to buy the soiled copy in the bookstore if it was still there. No such luck!

Now this "New Penguin Opera Guide" comes out, which is an abridgement of the original. I looked it over in a bookstore and saw immediately that it was just wonderful, albeit missing at least a third of the entries in the original Viking book. Nevertheless, at the level of my interest (complete works of Handel and Janacek, for example, but not some of the more obscure opera composers), it seemed to fulfil my craving for the original Viking book. So I bought it and I am greatly satisfied with it.

Still, my curiosity about the original Viking book remains. I searched Amazon for used copies. Imagine my dismay when I saw that the cheapest used example now goes for [price]! It is a collector's item priced considerably higher than its original price! So you can still get the original Viking in the used book market, but if the cost exceeds your means, this "New Penguin Opera Guide" is a worthy paperback substitute. It is a heavy volume printed on high quality paper and loaded with B&W photographs. It far exceeds its predecessor, "The Penguin Opera Guide" published in 1995. That also is an abridgement of the Viking, but it only contains about 25% of the original text and is printed on light-weight, poor quality paper. Nevertheless, what there is of the text of that edition is worthy, and it is light and small enough to stick it away on a trip to the opera. Not so this New edition, which is way too heavy and big to hide away in your coat pocket. For just browsing at home, I reiterate: it is wonderful -- until and if the original Viking is reprinted in its entirety.

Amazon sent me this by mistake. What I really wanted was the NEW Penguin Opera Guide, which is vastly superior with twice as many pages and higher quality paper with lots of B&W photographs. It also weighs a ton compared to this lightweight. Make sure you get the new edition, unless you want something lightweight to take with you to the opera. What is here, however, is fine, just not nearly as complete as the new edition.

Let's put it simple. If it is not in Viking, you have to do quite specialized research to find it.

The author's step-by-step explanations are great, and the issue coverage superb. The CD-Rom was a disappointment, however, as it contains simply the book text and graphics; I expected sample, working spreadsheets like that found in Benninga's Financial Modeling book. Despite the shortcoming, Holden's book is worth the money.

This is NOT a handy book of spreadsheet templates for use in finance. It IS a book to TEACH you about building spreadsheets for use in finance. The author has built dozens of very useful spreadsheets that he gives you step-by-step instructions on building and WHAT the step is about.

If you build all of the spreadsheets in the book you will gain a great deal of understanding about the subjects covered in the book and will be miles ahead of the calculator-based approach typical in today's classrooms. No professionals use calculators to figure duration or convexity or optimal portfolios, why should you? This is a very needed book and a nice approach to the subject.

I like this version of the book MUCH better than the Fundamentals version. But that is my preference; pick the book that is right for you. They are both very good. I intend to get more in the series.

the book looks pretty good but i was wondering what heppened with the CD that comes with the book, if anyone knows please let me know

This workbook is truly the strongest complement to the classroom. It allows the student to flesh out the theoretical concept while building an important skill set for anyone who wants a career in finance. A wise investment...looking forward to the new titles coming out in the fall!

Gotta say, with many, many books telling you how easy it is to make a hit film it's nice to have come across and read this honest, and highly readable, approach.
I liked the size, unlike several other film making guides it wasn't some 'Book of Lore' that requires lifting equipment to read. You could probably fit this in your back pocket and read it over a couple of afternoons(or nights...)
It's simple, it doesn't fly away with obscure technical speech, and I liked the way when some film making process was on the verge of getting complicated, there's a breather and explanation that allows the reader to follow EVERYTHING.
It actually talks about creativity and how to go about writing scripts and thinking of stories as well as how to get the most out of camera and methods and procedures of making a film. I don't think I've ever seen a book or on-line guide that merged these themes so well. Three for the price of one!!
I guess the British guy who wrote this, knows what it takes to get a film started and made. OK, there's a few Britishisms, but the information is pretty universal and above all simple and helpul.
Definitely good background reading to my film studies course.
I feel as though I have discovered a real gem here.
T.D.

Did anyone forget that making films should be fun? The guy who wrote this book sure didn't. This has got to be the first book where everything is infused witha real sense of enjoyment and fun, but at the same time combined with simple and structured learning. I've read some real stinker film making guides for my media production college course, but this book bucks the trend big time.
Highly reccomended reading for the media or film production student!!
Read, enjoy, have fun, learn.

I was skeptical about what I might find on this CD-ROM, but after browsing it, I have found it to be incredibly packed with a lot of information about a lot of different Y2K problems.

The publisher boasts that if you were to print the contents of the CD, it would stack to over 6 feet tall. I can attest that this is the case.

There is a wealth of information, some of it dated (though there is a quarterly release of the product scheduled throughout 1999) and much of it current. However, the information that may be dated is informative, and shows a history of the news surrounding the Y2K crisis and how little coverage the crisis was getting in 1998.

Well worth the money that I spent because the CD contained enough information that kept me from spending days of research on the internet.

I'm not a Y2K fanatic but I found the information on this CD-ROM to be quite invaluable. There's information on every topic concerning Y2K and it is fairly easy to navigate.

I was able to find more info on the specific topics that I am concerned about than I did in my time-consuming web searches. And I learned alot about other Y2K related items as well.

Since the info is all on CD-ROM, I can now easily help out my co-workers by printing out articles relating to their concerns.

The diagnostic programs on the disk have shown me the programs on my computer that may be problematic come January 1, 2000. So I have time to correct or remove them before they crash my system. That alone was worth the price to me.

This, as many people know, is one extremely controversial book. Many people dislike simply for that, but I, on the other hand, have reason for it. Sure, I was required to read this for my freshman language arts class, so, like most books one is forced to read, it's expected that the student will dislike it. Once again, not my reason. Unlike so many people around my age, I happen to like reading, and over this past year, this is the first book I have hated out of the sixty or so I read. I'm sure the die-hard fans of this book are going to go completely insane after just simply reading the title of my review, but this is just one person's opinion. I suggest that you read plenty more, because if you don't hate this book, you'll love it.

Perhaps the worst part of the book would be the main character Holden. Holden is a very angry, bitter, and mentally unstable sixteen-year-old who can find something annoying or depressing in the most simple of things. It seemed to go on forever, his constant whining about the "phonies," or more elaborately put, show-offs and exhibitionists who act like completely different people than they really are. He labels pretty much everyone phony for some reason, and he makes it clear from the first page of his hate of them. The story is told from first person view, hence the complaining. Holden seemed to have an image set in his mind of how other people should be, and should act. In this I'm sure many people can identify with him in some way or another, as so many people have a disrespect for certain types of people. I consider that perfectly acceptable, but the way that Holden constantly went on and on about the phonies and fools who he just couldn't stand just inevitably got on my nerves by the middle of the book.

As I said, The Catcher in the Rye is told in first person view. To make the complaining worse, you add on Holden talking all the time. He seems to like to explain things a bit too thoroughly, and, while he gets the point across, he also manages to get off subject so much it's just unbelievable. I read one paragraph which was, I think, over three pages long, and I know that Holden must have changed subject at least five times over the course of it. This is no exaggeration. I know that the most constant complaint in my class was his rambling. It's as if Holden couldn't keep his mind on one thing for more than a few seconds. That certainly wasn't helped when Holden would start talking about phonies. I'm sure that certainly hurt the book quite a bit.

Really, I can't think of anything about the book which I enjoyed, other than the first few chapters when I was not yet annoyed be Holden's view of almost all other people. In my opinion, Holden ruined the book completely. I'm not saying that this is not well written literature, but it's just a book I hate. It certainly is realistically written, and the characters are well thought out and realistic, but as I said, you either love it or hate it. I happen to hate it. Many happen to like it. Read some other reviews, otherwise you will just hear the view of one person, when perhaps The Catcher in the Rye may deserve more praise.

A bit of feedback please! Helpful or not?

I confess to some disappointment with this book, though I should mention that I did appreciate the scene where Europa, a moon of Jupiter, collides with an asteroid. But the purpose of the space exploration chapters is a bit of a mystery to me, as much as I enjoyed them. How does this jibe with the prep-school coming-of-age theme in the earlier chapters? Perhaps my copy had some printing errors.

As I browse through other reader comments, I'm glad to see that most readers enjoyed Catcher in the Rye. J.D. Salinger's writing style is easy to follow and the tone that he expresses through Holden Caufield is very personal.

I remember reading Catcher in the Rye for the first time as a teenager in High School (more than ten years ago). To this day, whenever I interact with other people I often consider how Holden Caufield would read the situation. It keeps me from becoming overly pessimistic or cynical about anything. Whenever I catch myself thinking like Holden, I try to open my mind to alternative perspectives--optimistic or neutral viewpoints.

The theme of the novel also helps with understanding people like Holden; the cynical, pessimistic, irrate, grumpy, moody, depressed, ect... And although the ending may seem abrupt, I think this was Salinger's intention; it sets up the reader to think critically and imagine whatever fate they want to attach to Holden.

I am thankful that Catcher in the Rye was required reading in high school. Salinger doesn't play around with too much vocabulary or symbolism. Catcher in the Rye is one of the first novels that peaked my interest in books and stimulated my critical thinking patterns.

I enjoyed the premise of this book, but I never figured out what the "Harp" in the title means. Plus, I didn't lose any weight. I recommend "The South Beach Diet."

I'm not sure how to feel about this book. While reading it, I really could not become absorbed by Conrad's dense prose, though, while occasionaly eloquent, is very thick, and, well, British. But now that I am finished with it, I can not get the images the novella invokes out of my head. The conquest of Africa by the Imperialist on the surface, and the corruption of man's very morality underneath. The story is deceptively simple, merely a man working for an Ivory trading company, ominously called "The Company", going up the Congo river to meet up with Kurtz, the archetype of Western Imperialism. During this trip, we are shown the inner workings of man and his heart of darkness. The novella is not perfect though. Conrad's condemnation of Imperialism is uneven. Yes, the only discernable cause of Kurtz's descent into evil and madness is the imperialist ethic of master-slave, and it is fairly clear that Marlowe (conrad) is condemning that ethic, but at the same time, he doesn't work very hard to elevate the view of the African natives any higher in the esteem of his western readers. Anyway, as the novella is only about 100 pages, it is something that can be read in a day. Invest an afternoon in it, and decide for yourself.

You can sit in your office on your lunch break and read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness while, perhaps, eating a chicken salad sandwich. And while sitting there with an air-conditioned breeze blowing from a vent, you can imagine you are vicariously experiencing a trip up the Congo River in nineteenth century Africa. You can suppose your imagination is powerful enough to project you mentally into the circumstances Conrad relates. It is true Conrad's power of description is such that the reader can almost feel the thick, hot gush of blood fill Marlow's shoes as his assistant dies at his feet -- on his feet. Reading this story in the dead of winter will bring sweat to your brow. The torrid heat of the African night drips from every sentence. But more than anything, this story fills one with a sense of mortality -- it beats bluntly like an indefatigable drummer between every line. Lives like waves crashing against the merciless rocks of time. No man able to escape the malignant truth of his inevitable demise. Not even Kurtz, who wielded the reaper with such dexterity that it seems impossible he would ever have it turned in his own direction.

Heart of Darkness -- heart of virulence. Conrad takes us to a land of death -- a hundred-page trip through a tropical tumor. "The horror -- the horror." Yes! The horror fills every page, every twitch of every character. All is corrupt and dirty, like slime on the edge of a desecrated grave. It is the genius of Conrad that he can so deftly deliver his reader from the most opulent ivory tower of modern comfort, to where the darkest places in nature meets the darkest places in the human soul.

I had to read this book for my English class and at first it was so boring! It about a young boy named Pip and he is trying to find his true indentity. At the end of the first phase he goes to London to become a "gentleman" because that is what his benefactor wants (Pip doesn't know his benefactor). At the end of the 2nd phase, he finds out who his benefactor is. Those two phases in the book are really boring, but I think it gets better in the end. If you read this book I suggest that you just start in the third phase because the rest is boring.

This is a great story of Pip (Philip Pirrip)'s obsessive love for a woman who neither loves him nor seems in any way the typical heroine. As he strives to become a gentleman, aided by an anonymous benefactor's money, he succeeds only in alienating those who love him best and most honestly. Appearances, as in most Dickens novels, are deceiving, and those who are wealthy in a material sense are not those who are wealthy in the emotional sense and vice versa.

The language and sentence structure are both complex; if you have any difficulty in understanding this sort of English you'd do well to wait awhile before reading GREAT EXPECTATIONS, because Dickens' brilliance is in the wording. This is less humorous than many of his other stories; however the humor is there if you look for it and listen for it in the phrasing.

Dickens provided two endings for this book, and, frankly, I don't care much for either...but read the book, read both endings, and decide for yourself.

I spent a whole term going over this book in freshmen English class. It is an overall good book, full of interpritations. There are many symbolisms and allusions. However, it is important to remember that this book was originally a serialization, as it came out every week in the paper. There are some parts when Dickens drawls on with his plans, events, ect. However, there are scenes that are very fast paced and action filled. The overall plot is a young, naive boy of about ten lives with his sister and her simple husband named Joe. However, Pip is given a secret benefactor and is thrust in the life of nobility. Pip is tangled in his probelems of leaving Joe behind and his encouters with the shallow (and I mean SHALLOW) Estella and the wicked Miss Havisham. Dickens is a master with characters and the languege, but he doesn't describe any everyday events. For example, Pip goes to study law, but thats all we know. In my opinion, it gives the characters this higher than life importance, and less real. But, if you take this book slowely, maybe a chapter a night (instead of the five I had to do), you will definately enjoy this book.