Did Andrew Lewis Conn really take Ulysses and reconfigure it for the porn industry? Yes he did. And does this possibly heretical and certainly brave idea actually work? Yes, yes, a resounding yes. This book is shocking, not because Conn has apparently conducted endless, painstaking work in the field of masturbation technique, but because the story of Benjamin Seymour is startlingly, achingly good. P is a bit like rubber necking on a train wreck as the tortured soul of Benjamin Seymour is flayed, sautéed and displayed on the streets of a gauzy, romanticized New York. But at the end of each chapter, as I experienced satisfying sessions of spine tingles and tear drips, rib tickles and heart aches, I became more and more in love with this sad-sack character and his equally screwed up minions. After experiencing the linguistic tilt-a-whirl and structural calisthenics of Andrew Conn's P, any other novel, boringly depicted in typical, straight-ahead prose, would seem so puerile, so safe, so twentieth century. This is a major book that practically screams for attention.

This is an incredibly ambitious first novel that lives up to and exceeds all my expectations. The language, the wordplay, the descriptions and above all, the story had me mesmerized from Chapter 1---my favorite in the whole book. Mr. Conn, I salute you.

I found a copy of this book in manhattan and bought it without even ever hearing about it. Trust me...it's worth it. It takes you back to a time when 42nd Street Times Square wasn't a place to bring the family for an entertaining evening on the town. It is the story of Pornstar/Producer Benjamin Seymour (who should be played by Ron Jeremy in the movie.)
Conn writes in an interesting style combinging third-person narration alongside what appears as actual screenplay style formatting in the "movie" that has become Benjamin's life.
"P" is a heartbreakingly funny piece of work that shines a light on the conflicting sides of life in both the adult film industry and the human experience of living with heartbreak. It unfolds into a book unlike any I have ever read. Extremely thought- provoking without being over-philosophical. There are plenty of passages to go back to and ponder over long after you place the book on your shelf.

I just got the book this weekend and read it from front to back in a feverish 4 am session. Boyd somehow combines the ideas of Nietzsche, Buddha, Camus, Gandhi and Lenny Bruce into a paradoxically coherent worldview that sums up everything I feel and think about politics, sex, drugs, love and hope. "Daily Afflictions" is often angry, morbid, and bleak - and it is the most inspirational thing I have read in years.

The book is the perfect holiday gift for the conflicted, hyper-sensitive worldchanger on your list.

I just got the book this weekend and read it from front to back in a feverish 4 AM session. Boyd somehow combines the ideas of Nietzsche, Buddha, Camus, Gandhi and Lenny Bruce into a paradoxically coherent worldview that sums up everything I feel and think about politics, sex, drugs, love and hope. "Daily Afflictions" is often angry, morbid, and bleak - and it is the most inspirational thing I have read in years.

The book is the perfect holiday gift for the conflicted, hyper-sensitive worldchanger on your list.

I just got the book this weekend and read it from front to back in a feverish 4 am session. Boyd somehow combines the ideas of Nietzsche, Buddha, Camus, Gandhi and Lenny Bruce into a paradoxically coherent worldview that sums up everything I feel and think about politics, sex, drugs, love and hope. "Daily Afflictions" is often angry, morbid, and bleak - and it is the most inspirational thing I have read in years.

The book is the perfect holiday gift for the conflicted, hyper-sensitive worldchanger on your list.

Anthony Lappé

Inside Havana is composed of a group of the most staggeringly beautiful and insightful photographs of Havana one could imagine. I loved this book. Andrew Moore has, with sumptuous color and exquisite sensitivity, captured this place which fills so many of us with such nostalgia, longing and frustration. Moore "gets" Havana in its complexity. His photograph of an old man in an undershirt sitting in what must have been the wide second story porch of a sumptuous Hacienda captures the former grandeur the decay and with perfect pitch. Moore doesn't preach but he does he delivers profound insights into the splendor that was and shows us how to see the beauty of this extraordinary place that no amount of squalor can completely hide. His sumptuous images in amazing color have an edge, they can make you feel other's nostalgia and bring you into the life of a people, of their present condition, of where they were, and of where they might be going. Anyone who wants to understand Cuba should buy this book- each picture is worth 1000 words. I went there as a child and I revisited a few years ago and can tell you Moore is as honest as he is artistic. He has an astonishing eye for the telling image, the revealing detail. Even if you are not interested in Cuba buy it- it has some of the most ravishing photographs you will ever see

I'm purchasing this book after seeing it in a gift shop and can't wait to study it further. A photographer myself, I appreciate the work of talented photographers such as Andrew Moore. His choice of subjects and lighting make this book a joy to view. I have referred it to other photographers and I haven't even received my copy yet! Keep up the beautiful work!

I have had the opportunity to travel in Cuba on more than one occasion and am profoundly drawn to the people and the environment. Though I often times feel that photographic books do not adequately capture the essence of "real" places, I have found this book to be descriptive beyond words. The photographs tell a story of collapse and revival -- of time lost -- of hope -- of battle -- of corrosion -- of endurance.... Havana is alluring and repulsive in the same glance. Few photographers can capture such complexity in a single image. This book is amazing.

Anyone who thinks the Principia is a parody has plainly missed the point. This book contains Truth, and the Truth shall make you laugh.

By the way, as the Principia was originally published in the public domain, interested parties should take a look at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tilt/principia/. Sadly, the HTML version does not include Malaclypse's butt-kicking rubber stamp collection, so buy the book anyway.

Every man, woman, and child on this earth is a genuine and authorised Pope. Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!

I was browsing through a hobby store one afternoon and a black paperback book with golden enscriptions caught my eye. The enscription read: "The Principia Discordia - or how I foud Goddess and what I did to her when I found her". I became very curious to know what it contained. Without thinking twice I bought the book. I took it home and began to read. I was instantly hooked and couldn't put it down until I had finished it. When I stopped to think about what I had just read I fell to the floor in uncontrollable laughter. After laughing for a while I started crying, and after that I was enlightened. I have recommended this book to everyone I have discussed books with since. It is the second best book I have ever read

The original Principia Discordia was very much mish mash of near random pages thrown together, and the pages themselves were changed and modified. I've always felt that it should be a continually evolving book, and with this edition including newly created pages, it hits closest to the spirit of discordianism (at least in my opinion).

The other editions I've seen present it almost as a relic of the past, as something to be looked at, and fondly reminisced over. The purple edition did a great interview with one of the creators (and 3 of his personalities if I remember correctly), which is nice, but too stale for me.

I'm sorry to see it out of print.

In summary: This edition of the Principia is particularly good because it features added material, all in the style and theme of the original.

Side note: If you want better reviews of this book, look for the reviews of for the purple and yellow editions (by Omar K. Ravenhurst, and Malaclypse et al, respectively). All editions feature the same original content.

This author reinforces what we at digitalevangelism.com have been trying to get the church to embrace - "digital" evangelism!!

If you want to learn the internet....this is the book foryou. If you are a Christian on the internet...this is the book foryou. If you are concerned about your children surfing theinternet....this book is for you. If you care about internetcontent....this is the book for you. I give it tenstars...

An oft neglected subject by todays church, E-vangelism is here to stay, and Andrew Careaga gives a very good starting point for todays church to again become relevant.

Perhaps the greatest battle the modern Christian faces is apathy. In the pages of this book, we find that their is a real "subculture" out there. If we are to become true "minister of the Gospel" we must take advantage of every mass communication tool possible.

The Internet, while surely not being the last frontier is certainly the latest and greatest opportunity we have.

Offering practical advice for anyone seeking to be a true ambassador for Christ on the Internet; E-vangelism: Sharing The Gospel Through Cyberspace , is a must read for the serious Christian in todays modern world.

We either make the most of this opportunity, or we blow it, this book shows how to make the most of the opportunity we have.

Andrew Vachss is a problematic short story writer. His style is so frontal and minimalist that often the stories are over before they have penetrated intellectually. Instead, the reader experiences a sudden burst of emotion or horror, leaving a stunned silence in its path. To be honest I prefer his novels, which give the reader a grace period before the roller-coaster starts down the first big drop.

'Hard Looks' is really a compilation - 15 stories extracted from a Dark Horse comic-book series of the same name. Most of these stories actually appeared originally in two short story collections - 'Born Bad,' and 'Everybody Pays.' Six of the stories are strait text, the rest are adaptations of Vachss' stories to the graphic format. The largest percentage were adapted by Neal Barrett, Jr., but a broad spectrum of other authors are represented, from Joe R. Lansdale to Charles de Lint.

Each story, graphic or not, is as tough as one can make a recreation of Vachss' work. The stories are about people who are suddenly brought face to face with the reality that underlies their fantasies, whether it is a kid who dreams of being a big tough in the neighborhood or a woman working in a phone-for-thrills studio. The only goodness that happens is on those rare occasions when evil loses the struggle. In Vachss' world, that isn't often enough.

The illustration is pure pen and ink, by a variety of artists. While the general styling is gritty and noir, there is considerable variation. One of my few irritations with the book is that while the artists and adapters are given credit, they deserve a better introduction. Especially since only a small part of Vachss' readership is familiar with the modern comic as art. Like any experiment, some stories work better than do others, but over all, this is a very successful effort. Fans will enjoy the graphic insight into a dark work, and, hopefully, this will mark the introduction of one of the our most intense writers to an entirely new readership.

This is a really nice graphic novel, and I'd expect no less from Vachss and his team of talented artists and writers. But how come we can't get the comics cover by Geof Darrow? I think Amazon should be offering both covers as a special "buy with" option (instead of the old Predator stuff!).

Anyway, the book is great, the story HALF BREED is tight and tense and the drawings by Darrow just suck you into it. The differing styles in the artwork add a nice touch and seem to match the individual stories perfectly.

And there really is something for everyone in this book!

I learned about this new edition from the Andrew Vachss website. But Amazon, for *whatever* reason, doesn't have the ultra-hype Geof ("The Matrix") Darrow cover! Hey, Amazon, why can't we have a CHOICE? I mean, this photo cover is very good, but not everyone is so high-art -- some of us Vachss fans WANT the graphics cover!

I got my Darrow cover edition at my local comics shop, and paid full price, which totally [was bad]. Get a move on, Amazon!

Interesting, informative book about the pedophile scandal in the Catholic Church. The author points out that the true problem lies in the cover-up. Pediphiles occur in many areas of society, but other agencies, such as the Boy Scouts, do not try to protect and hide them. The Catholic Church does.

I have had first hand experience with priest sexual misconduct, so I have read much of the literature and have followed the present crisis closely. This is the best thing I have read. The best written and researched. Every Catholic should read this book about the present state of the priesthood. I know what he is saying is true, and I also know from my experience, but it still astounds me.

This is truly a can't-put-down book about the current crisis in the Catholic Church--priest abuse of children. Jason's book was written before the present crisis that erupted in 2002, but it gives solid background of other priest-pedophile cases dating back 30 years or so.

Jason is not content to just quote other sources--books, newspapers, magazines--as others have done concerning this scandal. He actually went and interviewed the priests, bishops, parents, and most importantly, the victims. He doesn't just state the facts, which could become boring, but he has the gift of writing that made me feel that I was actually there, seeing and hearing what he was seeing and hearing.

Nothing else got done in my house for over a week because I was so wrapped up in his true characters and his gritty, gutsy reporting style. This is not a book for the faint of heart, and Jason does not pull any punches in his investigative reporting. He proves himself vulnerable, however, as he revealed that he cried with victims and became angry with the system that let this abuse be a continual event. He remains a Catholic as I am because he feels that there is still hope that the Catholic Church can correct itself and become what Jesus meant it to be. I feel the same way.

The Catholic hierarchy is shown as more caring about the male buddy system than they are about our children who need our protection. The guilty priests, who should have been defrocked and turned over to the authorities, were nonchalantly transferred to other parishes with no warning to other parishes about the new priest in their midst and his dangerous, dark side.

Jason's writing is powerful and real. When I read the part about a man who became terrified because he felt that the devil was after him after he had talked to a pedophile priest, that terror transferred itself to me. It was 2 a.m. and I had been unable to stop reading Jason's book. I needed to go downstairs to get my medicine, but I was afraid to do so. My house alarm had been on so I knew that no BODY was in the house, but I felt the same evil that Jason's character had felt. It was as though an evil menace was there in the room with me. I knew that this menace did not want me to read Jason's book and thereby learn about all the evil that had been buried in the Catholic Church for so many years and that Jason's reporting was now bringing to the light.

Fortunately, the terror did not last long. A beautiful peace soon settled over me, and I knew that a protective Presence had entered my room, dispersing the evil menace. This loving Presence wanted me to continue reading Jason's book so that I would be knowledgeable and would be prepared for necessary changes that I believe the Holy Spirit will make in the Catholic Church.

Thank you, Jason, for a remarkable book and all your labor that went into it. I do not know you but I feel that I do. Keep up the good work.

This book is easy to read and interesting. The editors notes in front of and behind almost every letter really make the book that little bit more. I found all of the letters interesting and many of them quite moving. Many of the letters illuminated subjects about which i was familiar but did not know that little part of the story. I recommend this book for any and every one. You do not have to be American (although much of the information is perhaps from an American perspective) to feel the things that are brought forth by the reading of these letters.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the inner qualities of our nation's most well-known and respected figures and the lesser-known, who were the people who shaped our country. From the early settlers and our founding fathers to people of the present, this book offers a touching and rewarding look into the lives of people during war, hardships, family life, and many other aspects of life. Letter writing truly reveals the inner part of ourselves. A wonderful book!

What a fantastic book. The letters I've read have brought voices to America's past. It's like reading a hundred stories in one book. For me, it's been an emotional read. The voices of people-slaves,soldiers, presidents and mothers that helped shaped our nation are still ringing in my ears. I'm recommending this to all my friends. A great trip though history.

King has written a masterpiece. Web site response time can literally make or break a Web site's success. Companies spend millions on strategies to drive visitors to their expensive Web sites but if the site doesn't load quickly enough, it's over; you have lost an opportunity to win a new customer. Internet users are not patient! Get your site to pop up quickly or you lose, no matter how many people find your site in search engines or click on your banner ads -- what a terrible waste of marketing dollars!

This book is loaded with practical information on speeding load time via changes to HTML, JavaScript, graphics, PDF files, multimedia, and other elements. Plus, it includes an entire chapter on compression, and not just the graphic variety.

"Speed Up Your Site" is simply a must-read for anyone, not just Web developers, who are responsible for a Web site's success.

There's even great data to help you make your case to your boss that you've got a problem that needs to be addressed, and, a powerful chapter on Search Engine Optimization -- a chapter that distills down a great deal of complicated information into some very simple to follow steps that will get your site top rankings in search engines.

I read this book, I loved this book, it was easy to read, and I have already sent copies to friends in the industry. It is that valuable. I recommend this book and I encourage you to own it -- you will not be disappointed. It is, hands down, the best book I have read on building or re-designing a Web site.

Fredrick Marckini

King's book focuses on an overlooked but critical aspect of website usability: response time. I think it's often overlooked by developers because they tend to have fast machines and fast connections, but even if individual response time is not a concern, the techniques discussed in the book could save money by requiring fewer servers and lower bandwidth requirements.

There are two chapters on the psychology of performance, which might provide motivation or ammunition to convince
people who need convincing. Many of the chapters focus on methods to reduce the size of textual languages like
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Better and easier gains are obtained by configuring the server for compression, but many sites do not have that sort of control. The benefits of all these methods are covered well. Optimizing graphics is covered thoroughly, explaining the properties of different formats. Although it is mentioned in a summary, the practice of specifying
the height and width of images is not explained. It seems so obvious to many developers, but it's a disaster when not followed because the page can not be rendered until the sizes of all the images have been determined. Techniques for writing efficient code are applied to JavaScript, and there is good coverage of what takes a long time to execute on some browsers.

The book has a web site: http://www.....com/ It shows figures, chapter summaries, links to resources, etc.

Andy King, the guru behind WebReference.com and JavaScript.com, sent me a review copy of his new book "Speed Up Your Site: Web Site Optimization" a few weeks ago, and it absolutely knocked my socks off.

If you aren't familiar with Web site optimization (WSO), it's a series of techniques that minimize Web page file sizes and maximize page display speeds. In other words, WSO is simple stuff you can do to the Web pages you create to make those pages load faster. After all, people HATE waiting for slow Web pages.

What King has done in "Speed Up Your Site" is not only assemble pretty much every WSO technique known to man, he's also collected the research and conducted the interviews explaining WHY these techniques actually work.

While the entire book is exceptional, the four chapters in "Part II - Optimizing Markup: HTML and XHTML" are absolutely worth their weight in gold. It is in these four chapters that King shows you, step-by-step, how to clean up HTML bloat; minimize HTTP requests; tighten up comma-delimited attributes; speed up table rendering; and much, much more. And the results will ASTOUND you.

For example, using the techniques in just these four chapters alone, I was able to make my NetSquirrel.com homepage 26.5% smaller and load 42.9% faster. Words can't describe how cool that is.

The four chapters in Part II of King's book are accessible to ANYONE who knows simple HTML. That's not quite true for the next five chapters. In "Part III - DHTML Optimization: CSS and JavaScript," King shows you how to optimize your CSS and speed up your JS download and execution speeds. Of course, if [like me] you don't know CSS or JS from a hole in the ground, these five chapters aren't going to be much help to you. CSS and JS aren't topics for the weak of heart, and optimization only makes those topics that much more complex. But, if you *DO* know CSS and JS, King offers step-by-step instructions and real-world examples that show you what you need to do to maximize your page display speeds.

Let me also put in a plug for Chapter 15 - Keyword Optimization. This chapter shows you how to fine tune your page's meta keywords so that you can attract both search engines and, more importantly, visitors. Every Web design book tells you that you need to use meta keywords. King actually shows you how to find the meta keywords that yield the highest results. Instead of paying someone else lots of money to attract visitors to your site, follow the 10 steps that King outlines in this chapter. You'll save yourself both time and, more importantly, LOTS of money.

As I said earlier, Andy King's "Speed Up Your Site" absolutely knocked my socks off. There are a squillion Web design books out there, but this one belongs on the bookshelf of every serious Web designer.

I'll say openly that I'm no fan of Werewolf. Don't get me wrong, I understand the system and I've played my share of the characters, but werewolves always seem to be played a bit to slash and kill for my taste. Well, you can imagine my surprise when a friend lent me this book and told me, despite my less the cheerful comments on the subject of werewolves, that it wasn't like the others. He was definitely right. Not only are were-ravens extremely interesting, and the book it's self amusing. It's a wonderful change of style from the typical werewolf characters. Were-ravens aren't slash and kill characters, but they have other interesting skills that lend depth to any game I've seen them in. Not only would I suggest this book to were-creature fans, I would suggest it to people who aren't (like me) because if you think that were-wolves are all about death, be prepared for a wonderful surprise.

The wereravens are the messengers and scouts in the world of Werewolf. The history of the breed is narrated by a humorous Corax, who takes things that you think to be written in biblical style writing, and translates it into modern english (VERY funny)
I suggest this book to anyone who plays Werewolf but is getting tired of strictly garou and wants to add some color to the game.

Honestly--I picked up this book because I was going to be creating a character to help a friend out and I was immediately hooked! I read the thing from cover to cover and have several times since. The text is written with a great sense of humor and gives valuable insight to the workings of those wacky little were-ravens.