I read this book 15 years ago and met me just when I needed a further boost in opening my mind. I didn't need to hear about how I had it all wrong. I am coming from catholicism to a more universal (catholic-small 'c') way of seeing life and spirituality. Today it sits right next to "Living Buddah, Living Christ" as one of the pathstones. I thank God for it.

First off I do not agree with much of this book and read it simply because I wanted to see what one person who claimed to be a Christian thought of Buddhism. The author begins by noting that he served for near 20 years in Japan as a missionary, as both a committed Christian as well as a dedicated student of Buddhism. The book is laid out in THREE sections. ONE: The Logic of Zen TWO:Some Personal Experiences in Buddhist Temples THREE: Zen Way Jesus Way. Section Three isnmy favorite section both because of the authors ability to explain the depth of the philosophy of both but the physics.

On page 163 he notes: "A great portion of creation within the Creator's purposive will; there is also a portion of creation outside his purposive will, but this is there in accordance with his permissive will. " That "According to Christian belief, the connection between the human creature and his Creator is unique. All nonhuman creatures prefectly obey tye Creator's will because they have no self-determination."

"In contrast to Zen, for which all thoughts and all individual minds are the Only-Mind, the Bible depicts the ultimate thoughts of the Creator to be far beyond the capacity of created human minds to comprehend : My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than your ways, And my thoughts higher than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8)" In such passages, genuine separation between the mind of the Creator and the minds of human creatures is clearly affirmed."

"Let me assure my Buddhist readers that to be a Christian does not require one to believe in a God who is like an old man with a white beard who flies through the sky on feathered wings." I think Christians need to be reminded of this as well.

On page 167 he reminds the reader that " The tranquility which Zen gives rests upon the realization that there is nonresponsibility to pursue what is "good" and to flee what is "evil". The essence of Zen peace is the glad acceptance of everthing just as it is." "For Zen, there is no sin. For Jesus, all have sinned." This is disagree with, since this is pure Paulist thought and a thought that has wreaked havok on humanity.

The author then notes wisely, I might add that most of the assertaions he makes are equally shared with his Jewish friends whos eunderstanding of the character of God the Creator comes from the Torah but NOT the Christian New Testament.He suggests that Jesus is very Budhhist in nature.

I had the unique experience of meeting Tucker while I was serving as a Christian missionary in Liberia in 1979. We met on the beach, where I used to run and he used to walk, regardless of the weather. We would sit for hours and chat, and, thank God, my mind was open enough to what he was saying to me. When I ended up in England a few years later, I made sure to get a copy of his book, which was the essence of our discussions. It has been a prized collection of my library, as it marks the beginning of my spiritual reawakening.

I have not much to add to the other two reviews.

I've read "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" (SICP), and like many others found it one among the best if not *the best* computerbook I've ever read. I think that "The Functional Approach to Programming" differs a lot from SICP. This is not to say, that it's bad, rather that I think it's very different from SICP. Its focus is much more on semantics (ML of course, not Scheme), correctness (in the scientific sense) and algorithms.

It offers plenty on the functional approach to implementing algorithms like trees and sets. The semantics are elaborated in a clear and concise style, that I've been able to track even though I have no degree in computer science at all (I'm just an auto didact from "the street").

For someone not familiar with functional programming like me, I find this very good. I have a background in C, Java, C++ moving toward more highlevel languages like Scheme, Lisp, Ruby, SmallTalk and Python in the latter years.

It is very succinct with plenty of code examples like SICP. The code doesn't fill too much, since the functional style is a lot shorter for solving complex problems than the equavalent imperative program examples I've seen in C++ and Java. The focus is on the scientific correct thing to do, rather than a more ad hoc focus on "best practices" giving way to a more firm ground for choosing style and algorithms to solve a particular problem. The "best practices" are there of course, but in a transparent way, like small paradigms of code (somewhat like Peter Norvig's "Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming - Case Studies in Common Lisp").

Just to make it clear: I don't think it's fair to compare it with SICP, although their subjects overlap somewhat. Its vocabulary differs significantly from both SICP and the terminology used in OO and Design Patterns land. This is bad in the sense in makes it unnecessary hard to learn the basics.

However, if you haven't dealt with functional programming before, you're of course going to encounter the usual paradigm shifting problems. I now find my self thinking a whole new and rather refreshing way about programs. It does pay off, even though it certainly helped that I had read SICP and a lot of articles on the subject at first.

Even if I'm never going to use functional programming in my professional life, I've now got a better grasp of algorithms -- what, when and how to use them. It's simply easier to reason about them using the functional approach.

By the way: The english translation *is* perfect.

Should you read it? I think you should, but prepare yourself to use some time to understand new concepts if you're not familiar with the nomenclature of the functional programming community. Even though it's not easy, I still think it pays off.

Functional programming requires a much different mindset than standard "procedural" languages such as C, Perl, Python, and others. This book does an excellent job of teaching the reader about these concepts.

The language of choice (CAML) used in this book requires some effort to learn. Certain elements of its syntax are non-obvious, and the internal type checking can be irritating until you learn that the rigorous checks result in safer programs. (An interesting side-note is that OCaml, compiled to native code, is in most cases very nearly identical in speed to straight C. Visit http://caml.inria.fr for details).

This is not an easy book. I found myself flipping to prior chapters to reread sections that I thought I understood on the first pass, but had not. This is no fault of the author, but rather the of the unfamiliar nature of the territory covered.

This book covers a lot of ground. As the other reviewer indicates, if you liked SICP, you will like this book. It covers a lot of the same ground, and provides an excellent grounding in various data structures and so forth.

One final note. Although the book is a translation from French, I found the english to be perfect. There were no slips into incorrect syntax or confusing idioms. My hat's off to the editor/translator.

I read the french edition of that book and found it to be one of the best book about (functional) programming I know. The authors first quickly introduce the CAML language (an ML variant) and then proceed with real-world examples. The reader will for example learn how to manipulate arbitrary-precision numbers, how to compile regular expressions or how to solve some common games. If you've read and liked Abelson and Sussman's "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs", you'll like that book too. I strongly recommend it to anybody interested in CAML or SML, or in functional programming.

As one who was raised in a small town, the images evoked by this book brought on a warm nostalgia. The intimacy and kindness of small town life are reflected in these pages. It would make a wonderful gift for a displaced small town dweller who has moved to the city or for a city resident who longs for a quieter, simpler life.

For those of us that grew up in the rurual American South, our childhood days are typically thought of warmly. Summer baseball games, kind neighbors, generous friendships, warm and sunny summers. Stacy Helton's book reminded me of growing up in Appalachian North Georgia, but it could easily apply to anywhere in rural, or even suburban America.

Golf Rules Illustrated was written with both beginners and low handicappers in mind. Browsing through its pages you can see that unlike the Rules of Golf, technical terms are seldom used, and it doesn't follow the legalistic manner on how rules are defined by the USGA, which usually leaves us scratching our heads.

Instead what we get are simple, straightforward explanations of the rules, and to make things even easier, illustrations (featuring Scottie IV, the rules terrier, drawn by Greg Clarke) are provided. I especially liked the way the book is arranged. Situations golfers are most likely to end up in are the first to be given priority. So right off the tee you'll have discussions on four areas: Out of bounds, lost balls, water hazards, and lateral water hazards. If you find yourself in a water hazard, these are the options available to the golfer according to the book:

A caveat to the reader: this is a book presented by the Callaway Golf Company, embroiled bitterly with the USGA, because of...well, the rules. The USGA wants the rules to be followed no matter what, whether you are Tiger Woods playing at Augusta or a weekend hacker playing at a rinky-dink golf course in the middle of nowhere. On the other hand, Callaway seems to support the notion that the rules can be a little flexible when golf is played for fun. In fact there is a section in the book where it actually says it's okay to ignore the rules in certain situations. Now this can get you into a lot of trouble, depending how serious your playing partners are about their golf game.

Aside from that, I think any golfer will find this book insightful and find it a handy reference on the golf course.

This book has been an inspiration and a blessing! Phil's humour makes it difficult to put the book down as he explores various everyday experiences and relates some of the lessons which he has learnt in his walk with Christ. I recommend this book for every Christian guy

If you were thinking about buying this book for your kids or a dinofan friend, a word of advise: it mightbe a bit over their heads. This book is basically an amalgamate of scientific papers without any editorial instrusion; they are true scientific papers for scientists in the style of scientific journals. Though profusely illustrated, it is not a field guide with lots of recreations and dioramas which might be what most kids and dinofans would want. Most of the illustrations are maps of the areas where a sample fossil was found or drawings and pictures of actual fossil bone at the site where found. Only the turtles and crocodiles sections of the book have some recreations of the creatures; but you will not find a single recreation drawing of an ichthyosaur. For the scientific reader this is a definite 5 star, for most everyone it might be only 2 or 3 star.

The editors, Callaway and Nicholls, have assembled 17 papers describing the results of current research by the experts on the various groups of extinct marine reptiles (Ichthyosaurs, Plesiosaurs, Turtles, Mosasaurs and Crocodiles), and their associated faunas, behavior and evolution. Well researched and profusely illustrated, this book is a must read for those seriously interested in the biology, ecology and paleontology of this diverse and fascinating group of animals.

An earth shattering explosion.. a mysterious call to duty... the woman he'd never forgotten. They all beckoned rugged Clay Callaway - one of the last of the family's bachelors- home to Texas.But in his search for a sabateur, he uncovered something long ago buried- his own demons. For Pam McCall, the childhood sweetheart who marred his memories, was suddenly at very close range, taunthing his emotions and creating in Clay a temptation more threatening than any danger he'd ever faced in the line of duty....

It always surprises me that different readers can rate a book so differently. I liked this one, perhaps because it invited me into a bit of a stretch at the beginning (which also was used to end the story). Nobody makes love without waking out of a sound sleep, but, given that bit of fantasy as true, the rest of the story moved along. This story could have been twice as long, so I have to commend the author for clipping it here and there to the basic storyline. It could have dragged -- it didn't. Instead I got two love stories intertwined. Nicely done for what the author was trying to do.

It amazes me that people try and get so analytical with ROMANCE BOOKS... I loved this book... From the beginning to the end... The fact that it was TWO love stories in one EVEN BETTER... Notice I am not giving away ANY of the plot because for me some of these reviews just say WAY TOO MUCH sometimes...

For me its all about being entertained and being able to loose myself for a few hours... If that is what you are looking for then this book (in fact the ENTIRE series) is for you... ENJOY!!!!

I am a Italian IS Manager and was looking for a good, professional book on the subject. The book is covering almost all main subjects about ERP but I think it is too superficial. In my opinion, the price of the book should be around 20 US$