There was a lot of good and helpful information but the cutesy lowercase, non-spaced titles made navigating the book next to impossible. If you have a lot of time to look things up or plan to read the book cover to cover, it's a good buy. When time is critical however, I won't be turning to this book.

I was looking forward to this one coming out terribly but was disappointed on its arrival. This book was basically a reprint of Neil's online FAQs word for word. All the information here can be found on his various websites. The publisher even left the reference information at the bottom of each Q and A that stated "Author : Neil Pike". How redundant! The content in this book is great but the way it was presented was not worth the money.

If you want Neil's fantastic FAQs for the road, this is a great book. Otherwise, download the ZIP file and put it on your laptop.

This is an excellent resource to have on your desk. The breadth of topics covered is outstanding, and without the clutter of most titles, or duplication of Books Online we are so familiar with. This is superb for troubleshooting those stubborn and confusing problems, but it is also great to just pick a random page and learn something new without wading through an entire chapter.

The majority of the content is from Neil himself, but there are several other contributors who add significant value. Whilst based on the online version, it has been thoroughly technically reviewed and updated making this far superior and well worth the outlay.

Volume I: Pike exhaustively recounts his daily activities on board. In almost no instance except for the frigid winter is there much drama or dialogue between he and his men. Even when he reaches what he thinks is the source of the Mississippi, he is actually mistaken, though "correct" as far as the assumptions of the day. Toward the head of the river, it is difficult to assess where Pike even is without the notes (which in themselves almost swallow the book, but of sheer necessity to the reading). We reach the headwaters of the river and return to St Louis without much fanfare or dialogue, save that Pike spoke with the English fur traders near the source and explained America's new ownership of the territory (one of his objectives).

Volume II: In this volume Pike is no better. There is an extremely boring journey across Kansas and into Colorado, and he the real drama sets in. Pike and his men are without winter clothing and now in the Colorado Rockies. The frostbite on some of his men forces them to stay behind, unable to continue. This occurs day after day, week after week, until the expedition reaches what is believed to be the source of the Arkansas River. Otherwise the volume meekly runs through Pike's capture by Spanish authorities and his return to the U.S. via Spanish escort. This last is a daily log of conversations with French or Spanish military figures, and of little interest in general.

This review refers to Volume Two. Although at times quite verbose and long-winded (due to the historical notation), the book did illustrate the adventure and hardships of early American explorers, along with political intrigue between Spanish and American relationships in the early 1800's. Pike left St. Louis in 1806 to explore the present southwestern United States.He and his men suffered and endured many misfortunes and hardships while in the Colorado mountains, then only to be arrested by Spanish authorities for trespassing into their territory. I suppose the debate will go on forever, did Pike intentionally get arrested in order to further explore Mexico so that the American government would be more enlightened as to their culture, military strengths and weaknesses, geography, trade possibilities, economy,etc.? It is a creditable, thorough and absorbing account of early American western history.

There are books on this subject that are broken down with more logic. The photos tend to date the book as illustrations are better. Overall, the contents are OK.

Sports Massage For Peak Performance is a manual written for athletes who wish to use massage to enhanse thier physical performance in athletics. It's written in easy to understand laymens terms rather than medical and technical language. The main focus is on self-massage with Sweedish techniques and streching, with some attention paid to massage with a partner. Black and White pictures demonstrate the massage moves fairly clearly, and text sections clearly explain what to massage, and what the massage is doing to the muscles.

This book, unlike similar works for the layman, covers conditions in which you should *not* massage right at the start, which is important.

*Massage Therapists*: If you are a Massage Therapist, this can be a good book to reccomend to your clients who wish to use massage between professional sessions. However, all the material contained within would have been basic study in any massage school, so not something you would need.

Worst book I've ever picked up

my one major problem with this book is pike's tendency to offer his opinion more than i would like. i would have rather read a book that chronicled the deaths of musicians without telling me which ones were talented and which were not. i am not a huge fan of queen, but i don't need pike to tell me that "they weren't that good." i can draw my own opinions, mr. pike. but for any readers who have the same fascination with rock'n'roll and death, and can ignore pike's commentary, i would certainly recommend this book.

I've read "The Death of Rock 'n' Roll" a couple of times, and I really enjoyed it. It is intelligently written, and although I may not always agree with Jeff Pike's opinions, they never seem uneducated.

The fact is, a lot of people in the entertainment business die young. If you're obsessed with movie morbidity, read Kenneth Anger's excellent book "Hollywood Babylon." If you're obsessed with dead rock stars (I am), read "The Death of Rock 'n' Roll."

Sometimes I don't know when to take Jeff seriously -- does he really believe Jerry Lee Lewis made a deal with the devil? Either way, his book is one hell of a good read, and I would recommend it to any rock fan.

This book addresses a topic that because of behavioral styles, experience, and communication ability, many trainers have a challenge handling - participants who do not cooperate or who make things difficult. While Pike/Arch provide some useful ideas and tips that are valuable for less experienced trainers, the content does not justify the cost. There are large graphics, and wide margins which leave a lot of white space. If content was expanded or if it were priced [lower]it would be a better value.

This book has some worth to it for the beginning trainer. However, we were disappointed that the publisher had used very large margins, and very large fonts to make it appear to have more content then what it has. It is a paperback book that looks to be around $10-15, not the $25 asking price. We're sending the books back that we purchased for our trainers. It's not what we were expecting. But if you have a lavish budget, and don't care about costs, then it would be an ok addition for the "trainer library".

A great way to quickly pick up ideas for those problem people in EVERY classroom. I train technology and, although this book is not necessarily geared toward technology training, I believe I can easily apply these strategies in my sessions. Thanks Bob & Dave!

Oh, what a waste of my money! Only a few of the pictures of banners was worth looking at. The rest looked like 1960's tie-dyed, psychedelic, drug-altered drawings. The altar frontal pictured on p. 84 is something that shouldn't even be in a church. Sorry I bought it.

When I realized my calling was to be a church decorator this was the first book I bought on making banners. I have loved using it. The pictures are very clear and inspirational. I have used ideas for Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, Pentecost, Green Season and baptism. The church has been delighted with the results and very supportive, saying how warm thy have made the church feel. I used only the pictures in the book and not the instructions when I made my banners, so they are not copies. For example, on the Easter banner I did not use all the symbols around the edges, only the three crosses at the bottom. While I did tie/die my fabric for Easter, on the others, as the green time and Palm Sunday, I did not as was suggested, but found fabric I liked. The green time, on page 84, gave the feeling of God's beautiful earth, and I will probably add removable appliques as the season progresses to give changes over the long period of Kingdomtide, as it progresses from summer into fall. I used sequined fabrics and metallics on many of the banners. My designs for Pentecost and baptism were my own, only following the idea the book gave. I also appreciated the written meaning given for each banner, and always write something for the bulletin about the banner I present, including the meaning of the season and the symbolism used in design and color. I like the design to speak on its own, no words. I also do not want it to look like one anyone could purchase from a bookstore. I am always on the lookout for more books like this one, but so far it is the best.

Today I received my copy of "Checker Power by Robert W. Pike. I was excited about advancing my knowledge and skills in the game of checkers. I spent the next '10' minutes reading this (book). Each set of pages contain, (on one page), a LARGE checker board which takes up the entire page. The opposite page contained at least 'one' (usually small), paragraph explaining the absolute most basic aspects of checkers. If you have ever played even one game of checkers, you know more than all the knowledge contained in this (book). I say (book) in parenthesis because this should be classified as a PAMPHLET. The entire book contained about 40 or 50 paragraphs..!! Need I continue!. AOL, please do us a favor and remove this "PAMPHLET" so others will not have to pay the postage to get this PAMPHLET and the postage to RETURN this PAMPHLET.! Richard Mathis rdsupply@easilink.com

An excellent book for beginners. It stresses the official colors for board & checkers, teaches the correct rules in an interesting way. There have been exceedingly few new books on checkers in the last 40 years or so. I have given away several copies of this book to nieces, nephews, and children of friends.

Volume I: Pike exhaustively recounts his daily activities on board. In almost no instance except for the frigid winter is there much drama or dialogue between he and his men. Even when he reaches what he thinks is the source of the Mississippi, he is actually mistaken, though "correct" as far as the assumptions of the day. Toward the head of the river, it is difficult to assess where Pike even is without the notes (which in themselves almost swallow the book, but of sheer necessity to the reading). We reach the headwaters of the river and return to St Louis without much fanfare or dialogue, save that Pike spoke with the English fur traders near the source and explained America's new ownership of the territory (one of his objectives).

Volume II: In this volume Pike is no better. There is an extremely boring journey across Kansas and into Colorado, and he the real drama sets in. Pike and his men are without winter clothing and now in the Colorado Rockies. The frostbite on some of his men forces them to stay behind, unable to continue. This occurs day after day, week after week, until the expedition reaches what is believed to be the source of the Arkansas River. Otherwise the volume meekly runs through Pike's capture by Spanish authorities and his return to the U.S. via Spanish escort. This last is a daily log of conversations with French or Spanish military figures, and of little interest in general.

This review refers to Volume One.I really had to struggle to get through this book. The historical documentation/notation was overwhelmingly exhausting, boring and tedious.Simply put,too much! As far as the actual journal itself is concerned, to quote Pike in his letter of July 2, 1806 to General Wilkinson, "The journal in itself will have little to strike the imagination, being a dull detail of our daily march." I agree. This is in no way to be demeaning of Pike's exploration efforts and the hardships he and his men suffered to get to the source of the Mississippi River. Pike had monumental responsibilities to accomplish. He was to find the headwaters of the Mississippi, bring peace between various Indian tribes, select future sites for government forts and trading posts, and to confer with the British establishments in the recently expanded territory of the United States.There were some highlights of the book however, one being the chapter "Correspondence and Conferences", which show Pike's letters to various individuals, and his speeches to certain Indian tribes. Also, the chapter on ethnography details the cultural aspects of the different Mississippi Indian tribes, which I found interesting. I hope Volume 2 (explorations into the
American West) will have more flavor.

Considering the "Cheerleader" series, (from the mid-1980's), this book, written by the now popular Christopher Pike is acceptable. What Pike fans need to remember is that the young adult genre was not as varied and as open then as it is now. Pike wrote a book that was mediocre, but the entire series is less than mediocre--so that is A-OK! I originally read this book when it was published (as a seventh or eighth grader) and continue to read Pike to this day.

Its an OK book considering its his second published work. It sounds like he threw it together quickly and didnt think a lot about it. If you want to read a really awesome book by him read The Midnight Club