Are you a Lewis and Clark buff, just starting out? You've read "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen Ambrose, and perhaps a couple other Lewis and Clark books. It's time to read the journals, but you are daunted by the thought of all that early 19th century wordiness, spelling and such?

Me too.

This book is great. It's just what it says it is. All the good stuff from Lewis and Clark's copious journals, all the highlights, well edited. The value of this book is as a starting place, perhaps. It's short enought to be read easily over a few days. Like all good introductions, then, if you want more you know where to look, and you'll now know what to expect. Landon Jones provides all the accessibility; Lewis and Clark still provide the wonder.

This book is a great learning tool! It "teaches" you about your own body, how it works and why you should care about what you eat, exercise, etc. The book is very well structured, with an objectives list at the beginning of each chapter and reasoning skills questions at the end, that helps you develop study and observation skills. This is a great book that changed the way I see my body, I learned a lot with this book!!

It is fairly obvious that these rules were written long ago. But still, they are mostly still appropriate for the modern day developer work environment. Let me explain...

> Be clean. Do not start off to work in an untidy suit or dress, with
> unpolished shoes, untidy nails, unkempt hair

This is correct. Wearing a suit or dress to write software is straight outta the old IBM mandate of dark suit, white shirt, black tie and neatly slicked hair. No self respecting developer would be caught dead looking like such a sales dweeb. The uniform of todays developer is a bright yellow tee, faded jeans, white socks and sandles.

> or with evidences of having recently eaten garlic or onions.

Gladly, evidences of having ingested jimmy bean or jagermeister the previous night is considered OK.

> Bath every day and, if possible, twice a day; nothing takes the place
> of soap and water. 'The nose knows.'

This rule is modified a bit if the developers work day is longer than 24 hours. A 48 or 72 hour work day is still considered one day in developer time. Thus, two showers per calander week is often sufficient.

> Always wear fresh underwear, for the same reason.

Likewise, this rule is modified if the developer is using the length of his skid marks to determine if he's been coding too long.

> Do not wear party clothes to work,

Very true. A leather thong and nipple clamps are inappropriate attire in the modern day cubicle.

> Do not eat except during lunch hours, and then only in the place
> appointed you to eat.

Yes, there was once an era with actual "lunch hours". In that era, eating at your desk while working wasn't the norm. This rule is completely out of place in todays work environment.

> Never pick your teeth in public; do not chew gum. Both are
> atrociously bad form.

Unless of course it's 3am, you're alone in the office and have been coding for no less than 1.5 skid mark inches.

> Do not chew the office's pencils or your finger nails.

True except "the office's pencils" is replaced by "your stylus". A chewed stylus will scratch the screen of your PDA.

> If you cough or sneeze, cover your mouth with your handkerchief. A
> person must always cover his mouth with a handkerchief to hide a yawn ~
> but, then, no one should yawn at work!

Grabbing a paper napkin off the stack acquired from the last trip to Del Taco to get an order of Macho Nachos will suffice. The yawning rule does not apply while reading man pages or perldoc as the developer would likely suffocate.

> After using your handkerchief do not examine it, but replace it where
> it belongs.

Unless the developer is in need of inspiration for a new logo to place on the sourceforge page of a new project.

> Do not leave it lying around.

Don't let a rival developer take credit for *your* new logo.

As a chemistry student I found this to be the book that left the greatest impression in my memory. I found it well written and very well organized. The experiments are well laid out and make a logical progression through the book. It is filled with almost all the reference material needed in it's appendices. I have retained this book for years after graduating as it is a good reference material.

I am a decendant of Ezra T. Clark. This book is extra special to me because I got to learn more about my heritage. I am grateful for him and all my ancestors and the things they gave me. It is also a great book just for history content.

This book has been a lifesaver for me many times when I needed authoritative information in a hurry. If you are a teacher of astronomy--at any level from undergrad on up--you will never regret having this on your shelf! Many times, after searching in vain through half-a-dozen textbooks for some item of information, I have turned to Facts-on-File Astronomy and found the answer directly, without further ado. I believe this is a "must" for every serious teacher, student, or researcher in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Zipes' qualifications for writing about this subject are impeccable, and his years of teaching show easily here. Chapters include stuff about traditional fairy tales, sure, but also writeups on Disney animation (hint: he's not real thrilled at some ways Disney has "tidied up" fairy tales). You'll never watch "The Little Mermaid" in quite the same way again.

This is more of a philosophical treatment than anything else. There isn't extensive hard history here; they're writeups of lectures, not papers, though sources are cited. Consider these ruminations on fairy tales and their relevance to modern culture -- how they are treated, how they are disseminated, how they've changed in the past couple hundred years. The book isn't very long, but it has a lot of good observations in it.

I found it invaluable for its insights; Zipes has found a sincere admirer in me. If you are interested in fairy tales in modern culture, this is definitely somewhere you might enjoy playing.

Gives amazing evidence on the effects of prayer on the health and recovery of medical patients. Includes this charge to the medical profession:"It is entirely possible that, a century from now, people will look back at twentieth-century medicine and say, 'Can you believe that those doctors never prayed with their patients? Just think how many lives could have been saved-if only they had set up intercessory-prayer teams in every hospital as we have today!' Will they be as stunned then that we didn't pray for our patients as we would be today if doctors didn't wash their hands before treating patients' wounds?" (Dale Matthews, The Faith Factor, p. 58) I sent it to three physicials I know to consider incorporation into their practice. This book is not for the religious per se, but the medical profession. Very encouraging!

Definitely one of Jong's best books. she takes you on an indepth journey throu english history from the eyes of a woman.

This is a warm and wonderful Christmas story for animal lovers and children of all ages. The short, lovely story is magical and marvelous, and the illustrations are among the most beautiful I've ever seen.