This book provides the most honest and concise bibliography of one of the foremost authors of our time and Mr. Pastore has essentially re-engineered how a bibliography should be written - that "thin" can be better than "fat".

This book will serve as a high water mark for all bibliographies to follow. The numerous illustrations, the obvious painstaking care with which the material was assembled and, above all, the accessability of the material to all researchers, professional and novice, make this a necessity for any library.

As a Professor of Literature at the graduate level, I am acutely aware of the need for quality literary analyses of this type. Wish I could have written it myself. A really good book.

This book has greatly helped me raise my overall presentation skills in videoconferencing and make much more of an impact on the people I am communicating with. I wish such a book was available several years ago! It was also very easy to read and entertaining.

Before September 11, 2001, videoconferencing was becoming more popular. The distractions of not-fully-developed technology were being overcome and the media was increasing in use-for ongoing meetings as well as formal conference presentations. Some people are fairly proficient with the use of videoconferencing-understanding when, where, how, and why. Most of us are relatively ignorant, a dangerous position when videoconferencing on an individual and group level is exploding.

Finally there's a book that guides us through the many important aspects of this emerging field. Lead author Janelle Barlow is an accomplished speaker with an international reputation. The co-authors work for the same consulting firm. They have extensive experience participating in videoconferences, so they've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. Realizing that there was not a good comprehensive layman's book in the field, they did the research and prepared a tool to educate and prepare us. Their perspective is that videoconferencing is growing, but will not replace face-to-face meetings. The new technology has its place, and reading this book will help you understand where that "place" is in the grand scheme of human-to-human communication.

The authors propose that there are four habits to learn and embrace to look good and have a high level of effectiveness. The habits, which are each explained-taught-in separate chapters, are Leverage Your Choices (videoconferencing is not always appropriate), Think Prime Time (viewers expect you to look good-and professional . . . just like what they see on commercial television), Make Technology Your Friend (it all works for you, if you let it . . . but then, there's Murphy's Law), and Maximize Your Presence (the little tricks of the trade to improve your appearance and presentation).

Rather than throw readers directly into the deep end of the pool, the authors invest the firsts section of their book in a valuable explanation of videoconferencing's position, opportunities, and limitations. After they've presented their habits, they conclude with a comprehensive checklist, legal issues like copyrights, and a perspective on the future of the field. More added value comes from the appendices on storyboarding and commonly mispronounced words. Included are a bibliography, index, and a comprehensive list of terms used in the field. Vignettes about experiences with videoconferencing spice up each chapter, providing a lightness and a sort of permission to be human.

This is a developing medium, not a science. Learn from this book, try videoconferencing, allow yourself to make some mistakes, and build your competence and confidence. The future is here.

I enjoyed reading the book. Even easy to read for me who is no‚Ž-native speaker of English or intermidiate learner of the language. I did not have to look up dictionary so often.
Anyway,I think that this book will be good especially for those novice end users who have just started using the video technology and who want to use it in more effective and productive ways.
I think that this is a kind of a book that end users desire.@Basically they are not intersted in how technology works behind but more and more they are interested in benefits and effects that they anticipate to get from using the technology. Not intersted in features and capabilities etc.. Some may, though.
However, I would like to point out one thing.
There is a paragraph in page 10 regarding Japanese video market graph. What is written is not correctly translated into English.
The numbers in the year 1998 and 2000 are based on a prediction by unidentified source according to the web page.But numbers in the year 1988,1993 and 1995 are actual numbers.
The graph was a part of a presentation made for doctors in Saitama to understand the status quo of videocommunications in relation to medical activities. But it does not show the source.
The numbers includes all kinds of video equipment from room or board type to set-top to PC based to surveilance. It does not mean one product category.
But it is true that the first video service was launch in 1984 by NTT, but it was actually not as popular as expected. Just a handful of big companies in Japan used the service to slash costs associated with travels, and the service cost per month as running cost was unjustifiably quite high to smaller businesses, so it did not go hit. And after that, audio service introduced also by NTT that offers relatively inexpensive service which could be accepted by smaller businesses.

This is one of Lewis's more difficult-to-find academic works. However, if you find it and read it, you will not be disappointed. I read the book on my own initiative while taking a master's class in Medieval literature. I probably learned as much from his book as I did from the whole class, and it opened up countless delightful possibilities for future enquiry. It also gave me a great idea for my final paper, which I'd been lacking the inspiration to write.

What's more, this work is still respected in academia. Recently I was reading a Cambridge thesis on the subject of early printing (The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe by Elizabeth L. Eisenstein) and came across a quote from _The Discarded Image_ (an uncited quote, which was annoying, but that's another story). Eisenstein quotes most authors in order to disagree with them, but she didn't disagree with Lewis (added to him, qualified him, but didn't disagree), which was unusual. Lewis was one of the few authors in her field that Eisenstein did not attack! I also passed _The Discarded Image_ along to one of my previous college professors and he decided to include ideas from it in his Survey of English Literature course.

If you want to know how medieval men and women saw their world-their belief in supernatural beings intermediate between angels and devils, their admiration for all kinds of organization, their heavy reliance on the snippet of Plato to which they had access-read this book. You will never see the Middle Ages quite the same way again.

I liked the book. I was nice. read it.

Table of Contents:

Preface

I The Medieval Situation

II Reservations

III Selected Materials: the Classical Period

A The "Somnium Scipionis"

B Lucan

C Statius, Claudian, and the Lady "Natura"

D Apuleius, "De Deo Socratis"

IV Selected Materials: the Seminal Period

A Chalcidius

B Macrobius

C Pseudo-Dionysius

D Boethius

V The Heavens

A The Parts of the Universe

B Their Operations

C Their Inhabitants

VI The Logaevi

VII Earth and Her Inhabitants

A The Earth

B Beasts

C The Human Soul

D Rational Soul

E Sensitive and Vegetable Soul

F Soul and Body

G The Human Body

H The Human Past

I The Seven Liberal Arts

VIII The Influence of the Model

Epilogue

Index

In his "An Experiment in Criticism", Lewis suggests that the heart of literary experience is the surrender by the reader to the work being read; that good reading is the entering into the views of others and going out of ourselves.

With regard to medieval literature, this requires two things: the facts behind a host of unfamiliar references, and even more importantly, a remake of how to think of reality. Readers who insist on reading works of the period with their modernism intact are "as travellers who carry their resolute Englishry with them all over the continent, mixing only with other English tourists, enjoying all they see for its 'quaintness', and having no wish to realise what those ways of life, those churches, those vineyards, mean to the natives." While Lewis says "I have no quarrel with people who approach the past in that spirit", he also says of them, in a somewhat chilling echo of the Sermon on the Mount: "They have their reward."

It is to those who want a much greater reward that Lewis directs "The Discarded Image." While he provides the reader with hard information concerning medieval philosophy, cosmology, biology, education and literature, imparting the individual facts is the lesser part of his purpose. What he really aims at is to completely detach the reader from all of the unconscious beliefs and attitudes that a lifetime spent in modern culture brings, and substitute for them those of the educated medieval man.

What the description I've just given you of this book does not do is to describe what the experience of having that done to you is like. I found it compelling and disorienting. One by one, the familiar intellectual landmarks were stripped away from my mental image of the world, and strange new ones put into their place. Vertigo is the word that comes closest to describing the feeling; I found I had to stop reading every couple dozen pages to give myself time to recover. This was so even though my familiarity with the philosophy, theology, and cosmology of the period was, by any non-specialist standard, quite high. The reason, I think was not so much that my knowledge was inferior to Lewis' (although of course it certainly was) as that I had only thought of these matters from an external "objective" point of view - I had never before tried to actually enter into that view of the world before. The result of Lewis' instruction on the matter was a combination of delight at the new insights so gained and humiliation at the revelation of the deep limitations of the "knowledge" I had possessed before.

In sum, I found reading "the Discarded Image" to be an extraordinary experience, and its value in no way depends on my using the information gained to identify some off-hand reference of Chaucer's. What Lewis describes in "An Experiment in Criticism", he demonstrates here - how completely different reading is when it is done well compared to when it is merely done.

This is the first cookbook that I have sat down and read cover-to-cover. The authors have a great sense of humor as well as excellent taste in food! The recipes are easy to follow, delicious, and sensuously sinful!

I don't know about you, but I am so sick of going to restaurants and having my dinner companions say things like: "sauce on the side, please" or "can this be made vegetarian?" or "no oil, no butter" or "I know it's not on the menu, but would you mind just plopping down a dry old chicken breast on half a lettuce leaf?" It's embarassing. I eat at least a stick of butter a day, not to mention all the foie gras, creme brulee, lamb and creamy sauces I pile in, and I'M THIN! And I have LOW BLOOD PRESSURE! Because of EXERCISE! So if you are like me, this book is for you. The authors have a ribald sense of humor, and in spite of the typeface this is a fun book to read. Surprisingly, the recipies are really, really good. Quails with Morels, Penne with Salmon, and the Roast Duck with Black Currant Sauce are all trust-worthy concoctions. The coq-au-vin, seemingly condensed from Julia Child's three-pager works well too. So, if you sit around a lot, watch TV, or just don't move much, don't use this book. You'll probably die.

Tired of being bullied by the passive-aggressive sniffs and lifted eyebrows of the low-fat crowd? Arm yourself with this book! Don't be intimidated by those sanctimonious health-mongers! It is better to have real creme once a month than to have skimmed milk every day. The recipes are decadent, expensive and worth it. Eat well and prosper.

Despite its claim, this book is NOT for men only. Its advice on food will change your eating habits for life and lose a lifetime of unwanted weight, regardless of your gender or age. If you close it without ever reading the exercise section you still will have experienced significant insights on diet's impact on the body. Follow its advice and you truly will feel younger--and look it, too.

Dr. Bob's "Guide to Turning Back the Clock" is 100 percent accurate and a good motivational tool for both men and women. I had no idea that enriched flour ... is so bad for your body. He has some very good ideas on how to eat and "fuel" your body. I especially liked the sections on roller blading and cross country skiing. This is the "one" diet/fitness book to have at your side. Cousin Arnold is right: "Be the best you've ever been. Now is the time and this is the book!"

great book, very informative, talks about not only diet, but also the importance of exercise and mixing it up. Not just cardio but muscle building/strengthening as well. No BS in his book, everything makes sense. Oh yeah, Arnie recommends it.

I recently bought it and read Kabloona in a weekend. The result was an incredibly valuable experience that has increased my awareness not only of Inuit life in the Netsilik area but of human behavior in general.Dde Poncins' prose is magnificent, even poetic. Numerous passages simply sing. Whether he is describing the describing bouts of cabin fever at the post in Gjoa Haven or celebrating the renewed vigor of villiage life that Springtime brings, De Poncins's eye for detail is refreshingly balanced and clear. What's more, Kabloona does not pretend to be an unbiased narrative. Instead, the author leads us through his physical and spiritual journey to show us how living with the Inuit has allowed him to become "a man preeminently." Certain passages seem somewhat romanticized, while others reveal the author's deeply-entrenched provincial values. The latter is evident when he describes an Inuit "pedarast" with a mixed sense of fascination and revulsion. But rather than hindering the narrative, such honesty and straightforwardness only enhances the humanity of this book. Kabloona is a thoroughly engrossing read that feeds into many areas of Inuit life, including myths, legends, and belief systems, as well as daily life and habitat.

It's been years since I read "Kabloona" by gontran de poncins. I don't remember the specifics of the book (I'm going to read it again, soon). What I do remember is the lingering humanity of the people. The hard life they lived. The culture shock between my life and theirs. I remember the mirror they held before me, forcing me to question our idea of "progress," "civility," and "modern man". Books such as "Kabloona" and "Black Elk Speaks" by John G. Neihardt and "Mutant Message" by Marlo Morgan tells us more about our roots as a species than many of the great thinkers and philosphers who speak in the abstract and grandeur of modern man. You read a book like this and you must pause and reflect, look deeper into yourself and the rushing stream you were born into. Step back and look at life from a different perspective. It can be life-altering or at the very least a stunning revelation.

I read this book many, many years ago and have forgotten many of the details. I remember one, however. When the old one couldn't travel, they put her out on the ice and drove off. That is so relevant to our contemporary society and the discussions of social security and the elderly, caring for the disabled, etc. We can't leave the disadvantaged on the ice and drive off but must find some way to care for them.

I teach 4th grade. This is the best book I have ever used in my classroom. Both boys and girls love the poems. I read from it almost every day. Both the children and I enjoy the book. What I find especially unique is the number of poems which my class enjoys. Of 31 children there are 17 different favorite poems. I have read many of the poems several times and the response is still laughter. L. W. Lewis has done an amazing job. I have recommended the book to other teachers and purchased copies for my children and my sister's children. It is a great book and I strongly recommend it to anyone who has children (or grandchildren) in grades K-6.

I really like this book.It is fun to read, and my friends like it to. My favorite poem is the one about "Barbee".
Tierra

My niece is 10 years old and in a special education class because of a dyslexic learning diability. I had worked with her all summer trying to spark an interest in reading. When we discovered the book, "Why Do Flys eat doggy poop?", she fell in love. Reciting the poems and enjoying their comical content has really sparked an interest in her to read. The poems are easy to read and because she can read them I have seen a boost in her self esteem. She has demanded that I put up a shelf in her room just to display her special book.
Thanks Mr. Lewis

I recently recieved this charming book as a gift from a special friend for my children. Our usual evening ritual is for my husband to (very begrudgingly) read to our children before bed. My son wanted to here some of the poems in this book. After the first one, through snickers and belly laughs, they read together for almost an entire hour. At my promting is was time for bed with the promise to read the rest tomorrow. I whole- heartedly enjoyed watching and listening to a very well put together assortment of childrens poems. My son (almost 6)thought they were hilarious. My husband thought they were hysterical and my two year old just laughed because everyone else was. Overall I really enjoyed that first night with our new favorite book and have since recommended it to all of my friends with chidren. THANK YOU- AGAIN!!! Mr. Lewis @214

I can't believe that anyone let me start the process of infertility treatment (beyond the clomid stage) without telling me to read this. I found it on my own when having to decide whether my only chance to have a child, egg donation, was right for my husband and myself. I only WISH someone had told me about it sooner. It would have helped me think about all of "this" in a not so crazy way. It's technical, but, those of us who go through infertility procedures know more about the getting pregnant process than most books and online souces give us credit for. These authors treat us like intelligent human beings.

As an infertility specialist, I'd heartily recommend this book to all infertile couples - and their doctors as well. The forte of this book is the superb way in which emotional issues have been discussed.

My husband and I have been struggling with infertility for six years and have read several books on the subject. Choosing Assisted Reproduction is the most comprehensive, informative and challenging book that we have come across. We were both relieved to see that the authors raise some of the ethical questions that we are struggling with. They do so in a very sensitive way, always respecting the difficult choices that infertility patients face in this new world of baby making. I recommend this book to anyone going through infertility, as well as to their families and friends.

C.S. Lewis' "Experiment in Criticism" is one of those great books that gives one a new lens with which to view life. This book caused me to do a lot of self-examination and reflection on how I interact not just with literature, but also with culture as a whole.

Lewis' point is that there is not a real "bad" or "good" literature. The value of what we read is in how we interact with it. Lewis defines how people interact with culture in terms of "The Few" and "The Many."

"The Few" are the literary (in other fields they would be musical, have a palette capable of enjoying the best food, or an eye for art). The literary count reading as valuable, read books more than once, are able to be changed by what they read, and remember and share works or pieces of works with others.

"The Many" are the unliterary. Unliterary people generally don't accuse the literary of reading the wrong books-they wonder why literary people make such a big fuss about books at all. They never read a book twice. Their interaction with a work is not deeply felt. Though they may "read a lot" they don't "set much store by it."

Lewis draws some interesting comparisons with other forms of cultural involvement. He compares these two styles of reading with how some people interact with art and music. Just because one is in the literary "Few" does not mean that they are part of the "Few" in other venues.

Chapter five, "On Myth," is incredibly valuable in discussing myth as well as the value of modern genres such as Fantasy and Science Fiction. It is a wonderful area to start exploring what has come to be termed "Mythopoeic literature."

Another notable section is chapter seven which is a discussion of realism. Lewis' definition is broader than the usual. Personally, in changing my perception of what "realistic" fiction is, this chapter probably influenced me more than any other.

This is a book capable of changing the reader's view of culture. It is therefore of great value. I give it my heartfelt recommendation.

...so goes the line from the old Aerosmith song, if I am remembering correctly. Well, none of us will live forever on this old earth; so is it right to give over much of that limited time to reading about things that never were or ever shall be? Read this book (whether you are a Christian or not hardly makes a difference when it comes to reading Experiment) for wise reflections on the reading life.

Quote:
Secondly, the majority, though they are sometimes frequent readers, do not set much store by reading. They turn to it as a last resource. They abandon it with alacrity as soon as any alternative pastime turns up. It is kept for railway journeys, illnesses, odd moments of enforced solitude, or for the process called "reading oneself to sleep".

Don't judge a book by it's cover doesn't apply in this case because not only is the cover of West Wind Review a work of art, but so it the writing. I love the prose poems/sudden fictions in this book. Please keep up the good work.

Why can't all reviews and anthologies have the same quality of writing as West Wind Review? I am NEVER disappointed in the work that comes out of this anthology. I think this one will be a collector's edition because some of the writers are headed for Pulitzer Prizes.

I recommend this anthology to anyone wanting a break from trendy genre novels, boring non-fiction, me-me-me poetry and nonsensical language poetry. Writers in West Wind Review are superb at mixing humor with pathos on their quests to find the meaning of life. You know how most writers seem to be trying too hard and sound fake deep? Not this group. Check it out.