What could be better than Burgess on literally everything? Pun most definitely intended! Almost 200 selected essays on the famous and the arcane, Burgess opines on books sent for his review by The Times Literary Supplement, the New York Times, and the Observer between 1978 and 1985, and, to the reader's delight, he invariably relates tales about the writers themselves, taking aim at sacred cows, shattering myths and pulverizing clay idols but not without deifying the immortal and creating legends along the way. Delving into dictionaries, linguistic tomes, music compendiums, biographies, Oxford Books of you name of it, scholastic works, popular novels, acclaimed works, collections, anthologies - he profiles it all with huge chunks of personal glimpses into his own life and times. He chronicles works by and about Joyce, Shakespeare, Dr. Johnson, Dickens, Orwell, Waugh, Wells, Stendahl, Austin, Boswell, Fielding, Fiedler, Plath, Lawrence, Golding, Goldman, Conrad, Capote, de Beauvoir, Greene, Greer, O'Hara, Richardson, Janeway, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Friedan, "the great Virginia herself," Stein, Wagner, Beethoven, Weill, Sullivan, Elgar - getting too specialized for you? Try "Garping", on John Irving, "Dorogoi Bunny, Dear Volodya..." on the Nabokov-Wilson Letters, "Anal Magic" on Mailer, "The Magus of Mallorca" on Graves, "Thurbing" on Thurber, "Hem Not Writing Good" on Hemingway, "Celtic Sacrifice" on Wilde. Large doses of his wry, dry, erudite, phenomenal self on fiction, prose, poetry, language, religion, art, fashion, film, food, politics, travel, theater, astrology - reviews of books on vices and dirty jokes even! There is a wealth of references throughout to other writings, critiques, essays, events and locations. For light fare on weighty subjects, try "Grunts from a Sexist Pig" wherein he was sent a pink marzipan pig, the dubious reward for being voted (along with Mailer, Fiedler, Lowell, Malamud and Beckett) a Sexist Pig of the Year, a result of his feud with Virago Press over their choice of name: "Now all my dictionaries tell me that a virago is a noisy, violent, ill-tempered woman, a scold or a shrew. There is, true, an archaic meaning which makes a virago a kind of amazon... .But the etymology insists on a derivation from Latin...and no amount of semantic twisting can force the word into a meaning which denotes intrinsic female virtues... . I think it was a silly piece of naming, and it damages what is a brave and valuable venture." Or my personal favorite, "Telejesus (or Mediachrist)", the story of how he came to write the screenplay for "Man of Nazareth.": "The ball was slammed into my court, and there was a long silence while I got down to work. This meant loading my typewriter and the New Testament into my motor caravan and setting off for the Alps. ...Wherever I went with my caravan, typewriter and Greek Testament, I was hounded by the religious experts of Radiotelevisione Italiana...with requests, orders, ultimata. They pursued me from Rome to Ansedonia to Siena to Bracciano to Rome, telling me what to write. "Write it yourselves, for Christ's sake,' I said reverently. 'No, no, you're the writer. Now write this.' One remarkable suggestion was that Jesus, in formulating the Lord's Prayer, should stumble over the word padre, stuttering papa papa in involuntary homage to His Holiness. I pointed out that in English this would have been fafa fafa, which is a homage to nobody. Theological advisers were ten a penny,...I said I would trade them all for an adviser in carpentry." Open this book to any page, you will never fail to be entertained, enlightened, uplifted. Keep it by your bedside, in your bookbag, briefcase or backpack, take it to work and take it on holiday, but don't let it out of your sight! Unbelievably, this book is out of print! Too, too many of Burgess' books are out of print. How could the publishing world let this happen? Search the shelves, exhaust the Net, move mountains, whatever you have to do, but get yourself a copy of this treasure - it is not to be missed! The only thing that could surpass Homage to Qwert Yuiop (have you figured it out yet?) would be a companion volume spanning 1986 to 1993. What, one wonders, was left out of this edition? What is still out there unpublished?

This is a fine, detailed book explaining how to plan and build an indoor climbing wall. The book is organized and methodical in it's presentation and includes every aspect of the planning. Chapters include:

1. Why and where to build a home gym

2. Planning your climbing features and gym

3. Budget and materials

4. Framing and Building

5. Insets, features and textures

6. Crash pads and flooring

7. Handholds and footholds

8. Hold installations, routesetting, and wall maintenance

9. Training

10. Legal and insurance issues

This book has a huge amount of "no-nonsense" information for one small volume. A good investment for anyone interested in building a climbing wall.

British comedy at it's best. After the Major's wife has left him for his best friend, he lets the flat out simultaneously to two tennants. Jill uses the flat on the weekends, while Phillip uses it during the week. Unstoppable chaos insues once Jill suprisingly gets the week off, and the Major has to hide the truth from Phillip and everyone else caught in the web of confusion, including his ex-wife. Overall, extremely hilarious and a great piece to put on for an audience!

As an Irish person I was astounded to find this massive list of English titles which are available in England but unfortunately not in Ireland!! I think this book is fantastic for the historically-interested person and it is a great reference point for honour-related topics

Top Buy!!!! Well Done Guys!!

very good presentation, practical every day problems facing in paediatrics. good book to read if you are preparing for MRCPCH exam or DCH exam.

I have read this book three times and would love to read it three more times. I never tired of the characters and the story line kept me enthralled, hungering for more. The book holds interest for so many with its varied topics and characters. There's something for everybody.

Jeffrey Stoodt text is a easy reader for the young and eager to learn. The story has been modernize to give an up to date edge for the young reader. The illustrations through wash out give the authenticity of southwest flavor such as old blue paint on a Santa Fe door. Emersons non-threating snake gives the young viewer a smile.

This book takes a VERY important topic - laying out an ownership agreement BEFORE any disputes arise - and makes it accessable to all of us non-lawyers. My business partner and I are working through this book and so far have found it easy to understand. The book provides all of the "legaleeze" you need to put your agreements into a binding buy-sell agreement (one that reflects YOUR choices for the agreement). Working through this has had a positive impact on my relationship with my business partner, because it increases trust in what the future will be like. I highly recommend this book to any business with more than one shareholder.

Keep it simple stupid.Thats what they taught me at college.Simplify the problem.Complicate the problem.Draw an obscure diagram.Simple advice but good advice.
But you don't believe you are stupid.You are angry that somebody called you stupid. You may be just the right person for this book.Because a smart man acknowledges that he really knows very little.Because he wants to read every book in the library.And there is so little time.So you are like that.You don't really need this book.
It is the guy who doesn't want to be called stupid that will need it. You will learn how smart kids think about college and the tricks they use.And the ones they don't.It is all about college in the 1980's before the internet.
Because study is something you can learn without complicating it by using a computer.Learn all of the mistakes you could possibly make and how to avoid making them.

Anthony Mancuso makes incorporating easy to understand and easy to accomplish. This set of corporate records, disk and business expertise is something you'll keep by your side for years to come. Mancuso explains the differences between an LLC, Sole Partnership and the different types of Corporations. When he's finished you know exactly what's best for you. The kit also goes beyond incorporating and tells you the other requirements for a business. You get up to date information on insurance, wage and tax statements-- it's all here. Mancuso's style is direct, easy to understand. It is like having an attorney who speaks your language right by your side