We just returned from a second trip to Scotland and this time we played some of the more obscure (but wonderful!) courses - this book was our guide - and we loved the descriptions, suggestions, and the way the guide is written. We had four other books with us, but this was the one we used the most!

A few years ago I was living in Cincinnati and wanted to take a golfing trip to Scotland. The local bookstores had nothing whatsoever in the way of practical guidebooks dedicated to golf in the UK. A database search came up with this title, and it sounded about right so I ordered it. A week or so later the bookstore said that their distributor didn't have any copies, or some such thing, but they suggested that I call the publisher myself. I was surprised to find that the publisher had a local Cincinnati telephone number. I called the number and was more surprised to be greeted with "Dr. Kroeger's office." The bottom line is that the author is a dentist in Cincinnati who wrote this wonderful book as a hobby. I purchased a copy, went to Scotland where I had a wonderful time, and signed up for a good teeth cleaning when I returned.

I plan to go to Scotland for golf and I thought this book really helped to give me a feel for the courses and the traditions of the Scottish people. I thought about playing only the big-name courses until I read about some of the hidden gems. Now I think I'll try to play some of them. Enjoyed the history part of the book too.

This is a fine example of early writings of the 17th century. Includes detail maps of the then "New World" which are truly interesting given their inaccuracies. It was printed for H. Lintot,at the Cross-Keys against St. Dunstans- Church in Fleet-Street. The opening is a latin poem entitled Sacrae Theoriae Telluris Auctorem...dated 1699. Deals with the earth before, during, and after the antedeluvian era, and the subsequent theological dispensations of the time. I have an original set of 1st edition, and this is a time capsule of no compare when studying the theological as well as the so-called scientific concepts of the period. Even repros are a must see.

Time's Arrow Time's Cycle written by Stephtn Jay Gould is a book that takes human thought to a new level in comprehending geology's vastness of history... the discovery of deep time. Gould works this book's major theme in the role of metaphor in the formulation and testing of scientific theories as the directionality (narrative history) of time's arrow or the immanence of time's cycle (immanent laws).

This book is both an account of geology's greatest discovery and philosophical commentary on the nature of scientific thought. As this thought takes us from thought of time in thousand of years to billions of years, inspired by empirical observation of rocks in the field.

Gould follows a single thread through three documents that mark the transition in our thinking: Thomas Burnet's four-volume "Sacred Theory of the Earth" (1680-1690), James Hutton's "Theory of the Earth (1795), and Charle Lyell's three-volume "Principle of Geology (1830-1833). Gould shifts through these writings giving the reader a history and background needed for a progressive march to the truth of the geological history through an enlightened observation.

Reading this book will captivate the curious reader and helps the human mind understand the vastness of time and the struggle to understand it.

The title of the review is an homage to Gould's oft mentioned love of baseball. This book is a cogent explanation of how European scientists (natural philosophers) recounciled the narrative tradition of history inherited from the Judeo-Christian template with the eternal return perspective of the Classical civilizations. Both view points-as-metaphors shed light on interpretation of the geological record. There are both serial and cyclic elements in the history of the earth, so the scientific community found truth in spite of the fact that individual scientists tended to emphasize one perspective over the other.

Gould exposes the 'cardboard cut-out' Whig version of history that most working scientists have received uncritically as hurried historical preambles to their study of geology per se. James Hutton, for example, is held up as a paragon of the field geologist who supposedly preceded his assertion of the existence of 'deep time' with countless hours in the field. Not so, says Gould. In fact, Hutton did his field work after he conceived the idea of a lengthy earth history and merely used his field observations to bolster his claim. Thomas Burnet, author of the much made-fun-of Sacred Theory of the Earth, is revealed to have been a champion of uniformitarianism before Hutton even conceived of it. Burnet refused to advance causes for events described in the Bible that could not be explained by the laws of physics as advanced by Isaac Newton. Finally, Charles Lyell is exposed as a master of rhetoric who conflated methodological and substantive aspects of uniformitarianism in order to sway his audience. No member of the scientific community contemporary to Lyell clung to the Mosaic timescale. He merely used it as a strawman. It was Lyell who managed to mate the narrative and eternal return perspectives into a coherent view of Earth history. First he did so by insisting the apparent progress observed in the fossil record was caused by the immense scale of the cycles of Earth history. Eventually he conceded the reality of evolution and allowed for the existence of an arrow of time whose path did not curve.

Gould's book is modified from a series of lectures, which is probably why there is so much uncharacteristic repetition of themes and ideas in this book. It was the only aspect of this book that I found irritating. Gould is also candid about his pride at uncovering various inaccuracies in the received wisdom and unearthing original themes to explain patterns in the history of geology. I have heard other people complain about this personality trait. I have no problem with it and believe that his satisfaction with his own cleverness is quite justifiable.

Stephen Jay Gould's love of science history really shows through in this work, which focuses on changing ideas about time and geology. It's well-researched and makes some very intriguing points about science in general, but if you have no patience for geology you probably won't get that far - it's nowhere near as accessible as his essay collections, but that's only to be expected. Every science major should read this book, and so should anyone who likes to think of themselves as well-informed about history and science.

It is probably the best work on Presocratic philosophers including their biographies, found fragments and commentary. Burnet, who is best known for his translation of Plato's works (the Platonis Opera Oxoniensis), was one of the greatest specialists in ancient philosophy and this can be seen by the accuracy of the information this book offers. However, it is not one of those professional studies that bore the reader and don't manage to transmit any information. Apart from some newly (XXth century) acquired information in the field (that may have occurred since Burnet wrote this book), "Early Greek Philosophers" offers to the amateur reader the best overview on Presocratic Philosophy.

A well written account of the life and career of one of the greatest modern tennis players - Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario. Though not written with direct contact form Sanchez-Vicario, the authors manage to take a great many interviews and quotes from the champion herself and many of those around her and turn it into an informative book. The book deals primarily with Arantxa's tennis career and the many results and highlights of it, along with her personality and her fighting spirit which took the game to new levels. A great book for any fan and a good job from the first time authors.

If you're not already familiar with this era of English history, Burnet's book will be hard to follow. Important characters (so familiar to those times) enter our stage without introduction, and after dropping famous hints, or carrying off some great exploit, are discarded without subsequent investigation. In short, Burnet touches lightly on the events and main players of each year from 1660-1712, but scarcely troubles himself to round out his topics, or give life to his characters. As he himself says, he only writes on areas where he was a key witness, but doesn't enlarge on events which most likely would appear in other history books.

After reading Hume or Macaulay, Burnet's writings seem almost useless. An important figure of the times, it is difficult to conceive how this volume figures as an important journal of the times, yet for its defense, we are told that Swift owned a copy.