Admit it already...... when you are in the bathroom, you want something to read to help pass the time. Instead of reading the latest issue of Reader's Digest, why not learn a bunch of interesting and funny, if not just downright useless, facts?

The third edition of the popular Uncle John's Bathroom Reader brings you more (and more and more and more) of interesting tidbits and stories to help you pass the time. From a list of film terms (an oater is a western) to an inside look at the musical television group The Monkees, this book has a seemingly never ending supply of information to pass along to you. There's even an entire story about the origins of toilet paper (i.e. the Sears catalog).

There is one warning that should be mentioned here: This 3rd edition is full of spelling and grammatical word errors. Though it doesn't change how much fun this book is to read (and use), it is kind of disappointing to see so many mistakes.

This book is packed cover to cover with fun, useless drivel. You learn about everything under the sun and actually appreciate the knowledge you are obtaining. An easy read that will have you taking it everywhere with you, this book is a must-have.

This book is essential for the library of every scholar of American constitutionalism. For those who have studied the subject, the superb selection of essays on different aspects of American political thought is enlightening. Those who are simply interested in America's founding may however be at a loss and overwhelmed by the wide range of arguments put forward in the different essays even if Gary L.Gregg did an excellent job in the introduction giving an overview to the reader of what he should expect in each essay. Thus, since all and even the American constituiton and its origins is a matter of perspective, this book can only be enjoyed after a thorough study of American political thought. For constitution freaks however it is not only useful to have, it is a real joy to browse through the essays.

There is a palpable fear that America has lost its way, and perhaps even been untrue to itself. Examples of this loss abound, from school violence to a youth culture nihilism. "Vital Remnants," a collection of essays by some of America's top scholars in history, philosophy, political science, and law, shows, with remarkable clarity, the ways in which contemporary American society has radically altered the course upon which it was originally set. To be sure, our century looks at America with a different set of assumptions than that of our ancestors. "Vital Remnants" gives us clues by which we might stay the course for the benefit of generations to come.

The Wetlands Deskbook is a virtual library of information concening environmental policies and regulations related to U.S. waters and wetland areas. It is an absolute must for Federal, State, and private industry that works in mitigation, preservation, and environmental policy.

This book explores and makes you feel as if your learning something for a change. My mum was so suprised when i came out with a bunch of facts. This scientific book is worth every minute of reading.

This book is a treasury of Yiddish folktales just like my grandfather used to tell us. They seem simple and obvious at times but they always contain a deeper interpretation when considered through the eyes of our ancestors and their concerns. The tales are thought provoking at times and humorous at others. My only wish is that there were more allegorical tales which are my favorite, also, it might be nice to have a little author commentary on the origins and meaning of each or even just the major lessons. The artwork- jewish folk art is also beautiful and fitting. Altogether a great book for bedtime stories!

This is a great read. Many tales have similarities to standard fairytales, but they have a wonderful richness not found in the usual blanded-down stories. The book has 178 stories, some as short as a half-page, so it's also great if you only have short snippets of time. My husband and I enjoyed this book for ourselves, and will definitely read these tales to our future children. I cannot recommend this more strongly

I find this book is so powerful, because I can find any things for a architect want to know from this book. I call this book is the encyclopedia for me. I really want to buy this book, but unfortunately, I am a Australian architect, and we are using metric unit (metre), and it is quite trouble to understand the inch dimension for us. So editor, Could you please publish a "Architectural Graphic Standards in Metric" in the following edition, please.

As an Architect, I had at one time always considered AGS to be the Bible of Architectural priactice, but of course it is very cost prohibitive. I guess they would expect one to just to write it off on his taxes, so it didn't matter if the price was kept high. I think it's usefulness in today's practice however is not as profound because of the wealth of information that is now available from suppliers, manufactures, etc.

it's the most complete and ilustrative book, it's so functional and the cd-rom its the best you can import things to cad software to make your drawings so perfect, its the best!

Not being a professional chef, this book was quite intimidating. The info regarding ingredients was great, and the recipes so far have not let me down. This is a great aid in helping a normal guy like me prepare a very nice meal for company the RIGHT way. A great appreciation for fine cooking is developed after studying this book. The ingredient measurements in weight were a bit of a stumbling block for me at first - if you don't have a scale, you had better be an excellent guesser. Overestimating and buying too much veal loin can be pretty expensive. This is THE book for basics and, of course, a fine meal for that special occasion when company is planned (most meals here require several steps and multiple sub-recipes, and are not fast, Betty Crocker projects). Well worth the price for the smile on your guests' faces.

The New Professional Chef is a wonderful, albeit unwieldy, collection of recipes and cooking techniques for the aspiring professional or amateur chef.

My wife and I had the good fortune of dining at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in picturesque St. Helena, California right in the middle of Napa Valley. The Wine Spectator Greystone restaurant on the campus is a wonderful place to dine and I heartily recommend it. The atmosphere is inviting and it's great to watch the chefs preparing mouth-watering dishes in the open kitchen. It was a treat for me, as a cooking enthusiast, to visit this presitigous cooking school.

After visiting the CIA, I found this book and knew I had to have it as a reference foundation for my cooking skills. It has step-by-step techniques and recipes presented in a concise and easy to follow manner. I would recommend this book to anyone serious about learning the skills that professional chefs use every day.

Please note that a kitchen scale is highly desirable when using the recipes. Most recipes use weight measurements instead of volume. Additionally, you will find that the recipes will need scaling down to feed average families, since they are designed for the professional restaurant chef.

Great for the serious cooking enthusiast!

As a professional chef myself and a graduate of the California Culinary Academy, I keep 2 copies of this incredibly wonderful cookbook.
It is an absolute necessity in anybodies kitchen from the novice to the Professional.
After spending 2 years at chefs school in the early 70's and opening a chain of restaurants in Los Angeles, I got into a rut and lost not only my imagination but also forgot from lack of use many of my culinary skills.
This book is more than just a cookbook, it is an encyclopedia of knowledge. While most of the recipes are scaled for large quantities, they are easy to scale down due to the use of weight as a measure rather than volume.
If you were to buy only one cookbook to last a lifetime this would be the one. While it is pricey, you must realize the amount of time that has gone into the preparation of such a tome.
I highly recommend this book for you. If you are intersted in the buffet table the book called the garde manger, also a CIA book, is an excellent training manual.

I started doing these eye exercises on June 1, 2000. After a week of very gently doing the recommended progressive myopia booster sequence listed in the book, I was unable to wear my strongest power contacts and glasses. It HURT to put them on. So out came my 1994 contacts and glasses. They weren't strong enough, but at least it didn't hurt to wear them.

After doing some (not all) of the eye exercises in this book for 2 1/2 months I finally went in to see the optomitrist. The results of the eye exercises were a definite improvement; from -12.75 in the right eye to a -10.75, and -12 in the left eye to -9.75. And this after only doing some of the exercises from this book a half an hour 3 days a week. I can hardly wait to see what happens when I do more of the exercise techniques! Makes me wonder what kind of eyesight I would have had if my eye doctor had prescribed eye exercises at age 8 instead of thick glasses.

My only criticism about this book is that explanation of how and why the exercises work would be nice.

If you are truly interested in improving your vision, buy this book and use it. It works.

I've read this book all the way through several years ago and am finally putting it to use. I've procrastinated in doing the eye exercises and I'm finally about to start them now. My vision is terrible and after reading this book I was stunned to find out how much we all don't know about how to improve our vision.

This book tells you how to exercise your eyes like any other part of your body that needs fitness or toning up. If you don't help tone it up it all goes downhill from there.

I started wearing glasses in 4th grade and know I probably wouldn't even be wearing glasses if I knew then what I knew now. If it was corrected at the beginning. My vision would probably be perfect again. Now I have a lazy eye, very bad vision, and I'm about to go to the doctor about an infection on my eye that could very well be cataracts.

The scary thing is a lot of eye doctors aren't taught the things in this book, thereby don't often realize themselves that one could improve one's vision through eye exercises and progressive undercorrection--a means of making the vision stronger by prescribing a lense or contact of 20 less than needed. Glasses and contacts have become a crutch and we all know what happens when you lean on something too much. So I'd advise most people to read this book since just about all of us nowadays where glasses or sometime of vision crutch.

The authors do a good job of discussing the theory behind what they are proposing. Using a common sense approach they discuss why the traditional methods of dealing with bad eyesight are just another example of our society and everyone wanting a quick fix to any problem. Instead of dealing with the problem we tend to grab the quick and easy fix and don the glasses and have the laser surgery or whatever gives us better eyesight instantly even if it is not in our long term best interest.
The book then proceeds to various exercises and techniques designed to correct the various causes of eye problems. I tried the exercises for a while and found that it did seem to help me. My eyes were not all that bad at a -2 and -1.5. Now I have begun to notice that my eyes ache and sometimes I get a headache when I wear my glasses for an extended period of time. Quite a change from wearing them all the time a couple of months ago.

I loved the movie PATCH ADAMS, starring Robin Williams . . . even though it got mostly poor to fair reviews, see it if you can . . . you'll be uplifted by the true story of a doctor who has challenged the foundations of modern medicine not only by making healthcare personal, but by making it free . . . the movie naturally took some liberties with Adams' life, so for the whole tale I just heard the taped version of GESUNDHEIT! . . . this gives all the details
of how he and a few colleagues in 1971 founded the Gesundheit
Institute--a free hospital in West Virginia . . . it is dedicated to an unorthodox view of medicine and of the patient-doctor relationship: one employing laughter, listening and mutual respect . . . imagine being able to see a doctor and actually smiling when you do . . . and have him or her smile back at you! . . . you'll come away thinking that health care could be different; i.e., if practitioners would take heed of Adams' advice . . . the narration by Artie Johnson (of LAUGH-IN fame)was excellent.

Behind Patch Adams clown nose and jokes lies a social revolutionary who has devoted his life to transforming the health care system. In his book "Gesundheit" he shares a vision of a free holistic medical practice based on faith, friendship and fun. Adams life and work even inspired the producers of Universal Studios to make a movie titled "Patch Adams" staring Robin Williams.
Patch Adams is the founder of Gesundheit, a holistic home-based medical practice that managed to see more than 15,000 people without bills, malpractice insurance, formal facilities and paper work. Adams' vision is a wake-up call for all of us.
Like Adams I became discouraged when the art of counseling and medicine was replaced by the science of business and technology. During my 20 years of working as a children's counselor at a Mental Health Center I witnessed how mental health and medicine, the nations number one industries today, shifted from the community to the corporate level. When the loving human interchange between a client and counselor became more a business transaction, and the paperwork not the people became the bulk of our services due to fear of litigation, I decided it was time to retire.
In "Gesundheit" Adams discourages health care professionals from carrying malpractice insurance. When fear is the baseline from which to practice healing it encourages caregivers to prescribe "cookbook" treatments even when they believe them to be inadequate or potentially harmful. Fear and distrust makes physicians reluctant to explore alternate therapy and leads them to put patients through procedures and tests that are unnecessary and defensive. When professionals see patients as passive recipients of wisdom there is no room for humility or mistakes. A malpractice climate denies physicians the right to be imperfect.
Third-party reimbursement is also a problem. It has diverted medicine from a service to a business and become a circus act with many hoops to jump through. Doctors tend to over-order tests and overdo procedures when patients are insured. It's easier to order tests than provide care or comfort. Hospital supply companies, medical technology and pharmaceutical firms have become multimillion dollar moguls of medicine.
Another problem is that the professional distance ethic often leads to aloofness and arrogance. Many patients are described as diseases, lab values, or treatments. When people are called the names of their diseases other facets of the patient's life are neglected such as family, friends, faith, fun, work, nutrition and exercise. Life itself is bigger than illness, diagnosis, treatment and disease.
When touching is taboo and getting close to clients is forbidden we loose the magic of vulnerability and trust in a relationship. Healing happens in the relationship between the healer and the patient. A healer cannot offset the pain and suffering of a client without intimacy. Healers need the freedom to cry with and hug their patients. Transference is inevitable. Every human being has some kind of impact on another. A solid relationship creates a loving, human, creative, cooperative and open environment.
Privacy or confidentiality rules make intimacy difficult. Public disclosure strengthens relationships and helps develop a greater sense of support and understanding. Like 12-step programs the surrendering of privacy is the cornerstone of friendship and an antidote to loneliness. Our stories are important and listening to each other's stories provides the magic for healing. We are a tribal people and we need community. We need to move from the insurance of cash to the insurance of clan.
Progress has become synonymous with "advances in technology." Although modern medicine has made great strides in knowledge and technology, health care professionals are rarely vibrant with the joy of human service. Many doctors feel naked without their instruments and machines. Even though comfort, empathy, and reassurance-so vital to a medical practice requires no technology. Our magic as healers is not in our tools but in ourselves.
We also need to integrate humor and nature in healing work. Humor is a powerful antidote to pain and nature tops the list of potent stress reducers. An individual's health cannot be separated from their natural and human environment and wellness needs to include prevention of ecological disasters.
Adams' book "Gesundheid" is an excellent summary of how today's high-tech medicine has become too costly, dehumanized, mistrustful and grim and gives us a vision of what good health care could be. We not only need a better health care system but a healthier one. Profit, paperwork, medication, and medical procedures cannot be a substitute for time spent talking to and observing patients.
Mother Teresa's Mission of Charity has provided free services to the poor in over 52 continents since 1952. They accept donations from individuals not companies and have not only survived but thrived. Gesundheit, a non-religious modern day version of the Missions of Charity, also offers free services in faith not fear. Both demonstrate how giving is intoxicating and produce intimacy as a byproduct. Both show how fulfillment that comes from service is one of the great medicines of life.
Although most of us cannot give our services away for free we can learn from Adams' vision. Putting people before profit is a win win situation. When people are happy they're less likely to litigate and surprise, surprise the business ends up making a profit.

If you have seen the movie Patch Adams, the screen writers took some liberties with the life of Mr. Adams. The movie only tells a small distorted version of what is Patch Adams. Patch has some unconventional ideas about medicine. These ideas have led to a movement to change health care for the better. Patch has dedicated his life toward helping the less fortunate and still lives on this creed.

The one story in this book which sticks out in my mind is the story of the man with arthritis. To summarize, Patch discovered that the man did not feel the pain of his arthritis while watching the sunset. The man really enjoyed watching the sunset and pleasure from this event helps him forget his pain. Thinking of something pleasurable or performing a pleasurable act helps us forget pain. As Patch Adams himself said, The best medicince is not to treat the illness, but to treat the patient."

Thanks for your inspiration Patch! A great book!

Dozens of books related to the September 11th tragedy have been published in the last year, with many providing pictures of minute-by-minute events on that horrible day. This book is merely a reproduction of many of the front pages of our nation's (and the world's) newspapers the day after the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon were attacked by terrorists.

It is interesting what approaches the papers took that day. From half-page type to vivid pictures of the plane's impact into the second tower to the San Francisco Chronicles use of a word that one wouldn't expect to be used as a headline, it is a unique and interesting chronicle of that day.

Other reviewers have claimed that this book is an exploitation of the people impacted by that day, but it really isn't. You don't see pictures of people leaping to their death, you just see the news. It happened, it will always be a part of our history and it should be documented. I think this book does a good job of doing that.

Obviously, it is not the best book on chronically the events of that day. Others show the collapse of the building, the jumping victims, the bravery of the fire and police, but this one does a great job of showing how the nation and the world reacted.

(...) This is not a collection of photos of the 9/11 tragedies, per se, but a collection of 9/12 newspaper front pages from nearly all the major US dailies, the biggest national papers (USA Today, WSJ, Christian Science Monitor), plus several major newspapers from around the world. Horrible as the events of that day were, it is interesting (and revelatory in some cases) to see how the events were covered. Obviously the NYC and Washington newspapers had a special closeness to the events but there is plenty to learn from reviewing the coverage in distant cities and small towns across North America, by US allies and traditionally non-allied nations (and even a few enemy states), and of editorial decisions about headline phrasing and photo selection. In a way, a book like this makes a case, for better or worse, for the world as global village. Not for the feint-hearted, perhaps, but an interesting collection and certainly worth preserving.

Just as December 7, 1941 was remembered as "a date that will live
in infamy" and "Remember Pearl Harbor!" became the battle cry of our Nation, so, too, will this date and these places become etched in the annals of the United States of America. This book
represents a stunning collection of the front pages of newspapers
across the nation as well as around the world reporting and depicting the events of this fateful day in our history. Page after page reveals the shock and horror experienced by all people who lived through that day. This book will be a historical record for future generations who will look back on these times in attempting to understand our collective experience. I highly recommend obtaining this book to pass on to your children and their children's children as a reminder of the evil which is ever present in this world.

This is an outstanding resource for prospective students, and especially for parents of prospective students that want honest information and direct analysis, NOT marketing pablum from college admissions and P.R. departments.

I rate this book of one of the three most useful we have read, in getting educated about choosing colleges. Unlike many resources, this information goes to the heart of what is important, if you care about the quality of education your children will receive.

It also is refreshing to see honest and insightful analysis exposing the problems and perils of the political correctness movement in higher education; a book that speaks frankly about the good and the bad in the colleges it reviews.

My only suggestion: Expand your review to include more colleges! Perhaps edition two can include an update of the currently included colleges, and an additional 100 or so schools not yet reviewed.

In summary, I consider this resource an essential tool that both students and parents should read, and refer back to, during their campus visits and tours...and certainly during the time preparing to make this important choice.

I first heard of this book from a professor on a radio show who has just written an excellent book called "The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America's Campuses." The professor said that his book is very useful to inform parents about what is happening on campuses but he said that this guide was invaluable for parents who care about choosing the perfect college for their child.

My wife and I thought this guide was too thick for one of us to read so we divided it up into schools. 50 schools each. The essays were so much informative, well-written, and fun to read that we both read pretty much everything. It points out the truth about every school in the book, the good parts and the bad. The authors clearly do not like what certain schools have become (like Yale!) but they offer sound advice to parents. This guide is far superior to the National Review guide in that it doesn't give you a menu of mostly unknown small liberal arts schools but instead offers insight into all major universities and colleges. One of my daughters will be at college in 2 years and we had no idea how to set about choosing a college. We bought the Fiske guide but found it bland. This book has already helped us identify some great schools and informed us exactly what we should be looking for (both to identify the good and the bad). I highly recommend it.

If you're a parent looking for an in-depth guide to America's top colleges and universities, buy this guide. Hands down, the most in-depth guide available. Having worked at two top 20 universities in the past 15 years, I've talked to hundreds of parents and am increasingly amazed at how ill-informed they are about the higher education market. Upon visiting campus bookstores, they focus more on reviewing the quality of T-shirts than reviewing the quality of course textbooks. What most parents don't realize is how dramatically American higher education has changed since their college days. And,in most cases, for the worse. Considering the spiraling costs of higher education, this is tragic.

(I don't expect students to be so "educated" about such decisions. Many are as concerned about the social life as they are about the academic rigor. In most cases, however, parents are footing the bill and have SOME influence in the process).

Most guides provide information regurgitated by institutional public affairs offices. Or some guides just mirror superficial rankings. Fine. But with most colleges having their own web sites, who needs those guides? This guide, however, gives a good CURRENT 4-5 page snapshot of the profiled institution ( top 100 colleges and universities - with their web sites for that standard PR fluff). While it discusses student life and singles out excellent professors,its real value is in examining the various curricula and the institutional culture that forms them. Most parents have no idea that very few schools offer a core curriculum( in other words, a common body of knowledge that ALL graduates of that insitution should be familiar with upon graduation; it has been watered down and replaced over the years with faddish "distribution requirements."). This guide goes past the glossy brochures, past the high-profile sports programs, past the news-catching federally-funded massive research programs and looks at what the typical student will face in the classroom.

I attended two schools that are considered prestigious institutions, but would trade my education tomorrow for the traditional core curriculum still taught at lesser-known but academically-superior schools like Hillsdale College (independent) , Thomas Aquinas (Catholic) or St. John's (independent). These schools offer an EXCELLENT liberal arts foundation that ALL educated people should ( and used to ) have. For graduate study,it's a whole different ball game: choose another guide for that. That selection is MUCH easier.

This guide is definitely NOT for a parent or student who doesn't understand ( or care to understand) the idealogical shift that post modernism has inflicted on the academy. It is for those who want to understand how far it has creeped into America's top schools.