Builder

Sam Clark uses up half the book before he gets into the nitty-gritty of construction methods. This really IS a book about house DESIGN as well as construction. As such, it's an EXCELLENT book for someone who's starting from scratch to create their own house. The approach is extremely methodical, treating mindsets and goals as elements of the design process equal in importance to elevation drawings.

The illustrations bear particular attention. The (black and white) photographs are well composed, and have high contrast to clearly delineate the features that are supposed to be of interest. The line drawings are rather funky looking (in part because Clark appears not to own a ruler), but nevertheless do a very good job of illustrating what the text is talking about. This is the case for three reasons: (1) they were created by the author, who knew EXACTLY what part of the text needed visual aids; (2) their rulerless nature means that Clark can emphasize particular features rather than focus on strict scale drawings; and (3) each one is sized independently to take up as much space as is required to depict the subject matter, without worrying about "wasting" some page area. The end result is that the text and illustrations fit together well to make a unified whole.

For more detail on the Building part of creating a house, I'd recommend "Do-It-Yourself HOUSEBUILDING" by George Nash. But because Nash's book doesn't come close to Clark's for clarity, I'd first read Clark's book cover-to-cover. Then I'd keep Sam Clark's book open to the same subject area so that you can step back and get a clear overview as you get confused in the details of the Nash book.

This tells you how to design a house for you. Not just a house out of a book, but one that takes your living patterns into account. Don't want a formal living room? Don't put one in! Also reminds you if you want to live in the house a long time, to make room for handicapped access that may be needed later. Design your kitchen and baths the way you live! Have fun! ;-)

I am planning to build my own small house on a very small budget and have been doing some fairly extensive reading on the subject, but I find I constantly return to Sam Clark's book as my main reference for overall design and planning and I expect to refer to it during the building process as well. Whether dealing with general design philosophy, costing, or the actual building process, Clark's writing is always clear, informative, stimulating and unpatronizing and the drawings and illustrations are also clear and user-friendly. The book is layed out in a logical progression which guides you through the planning process. I have never built a house before, but this book alone would give me the confidence to do so. It is not a construction technique manual, in that it won't teach you how to hammer in a nail, but it will teach you how to design and plan a house for your budget and lifestyle.

If your little one is interested in construction machines, this book is a must. It is great. My boy memorized the words to this book when he was three and it helped him learn to read. The pictures are wonderful-- colorful and cartoonish yet very detailed as well.

This is an excellent book. Starts with an overview and pictures of all the trucks needed to build a road and then proceeds with step-by-step with a picture of each truck doing its work. My son (who is 2 and 1/2) and I really enjoy this book. Our other truck books tend to show the whole process of building a road on one page and that is too overwhelming. This book does it just right!

My little boy has always been interested in machines and equipment as his daddy runs a blacktop plant. Imagine our surprise as we read through this wonderful construction book and learned that Simms Taback is our neighbor! All of the places listed in the book on road signs, equipment, and on the map are from our area. We were so intrigued by all of the familiar sites that we pointed it out to our local librarian who informed us that although she was not aware of the sites in the book, YES, Simms Taback lives in our town. ....It makes us wonder about the loader operator named Joe, who has the same name as daddy, who runs the loader at our asphalt plant! GREAT BOOK!!!!!

At last! A book on leadership and strategy that translates the techniques of one of the world's greatest heroes into a practical and learnable agenda for the aspiring yet mortal manage The modern day examples tie up very neatly the insights from Alexander with the way modern managers have successfully applied his strategies and leadership techniques.
In fact, Bose goes further than this by combining the suspense of the storyteller, the psychological insight of the biographer, and the wise advice of a mentor.
My favourite book on Alexander, and my favourite book of the year so far. A classic.

This is a beautifully written book, with a great story and numerous lessons in strategy. There is a certain mystery to the book because Bose keeps you guessing as to how he is going to tie the story of Alexander that he is telling with the lessons in business and politics. I had great fun reading the book. I especially enjoyed the chapter where he talks about the seige of Tyre,-considered the greatest in world history and ties it with globalization. A terrific book.

I am planning to read this book again. Alexander is an inspirational leader. Success comes not by chance, but by hard work & strategy. The book also stresses the importance of the upbringing of Alexander. Aristotle was his teacher and his father Phillip did everything in his power to give proper education and training to Alexander.

After reading this book, I have begun to respect Alexander. His achievements are such that people even today would struggle to accomplish them.

I strongly recommend this book.

I've been waiting all year for this book to come out. It's the best and only one of its kind out there and it's so easy to follow. This is a must for everyone who likes to build their own bikes. It's amazing how many projects are in it. Kudos to Brad and Kathy for making such a great book! The pictures are so clear. It's about time that someone made a book for all of us who are into making and riding human powered vehicles (HPV). Thanks on behalf of all of who belong to HPV clubs.
I'm collecting parts to make my own Marauder.I'll let you know how it goes. When's the next one coming out? Congrats on an excellent job! I'm already looking forward to the next one.

I've been waiting all year for this book to come out ever since Brad posted on his web site that he was working on it. This is the best how-to book I've read. I've already made my own chopper and now working on my own version of the Marauder. I can't believe how many pictures there are! It's a must for everyone who likes to build something different and so easy to follow. Looking forward to their next book on building All-Terrain Robots. Congrats to the authors for a job well done and keep up the great books!

It's like the anarchist's cook book, but for bicycles.
See Ya on the Playa.

This is an excellent source of information on bats as well as their abodes. The book contains the results of years of research on size, color and placement of bathouses. Builders are even invited to participate in ongoing bat research through membership in Bat Conservation International (application card included). There is lots of information on the importance of bats in the environment; their almost insatiable appetite for harmful insects. There is also information on identifying the species of North American bats you may host, including B&W Pictures.

There are detailed plans giving the size and spacing of roosting boards, openings and ventilation of your houses. He gives a source for the netting that you need to cover the roosts with, but I am using the mesh bags from onions as a substitute. I was able to find some dark colored ones that will be appropriate.

My wife is looking forward to collecting guano (poopoo) from under the houses - bat guano is an excellent source of free fertilizer for your porch plants.

I thought the book was very well done. Simple and too the point with out being to technical or full of overwhelming detail. It had schematics for a couple of bat houses that were optimized between the bats needs and the builders pocket book. Great book for the beginner bat house builder.

This is a very concise and thorough book on how to construct a successful bat house.

Whether you're interested in robots, hobby electronics, or diy electronics, this is a great addition to your reference library. One of the best features is that McComb describes and explains the concepts for a lot of the category of parts that are in the book (for example, motors, gears, all sorts of sensors, materials, etc.) He also marks the vendors that he's used in the past, so it's easy to find a trustworthy vendor if you don't have time to look into all the vendors that he lists.
You will not be disappointed.

This book covers all aspects of technology for building robots, as well as any many other "inventions". I found this to be of exceptional value. The web site inventory is tremendous. If this book is updated every couple of years, I will be back for another. No doubt, this was a great investment in information. The cover is a bit cartoonish for such a great reference.

This book is a fantastic source for just about any hobby you can think of. One source alone was worth the price of the book to me. McComb has researched tons of stuff and presented it all in a very usable and unbiased format. If you love to tinker with things, I cannot reccomend this book highly enough. Not only does it present you with lots of good sources, but it is also filled with great tips in many different areas.

Great Resouce!!!!

I have read many of the "People of" books, and this is so far, my favorite. The book follows Otter, a trader, Black Skull, a Warrior, Green Spider, a spiritual man, Pearl, a runaway and Star Shell, the beautiful daughter of a cheif, as they quest in pursuit of a the Many-Colored Crow's mask. The book is filled with beautiful descriptions, and fabulous dialogue. I started the book on a plane, and didn't want to put it down. I like to try and guess what's going to happen in a story, and in this case, the story line kept me guessing right up until the very end. And, most importantly, this book was very historically accurate. This is a great read, especially for those people who are interested in Native American cultures.

When I first picked this book up I thought, "Holy cow, it's going to take me all summer to read this." But after the first chapter I was hooked, and I finished it in less than two weeks. Once again the Gear's savory writing style and intense plot had enveloped me. This elegantly-crafted story is filled with friendship, humor, and emotional intensity. There is a good balance of inner and outer journeys for the characters. The reader is transported into another time and place, and it's so real you can almost taste the berries and smell the trees. I have read several of the Gear's other novels in this series and this is my favorite one so far. Highly recomended for historical fiction buffs and lovers of Native American culture!

Poetic, exploring the spiritual world, ancient cultural worlds... Awesome characters. You'll like.

:)

I like the excercises and all, but I am very wary of the new age stuff (meditation, etc). Beware of the wiles of lucifer!

Leviton's writing style is perfect for me. This book is thoroughly practical unlike so many other books with at least half useless or biased filler. Just the few pages on bowel cleansing is worth getting this book. Bravo!

In writing "The Care and Feeding of Your Brain" I came across good evidence that the mental exercises described in this book can be quite helpful if used regularly. The book is an easy read and much fun! Good Luck!...Ken Giuffre MD ("The Care and Feeding of Your Brain")Career Press 1999.

This book is a excellent idea and it works! The only comment I have is that sometimes many similar words are used at the same point in the story (e.g. listless, enervating, langour). This makes the reading not so interesting and the definitions confusing since they're so similar. Another example, "trite cliche". Perhaps this is the authors intention, to group the synonyms. But maybe greater separation of the words will help the reader better appreciate the nuances of their meanings.

I purchased The Wizard of Oz nearly two months ago and it has given me fabulous results. Every day, whether I hear it on TV or in person, I recognize at least one of my new words. My vocabulary has extended tremendously and I could not be happier. I previously tried many methods. I even tried reading the entire thesaurus! Yet my vocabulary did not seem to make any progress. This book works like magic. It would be great if schools all over the nation became aware of this and bought them for every student. I strongly recommend this book.

Mark Phillip's book is one long desired by society. His preface explains why he wrote the book (mainly because when he was younger, there was no such thing as a vocabulary builder outside of the dictionary) and also gives instruction about the proper way to use the book While the story of the Wizard of Oz is well known, the language that Phillips uses is quite unique, but very informative and helpful in developing a stronger vocabulary. The basic premise of the book is that when you learn a word in context, such as the story of the Wizard of Oz, you are more prone to remember the word, how to use it, and its meaning. This premise is correct, and after one reading of the book, any reader should not question its means.
However, do not expect to get this book, read it through once and remember all the words; this book is meant to be read three, four, or more times because of the vast amount of words to be learned.
The only criticism that I have of the books is in his footnote-like definitions for words. While he gives examples of how to use the word and a solid working definition, he fails to give the word's part of speech. Now, obviously one can infer whether or not the word in question is a noun, verb, adverb, and the like, but that information would also help in case, down the road, you remember the meaning but not how to use it.
Other than that, the book is quite good, and does what it is set out to do: Build a stronger vocabulary. I read the book myself, and as a graduate student, built my vocabulary immensely. I also teach GED classes and recommended it to my more advanced GED students. While some of the words were well over their head to begin with, they learned other words without any problem. Therefore, this book can be used for the high school level student, the graduate school student, the business person, or just someone trying to become more articulate.

The cover bills it as 'complete' plans for 12 different barns- actually, to get complete plans that would be needed to get building permit do construction or buy materials, you have to order a set form the authors website. The book has nice practical ideas about working with subcontactors, and the designs and sources are quite useful.

I found this book to be an excellent source of information. It has greatly helped me do the planning for the construction of my barn.

If only I knew when I built my barn what the author shares in this book, my life would have been so much easier.