Industrials Books

This is an extremely clear introduction to Boolean Algebra. It is very well written and edited. Plenty of exercises will answers to cement the concepts in your brain.

The book covers number systems, logic gates, and some elementary set theory. They are all covered well. There is no coverage of flip-flops which I would have liked to have seen.

I should note this is not an electronics book. There are no real circuits but there are plenty of logic diagrams. Read this book to understand the concepts then go on to an electronic book if you actually wanted to build any of this stuff.

I'm a Computer Engineering student and have read many books on the subject. Until I read this book, I was constantly struggling with complex Boolean equations. Fortunately, this book has helped me master the subject -with a lot of hard work. I highly recommend this book for any student in the Computer Engineering field.

Incredible book for understanding boolean algebra. What I like about the book is the simple and clear language that the author uses and a lot of very helpful examples throughout the book to help understand the concept.

If you are looking for a complete understanding of boolean algebra, this book will definitely statisfy your needs. It provides several interesting examples with each chapter to keep your mind working. Great way to start out learning about boolean logic.

This is an rxcellent book for anyone interested in digital circuits and boolean algebra. It is very easy to understand, but does go into enough detail for the advanced to learn from it also. We can all improve our skills after reading this book. Also the price is right!

I was actually expecting an Operating Manual. Although what I ended up with is a 136-page double-spaced "overview" by Buckminster Fuller, a sort of "history and future of the Earth in 5,000 words or less, bracketed by a *wonderful* introduction by grandchild Jamie Snyder, an index, a two-page resource guides, and some photos and illustrations including the Fuller Projections of the Earth.

First, the "core quote" that I can never seem to find when I need it:

OUR MISSION IS "To make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone." Inside front cover.

The introduction is a treat--I note "impressive" and appreciate the many insights that could only come from a grandchild of and lifelong apprentice to Buckminster Fuller.

Highlights for me:

Founder of Design Science, a company by that name is now led by Medard Gabel who served as his #2 for so long. I just attended one of their summer laboratories and was blown away by the creativity and insights. It is a life-changing experience for those with a passion for Earth.

He imagined an inventory of global data. I am just now coming into contact with all of this great man's ideas, but my third book, Information Operations: All Information, All Languages, All the Time, also online at the Strategic Studies Institute in very short monograph form, is totally in harmony with this man's vision for a global inventory of global data.

"Sovereignness" was for him a ridiculous idea, and a much later work out of Cambridge agrees, Philip Allot tells us the Treaty of Westphalia was a huge wrong turn in his book The Health of Nations: Society and Law beyond the State.

"Great Pirates" that mastered the oceans as the means of linking far-flung lands with diversity of offerings was the beginning of global commerce and also the beginning of the separation between globalists who knew the whole, and specialists whom Buckminster Fuller scathingly describes as an advanced form of slave.

He was frustrated with the phrases "sunrise" and sunset" as they are inaccurate, and finally settled for "sunsight" and "suneclipse" to more properly describe the fact that it is the Earth that is moving around the sun, not the other way around.

In 1927 he concluded that it is possible for forecast with some accuracy 25 years in advance, and I find this remarkably consist with Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's view that it takes 25 years to move the beast--see for instance Miles to Go: A Personal History of Social Policy.

He has an excellent discussion of the failure of politics and the ignorance of kings and courtiers, noting that our core problem is that everyone over-estimates the cost of doing good and under-estimates the cost of doing bad, i.e. we will fund war but not peace.

He described how World War I killed off the Great Pirates and introduces a competition among scientists empowered by war, politicians, and religions. He says the Great Pirates, accustomed to the physical challenges, could not comprehend the electromagnetic spectrum.

He states that man's challenge is to comprehend the metaphysical whole, and much of the book is focused on the fact, in his view, that computers are the salvation of mankind in that they can take over all the automaton work, and free man to think, experiment, and innovate. He is particularly forceful in his view that unemployed people should be given academic scholarships, not have to worry about food or shelter, and unleash their innovation. I am reminded of Barry Carter's Infinite Wealth: A New World of Collaboration and Abundance in the Knowledge Era as well as Thomas Stewart's The Wealth of Knowledge: Intellectual Capital and the Twenty-first Century Organization.

There is a fascinating discussion of two disconnected scholars, one studying the extinction of human groups, the other the extinction of animal species, and when someone brings them together, they discover that precisely the same cause applied to both: over-specialization and a loss of diversity.

Synergy is the uniqueness of the whole, unpredictable from the sum of the parts or any part individually.

On page 87 he forecasts in 1969 when this book was first published, both the Bush and the Obama Administration's ease in finding trillions for war and the economic crisis, while refusing to recognize that we must address the needs of the "have nots" or be in eternal war. I quote:

"The adequately macro-comprehensive and micro-incisive solutions to any and all problems never cost too much."

I agree. I drove to Des Moines and got a memo under Obama's hotel door recommending that he open up to all those not represented by the two party crime family, and also providing him with the strategic analytic model developed by the Earth Intelligence Network. Obviously he did not attend, and today he is a pale reflection of Bush. See the images I have loaded, and Obama: The Postmodern Coup - Making of a Manchurian Candidate.

Early on he identified "information pollution" as co-equal to physical pollution, I am totally taken with this phrase (see my own illustration of "data pathologies" in the image above). I recognize that Buckminster Fuller was about feedback loops and the integrity of all the feedback loops, and this is one explanation for why US Presidents fail: they live in "closed circles" and are more or less "captive" and held hostage by their party and their advisor who fear and block all iconoclasts less they lose their parking spot at the White House.

Most interestingly, and consistent with the book I just read the other day, Fighting Identity: Sacred War and World Change (The Changing Face of War), he concludes that wars recycle industry and reinvigorate science, and concludes that every 25 years is about right for a "scorched earth" recycling of forces.

He observes that we must preserve our fossil fuels as the "battery" of our Spaceship Earth, and focus on creating our true "engine," regenerative renewable life and energy.

He joins with Will Durant in Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers: education is our most formidable task.

I am astonished to have him explain why the Pacific coast of the US is so avant guarde and innovative (as well as loony). He states that the US has been a melting pot for centuries, and that the West Coast is where two completely different cultural and racial patterns integrated, one from Africa and the east, the other from the Pacific and the west.

I learn that he owned 54 cars in his lifetime, and kept leaving them at airports and forgetting when and where. He migrated to renting, and concluded that "possession" is burdensome.

See also:
Ecological Economics: Principles And Applications
Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (Substantially Revised)

R. Buckminster Fuller's (Bucky hereout), designer of the geodesic dome (one can see at EPCOT), lays down the thought patterns of a successful world in this short and concise book based on his discoveries (probably more appropriate than inventions, as he said "I am not tryingto imitate nature, I'm trying to find the principles she uses"). It is in this book that Bucky gives the reader insight into how he thinks, and how to change ones thinking entirely, to see the Earth as a Spaceship. To feel yourself riding the Earth as a Spaceship. Demonstrating from the anceint "pirates" and how evolution is changed through specialization. How a wealthy nation, such as ours, cannot afford to make economical mishaps or delays on such life-giving elements as water. Moving our modes of consciousness into Einsteinian, omni-directional thinking, we can then turn to everyone to "co-operate." To help others, and not gain at the expense of others. Certainly a classic in its own right, this book will change the way you think, not about life or the world, just that you change your thinking, making every action a universal consequence. There is only one Earth, and we are all living in it. Reccomended!

This is the clearest I've ever known this man to be. This concise volume gets to the heart of our wordly matters. Elegant, comprehensive, his soul speaks in all of his writings, and this condensed version is very good for the first time Bucky reader. I suggest it highly to anyone who wants to learn a lot in a little time.

Our forefathers, parents and their peers have delivered us a drastically (wonderfully) complex society with ever increasing difficulties, and opportunities. RBF does an uncommonly fine job of explaining some of the underlying drives that brought us here. Maybe also sheds light on a usefull path to the future.

I really mean it. This book makes much more sense than any government plan that I know of. We all need to read this book.

This book covers a lot of territory and is essential to learning the fundamentals of space suit engineering. Not only does Mr. Harris trace the history of the space suit, he also discusses practical engineering matters. This book contains rare photographs in addition to drawings by the author that illustrate the space suit components, assemblies, and concepts. I have read most other popular books on space suits, but this one packs the most information by far. This book is logically segmented and can be used as an excellent reference. For a true appreciation for the challenges of space suit engineering, this is the book to get.

If you want to REALLY learn a lot about the development of suits, the technical tradeoffs and see how the bidding process and internal conflicts helped and hindered the US suit evolution, BUY THIS BOOK.

Hardcover is the choice, as you'll read this over and over. There's a lot here, you'll want to read it in installments. Rockets are flashy, but spacesuits protect the men that went into space.

I work for Caterpillar and we deal with these: the advantage (and trade-offs) of choosing a set technical path / solution and how this impacts the later generations of any product. It applies to everything we use and buy, but it's REALLY intersting to see for a spacesuit.

Mr. Harris has written an excellent book on the history of the EVA suit. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the design of EVA suits and how they got to where they are today. Mr. Harris goes into enough detail to allow you to understand how the various suits work (both pros and cons) but not so much as to bore the reader. For those who want more detail, there is an extensive list of resources in the book. In short, if you want to learn about EVA suits, buy this book and read it.

The author also outlines the intricate procedure followed by NASA in contracting a space suit. NASA doesn't select a space suit; it selects a conractor. It involves a whole range of considerations such as cost, integration of the PLSS and suit, who were the contractor's key personnel, design and test philosophy of the contractor, certfication method, prior experience, who the subcontractors were, scheduling and delivery, and how compatible the suit system is with the spacecraft. In addition, blatant national political factors more than likely affected contractor selection; how much money was NASA already spending in the respective states of the suit competitors, who were the states' representatives and did NASA owe the representative any potical favors?

This volume is Bible of the space suits, covered in over 500 pages in fine print. It addresses almost all issues relating to the EVA suit in one volume. It is perhaps the only source book of space suits. It is rare occassion that an entire volume of the AAS History Series is devoted to a single topiuc, which indeed is an honor to the author. In Indian context, may be the ISRO has no plans to design a space suit, since there are no plans of any manned space mission as of today, but eventually it will have. This book will serve as a reference in design specification and technical details of the various types of EVA suits and their suitability for a particular mission.

Bound in blue hard cover as usual, the book has a illustration of the Litton RX-5A hard suit being demonstrated on a simulated lunar surface.

Gary Harris wrote the most precise and complete space suits book ever. I thought I knew some about space suits design, but after reading "The Origins and Technology of the Advanced Extra-Vehicular Space Suit" I learned a lot more. This book is so interesting and passionate about the history and development of advanced EVA suits. Full of good photos and explanatory drawings it is a MUST for any serious reader interested in space suits. The book also cover technical issues, so it is useful for the engineer, scientist and student.
I predict this book will become a classic for life support systems and EVA engineers in the years to come.

Being involved with Programmable Logic Controllers and manufacturing, I found this book full of inspiring ideas and tips on the financing, personnel and operations of technology companies. Dick Morley invented the PLC. It is nice to be able to get it from the horse's mouth, as they say. It is an indispensable management tool. I keep this book on my desk just in case another management consulting firm comes here and tries to sell me yet another analysis and subsequent engagement. I would not need an analysis as long as I have this book as my reference.

I do have a slight problem with the prejudice that "We don't invest in a deal if the president has a Ph. D." That would have made companies like Apollo, Celeron, Cisco, Intel and Silicon Graphics non-financeable. People should be judged by their intelligence, not their degrees. Let's make a deal, Dick. If you don't hold my Princeton degrees against me, I won't hold your M.I.T. degree against you, OK?

Intriguing snapshots of the mind of Dick Morley. Each piece is a couple of pages, so they're great quick but deep reads (in the bathroom or otherwise) for the manufacturing (& innovation) professional. He packs a lot into each essay, and keeps 'em coming.

Once upon a time, before "Dot-Com" and "Dot-Bomb", there was Dick Morley. This gentleman and his book hearkens back to a time when value was measured by utility, and less by flash. Mr. Morley, the inventor of the staple of industrial automation, the PLC, has touched all of our lives with his practical and creative views of the chaos within which we live.

As a renewed sense of value reemerges in our post-Dot economy, Mr. Morley's insights are again proving to be most timeless.

Get this book.

The format of this book is a series of vignettes. And not to be dis-appointed there is plenty of wisdon to be had even in a fireside chat with Dick.

I have done it several times in person and find it VERY stimulating. For those not so luck try this as a premier.

Listen to Dick and LEARN.

"Out of the Barn" is written by the "Harley-Guy" Dick Morley (Inventor, author, consultant, engineer and "Dad" to 37 children) he is also known as the as the inventor of the programmable controller, the floppy disk and other revolutionary and "world-changing" inventions. Dick is self-described "serial-entrepreneur" whose consistent successes in the founding of high technology companies have been demonstrated by over three decades of achievements.

Some of Dick's entrepreneurial success stories are used in the book "Winning Angels" a practical, hands-on guide to angel investing. Dick's inimitable style and character are easy to discern in this book about the fundamentals of early stage investing.

In his book "Out of the Barn" Dick gives us a collection of his published articles and candid thoughts in one easy to read compilation. He brings his unique way of thinking to discuss revolutionary concepts in his own style. His humor is entertaining and his prose is educational. He will definitely make you think. He challenges you to consider the possibilities and those things that may not (yet) be possible.

Through the short stories in the book you will appreciate his wide range of thinking and find yourself scrambling to catch up, as he moves on to ponder other great thoughts. His homespun vision is full of predictions and forecasts of the future and its possibilities. This book reads just like any one-on-one conversation with Dick. Anyone who has had the pleasure can attest that a chat with Dick can range from the ridiculous to the sublime. Sometimes deep and cogent and other time's light and airy, but never dull.

Dick speaks and writes with an earthy manner that is full of provocation and prevarication you can never be exactly sure, which is half the fun. You can read this book anywhere, at any time, and you will.

I found this book to be most enjoyable with the great color photography of so many different railroads. Most captions were informative of the photographic locations along with containing other useful information. Great book overall.... brought back a lot of memories.

Simply beautiful, well-composed photography... oh, and thoughtful captions. Quite the combination for this soon-to-be-classic album. If you recall these years before Amtrak with fondness, you will not be disappointed. Congrats, Mr. Boyd!

Ok, I admit that I know Jim Boyd, but that doesn't mean I own all his books. His photography is always excellent but his subjects don't always match my interest. This book was different. In it he captures the time period when I first became interested in trains, so his images took be back in time. The book is well thought out and well arranged. It is a great way to spend some time in the past.

..
I'm not a serious train fan, but I like to look at good photos of old trains.
I picked up this book on a whim, and next thing I knew, a couple of hours had passed. Every small boy loves trains, and every big boy remembers, and gets a little nostalgic when he sees a big, black loco on display in the city park....

This is a slice of bygone America, and it's very nice to be reminded of those days.
The railroads built America, and inspired a lot of good old songs and stories, which you'll remember, seeing these remarkable photos of the Santa Fe Super Chief, the Twentieth Century Limited, the Midnight Special, the City of New Orleans, the Rock Island Road....

Boyd is an inspired photographer, and an obsessive railfan. But the rest of us, who wouldn't know an F7 locomotive from a GP-9, can just relax and enjoy the ride. Highly recommended, for serious railfans, casual buffs and people (like me) who just like to look at train photos now and then.

Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman

Everybody is happy about toy train catalogs and toy train layout pictures that just look like the real ones. Well, what about pictures of real trains that look like model trains?

This is what I thought when I started reading Jim Boyd's book Outbound Trains -In the era before the Mergers.

What a splendid book. Well written and FULL of some of the most beautiful train pictures I've ever seen. And it's not only the trains. Look at the cars, people's fashion, the landscape.It is difficult to believe America looked like this not long time ago.

If you want to rekindle your love for trains by all means buy this book.

Required reading for anyone who is dealing with small to mid-market companies-- or thinking about entering this marketspace. Gene has worked successfully with both large Fortune companies and the small to mid-market sectors and in this book he discusses the differences and really hones in on the small to mid market space. He then takes it to the next level and gives you the tools you need to be successful in this market space. Gene's writing style makes for a quick, straight-forward read.

I have not enjoyed a business book as much as this since Gerber's E-Myth. This book is very cleverly written and demonstrates a knowledge of small business that can only come through years of experience. Filled with useful information and fun to read.

It takes a fox to know a fox and the author knows his foxes because he's one too. So if you deal with foxes as does the author this is a very entertaining book that will give you a lot of great ideas for being foxier than you are.

Besides being quite possibly the best small business book I've read in a long time, Outfoxing is just plain FUN to read. Mr. Marks, a "foxy" business owner himself, shares the ways you can identify what kind of small business owner you're dealing with, what their most pressing business needs are, and create a strategy for marketing and communicating with your small business clients. He gives an insider view on the psychology of small business owners which helps with such common issues as getting paid time. He identifies the most common objections small business customers have and how to get around them. I especially loved that he puts an emphasis on creating loyalty and long term partnerships with our customers.

I can't count the number of "aha" moments this book gave me - and I'm supposed to be one of those crafty, seasoned business owners myself. I am going to be using this book as a gift and giveaway for a long time - it's fantastic!

You've de-bunked the mystery of the small-business fox and given us great insight on to how best to recognize management styles and apply crafty techniques to win their business and continued loyalty!

Finally! A simple, informative perspective on the complex office dynamics that so many of us face. The scenarios are well laid out and the examples easy to relate to. While other discussions of office dynamics tend to over-analyze situations, this book provided me with a straightforward roadmap to recognize and deal with daily personnel issues.

In an easy-reading format the authors have pointed out many office situations that relate to family situations. They give practical and useful suggestions for handling these problems. Worthwhile reading for anyone who works in an office setting.

This book is a must for anyone who has to manage people in an office, organization, and even on a committee. It is easy and interesting reading and a MUST to understand why the people you manage behave as they do.

Many of the issues raised in the workplace are also common to family life, from the desire of the youngest to rival the oldest child to bullying and rivalry. Parenting The Office equates these lessons learned from children to business and family life alike, using case histories to discuss applications and clarify problems.

I thought the book was a very fun and informative read!! I thought the best thing about the book was that it gave a model to understand and apply real-life management techniques in my office. The book caused me to think about the myriad of situations that happen in my office and how I can handle them better. My wife read the book as well. She was fond of it as well.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who deals with people in a business situation!!

As a creative director, I've found this book to be very inspiring. Great photographic studies of Paris' most stylish homes (some owned by the famous, some are not) drip from these pages. Huge full-page and sometimes double-page images, printed on nice thick semi-matte stock, draw you right in. Like her book on Provence, its a great escape into another world. If you are a student of the esthetic, you will love it! PS. The cover is coffee-table ready too.

I don't actually own this book; I found it by chance in my college's art library. Instantly, I fell in love with it's straight-forward photography. I have been renewing it for two months, and it has given me boundless inspiration for decorating my new apartment. This book is a jewelbox of decor and interior style. The full-page spreads offer tantilizing shots of the personal apartments of Parisian society-- both of the known and unknown; of large dimensions and of miniscule-- expousing beautiful decor that only a Parisian could pull off. Junk shop havens, classical boudoirs, catch-all collecting dens, and the odd moderne loft-- each interior is a true joy to see. Read, view, and enjoy and be inspired.

I own this book, Morroccan Interiors, Provance Interiors and Seaside Interiors. I will eventually own the whole lot of them. Why-- the books are a marvelous look into the interiors of people who are most rarely interior designers. They are artists, old people, young people, even gypsy caravans are given their due. I have gleaned better decorating ideas from these books than any "decorating" magazine or book. There was a story about letting the person who just moved from your apartment help you place your furniture as you move it- they know what fits where from their expericance. This and these books are great for "just making sense" in a vairety of gorgeous settings documented in gorgeous full color photos.

Of all of my interior design and style books this is one of my VERY favorites... I sink into my favorite chair with this book again and again. I just love it! Wether you prefer old world style or sleek modern this book has it all (but far from ordinary!)... lots of inspiration with LOTS of gorgeous photos. A treat for your eyes whatever your taste!

If you are looking for a picture book of Parisian interiors to inspire your decorating, this will work very well. I am constantly searching for books like this--which are full of illustations of those interior details which seem to be uniquely Parisian. Every page is illustrated with photographs and includes just enough commentary to keep it interesting without getting descriptively heavy. This is definitely a pictoral reference/beautiful parlour table book.

As a veteran business communications professional, I consider Partnering Intelligence an insightful and useful read.

Dent's book effectively blends theory and practice in a way that elevates the concept of partnership to a repeatable formula for success. While we all intuitively understand that partnering skills are a vital part of any successful business relationship, Dent has provided a system by which to measure and develop such skills. You'll have to read his book to see how his Partnering Quotient and Partnership Continuum combine to form a pathway to effective partnership that anyone can follow.

I'll also add that Dent's book is especially pertinent in today's fluid business environment, where companies are merging and building alliances at an unprecedented rate. As we know, virtually every aspect of business is transforming in accordance with computer networking technology, rapidly rising global population growth and increasing diversity in markets and the workplace.

All this adds up to more change in shorter periods of time and more business interaction - trends that demand better partnering skills. What an important time for corporations to instill a strong partnering capability in their people!

This book is an amazing guide to assessing your partnering intelligence and then, as the title indicates, using your abilities to create smart business alliances. Partnerships are the basic building block of human relationships of every kind. The ideas in this book are applicable to a business setting but are just as satisfying in any personal interaction. Successful relationships is what this book is about. Isn't that the point of living?

I liked Partnering Intelligence for three main reasons: 1. I believe the principles Steve Dent espouses. I think they are true and I know they can work. 2. I appreciate the clear examples used throughout the book to show how the ideas are translated into the workplace. 3. The many tools and assessments that Steve includes are a great model of his own desire to partner with the reader by offering practical ways that the ideas can be put into practice by others.

I know that I will be using the materials in this book to good effect in my consulting work over the next few years. Thanks to Steve for his hard work in putting together this excellent field-guide to building effective partnerships.

As a psychologist and organizational consultant, I found Dent's work to be quite comprehensive and in a way that is easy to read, understand, and apply. He appropriately touches on everything from the JoHari Window to group stage development in his effort to educate his reader and to facilitate better partnering. I look foward to using this work as I train and consult with businesses, non-profit organizations, and student groups alike!

Creating and maintaining strong partnerships is critical in today's economy. This book gives solid advice on how to develop successful partnerships. Whether you work for a business, non profit organization or in government, learning how to find and develop potential partners has become essential. This book provides the road map to developing and maintaining successful relationships and has helped me do my job better.

What struck me as a foreign language teacher were the references to the communication problem between doctor and patient as one analogous to the speakers of two different languages, each attempting (or not) to speak intelligibly to the other. The metaphor was not limited to foreign languages per se, although that came up too, but also to different artistic languages: the one med professor had his students go to an art museum to observe paintings "so they could observe patients". The idea is that the doctor is to bring the same heightened engagement with this "foreign language" of painting to his patient, the same sensation of non-understanding that requires all the compensatory observational zeal one can muster -- so that one will be alert to and comprehend the language of his patient's body, the "different kinds of red". (46) Similarly jazz musician Sikou Sundiata only began to comprehend his doctor when he learned that he, too, was a drummer, a percussive artist who could read the tones of his chest the way the artist could feel the rhythms of his drums. But then there were the direct mentions of foreign language: again Sundiata: "Using medical language with doctors was kind of like using my high school French when I went to Paris." And while some of the doctors encouraged him, helped him with the words he didn't know, others wanted to "leave that kind of talk" to them. (99) Finally, my favorite of these references is Richard McCann's "My Body, My Story", where he actually defines the TWO languages being spoken, one the language of medicine by the doctors, and the other the language of his body, "because what you're hearing is me. It's me." (89) And he compares himself to the doctor's Spanish cleaning lady, to whom the doctor explains how to run the dryer in English, and then, in a gesture of grace, says "Gracias" to her. That line is what strikes me as so important for ALL the listening professions: that one learn to bend out of one's familiarity, acknowledge the "other" as valid, and move, however clumsily, toward communication in a language other than one's own. It is a kind of alertness and engagement, borne of the conviction of the limits of the doctor's own knowledge vis-a-vis his patient's "language" -- i.e. his unique "body narrative" -- that this book wishes to awaken. I find it very touching, I think, because the need for that urgency is so much larger than the needs of good medical practice. It is, in a way, simply the need for grace, for "bending a little my way", for loving one's neighbor, for learning foreign languages in the most extended sense of the metaphor, in order that "grace may abound".

There's more to listening to a patient then just comprehending the words coming out of their mouths. "Patient Listening: A Doctor's Guide" is a guide for doctors to understanding and interpreting patients' complaints. Better listening, claims author Loreen Herwaldt, creates a better bond between doctor and patient, and improves the quality of treatment all around. "Patient Listening" is a recommended read for all physicians and community library health collections.

What a novel and remarkable way to write the patient's voice. Dr. Herwaldt has captured the essence of the many aspects of the clinical encounter by distilling interview transcripts of well regarded published authors into what she calls "found poems". She has created a very useful tool for all of us to teach the patient's voice. Eminently readable, this book should be a must read by all medical students and clinicians. It is truly one of the best texts for informing the clinical encounter that I have read. Its simplicity is its beauty and brilliance.

There are an increasing number of physician authors who are sharing their stories, etc. in books and articles in the lay press. To this mix, is Physican Listening, an unique and remarkable book. Dr. Herwaldt has taken patient, some of whom are physicians, stories and transformed the prose into poetry. Hence the listing as editor. The poems are moving as they tell stories of patient experiences with physicians, some good and some not so good. While the book is targeted at medical professionals I truly believe they have just as much relevance to the public at large. Further, the perceived magical physician-patient interaction is somewhat illusory. As some of the poems highlight, physicians are patients too and, like my own personal experience, that does not necessarily give one an advantage. In fact it ought not be. Ideally, and recognzizing that we are all individuals, every patient experience ought to be excellent. It is the hope of the editor that in sharing such stories that we physicians and other health care professionals develop better insight into and empathy for the patient. By this measure this book is a great success.

In closing, and to address any perceived conflict of interest, let me note that Dr. Herwaldt and I work at the same institution but have rarely had any professional interaction, including the focus of this book.

At our core, we are really the sum of our stories. When we are ill, we tell that story to the doctor. All too often, the story we tell and the one the doctor hears don't seem to be the same one. Why not? Because we are using two different languages.

We tell our narratives in the language of biography. But the reductionist nature of scientific training means that, all too often, the doctor is listening for the language of biology. The doctor hears a request for Viagra for the biological problem of erectile dysfunction. Few doctors will hear the underlying biographical narrative of a middle aged man who is concerned about his fading virility, youth and vitality.

In this book, Loreen Herwaldt provides a novel solution to this problem of differing languages. She has collected multiple, lengthy patient narratives of experiences with the medical system and has stripped out most of the extraneous words, reduced them to their bare essentials and re-formatted them. She calls this new form of writing "found poetry".

Although the resultant poems may lack the meter and imagery of traditional poetry, their distilled nature provides an immediacy and impact similar to the biological data that physicians use daily in their work. These poems get to the point fast and describe a wide variety of patient-physician encounters. Some are heart breaking, some are heart warming and many are wry and humorous.

Although intended primarily for use in medical education, (the author provides an instruction guide and the index cross lists each poem by medical condition) the lay reader will also find this book beneficial by learning how physicians hear the stories they tell the doctor. It would also be a useful textbook for courses in Narrative Medicine which are as likely to be taught in the English Department as they are in the Medical School.

These found poems bridge the gap between biography and biology and should prove highly useful in teaching health care students some of the softer skills too often lacking in our system.