Street

This was one of the most heartwarming, touching, most precious stories I've ever read. What I loved most about it(apart from the lovely and poetical way of writing), was how Aldrich wrote the story of Abby's whole life, and not just the romance era like most authors do. I never would have considered that old people are never really old, it's just that they have outgrown what the rest of us are still waiting to grow into; that they once had lives with romance and accomplishments and thing of their own, had I not read this book. Well, anyways, the story goes like this:

Abby Mackenzie is eight years old when she moves to a little community with her family, and meets Will Deal. Well, all her young life, Abby has been told the story of her aristocratic father married her peasant mother, putting the rest of the family into peasantry. Her dream is to be like her aristocratic grandmother, Isabel Anders-Mackenzie, who has a portrait which Abby has only seen in her imagination.

Well, when Abby grows older, she is courted by the dashing young doctor, Ed Mathews, who proposes while her friend Will is off at war. She thinks that if she marries him, she will have the chance to pursue all the dreams of being a fine lady, especially enriching her lovely singing voice. But, then Will comes home, and Abby marries him, realizing that he was the one she really loved. So, the newly weds pioneer-on-over to Nebraska Territory, where they raise a family.

The rest of the story tells of their life on the prairie, and how Abby is able to live her dreams through her children instead of herself. The book goes on until she dies in her eighties. I loved it with all of my heart, and absolutely COULD NOT have imagined a sweeter ending than the one Aldrich gave. Read this book!

This is a wonderful book of a woman's life and times in the 1800s. The story begins with an old woman telling of her life when she was a little girl up until her husband was thrown from a horse and killed. She tells of a gift her mother gave her, a string of pearls from Ireland, that her husband sold and then bought back many years later. She tells of love and faith and how a family continues to get along even in troubled times.

My brother and I both read this book in high school. He did a book report on it. It is really excellent reading, and should be read by anyone who enjoys historical novels. This book was based on a true-life story.

This is truly one of the most perfect, touching pieces of literature I have ever read. I wish I could give it 10 stars! Rarely do you read a novel that takes the reader through an entire lifespan of one person and manages to breathe genius into every phase of their life. I found myself crying several times during the book simply because it was SO true! This author seemed to have uncanny insight into the life, and heart, of pioneer woman.

This book was written in the 1920's, yet every word still rings true. For god sakes, someone, get this OUT of the "young adult" category--this novel speaks to every woman, no matter her age.

This is an outstanding book. Reading (and rereading!) the treatment on trader psychology marked a turningpoint in my career, as well as other areas of my life. I have also found Vics methods for determining changes in trends to be helpful. I was very impressed by the broad range of knowledge and perspective that the author brings to the subject. History, philosophy, psychology, Market tactics, and a unique perspective on risk control. Vic is a highly educated man. 5 stars!!

I am an equities trader and I have read over 20,000 pages about investing in the stock market, fundamental and technical analysis, and many related topics. The ideas presented in Trader Vic's book are extremely practical and relevant and I've not seen many of the ideas expressed in it anywhere else. His ideas about weighing the odds of the future course of the markets based on historical, statistical measurements of time and how far the markets have moved are truly useful. The background he gives about economics made sense and are useful as well. I'd rate it in the top 5 books I've ever read about the markets.

Victor Sperandeo says that if there were a Hall of Fame for trading he wouldn't be in it but he sees himself as a career pro who consistently performs at an elite level year after year. In fact consistent performance is his central theme, which he says requires not only a successful approach to trading but to life itself. He delves into this in the second part of the book that is dedicated to the psychological approach. Sperandeo says that he trained a group of traders but only a few were successful, and in searching for why he discovered the most important cause was false pride associated with the 'idealised self'. I found this interesting in that paying a ton of money to be taught by any of the world's so called greatest traders isn't any guarantee of success!

His reasons for writing the book it seems is frustration with the image the world has of traders in which the unsung career pro goes unnoticed. Whatever his reasons are it is a privilege to gain an insight into the mind and methodology of a New Market Wizard.

His methods are a mixture of fundamental and technical analysis. He uses economics as a forecasting tool and says that cycle analysis actually just gets in the way. If you can understand the fundamentals of economics you can interpret government intervention in the market and profit from it.University taught economics is useless for this. All booms and busts are a result of credit expansion in an effort to lower interest rates, whereas Keynesian economics attempts to use interventionalist policy to smooth out the peaks and troughs but in fact is the predominant cause. Surplus production, savings and innovation create wealth as much for the individual as the economy on the whole. Wealth is actually consumed by government created prosperity via deficit spending. You can't get something for nothing. By understanding these cycles, you can speculate profitably.
Technical tools can then be used for timing entry. He demonstrates how trendlines can be drawn objectively to determine a change in trend using his 123 and 2B rules. A unique approach in this book is an approach to measuring risk by calculating market life expectancy profiles which he says has been instrumental to his success along with his business philosophy of protecting capital, consistent profitability and the pursuit of superior gains.

This book is as much a confession of the soul as a guide on trading methods, which I've found most of the best trading books are.

This book was boring for me the first 8 chapters, but after that it got better. I didnt like it as much as most of the fear streets i've read, I think that if you realy like the black mail thing and thing were the people get stuck and cant do anything and a little bit of whodunnit i recomend this, otherwise you should maybe check it out from the library. I much prefer the dead lifeguard and Bad Moonlight to this.

Like I said it was slow at first but it got better. If I were you I would read it. It is not scary. It is hard to figuer out what is going to happen. You might think you know what is going to happen but than something else happens. I love this book and I could tell you what happens but I won't you have to read it to find out what happens. I liked this book so much I did a book report on it. If you have not read it you should. I loved it.

I love the this book in the Fear Street Series because it teaches a vauleable lesson: about you don't get away with everything: Especiallly cheating!

In the beginning can understand why Carter needed to cheat. Her father was putting pressure on her to get a high score on the SAT's. Well, what happen was that she panicked so she got Adam Messner to do it for her. Well, she thought that she had promised that one favor for him, a date in exchange if he take the test for her, but instead he wanted more. He wanted alot more.

In this chilling book, what the message is that you don't get way with something like cheating. It has a higher price to pay. Just because you think that you promise this or that, you are going to get your way out of things. But Carter learned the hard way. She not only got herself in jeporday, she betrayed her boyfiend, forced her best friend to do something that she wouldn't normally asks her to do.

The Cheater is about when done wrong, you are going to have to suffer the consquence.

Really pretty bad the worst fear street book. Way to pridetctable [pridected halfway through book!]

This is the bomb book! I loved it! I couldnt put it down! Please read it! It is about Holly Denver,the biggest gossip at Shadyside High. When she finally stuck her nose in too far,she pays! At the end,it will throw you off totally! You would never never guess who the killer is! I loved this! I would reccomend it to all my buds !

Absolutely a 10! I agree with the review above me. What Holly heard is a great book for all gossip queens in schools everywhere. I wouldn't warn gossipers, I'd encourage them to get get the book. R. L. Stine's unpredictable style keeps you at the edge of your seat. It's a fabulous book. Read it, then e-mail me and tell me what you think.

Halloween Party was definitely my most favorite book he has written. It is full of suspense and exciting turns throughout the entire book. R.L. Stine lovers, if you haven't read this book get to a book store! It is action packed and there's never a dull moment! Whether it is pranks or it is the real thing, it is a spine tingling book. If you are the type of person who hates it when it takes forever to solve the murder, or weeks to even find a clue to the murderer's idenity, then you will love this book because it takes place all in one night.... Halloween Night!

I loved the book. Every moment of it. the thrilling thing is that the whole thing takes place on one night. at first in the book, everything seems so normal, exept for the fact that the 9 people called for the halloween party, don't get along too well. In the middle (if u have brains) u will be able to guess the killer. The ending of the book was fab. The motive behind the----- was xcellent too. The bhook was very good but not the best i have read. the best i've read till now is the Mind Reader. it's totally fab. i highly recommend the book. i congratulate r.l.stine on this fab book.

This was one of the best books I have ever read. It was scary and at the same time, it was full of mystery. It kept you guessing until the very end and as always, R.L. Stine did a great job making you feel what the characters were feeling. I read the entire thing in one day and I just couldn't put it down. I would reccoment this book to anyone who enjoys a good scare.

Well, maybe this was a 2 star book, but to me it was hopeless from the start. "Fred Schwed", a jokester of a name to begin with talks about Wall St just as naively as anyone who barely knows it.

His viewpoints are clearly from the beginner's point of view, or rather the beginner intermediate- the guy who has just accepted that trading is luck only and that long term investing is simple diversification. He hasn't quite accepted that there are true winners out there and that there is something of an art to the game and eagerly puts any down who attempt to play it. Clearly he has associated with those who are not "in the know" [...]

Anyways, I started at page 1 and read almost to halfway through the whole book before I could bare no more. I really did try to read it through, thinking that I could squeeze something worthwhile out of it. No, I can stand it anymore. I think I'll leave it at the train station on the way to the coffee shop right now! Waste of $[...] and an hour or so of my time..

Definitely not deserving of "Wiley Investment Classic" with the likes of Fisher and LeFevre.

Schwed's main thesis is that Wall Street's experts, advice-givers, and prognosticators are just making wild guesses -- guesses for which they'll charge you quite a tidy sum. This book is humorous in its own right, without resorting to the same old cliches about stocks which many other "financial humor" books use. The author actually objected to using this title for the book, as he thought that joke was too old.

On that note, the book is surprisingly well-written. Schwed's educational background is, as he says, in 19th century Romantic poets, not in business. His writing style is quite similar to that of "Stanley Bing," with the same kind of "har-har" wit, and a thin sprinkling of self-disgust.

If you think your full-service broker knows the future, or that technical analysis really works, or that "they" are driving down stock prices, read this book for an education about Wall Street. However, even if you already know the truth about these things (and especially if you've read Malkiel's book, or any treatment of efficient markets theory), this book is valuable for some very funny observations and notes.

The other reviewers are right about how relevant this book is for today: it was written in 1940, but aside from the minor technological differences between then and now (e.g., allusions to ticker machines), it could well have been written in 2000.

This book is an excellent warning about too much faith in Wall Street pros (who Schwed says aren't crooks -- they're not smart enough to be crooks), with some genuinely funny (I laughed out loud, and I'm a tough customer with humor) observations and allusions.

This book clearly deserves more than five stars for exposing the folly of Wall Street in the most humorous possible terms.

This book's fame far exceeds the number of people who have read it. Almost every experienced stock investor will cite examples from the book, without even knowing their source.

The title refers to an ancient story (which the author finds is probably at least 100 years old by now) about a visitor to New York who admired the yachts that the bankers and brokers had in the harbor. Naively, he then asked where the customers' yachts were. Naturally, there were no customers' yachts.

Let me set the stage. The author spent two years on Wall Street in the 20s, but knew it better than that and continued to invest in stocks. He wrote the book in 1940 after the horrible bear years of 1929-1940. The memories of the 1920s were still fresh. Then he updated the book in 1955 in the midst of the 50s bull market with a new introduction in which he explained that the book did not need updating.

Although commissions are no longer fixed, and few spend the day sitting in a broker's office, many of the other observations in the book remain as timely as those in The Madness of Crowds. Human nature doesn't change.

Behind all of the hype about getting rich with stock investments is a sad reality. Over a lifetime, the vast majority of people get poor results from their stock investing. Around 90 percent of professionals will also underperform the market averages over their careers.

But the desire to "outsmart" everyone else is almost universal. Raging bull markets, like the one we had until March 2000 on the NASDAQ, only tend to reinforce these ultimately expensive urges.

I have been around professional investors for over thirty years and all the big scores I remember involving stocks came after someone who was a founder or worked for a company that went public cashed in their stock and stock options after many years of service. These are not stock-investing events, they are entrepreneurial compensation. In the Money Game, Adam Smith pointed that out, and it remains as true today as it was then.

One of the classic stories in this book is about what would happen if 4000 people started flipping coins against each other. You are eliminated from the competition after one loss. Although by definition, half would win and half with lose with each flip, those who had won ten times in a row (as must happen for some in this format) would soon start to give lessons in coin flipping techniques. That story nicely captures the folly of Wall Street. Even though some may win, it usually doesn't mean anything.

The book contains other investment classic stories that you must have in your repertoire. The book is brilliantly illustrated by the classy cartoons of Peter Arno. It is worth acquiring the book just for those.

The subjects covered include Wall Street's passion for prophecy, financiers and seers, customers (or the sheep to be shorn), mutual funds, short sellers, options, speculators and the bull market of the 20s, and the excuses handed out to those who are relieved of their money.

The writing style is urbane and witty. For example, there is the usual disclaimer on not following the advice in the book in the beginning. Except, it is illustrated by two hands with fingers crossed. And, the warnings are a just little different. The information in this book "while not guaranteed by us, has been obtained from sources which have not in the past proved particularly reliable."

The author had discovered that titles cannot be copyrighted, and he "had planned to have my book appear under a good title, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

The author's favorite review of the book contained this phrase, "If I were J.P. Morgan, and I have no reason to suspect that I am not . . . .", and was signed by the author of the review, Mr. Frank Sullivan. The subsequent witty correspondence between them is included in the introduction.

If you are a fan of Louis Rukeyser, you will find the humor here comparable with the badinage on Wall $treet Week during the opening comments.

Seriously, the humor in this book will help you to better understand the risks associated with stock investing. There is a wonderful quiz you can take that will tell whether or not you should be a stock investor. Most will not pass that quiz.

If you still want to own stocks, I suggest that you advance to John Bogle's book, Common Sense About Mutual Funds. It can make you some real money.

If you do not want to own stocks, go instead to Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Follow on to Cash Flow Quadrant.

I also suggest you think about where else folly is taken seriously. This will also put things in perspective for you. My favorite location is the Congress of the United States.

Keep looking for those yachts when you make your investments! To whom do they belong?

Investors should recall that a 1990 Nobel Prize was awarded to three financial economists whose ideas helped legitimize what is known as 'modern portfolio theory' (MPT). MPT points to an investment strategy that author Larry E. Swedroe says is at variance with the interests and advice of the popular financial establishment (hence Swedroe's contentious title). For followers of MPT, stock and bond market prices represent, very efficiently, all that is known and expected by investors of a security. There is no evidence that markets systematically misprice securities. So, the market prices securities to their value. Markets work. A corollary is that no individual money manager will be able to consistently know more than the market. Wall Street's managed (active) efforts to exploit perceived market pricing inefficiencies fall short. Active managers are undone by higher fees and the taxes that trading profits generate. This is Swedroe's main argument with Wall Street. Stock selection does not work consistently or economically. Active management is flawed by its underestimation of market efficiency and its operating expenses. Bottom line: Money managers don't beat the indexes. Swedroe quotes Benjamin Graham, an icon for stock-pickers, near the end of his career apparently siding with the market efficiency school. Indeed academic research supports the idea that the most important factor in market returns is not stock selection but exposure to key asset classes (e.g., large or small company stocks, "growth" or "value" stocks, international or domestic stocks). Swedroe argues for passively 'managed' index mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETF) on the basis of their lower expenses and the market's efficiency. Investors should have a globally diversified portfolio of "low correlating" assets because of the unpredictability of certain asset classes moving in and out of favor. Investors seeking greater returns may find them with small capitalization and "value" stocks. Swedroe identifies a key tenet of MPT in Chapter 10, namely, how diversification works to increase the average compound return of individual investments within the portfolio. A little more detail might have been useful in this section. WHAT WALL STREET DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW is a helpful if somewhat repetitive introduction to the basic ideas of modern portfolio theory. The author revisits this material even more persuasively in his later book, RATIONAL INVESTING IN IRRATIONAL TIMES.

Every investor should read this book. Its conclusion--that
investors should keep to low-cost index funds, broadly
diversified internationally and across asset classes--is
supported by an extremely thorough review of relevant research.

Why should you buy low cost index funds? Swedroe says:

(1) Fund fees--not past performance and Morningstar ratings--
are the prime determinant of performance within asset classes.
High fees, low returns.

(2) Typical funds have high turnover, incurring substantial
trading costs, market impact costs (having to pay too much for
large blocks of stock), and most importantly, paying out huge
capital gains to taxpaying shareholders.

(3) Indexing helps an investor clearly identify her strategy,
and therefore stay the course, better than strategies based on
"a little of this and a little of that."

(4) Almost all variation in mutual fund returns is attributable
to the investing style used (small versus large cap, growth
versus value), and * not to stock picking per se *. Therefore,
if you want exposure to an investing style such as small cap
value, buy the index, and don't pay a manager 1.5% to mimic the
index.

(5) Almost no funds beat the market on a long-term basis.

These points are indisputable, and should lead all investors to
put down their Fortune and Barrons and get on with their lives.
Of course, * somebody * needs to pore over company financials and
market trends and Fed policy, etc. But it should not be the
typical investor. And since people are out there doing it anyway,
there is no need for any given investor to * pay * them to do it
by paying high fees for money management and investment advice.

An aside: Swedroe's company, Buckingham Asset Management, has
access to an excellent set of low cost index funds from DFA.
These are superior to Vanguard's in two ways: (1) they offer
more asset classes, and (2) they screen * all * stocks for
valuation and size criteria, rather than restricting attention
to the stocks that happen to be in popular indices such as those
from Russell or S&P. But, unfortunately, you need to use a DFA-
affiliated advisor to have access to the funds. If you don't,
then good luck finding an international small-cap or small-cap
value index fund.

Continuing the themes of his first book, Swedroe makes the case for investing in passively managed index funds in a way that is both entertaining and instructive. Not only does the author blast away at the Wall Street machinery - whose interests Swedroe shows are not aligned with those of the investor - but he also provides the theory and the practical background to personally tailor your investments for maximum return. It's really quite simple: IF YOU INVEST IN THE MARKETS, YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK.

Al Freed, an ex-friend of 17-year-old Julie Carlson's, starts blackmailing her and her friends for small things at first--lunch money, class notes--until one of Julie's friends (Sandy Miller) kills Al as a way to protect them. The five friends--Julie, Sandy, Hillary Walker, Taylor Snook, and Vincent Freedman--promise to keep it a secret, but Sandy's behavior has been too threatening lately, making Julie fear she might be his next victim.

Like most of Stine's books, "The Confession" was a breeze to finish; and like only a few of his books, it's one I halfway enjoyed. The trite cliffhangers and simple writing style are all still the same, but at least it was fast paced enough for me to finish it off in only a few hours. Recommended to Fear Street fans.

I liked this book a lot. It was very realistic, extremely suspensful,and had a cool end. You'll be surprised!! This is one of Stine's books that actually deals with something that could happen in real life, which is great. I like the books with all the occult stuff in them, but you can't really relate to them like you can this one. Go read it. It will delightfully thrill you. :-)

I have 78 of R.L. Stine's books and I can honestly say that I love every one of them. In this book, Julie and all of her friends hated Al. They all wished that he were dead. Julie does not think that any of her friends could everbe capable of murdering someone until one of them confesses that they killed Al. If they keep it a secret, will he kill someone else? I guess the only way to find out is to try keeping it a secret for now. This was a really great book. To find out what happens to Julie and her friends, I would suggest that everyone reads this book to learn whether you should trust all of your friends,even thought you think that you know them so well.

Gives an insight in mindset of a succesful investor/trader and quite a few original perspectives about the stock market. Highly recommended, even if sometimes sounds like a generation old.

Winning on Wall Street is the first book I ever read about investing (back in 1990). Marty Zweig may not be the most glamorous or charismatic guru, but his disciplined and unemotional approach to the markets is what makes him my most revered market player. Famous for calling the 1987 crash (forever captured on the archives of Wall Street Week), Zweig has receded from public view considerably. He discontinued his valuable Zweig Market Letter about 5 years ago and ever since Rukeyser disbanded his elves, Marty rarely shows up on the show. So, this is your best opportunity to tap the mind of an investor whose success has lasted for decades.

Admittedly, Zweig's writing style is fairly academic (he's a PhD). The book is different from many in that much of it works to set forth a model which will allow you to be on the right side of the general market for its major moves. When you boil it down, the primary influences on the model are interest rates, and measuring the underlying strength of the averages. I can now attest firsthand to the durability of this model - I have been dutifully running it myself since 1990 and it has performed admirably. Major BUY signals came in 12/90, 1/96, and 1/01. SELL signals came in 5/94 and 9/99. Again, those were not perfect bottoms and tops, but allowed you to participate in the major upmoves and avoid significant stretches of downward activity. Other useful discussions include those on sentiment and seasonal indicators. The fundamental portion of the book leaves something to be desired - stock picking is not Zweig's strong suit. By the way, opinions suggesting that Zweig is a speculator are off the mark. In fact, his approach is designed to 1) minimize risk, and 2) catch the majority (middle portion) of a market move. (...) Winning on Wall Street has become one of my best reference tools. If you are serious about building your understanding of the markets and improving your investment results, this is a book that you must own.

Very simply this system is all about following the trend and followin interest rates.In 2000, when Allen Greenspan was raising interest rates that identified a sell signal. When interest rates go up, stocks go down.Zwieg is not a "buy and hold" man. His system works. I've been following it since 1989 when I bought this book along with Winning with New IRAs and Wealth without Risk. To wit I caught the big stock market boom in late 1990 through 1991 and again in 1995-1996 and in 1998-2000.I also missed the selloffs in late 1989-1990, 1994-1995, and 2000.The Zweig system works. Try it, you'll love it.

Andy Kessler is a worthy follow-up act to Michael Lewis, and his Wall Street Meat is as fun and enjoyable as Lewis's Liar's Poker. I read this book cover to cover and was chuckling with delight all the way through.

It really brings us upclose and personal with the biggest rogues on Wall Street. The portraits of Jack Grubman and Mary Meeker are especially compelling. I highly recommend this book - easy to read, lucid and with a sense of bemusement only a true new yorker can have...shame we have to wait for his next book

This book is to the nineties what Michael Lewis's Liars' Poker was to the eighties-a whirling, candid look at Wall Street. I agree with Lewis's blurb: I gulped this book, too. He and Kessler both have a great comic sense. Both came to the financial world in a roundabout way. (Lewis was an art history major who became a bond salesman; Kessler was a Bell labs researcher who became a research analyst.) But there are differences, too, and they go beyond the simple fact that Lewis wrote about the character of Salomon Brothers and the mortgage-backed security business, whereas Kessler's story more broadly concerns the technology bubble of the late nineties, and Wall Street's part in it. Kessler is more sharp-edged and critical, yet idealistic, too, ending with a few pages of ideas on what caused the tech bubble and what might be done differently to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. Kessler writes from the vantage point of more than fifteen years in the securities business, and you sense he really cares about many of the people he works with. (Even if he frequently shows it by verbally skewering them.) Lewis's time on Wall Street was much shorter, and his tone is more one of bemused detachment. Kessler is very anecdotal, even more than Lewis, one- and two-pagers, but the chronology is solid and the whole thing works perfectly. The two books are close cousins, lots of hilarious stories and witty detail, and a sprinkling of memorable supporting characters, including a vivid yet balanced portrayal of fallen superstar Jack Grubman, through the years, by Kessler.

This is a funny and insightful book. It may seem like a bunch of breezy anecdotes told cleverly about some big name Wall Street names, and it has plenty of those, but it is much more than that. This is a book that should be read by everyone interested in Wall Street, who has money invested there, or is thinking about putting money there, and any MBA interested in finance. Mr. Kessler worked on Wall Street for many years as an analyst for Paine Webber and then Morgan Stanley. Later, he left to work as a portfolio manager at Velocity Capital Management, which means he was and is still working with the same folks, but now as an investor.

His stories, escapades, and perspectives will lift the veil for those still innocent enough to believe that salesmen and account managers for the big trading houses have their clients' best interest at heart. I know we learned in b-school about the Random Walk, and arbitrage theory. All of that and the other stuff we learned is important to know. However, more valuable are the real world insights he provides about the structural changes and unintended consequences of the Small Order Execution System and its effect on liquidity and price volatility, Sarbanes-Oxley and the closing off of information to investors, ECNs and the erosion of trading income and the change to emphasis on fees and deals to provide income, momentum investing (momos), and more.

I am also very glad that he does not let individual investors off the hook for their own foolishness with their retirement and investment income. Remember, the greater fool theory cannot work without new people volunteering for the job. In the afterword the author also briefly demonstrates why all of the popular theories for the bubble and its popping are all true and none true. All contributed, but none we alone sufficient. Like most disasters, the likely cause is a confluence of little events combined into something no one much caused or could stop.

There is an obvious comparison to Michael Lewis's wonderful "Liar's Poker" and I would recommend this book just as highly. Mr. Kessler's career spanned a long enough time to chronicle the change from his being afraid to recommend a stock that could drop in price to Henry Blodget being afraid to downgrade a stock that could still go up in price. An amazing journey indeed and we are the better for his having chronicled it for us in such an entertaining way.