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I'd never heard of NASCAR, never wanted to know anything about it. But when I heard a short reading by Huler (the writer) from this book, I had to buy/read it. His writing could be on any topic: ice, dirt, race cars... it's just facinating in an accessable, fun, fast read. I'll read anything he writes now, and gain an appreciation of worlds I never knew. Great read. I just may join the 200,000 on site NASCAR fans next year because of it!

Although I have never been to Charlotte Motor Speedway, after reading this book I felt as if I had.

and now I feel like I could drive it. This is the book that lays it all out in a logical order, explains the terms, the rules and the strategies while taking you on an emotional rollercoaster ride. Will the car qualify for the race? You can feel the tension because for that week Huler lived it. This isn't a book full of old stories that drivers told a writer - this is an observation, full of detail - it's good old particaptory journalism like Plimpton wrote, talking to (and about) everyone from the owners and spnsors to the fans and the scalpers. What a great book!

If you want to read one book about NASCAR, I recommend this one. Not because it's a hand-holding introduction, but because it's the best. It just does such a great job describing so many aspects of NASCAR. The organizing principle of the book is to examine a week in the life of Kenny Wallace's Square D Racing Team, but along the way, the author looks at NASCAR's personalities, history, technology, tracks, and fans. Huler has a real flair for description, and a genuine but not fawning affection for the sport.

I've also read Shaun Assael's "Wide Open" and Paul Hemphill's "Wheels," which are similar in many ways but to my mind are both inferior. Assael's book seemed flat compared to Huler's, though fans of Dave Marcis and Bobby Hamilton may enjoy the coverage that those drivers receive in "Wide Open." Hemphill's book spent a lot of time on a thesis that I soon found repetitively handled: NASCAR was once the province of the Southern working man but is now corporate entertainment. Both Assael and Hemphill follow NASCAR for a whole season and seem to get bored with it. Huler stays focused on a shorter timespan to much better effect.

I've read some more technical approaches to NASCAR as well, and found that Huler almost always snuck the information in those books into "A Little Bit Sideways."

Although I find this the best introduction to NASCAR because it's so engaging to read and so comprehensive in the bargain, those who are interested in learning more about NASCAR might also try "NASCAR for Dummies" by Mark "Awesome!" Martin and Juliet Macur. That book lacks Huler's style and story-line, but it does have a lot of interesting information about NASCAR, including some tidbits on strategy and technology that I haven't seen elsewhere.

I lived in the South all my life, always aware of NASCAR, watching races every now and then. Even so, I haven't tuned into to a NASCAR race in probably 25 years. Because of this book, I will when the next season starts.

One can truly begin to understand the mystique of NASCAR after reading A Little Bit Sideways. Scott Huler's obvious love for the material really shines through. His writing transforms what, in lesser hands, could have been a dry and boring recitation of minute details into an interesting and compelling human interest story.

Read it. You won't be disappointed.

If you'd like to learn about the history of racing but want it on a more personal level, this is the book for you to read.

Love the book, gives just enough history of the sport and enough current information mixed in with fun stories about the past and present drivers.

A must for all fans of NASCAR, whether casual or hard-core. This book traces the sport through the lens of a witty, sophisticated, Springsteen-loving, private-school-educated woman. Liz Clarke is hardly your average NASCAR writer, and this is far from your average NASCAR book. The brilliant character studies here of champions like Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt show Clarke's resolve to part NASCAR's curtain and reveal the men who made the sport so much more than simply turning left. Read it and you will be glad that Clarke -- who has written about the sport for years, starting at The Charlotte Observer and now at The Washington Post -- has embraced this sport with her uncommon insight. What this book needs more than anything else is a sequel!

I'm delighted with the book and had a great "ride" reading it. I recommend it to anyone who is a newbie to NASCAR (like I am) or has enjoyed it's growth.

This book is a rare combination of entertainment and information woven into a fast-paced narrative. The author is an experienced newspaper sportswriter, and that background gives her writing a pace and focus that perfectly fits the subject matter.

NASCAR's history is complicated; it is unique in American sports because it is wholly owned by a single family, the Frances. The actual racers are, in effect, independent contractors who perform day labor at the various racetracks that the France family franchises. The author makes all of this clear in one of the best analyses of the business of car racing that has ever been written.

At the same time, she explores the background of NASCAR's original stars, the good 'ole boys from the South, many of whom souped up cars to haul moonshine liquor during the Prohibition era. As the sport matured into the business it is today-- mostly because the France family made it do so-- those drivers were replaced by Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, David Pearson and the like. Finally, today, the drivers are not only skilled professionals but corporate spokesmen as well. This could have been boring material, but the author's news writing skills turns it into an exciting narrative.

This is an excellent look into the history of NASCAR and into the current operations of the sport. It contains a wealth of material that the real fans will find valuable, and it clearly explains the sport for the casual viewer. I recommend it highly.

I programmed his trading system and contacted David Watts to see what he thought of it, it's not the holy grail but it does work for stocks and futures that are moving either up or down quickly and are about to reverse. This system is not one I choose to use because I'm comfortable with my own trading style (profitunity trading as outlined in Bill William's book "New Trading Dimensions" ) but it did confirm for me the general movement principles that all stocks, bonds and futures exibit...

It features several trading systems that can tell me when/where to buy, where to place stops, how to protect profits and when/where to pyramid mechanically.

Somewhat obselete now, but certainly an epic book when it was written. I can see elements of LBR, Victoria Pearson and Joe Ross from this book and it's fairly obvious they were influenced from it. Lots of very basic, logical price action and even the most experienced trader can pick up a few things here and there.

The best method I have ever tried for a position trader. Works best with high liquidity stocks and stock indexes on weekly data. Use ADX 14 and 20 MA to confirm the presignal. On stock index (S&P 500 and Ridex funds for the short part)I enter with a 1/4 at presignal if confirmed. This is a must buy text book. How come nobody says anything abot this method in any other books I've read or seminars attended. One of the best secrets kept together with "The Taylor Trading Technique" by George D. Taylor or "Steidlmayer on Markets"s last few pages. Good trading!

I programmed this system into Tradestation 2000i, it took me almost 3 weeks just to conceptualize how I would program all it's rules properly but after I finished I realized that this is really a gem, you can tell that the author really has an understanding of the structure of how the markets work, of course you will have to pick stocks or commodities that are already moving by using ADX or etc but this really is a good system especially in catching changes in the direction in trends hopefully I'll have it programmed for Metastock before the end of the year also. I don't use it myself I prefer Bill Williams method ("New Trading Dimensions"). There is no magic grail so again selection is important but the sytems holds it's own....

My friends and I (all women) just recently started an investment club and this book was just great. It provided useful forms, guidelines and warnings on how to setup your club and who should be in your club. A lot seems like common sense and lot isn't. We took this book with it's nice forms, etc. and ran with it. Today we have a bonafide investment club, filed our taxes and have been making investments that make us happy (not necessarily rich).

Like some of the others I bought other investment club books but you really don't need them. This one will do just as well and it's entertaining to boot.

My friends and I at my work place were interested in starting an investment club but we were not sure how to do it until one of the women said: "Aha, Motley Fool has put out a book about it!" So, we ordered the books, highlighted everything, and got excited about starting a club. And we did it all because of this book.

My sister and I were looking for info on starting an investment club for our family and we turned to the Motley Fool book. It was great for everyone in our family as we are all novices to the investing game. It was easy to read and everybody got through it before our first meeting. A big, big help!!!!

In starting an investment club it's important that everyone involved has a good idea of what to expect from a club. In signing agreements and feeling as though you are going to be bound to a group for a long term endeavour, this book helps to ease the anxiety that goes along with the club forming experience.

As with any other Motley Fool book this one has a reasonable balance of good, clear concise information, and foolish humor.

As a primer for beginners, this book is the best I've seen. It has lots of samples of forms and the agreements and by-laws. It is written at a level that any investor should understand what is going on.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in starting an investment club.

I have read both Starting and Running a Profitable Investment Club: The Official Guide from the National Association of Investment Clubs and The Investment Club Book in addition to this book.

While the other two books are very thorough and very well done, this one is the easist to read and understand.

I recommend all new Investment Club members to try this book.

I just finished reading one of the greatest sports books ever written, definitely the most entertaining book on auto racing I have ever laid eyes on.

A few weeks back, I was searching amazon.com for auto racing books and found this. It was written in 1973-1974 and had not sold well but was in great enough demand that a reprint was done in 1995 ("20th Anniversary Edition").

The book is bookended by the 1972 Southern 500 at Darlington and Bledsoe describes the chicanery involved throughout a race weekend in the 'old days.' This is a great read for new or old fans because it takes you behind the scenes and into the lives of independent drivers and "hot dog" stars like Richard Petty and David Pearson.

For local short track fans, a whole chapter is devoted to the "small time" auto racing life. This includes a section where Bledsoe follows around California dirt tracker Billy Scott, including a memorable trip to a strip club.

Bledsoe spends a race day with Richard Petty and family, interviews 1940s-1950s women stock car drivers and describes the struggle of black driver Wendell Scott.

As we all know, fans had a lot more access to drivers than they do now and Bledsoe witnesses this first hand.

Tragic events such as the death of Friday Hassler is detailed, along with the saga of young gun Larry Smith (who lost his life as Bledsoe was writing the book and transcribing a taped interview with Smith).

Nothing like this will ever be written about today's auto racing because access is often limited and the "redneck" image is now frowned upon.

Buy this. Please.

The title of this book matches its content perfectly. I read it years ago and am glad to see it re-printed for today's fan to read. So many NASCAR books today are nothing but fluff - rehashes of generally known stories about Gordon, Stewart, and Earnhardt. But this book is much more. Learn about the great characters and events of the 60s - Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly, Fred Lorenzen, Linda "Miss Hurst Shifter" Vaughn, the annual celebration of the Southern 500 in Darlington (a tradition now gone), and of course The King RICHARD PETTY. Whether you are a new or long-time Cup fan, get this book today.

This is an amazing book that covers the entirety of the sport from the local short track to daytona. It is a unique historical anecdotal look at the sport during the early 1970's and much legend and lore from that period is covered. This is quite simply one of the best books on the sport that i have had the opportunity to read. If you are a fan or a student of NASCAR Stock Car racing then you must read this book.

Jim Otar first came to my attention when I read his article explaining variable annuities with guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits in the Advisor's Edge Report.

It so impressed me with its cogency, and clarity that I wanted to read more of this author's thinking. So I bought his book, "High Expectations & False Dreams".

I read it completely on the day it arrived, and was only slightly disappointed.

The same logic I saw in his article pervades Mr. Otar's book. In it he applies such investment concepts as asset allocation, dollar-cost averaging, and cyclical investing to one hundred years of stock market history.

A lot of mathematical analysis went into the results, but he graphs them all to produce an easy read.

I was most impressed with his "Fingerprinting" of mutual funds to discover which funds to keep (or buy), and which to drop (or ignore). He explains this technique in such a way that it is easily reproduced by anyone familiar with spreadsheets. An important benefit, as you will want to keep tracking those you buy, so you know when to drop them.

In his wrap-up he tells which investment methods are the most potent boosters of portfolio longevity.

I recommend this book to anyone who wonders if his investments will adequately sustain him during retirement, and how to keep them going as long as possible.

It's rigorously based on empirical data, which I found a more credible approach than any others on investing and retirement.

My only disappointment is that I wished he'd explained how to optimize the benefits of a RRIF, a Canadian retirement device. But as his book is intended for a wider audience than just Canadians, one can understand its omission.

As a financial planner with over half a century's experience I've read a lot of books about retirement and investing. This is the most believable of them all.

Buy it!

Don Pooley, CFP, CLU, CHFP

An excellent addition to any Christian library. Focused and absorbing, the text is right on target! Augustine's words ring true many centuries after he wrote them. A powerful and unforgettable book!

A neat collection of short stories that appeared in McClure's Magazine around 1900. Some characters reappear in different stories, but the stories are each self-contained. This is the earliest work in which I have found the short-selling quote: "He who sells what isn't his'n, Must buy it back or go to pris'n (page 173)." If you want to feel the brass Ticky-ticky-ticky-tick of the ticker then read this book. The first story "The Lady and Her Bonds" appears to have been the inspiration for Lefevre's novel "Sampson Rosk of Wall Street." If you liked "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator," you will love this book. Don't be dissuaded by the "out of print" label probably attached to this work - it cn still be found and is worth the search.

I have now read 4 of Howard's books and think they give a lot of useful information to traders. I recommend this one and The Electronic trading of Options. Day Trader's Advantage is also very good. I also like Murphy's and Schwager's books.

Well, what can you say when you've read a book that shows little desire to convey any meaningful information in any meaningful way? Howard appears to have done a paste up of old news and well known "insights" into what looks like a book, but doesn't really read like one.

Worst sin? They didn't even take the time to format the "graphs" horizontally on the page, or with text. Every time you look at one of these graphs to try to understand the point Howard is making, you have to page ahead and turn the book 90 degrees and try to remember just what HA was getting at. By the time he mentions the 3rd graph you're already skipping ahead.

This is my first Howard Abell book and I have two pieces of good news: first, since I borrowed the book from the library I'm not out any $$$ (although I still feel cheated by the time I put in) and second, it's the last Howard Abell book I will ever read.

(I have a library of maybe $2,000 worth of investment books, so it's not like I won't buy a book of some value. Stick with Weinstein, Tharp, Morris, Nison, McMillan, Bill Williams.)

I don't know who wrote the other reviews, but i guess they were abell's relatives. This is the worst book ever. Two pages of real information. I learned absolutely nothing from this book. After reading lynch, o'neil , motley fool and many other great books; I am insulted by this book.

I read about five books on trading techniques in the last four weeks before writing this review, and liked this one least of all. I never actually count pages in a book when writing a review, but I was so much surprised how such a (considerably) thick book can contain so little useful information that I made an exception. Judge by yourself: the structure of this book is as follows:

The first 35 pages (sec. 1-3) is a broad introduction into the psychology of successful day trading, which says all correct things but its style is so dry that you would rather skip to the next section than to read it carefully. Even if you do read every word, you will get such absolutely correct but next to useless statements as the following recipe for successful trading (p.33): "1) identify an opportunity, 2) take immediate action (buy or cell), and 3) feel good no matter the result as long as the trade is consistent with you specific method or technical bias and was based on probability".

The second part of the book (Sec. 4) uses another 50 pages for interviews with several successful traders. This section is not too bad, although one cannot expect to learn much about techniques of successful individuals (even assuming that they are willing to disclose all their secrets) from 6-10 page-long interviews.

The third part on technical analysis is the most useful part of the book. It discusses how to identify trends and select entry points. Unfortunately, the charts used to illustrate the text are too numerous and large, and the text itself tends to be somewhat on the side of general statements. It is sufficient to say that about 50 out of 80 pages in this section are charts, and in my opinion only about 10 pages contain really useful concrete practical wisdom. These 10 pages were very useful since they suggest analysis techniques which I have not seen anywhere else, but its only 10 pages out of 260!

The rest of the book, about another 100 pages, is essentially a large appendix with lists of all NASDAQ and S&P-500 stocks, long excerpts from the TradeCast 3.0 user manual (who needs this section? those who bought this program had presumably gotten the full manual, and those who do not own it do not need these excerpts), and a glossary.

My advice: don't waste your time and money, there is so many better books around than this one.

Pages 3-50 of this book is dealing with some what useful information, for the novice invester. Pages 51-70 testimonials from professianal Traders is exciting and interesting. I found from pages 80-175 useful and worth my reading, I must mention that half those pages had charts. Pages 177-196 names and stock symbols, again probley for the novice. Pages 197-256 Appendix B Excerpts from the TradeCast 3.0 user manual, why I would want this unless I was going to buy the program and my hope would be that the manual would cover this, and then again maybe this book is the manual for the program and they just forgot to send the program?. Pages 257-267 Glossary, Further Reading, and the Index.

Summary-For $40.00 and 269 pages, I found 90 pages (half of those charts) dealing with the Authors title(Moving from One Winning Position to the Next) or as a very famous advertisment slogan goes..... WHERE'S THE BEEF

I wanted to know about investing and this book can get you there without the need to get proficient deciphering or memorizing the investing industry jargon and trade language specifics.

There are few infallible truths of investing but Prof Skousen identifies the one principle that comes close to gospel in explaining how investors grow rich-and stay rich. Prof Skousen's books on free-market economies and investing can't be beaten. He is upbeat and optimistic about supply-side/Austrian economics. In this book, Prof Skousen clearly and convincingly reveals the reasons for the seemingly perverse, unpredictable nature of the stock market economics and has been instrumental in educating students, business people, government leaders and fellow economists on sound economics and finance. Drawing upon his decades of experience, Prof Skousen explains in one spirited, easy-to-follow lessons why stock prices fluctuate with such apparent irrationality. Prof Skousen explains: (1). How Wall Street is like a giant casino, and how it isn't; (2). Why good news for the economy is often bad news for the stock market; (3). Why stock prices can suddenly skyrocket or collapse-regardless of market fundamentals; (4). Why IPO often enrich insiders at the expense of the majority of investors; and (5). Why stocks of old, established companies in shrinking industries tend to be a better investment than shares in rapidly growing firms in cutting-edge fields.

I found INVESTING IN ONE LESSON to be a helpful book. My son liked it also and asked for a copy. This replaces my copy I gave to him.

It would be pointless to repeat all the great things about this book, such as explaining basic consepts of investing by very simple way and explaining many reasons for market fluctuations. Other reviewers have already pointed out the good things in this book, so I took the contrarian task to write about the (few) negative ones.

I think that the title simply promises too much. Already familiar with his magnificent book on the business cycle, "Structure of Production" and his monograph on investing, "Ludwig von Mises goes to Wall street", I was very happy when this title was released. Maybe I simply expected too much, because I was a little disappointed after reading this work. As a Hayek-Rothbardian libertarian geek I expected something like how to recognise bull and bear markets from the Money Supply data :)

In this book there is unfortunately very little about gold and commodities which is strange because of the ongoing strong bull market in these asset classes and because Skousen himself was one of the first gold bugs (although very reasonable one for his credit) in the 1970's. Maybe this is because Skousen has affiliated very much with stock market optimists like Jeremy Siegel whose WisdomTree Dividend funds he recommends (for Skousen's credit he has been superbullish on commodities in his newsletter "Forecasts & Strategies").

Summa summarum: easy to read, logical, but definitely not the last word on the subject... A good starting place for beginners and a great reference guide, but on the other hand contains maybe too little about recognising actually what to buy and why, especially if you want to buy ordinary stocks and not Mutual Funds. If you love Skousen's earlier works (like I do) you will find this one valuable and easily accessible anyway.

This is a well written book about value investing. My favorite all time book on the subject is Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor, specially with the update by Mr. Zweig. However, I have given it to several friends and they haven't had the patience to go through it. This one covers many of the same points in a brief and concise manner. The example of the use of the Dogs of the Dow as a means of getting started was a neat way to get the value message across. I will probably start recommending this book instead of Graham's, because it is much more readable. If you want to learn to invest in value stocks this is one place to go.

Happy returns!