Entertainment Books

I think this book has received some useless heat from some people. I don't think anyone, even WWE for that matter, was expecting it to be the second coming of Have a Nice Day! But it is a very entertaining read, something that you can just relax and enjoy without really having to think. The stories are very effective, and it's really interesting to hear about some of the stars and WWE crew in a different light. For example, one story told by Coach is about a massive rib started by Vince McMahon himself, where he ultimately gets Coach arrested and in fear of his job. It also gets very real, with some guys talking about how WWE is a family, and the sacrifices they have to make family-wise to do what they do.

All in all, it's a very fun book to read. It's not anything hard, just there for one's enjoyment. And I certainly enjoyed it.

The book seemed like a good idea but ended up falling flat. They seem to reuse alot of wrestlers instead of different wrestlers. Thats probably the downfall of the book. I didnt really enjoy any of the storys that were told and have to rank it as one of the worst wrestling books ive ever read.

This was an enjoyable read, although expected it to be funnier. There are some good stories, but, most are more serious than I expected. I was surprised that so many of the superstars that have moved on from the territory are included, ie. Rico, Christian, etc. Still it is okay for the casual WWE fan.

There were a few very good stories in the book, such as the night Goldberg won the title, and almost had to beat up the check-in guy at the hotel. But a good majority of the stories are from guys I just didn't care about. I can't get excited about a story from Chavo Gurerrero, Sergeant Slaughter, or The Hurricane. If there were more stories from Superstars in there, it would definitely have been better. As I was skimming through the book, I would find myself only wanting to read stories from the Main Event level guys. The HHH's, Randy Orton, Big Show, Goldberg, Kurt Angle, guys like that. Not enough stories from guys like that, and too many from mid card talent.

Most of the customer reviewers have something to contribute to why this is a good book in spite of it not being literary. It is funny that one person suggested various places to read this book and he came up with the john, or is that term not PC anymore(hmmmmmm)? Anyway that is exactly where our family copy ended up and it makes for good quick spurts of reading. The stories are entertaining and who would have thought that coming from a spectacle that bills itself as entertainment. I for one read it by jumping around and skipping certain passages or personalities that I find less than entertaining , there is that word again! The segemnts contributed by Chavo Guerrero where he talks about Eddie and their lifes ambition and how wrestling was such huge part of their lives and families lives sums up a concurrent theme running thoughout the book, family and the extended wrestling family.The humor is at times bizarre, the antics sort of wierd but what can you expect with so much time on the road. Most of the experiences are first hand, probably embellished stories but that is part of the fun. It is like the matches themselves, you know they are part(those slams etc, hurt) fake but it is entertaining. Also like the matches it is part soap opera, part drama that is coming from these actor/atheletes. The choice of contributers is strange as there are a few Hall of Famers mixed in with current superstars but certain guys are absent from the fraternity like the main man himself Mr. McMahan, Eddie Guerro, "The Rock", Hulk Hogan, Benoit or Batista. I guess it was a select fraternity chosen for ths project. The little stories are simple reading that will make you laugh and give you a smidgen of insight into these characters, it is afterall very entertaining. Get one to stock in your "private" reading room if you like WWE.

This isn't really for beginners, but it is a fun addition to our piana library.

Book was more than I expected. Tied in many stories dating back to the early 1900's and the beginning of AT&T. Excellent read, very entertaining and well researched.

This book is a concise look at the evolution of formal investment theory, with continual contextual references to its ties to gambling and to organized crime. It also is a hilarious and insightful history of gambling from the Bernoulli's in the 1700s through the hedge fund traders of the late 1990's.

The author devotes over 50 pages to notes and the index. This was appreciated since I wanted to look up more about so many of the anecdotes he included.

Mr. Poundstone poignantly describes the downfall of high-flying firms such as LTCM, where the investment wizards went from the darlings of Wall Street to the dredges of the investment community in large part because they were so clever; and they started to believe they were infallible.

One LTCM road-show presentation was held at the insurance company Conseco in Indianapolis. Andrew Chow, a Conseco derivatives trader, interrupted Scholes. "There aren't that many opportunities," Chow objected. "You can't make that kind of money in Treasury markets."
Scholes snapped: "You're the reason - because of fools like you we can." (Page 281)

Warren Buffett marveled at how "ten or 15 guys with an average IQ of maybe 170" could get themselves "into a position where they can lose all their money." That was much the sentiment of Daniel Bernoulli, way back in 1738, when he wrote: "A man who risks his entire fortune acts like a simpleton, however great may be the possible gain." (Page 291)

He also points out the real world flaws in some theoretically appealing scams. The St. Petersburg Wager seems mathematically correct; yet it overlooks a vitally important constraint (pages 182-184). Another is the unfounded weight we unconsciously give to historical returns, as evidenced by his retelling of another Warren Buffett story:
In a 1984 speech, Buffett asked his listeners to imagine that all 215 million Americans pair off and bet a dollar on the outcome of a coin toss. The one who calls the toss incorrectly is eliminated and pays his dollar to the one who was correct.
The next day, the winners pair off and play the same game with each other, each now betting $2. Losers are eliminated and that day's winners end up with $4. The game continues with a new toss at doubled stakes each day. After twenty tosses, 215 people will be left in the game. Each will have over a million dollars.
According to Buffett, some of these people will write books on their methods: "How I Turned a Dollar into a Million in Twenty Days Working Thirty Seconds a Morning." Some will badger ivory-tower economists who say it can't be done: "If it can't be done, why are there 215 us?" "Then some business school professor will probably be rude enough to bring up the fact that if 215 million orangutans had engaged in a similar exercise, the result would be the same - 215 egotistical orangutans with 20 straight winning flips." (Page 314)

The author follows the lives of a few major contributors to investment theory, information theory, and betting theory: Claude Shannon, who invented Information Theory and paved the way for the digital computer age; John Kelly, who developed the formula for gains with no possibility of ruin; and Edward Thorpe, who built upon these findings and beat the roulette wheels, the blackjack tables and the investment fund managers.
It's a fast read - only 329 pages before the notes and index. I highly recommend it!

This is a nice look into the past systems of betting. Also nicely written and gives a good understanding of the Kelly formula. Was not quite what I thought it would be but was a nice book.

Having just finished Poundstone's book on Gaming the Vote, I was hoping for a book equally as interesting. Although this book was worth reading, and there are a few aspects from it that I will put into practice, I did not walk away wanting to quote it on a regular basis like I did Gaming the Vote.

It gives an interesting historical overview of various scientists involved with gambling and the stock market, and it reviews the concepts involved. These parts were interesting, but truthfully not fascinating.

The sections about Murder Inc, Boesky, Millken, and the junk bond collapse were much more interesting.

In short, it is an interesting book and worth reading, but there are many other books I'd read first...

An insightful look under the hood at the factors affecting the money making process.
With a lot of very interesting stories, from the mob all the way to Nobel prize winners on Wall Street, it shows the latent traps that can destroy the bankroll of investors, gamblers, and poker players.

Any investor (or gambler) needs this book or he will risk losing his bankroll!

Purchased this book for my son who is interested in learning game programming. The book had a cd which was suppose to be all inclusive, but we ran into problems. Could not find examples it talked about in Chapter 4. Think there are items missing that we should have. The book does not spell out if you have to go to the website and download the development kit.

My son is not to happy with the book. I have a degree in computer science and I'm not happy with the book either. It's simple, if the book says go and get this file from this directory then it should be there.

This is an outstanding overview of Garage Games' Torque Game Engine. Any aspiring game maker needs to have a copy of this book for reference. Torque allows rapid proto-typing of game ideas, supplying all the foundation for rendering, animation, sound, networking, scripting, all for both the PC and Macintosh. My own teenagers (pictured on the cover, CD, and page 31 :-) use a $25 copy of Milkshape 3D, and put their own models, sometimes with their own rigged, animated skeletons, right into a $100 copy of Torque, and play their own games.

After you've hooked your wannabe game makers with Torque for Teens, send them over to the perfect followup book:

3D Game Programming All in One, Second Edition

Torque has quickly become the number one game development and design harness for nearly all high school and college level game theory, development, application, and graphic design classes.

I am a professor who teaches game design and I can't tell you how great this book is. If your a teen or new to Torque this book will clarify some of the mystery surrounding the Torque engine. It's clean and well thought out.

I highly recommend it over the other Torque books (If your a beginner).

This book does what it does very well.....

While the book is good for very early beginners to the Torque Game Engine, I think it does not delve deep enough into the engine itself and I believe other things should have been covered to make it more interesting not only to teens, but to everyone.

Basically the entire book, (besides a few chapters), is the same exact tutorial you can download for FREE from Garage Games, just with some nicer game assets.

It's a good book for those who have already tried the tutorial from Garage Games and want to try to do a little more without buying the engine. This is the most up to date book when it comes to learning about the Torque Game Engine.

I purchased this book with the hopes and intentions of using it as a home-school resource for our programming course. It is not bad in a general way, and was very good as a friendly introductory to Torque and as a business totorial for young entrepreneurs. It covers a business model and organization of your resources such as what jobs need to be defined within your dev-team etc. It covers (at great length - a bit too much actually) several games out there that are either built with Torque or by the makers of Torque - and how they were generally designed (as examples). There are even a few resources that were interesting to play with.

Unfortunately, that was about all it did. It seems to fail to really delve into the "guts" as I had hoped, and to illuminate the "exciting" world of 3D game creation from a Teenage Game Developer Newbie standpoint - particularly the easily distracted from "business model" speeches type (i.e. MOST kids). I guess I was wanting something that read like a friend showing you "cool stuff" and leading you into a place where suddenly the kids would look up and say "DAD! Check this out - I just realized what I did! This is way COOL!"

Three of my kids read the book now, all three were not engaged very long - all seemed to loose interest at the business model part and did not regain it at the examples section as I had hoped.

The other Torque books I have so far (Finney's, most notably) are very good and very deep - but not "friendly" enough to engage my teenagers in an enjoyable and fascinating way (well, except for one, but he is a bit "different" and also the yougest) - hence the "fun" becomes "school-WORK". I will try the one from Maurina next and hope for it to be the answer I am looking for.

These are the best audio cds around for children. I bought these to help continue introducing Bible stories to my children. An AWESOME resource.

Excellent stories! I was afraid they might be a bit boring, but not a bit. Even pre-teen children and adults are riveted. Great value (15 hours) for the money. If you want good, wholesome, valuable stories, buy this set.

These CDs made a recent 6-hour drive FLY by, for both my kids and me! Talk about bringing the Bible to life -- these do the trick. There are a couple of scary/intense stories that might be better for older children. Aside from that, I highly recommend this set!

I purchased this set for my son who is 10. He recently finished another set and so far has loved all the Odyssey stories. He loves playing x-box live, sports and watches t.v. like the majority of kids in our nation. But every night, before he sleeps, we start the cd. Recently, he yelled to me to run to his room "fast" because the story about "that guy who wouldn't bow down to an idol was on" and we just had read that story the day before! I am thankful for this series of CDs. He goes to sleep thinking about things bigger than Halo and he hasn't be afraid of listening to these when friends come too. "It kind of calms them down."

Not only were the stories entertaining enough for our whole family, but my 5 year old son is now quoting scripture at the dinner table. These bible stories are brought to life by the voices of the Odyssey crew. I highly recommend these to any parent. Thank you Focus on the Family.

The Strategy Guide, which includes a very stylish art cover only available in this edition, may be useful to finish the game, but the real trinket of this limited edition is the exclusive Art Book.

I hope -at least when God of War III is released- that there will be a big hardcover 'Art of'-Book for the ingenious trilogy. Actually each installment of the series would be worthy of a hardcover Art Book.

I can only recommend this edition!

Strategy Guide arrived in excellent condition and quality. Strategy Guide arrived in a very timely fashion.

This book is great,also I bought the book for the previous game,however the book has become unglue.I am still happy with it.

It is great. The graphics go way beyond the first God of War. The Book gives you complete information & insight into the game. The walkthrough is awsome compared to other walkthrough's that I have seen. I would remand this Guide to any gamer that is looking for strategy not cheating!

The book is a great help to the gamer and the images are just breath taking. The concept art book is also great.

After seeing the positive reviews on this book, I decided to go ahead and get it, as I realized despite my having played viola for such a long time, I don't own a single tome detailing the principles of good technique and playing.

So far I've gone through sections dealing with left hand positioning (the frame) and intonation. The writing is clear and engaging; Galamian observes many times it is important not to lay down arbitrary rules on how things should be done - unless there is a compelling reason. I like how the sections contain exercises that are written out - the provide a concrete method to achieve the results he discusses. The photos of hand positioning are also very descriptive.

I can tell I'm going to refer to this book again and again in the coming years - it is so nice to have it reinforce what I've heard (and often forget!) from different teachers! Definitely recommended!

I'd like to add that I found this book for about $20 less at Shar Music - but at any of these prices it's completely worth it!

I would recommend this book to any musician. Although it extensively covers bowing and left hand technique, the most important aspects are in how to practice and master your art. The variations suggested can be used by any musician on any instrument and will take you to a new level of technical control.

I would not suggest this book for a beginner, this material is best learned from an experienced teacher. Advanced students and teachers should all have this book in their book collections.

As a former violin student of 9 years who moved towards piano instead, I have found this book immensely valuable in helping me as a Suzuki parent of a young violinist myself. If you have a child moving into the Kreutzer etudes, or in Book 7 or later in the Suzuki series, this book is a godsend. At this point in your child's studies, you have no doubt been listening to many great artists, and wondering how they attain the immense variety in tonal coloring, or how they actually implement such amazing shifts, or complex bowing techniques. This book, with its pictures, is outstanding in deconstructing these motions. While it is highly analytical in parts, the book is also excellent in addressing the body's motion as a whole - in showing the coupling between the hand, elbow, shoulders, violin... using well known extracts from etudes, caprices, and solo works as practical examples.

It most definitely helps to be an advanced instrumentalist in reading this book, as the author certainly presumes that the reader has a trained ear. The sections on how to practice will also be appreciated by those who have worked in intensive Master Classes, and have carried back from these classes some improved practice habits.

All-in-all, this is book not to be missed, particularly by the supportive parents of maturing artists.

this is a MUST for any violinist who is serious about playing the violin. This book has solution to all of the problems that a violinist faces, in addition, this is a great leaning tool, lines from major concertos are used as exemples. again, this book is a must for anyone who's serious about playing the violin or even becoming a concert soloist.

Ivan Galamian (1903-1981) was one of the great violin teachers of the 20th century. He taught people like Perlman and Zukerman, as well as countless other professional players of today. This book sets forth the essentials of his method. The text was written by Elizabeth Green, herself a Galamian student and a noted author and teacher in her own right. But the ideas are Galamian's. The small number of pages (100+) is deceptive; every sentence is packed with information and must be read carefully lest some important feature be missed. Violin playing is a complex mental and physical activity, and to learn it well demands the ability to focus on many small details as one trains the ear and the hands. This book is not really intended to be a self-tutor so much as a reference for the teacher and the student who is advanced enough to understand what Galamian is saying. It is not for beginners. A beginner book might tell you where (approximately) to put your fingers on the string to get certain notes. This book tells you (in words and photos) what your finger looks like when it is on the string, what part of the fingertip is pressing on the string, how hard it is pressing, how fast it should be traveling as it hits the string, the musical effect of different methods of lifting the finger, and so on. And that's only a tiny bit of what is written about what the left hand and fingers do. This is followed by a complete analysis of the mechanics and musical effect of every conceivable bow stroke. Matters of bow speed, pressure and point of contact with the string are all considered in light of the effects they produce, along with many more ideas concerning placement of thumb and fingers on the stick, angle of bow to string, and more. The book concludes with an analysis of effective practicing and teaching. There is much useful material on the relationship between technique and artistic interpretation as well. The many excellent photographs and musical examples add a further measure of depth to the book.

One small quibble: I don't think he spent enough time discussing how to play in tune. What he does say is all correct--he mentions that one must "think the sound" of the desired pitch as well as mentally prepare the hand and finger motion--he is speaking of shifting--but thinking the pitch needs to be stressed more, I think, and extended to thinking the actual sound of a beautiful violin tone as well.

This is a book for teachers and players who are advanced enough to know the areas they need to work on. It is considered one of a handful of classic books on violin playing, which include the famous treatises by Leopold Mozart, F. Geminiani, and Carl Flesch. First editions of this book (1962) are scarce and cost anywhere from ..., which says something about its importance, I think.

For the CCR guitar fans, exact tabs, and playinng along a backing track just rocks!!!!

Thanks a lot. A great Buy.


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