5 comments about Monstrous Manual (AD&D 2nd Ed Fantasy Roleplaying Accessory, 2140).

1. It's true, and this particular book is an excellant rendition of just how good 2nd edition is. The book gives huge amounts of information on monsters (which is an excellant aid to DMs) and the pictures are great. I highly recommend it for all DMs who have a nostalgia for 2nd Edition, which is all I play.



2. Anybody who is really into or owns versions of the popular Dungeon Master(DM) of the Advanced Dundeons & Dragons (AD&D) Role-playing games should definitely make an investment into this book. Not only is it very detailed, and appropriately alphabetical, but lists complete data info on each monster through fantasy, mythology, or in some cases reality.

   I was much of a fan of fantasy games until I started a collection of Sony PlayStation games, and with the technology that can knock your socks off nowadays, the visuals in monster morphing are great. When you reading through chapters you may discover certain things about monsters you never knew before. For instance the different varieties of dragons; not just the most common green, but the red, black, white, and blue, and the book details their attack status and breathing weapon. Like sea monsters? There is also hydras and whales.

   Real die hard fantasy fans will have fun reading over the trolls, purple worms, cerberus, and scorpions. I seem to remember an older version of this book that also listed hornet wasps. Upon damage if a hornet gets its' wings burned off, the creature is not damaged, but is now flightless.

   If you love DUNGEONS and DRAGONS from old Odyssey games, witchcraft, bats, and warlocks are also listed. I found information on Golems (Frankenstein's Monster for instance is a Flesh Golem), Mummies, and Vampires informative. Did you know werewolves aren't the only lycanthropes. The book is rich with information on weretigers, wereboars, wererats, and even werebears. There are also weredragons, but they aren't listed.

   Definitely worth the investment, and I would highly recommend picking it up together with the ADVANCED DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS: VOLUME 4 and the MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM ANNUAL. This will make your game playing trivia complete!




3. This was one of the best products I have ever used. It has an incredible attention to detail and is complete in it's descriptions. This book is also exteremely easy to use as a DM. The information is provided in a clear way and is devided into intro, combat, habitat/society, and ecology. But even beond it's usefullness to a DM, I found myself reading this book for fun and enjoyment quite often. It has been around 4 or 5 years since i first bought this book and i still read it for enjoyment. I recomend this book to every DM everywhere. It is helpful, fun to read, and easy to use.



4. After having played the newer 3rd Edition of Dungeons and Dragons for quite some time, I thought I'd take a little trek down memory lane and order an artifact from the past - the old AD&D Monstrous Manual. My, how things have changed in just over a decade! Every official D&D product coming out now is made by Wizards of the Coast , a company owned by Hasbro, maker of such childish wonders as Barbie and Ken. It goes without saying that due to it's parent company, Wizards only produces glitzy, "best foot forward" material that is much more family friendly and lot less "nude woman" oriented than what we enjoyed in times of old. Reading through this nigh on ancient volume reminds me both of how insanely cool Advanced Dungeons and Dragons was, and of how incredibly nerdy we must have all seemed.
   
   The art throughout the book ranges the gamut from really great (See the "Gnoll" creature, which looks suspiciously like a DiTerlizzi work, the guy famous for doing all the Planescape artwork), to laughably cartoonish (see the "Bullywug" creature), to the outright bad (see the "Goblin" illustration. I get the feeling an artist was running too close to the deadline for publication, and had his pre-teen kid do a sketch, which he then submitted as his own). While some of the artwork has become considerably higher quality with the transition to 3rd Edition, most notably with the dragon illustrations, a lot of it actually took a step back. The Dryad, Elementals, and Hobgoblin all look a lot better here than in the newer editions. The whole book has an extremely nostalgic feel. Anyone who was fortunate enough to have played AD&D will be going through a minor rapture perusing the various pages. And fear not fans of the old school art, for large chested women with very little clothes on abound throughout!
   
   A rather wide range of creatures exist in the Monstrous Manual, as this book was TSR's response to players demands for all the various monster books to be condensed into one tome which could be transported more easily. All the standard D&D creatures are here, along with various monsters from the Forgotten Realms, Al-Quadim, Planescape, and Dark Sun campaign settings. It certainly isn't entirely comprehensive, but it's pretty darn close. The format of the monster entries is far more readable in this book than in the 3rd Edition monster manuals. All the basic info you would need to use the creature in a campaign is listed at the top of the page. There is just enough information present to make the creature easily useable, but not enough so that you have to search for anything. I've noticed however that there are no "common" monsters. All creatures in this manual get a "Frequency" stat, describing how often they are found in their normal climate or terrain. Every monster is either uncommon, rare, or (most often) very rare. This doesn't make a whole lot of sense, considering how monster infested any D&D campaign world is. Even the races that players can use as characters, such as the dwarves and elves, are listed as "uncommon".
   
   With how cheap this book is going for these days, any old school fan, or even someone who just wants to understand what we were all so obsessed about, should definitely pick this up.



5. Second edition AD&D is and will always be a great game. This monstrous manual completely replaced my old beat up 3 ring binder style book.
   
   The details are complete, and the list extensive enough to populate whole worlds, and many planes. Get this book, and keep it.
   
   It has complete lists of everyday critters, races, and beings along with the very rare, and creaturs that make fantasy, well fantastic. You won't be DMing until you have one of these on the shelf.
   go ahead, pick it up, buy it with confidence.

4 comments about Card Games For Dummies (For Dummies (Sports & Hobbies)).

1. get this book!!!!! it rules!!!



2. This book covers the basics for understanding simple to hard card games. Having a baptist upbringing and being an only child I've missed out on learning how to play card games. This book is very easy to understand and now when I play card games on the computer like Hearts, I now know how to win. The rules for card games have been updated to what average people now currently play.



3. This book has some fun games! It has popular games like Hearts, Rummy, and Cribbage. It also has games that I have always wanted to learn how to play, like Euchre and Canasta. In all, the book discusses over twenty games.

   The layout of the book is a discussion about games. Even if you have felt confused before in reading through card game rules, this book is an excellent introduction to playing card games. It goes over everything that happens in the game, from the rules, to strategy and tips, to history of the game-a fascinating book.

   Because it goes in-depth into each of the games, you will not find one place in the chapter that has a concise list of the rules. The rules are scattered throughout the discussion of the chapter. I found it useful to check a book of rules from the library to read along with this book.




4. Simply put, this is absolutely one of the worst instructional books I've read. If you know nothing (or next to nothing) about card games -- like I still don't after reading this book twice -- avoid this very confusing book.

   Let's look at an example. The following is taken from the first page of the chapter on Hearts:

   "The game [Hearts] revolves around tricks. In a trick, everyone takes turns playing one card. Whoever plays the highest card in the suit led (the suit of the first card played) picks up all the cards played. The person who wins the trick leads anything he likes from his remaining cards to the next trick, and the process repeats itself until all the cards have been played."

   I simply could not understand this paragraph no matter how many times I read it, until I consulted a friend good at Hearts. This is typical of the arcane writing throughout this book. It's simply not easy for a dummies. In fact my friend was totally lost when he read this paragraph. The way he described it to me was just so much clearer.

   The book does cover a wide range of card games. Unfortunately it does a very poor job at teaching you how to play these games. Often the author discusses strategies without even explaining what things are and what the rules are, leaving you totally clueless and obfuscated.

   I haven't read a book as frustrating as this one in a long time. I highly recommend you stay away from it.

5 comments about Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters (D&D Supplement).

1. Tell me one other industry that charges the end user for promotional material. It's a ludicrous notion and I encourage all gamers to think about just how ridiculous it is for WOTC to ask the gamers to buy a piece of promotional marketing. This should be free and readily downloadable.
   
   Sometimes I wonder if their marketing department's goal is to royally p*** off their base to the point that they have driven droves of hard core gamers to other more reasonable products from manufacturers that consider their gamers.



2. This is a nice preview of a really bad upcoming product. The upcoming 4th edition (4e) revision of D&D is nowhere near as refined or as mechanically balanced as 3rd edition (3.5). What 4e has going for it is that it is as close as Hasbro (owner & parent company of Wizards of the Coast (WotC)) can make to World of Warcraft (WOW) on the tabletop. Essentially the game gives players very little to think through and has so much of a 'power-gaming' theme that a full 1/3 of the new experience level spread is devoted to god-like powered characters (literally - read the information on experience levels in "Races and Classes" - the other "Wizards of the Coast presents" 4e preview book).
   
   Save your money and look for a good 3.5 edition book instead.



3. These booklets are for the most part just explanations into the decision making process behind 4thEd - Though interesting, these books are NOT worth the money. Perhaps had they all been wrapped up into one tome I would have considered getting them, but this sort of writing belongs on the internet. I read through this one at the book store and found it to be just another attempt by WotC to make a buck since they have lost much of their cash inflow with the announcement of the new edition.



4. I thought this was the real 4.0 monsters manual but it really was just a preview of 4.0. however I was very satisfied with it because it has opened my eyes to what D&D 4.0 is all about. If you want to learn more about D&D 4.0 with fully committing to buying the core books then check this book out. Of course they are going to make 4.0 seem like the best thing ever, but when you have that in mind you can make your own judgments on what you liked, and see what new and what has changed.



5. Most of the negative reviews don't seem to be about the product itself, but rather what they wish Wizards of the Coast would have done instead.
   
   Like the other 4th Edition preview book, Worlds & Monsters does exactly what it promises: It gives a snapshot of what's to come in the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons, but from the vantage point of September 2007. This time, instead of hearing about various classes and races, we get a glimpse into the assumed setting of the game world. In previous editions, there were these assumed settings as well, but rarely were explicitly articulated.
   
   Even moreso than its predecessor, there's a lot of great pieces of art in this book, very evocative of mysterious lands and ominous vistas. The writing also paints a picture of a world where darkness threatens to swallow the remaining light and where heroes are all that prevents evil from triumphing. Like all the best game books, it makes me want to play and now.
   
   This sort of book has a built-in shelf life, however, and if you don't want to pluck down the bucks on a book that will mostly be obsoleted in a matter of weeks, pass it by. If your budget has the room, however, it's a beautiful and evocative little preview.

No comments about The New York Times Sunday Crossword Puzzles, Volume 26 (NY Times).

3 comments about Random House Webster's Large Print Crossword Puzzle Dictionary.

1. I received this crossword dictionary last week & I am very disappointed in this book. It doesn't have all the words and it did not help my crossword puzzles at all. The letter are very large which helps my eyes.



2. This was for a gift for my mother. She is reaching 90 and her sight is failing but she loves to do crossword puzzles. The last dictionary she had was too small and falling apart. The new one is bigger, easier to handle and better print. She loves it. We also use it alot when playing scrabble, another of her favorite activities. When I ordered it, it came quicker than expected and in perfect shape. I have ordered from Amazon befor and will again. Thank you.



3. This large print crossword dictionary is wonderful for my 85 year old mother. I had not been able to find a satisfactory one at Borders and was grateful to be able to send her this one from Amazon.

5 comments about Paid to Play: An Insider's Guide to Video Game Careers.

1. As a graduate advisor for gaming students at Westwood College Online, I can not stress enough how important and worthwhile this book is. I recommend this book to every student that I work with because it is full of numerous "wake-up calls" and good ideas for breaking into the industry. Check this book out, it will greatly help you in your career search.



2. This book gave me more insight about what the Gaming work world is like than all the other research I did my whole life.
   
   This is an essential read for anyone who wants to design electronic games!



3. Are you considering going into the video games industry, but you want to find out more about it before making the decision to make the jump? This book will give you an honest and insightful look at just about every facet of this competitive industry.
   
   Whether your serious or curious about the games industry, you'll enjoy this entertaining read. I wholeheartedly recommend it!



4. I bought this for my bf because he was thinking of a video game career, he hasn't done anything with this field yet, but he said the book was good



5. This book was extremely informative and answers most of the questions you would have about the gaming industry. I'm hoping for a second edition! Definitely purchase this book if you are considering a career in this field.

2 comments about Make It Memorable: An A-Z Guide to Making Any Event, Gift or Occasion...Dazzling!.

1. Robyn Spizman's newest book certainly lives up to its title! With personal entries that will wow everyone you know, Make It Memorable shows us how to leave our friends and families in awe. From birthday party themes to wedding showers, favors and clever gift wrap, Robyn provides countless examples of how to add that little extra touch to make any event more personal. Lasting memories are created by details--witty catch phrases and attention-grabbing invitations that will have guests still talking about your party at the next big gathering. For readers who want to have it all and find themselves pressed for time, Make It Memorable has solutions for quick and easy details and themes that will dazzle the most discerning party guests. In fact, don't even think about giving a party without this book! Get a copy for yourself, and keep an extra on hand so that when your best friend asks where you get all of your wonderful ideas, you can let her in on your little secret!



2. Grab a copy of this book and keep it handy - this book will surely make a difference in your life! Let me share just one example of how it changed my life. Thanks to Robyn Spizman and her most recent book (she's written several)I have re-discovered the joy in taking the what-I have-come-to-dread annual holiday picture. I have three boys and every year it has been a hassle to get them dressed, combed and smiling for that annual picture. What a hassle - and all just so we could have a picture to send out with our holiday cards - ba humbug! But on page 17, Robyn writes about the growing family who each year poses in an ordinary spot, but makes the photo MEMORABLE because each family member holds something unique and special representing that particular time in his or her life. I absolutely love this idea - one of hundreds in Robyn's book. Never again will I dread the photo session. In fact quite the opposite - I'll be so anxious to see what each of my boys and husband brings with them and from now on I'll focus on the greater purpose of this "memorable" exercise! There's so much more useful and practical information in this book - you'll want to get it right away!

5 comments about Baseball Hacks: Tips & Tools for Analyzing and Winning with Statistics (Hacks).

1. This book's purpose is to show you all the baseball-related stuff that you can do free of charge or close to free. Just as open source projects such as Linux, MySQL, Open Office, and R have made great software freely available, collaborative projects such as Retrosheet and Baseball DataBank have made great data freely available. This book shows you how to take advantage of these data sources to research your favorite players, to win your fantasy league, or just to appreciate the game of baseball even more. Many of the hacks in this book deal with statistics, and others will require that you install a baseball database. The following is the table of contents:
   
   Chapter 1, Basics of Baseball - some easy hacks showing how to watch and score baseball games, and how to find some simple baseball data on the Web.
   Hack 1. Score a Baseball Game
   Hack 2. Make a Box Score from a Score Sheet
   Hack 3. Keep Score, Project Scoresheet-Style
   Hack 4. Follow Pitches During a Game
   Hack 5. Follow the Game Online
   Hack 6. Add Baseball Searches to Firefox
   Hack 7. Find Images of Stadiums
   
   Chapter 2, Baseball Games from Past Years - shows you where to get databases of career statistics and introduces some tools that you'll find helpful in working with this data.
   Hack 8. Get and Install MySQL
   Hack 9. Get an Access Database of Player and Team Statistics
   Hack 10. Get a MySQL Database of Player and Team Statistics
   Hack 11. Make Your Own Stats Book
   Hack 12. Get Perl
   Hack 13. Learn Perl
   Hack 14. Get Historical Play-by-Play Data
   Hack 15. Make Box Scores or Database Tables from Play-by-Play Data with Retrosheet Tools
   Hack 16. Use SQL to Explore Game Data
   Hack 17. Use Microsoft Access to Run SQL Queries
   Hack 18. Get a GUI for MySQL
   Hack 19. Move Data from a Database to Excel
   Hack 20. Load Baseball Data into MySQL
   Hack 21. Load Retrosheet Game Logs
   Hack 22. Make a Historical Play-by-Play Database
   Hack 23. Use Regular Expressions to Identify Events
   
   Chapter 3, Stats from the Current Season - how to get data on current baseball games. It's easy to get data on old games because they're already in databases. It's hard to get data on this year's games because you have to scrape it off the Web. This chapter shows you how.
   Hack 24. Use Microsoft Excel Web Queries to Get Stats
   Hack 25. Spider Baseball Sites for Data
   Hack 26. Discover How Live Score Applications Work
   Hack 27. Keep Your Stats Database Up-to-Date
   Hack 28. Get Recent Play-by-Play Data
   Hack 29. Find Data on Hit Locations
   
   Chapter 4, Visualize Baseball Statistics - R is a free data analysis and visualization tool. This chapter introduces R and shows you a lot of cool tricks that you can use to analyze baseball data with R.
   Hack 30. Plot Histograms in Excel
   Hack 31. Get R and R Packages
   Hack 32. Analyze Baseball with R
   Hack 33. Access Databases Directly from Excel or R
   Hack 34. Load Text Files into R
   Hack 35. Compare Teams and Players with Lattices
   Hack 36. Compare Teams Using Chernoff Faces
   Hack 37. Plot Spray Charts
   Hack 38. Chart Team Stats in Real Time
   Hack 39. Slice and Dice Teams with Cubes
   
   Chapter 5, Formulas - Formulas have a special place in baseball history. Many baseball writers have spent months or years searching for the perfect formula to measure some aspect of the game. This chapter covers a few of the most popular formulas.
   Hack 40. Measure Batting with Batting Average
   Hack 41. Measure Batting with On-Base Percentage
   Hack 42. Measure Batting with SLG
   Hack 43. Measure Batting with OPS
   Hack 44. Measure Power with ISO
   Hack 45. Measure Batting with Runs Created
   Hack 46. Measure Batting with Linear Weights
   Hack 47. Measure Pitching with ERA
   Hack 48. Measure Pitching with WHIP
   Hack 49. Measure Pitching with Linear Weights
   Hack 50. Measure Defense with Defensive Efficiency
   Hack 51. Measure Pitching with DIPS
   Hack 52. Measure Base Running Through EqBR
   Hack 53. Measure Fielding with Fielding Percentage
   Hack 54. Measure Fielding with Range Factor
   Hack 55. Measure Fielding with Linear Weights
   Hack 56. Measure Park Effects
   Hack 57. Calculate Fan Save Value
   Hack 58. Calculate Save Value
   
   Chapter 6, Sabermetric Thinking - discusses many baseball problems, some classic and some new.
   Hack 60. Calculate Expected Runs
   Hack 61. Calculate an Expected Hits Matrix
   Hack 62. Look for Evidence of Platoon Effects
   Hack 63. Significant Number of At Bats
   Hack 64. Find Clutch Players
   Hack 65. Calculate Expected Number of Wins
   Hack 66. Measure Hits by Pitch Count
   Hack 67. OBP, SLG, and Scoring Runs
   Hack 68. Measure Skill Versus Luck
   Hack 69. Odds of the Best Team Winning the World Series
   Hack 70. Top 10 Bargain Outfielders
   Hack 71. Fitting Game Scores to a Strength Model
   
   Chapter 7, The Bullpen - comprises a few random topics that didn't fit anywhere else: fantasy baseball, widgets, and other sports.
   Hack 72. Start or Join a Fantasy League
   Hack 73. Draft Your Fantasy Team
   Hack 74. Make a Scoreboard Widget
   Hack 75. Analyze Other Sports
   
   Appendix A, Where to Learn More Stuff
   Appendix B, Abbreviations



2. I recently purchased this book hoping to be able to apply some of my recent work-related statistics training to baseball stats. It promises step-by-step instructions that 'anyone' can follow. While the instructions are step-by-step, if you have no computer experience outside of Windows (like me) you will almost certainly be frustrated very early on.
   
   My first hiccup was in hack #10, step 4, in which the author jumps to using Unix commands without mentioning that fact. Fortunately, I have a friend familiar with both Unix and MySQL who was able to get me through that particular hack by installing a GUI and importing the files through it. For those who are stumped on that particular step, jump to hack #18, install a GUI, and import the DataBank files as a script using the Query Editor.
   
   I haven't proceeded much farther in the book, largely because I can already see the frustration to come from fumbling my way through Perl. The author gives very rudimentary instructions in the language, followed by more 'easy to use' scripts. The problem is the scripts are based on filenames and information that is more than a year out of date. This will require editing the scripts, something a programming illiterate such as myself will find challenging at best.
   
   So after all these complaints, why did I still rate the book a 3? Because I'm trying to be fair. I've read through the rest of the book without trying to apply anything, and if you are at least familiar with MySQL, Unix, and Perl you'll probably get a lot out of it. The tools presented appear to be very powerful. Also, since I'm familiar with Access, the hacks for using it have been helpful. Unfortunately, the instructions in the book assume a basic level of programming knowledge on the part of the reader, despite the author's contention that they do not. If you can't tell a Unix prompt from a DOS prompt, this book is not the answer to your stat-processing prayers.



3. This book is uniquely geared toward the database-literate and technology-literate baseball fan. The author shows all kinds of ways to gather free baseball statistics over the Internet, load them into databases, and then to build reports and queries against them. If this sounds even vaguely interesting to you, this book will entertain you for hours - and it might help you with your fantasy baseball picks, too.
   
   The book contains 75 hacks to help you acquire and analyze baseball statistics. O'Reilly publishes a whole series of hacks books and in this context, a hack is basically a solution to a problem. It is an idea or piece of code that can be used to further your understanding and knowledge of baseball. If you follow the daily baseball box scores, review historical statistics, or play fantasy baseball, you will definitely enjoy these hacks.
   
   If you are a new baseball fan that likes the game but is befuddled by all the terms and statistics thrown around, Baseball Hacks can help. Even some long-term baseball fans don't understand things like slugging average, OPS, or DIPS. But Baseball Hacks explains them and how to derive them.
   
   If you are an open source proponent, and a baseball fan, you'll definitely want to take advantage of hack #10, which shows you how to get a MySQL database of player and team statistics. Rather use Microsoft Access? You'll want hack #9.
   
   Really. Baseball Hacks is a great book for the database/baseball nerd in all of us. If you are looking for a way to merge your profession with a hobby, look no further than picking up a copy of Baseball Hacks.



4. This book takes a fairly different approach to baseball statistics. The author goes thru and explains most all of the newer statistics. The real meat of this work is teaching the reader how to build his or her own data bases free of charge by importing information from various websites. My sense is that to really benefit from the data base aspects the reader must have a pretty good acumen for dealing with computer programing. Even though the author provides precise step by step help with codes. Still, I would say most baseball fans who enjoy statistics will benefit from this.



5. Baseball Hacks: Tips & Tools for Analyzing and Winning with Statistics (Hacks), which comes with download able scripts from the O'Reilly site, shows how to do SABR metrics like the big league analysts.
   
   If, like me, you wish to use only the free, or open source, programs on Linux, you are in for significant work. I could not get R, (the statistical analysis program much like S-Plus,) to work under Ubuntu. I was able to get it to work under the SuSE version of Linux. If exploring Baseball Statistics is like the Lewis and Clark expedition, Adler is your Pocohantuas!
   
   What satisfaction comes from comparing baseball intuition with computerized analysis of the vast databases of baseball statistics! The American economy would be much more efficient if lessons from Baseball Hacks were applied to enterprise management.

5 comments about Sudoku Easy Presented by Will Shortz Volume 1: 100 Wordless Crossword Puzzles.

1. Not the best Sudoku book I own, but very addicting.



2. This is a nice little book of puzzles. It is as it says it is, easy. Most of the entries have 30+ squares of the 81 with given numbers, so that filling out the remaining squares is a matter of simple logic. Although nothing but the elements of the game are provided as instructions, the ease with which the puzzles are completed helps the beginner learn some of the beginning logic behind doing them. I find I enjoy discovering the "tricks" of finishing these puzzles more satisfying than I would being told before hand what they are. Certainly I learn them more thoroughly by this method, because I have to intuit them; I actually have to understand the "why" behind the manuver. In my opinion this type of learning is inherently helpful in other tasks as well; that it is to say, transferable to ones life settings in other ways--although I have to admit I couldn't tell you specifically how or why. I think getting school age children involved in doing these types of puzzles would be a good idea, since it would help them learn the principles of logical thinking without the pain of word problems.



3. I bought (and eventually burned) another Sudoku book which had very inaccurately grouped puzzles. It's very first puzzle, supposedly "gentle", was in fact pretty difficult. I got very annoyed with the book.
   
   By contrast, this Will Shortz book seems to have done a good job of ranking the puzzles. It's a very simple book. Well done. I've gotten hours of enjoyment from solving theses puzzles.



4. This book offers more challenging puzzles than your average "easy" books. It was great for the addicted!



5. This book helped me figure out Sudoku, I'm a beginner. Looking forward to finishing more puzzles and getting to the next level. I'm addicted!

1 comments about Further Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat.

1. Theoni Pappas continues to provide activities that are fun for student and teacher alike. Students learn math concepts, both simple and advanced, while enjoying the adventures of Penrose, who is one very smart cat.