5 comments about The Craft of the Japanese Sword.

1. This book shows how a sword is made following the traditional metods. I loved it!



2. This book is an excellent introduction to Japanese swordmaking by looking at modern masters and how they make swords. If you are just beginning an interest in Japanese swords and how they are made, this is the book for you. The book takes you through the process of forging the blade, polishing, making the habaki and finally the scabard. This book is highly recommended!



3. It's a good book, good information!
   Photos should be color, that's the only thing I don't like!
   But anyway, I like it!



4. An excellent book. It has all you need to know to either understand the craft of the sword or to begin your own explorations into the craft. Or both.Craft of the Japanese Sword is well written and illustrated, with an emphasis on the artisanship and detail of each step in creating these beautiful works. Ken wa hito nari.



5. An excellent book, getting a bit old now but still extremely relevant.
   
   Well written with excellent descriptions and photos.
   
   Good to see Yoshindo Yoshihara is still alive, but he looks a bit older than the book photo!
   
   I throughly recommend this book to anyone starting out in Japanese swords.
   
   Steve

5 comments about Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.

1. There are so many quilt blocks to choose from. None of the block patterns are in color, but it will still be easy to choose appropriate fabrics to use.Each of the black and white block designs are illustrated very well in great detail utilizing various textures of shading to represent the types of fabrics used.The wide variety of dark and light contrasting designs in each block effectively indicate a vast assortment of fabrics such as prints,florals,checks,stripes,solids,dots,and so many more.In fact,these black and white illustrations might actually make it easier to choose fabrics to use, because they are so straight foward and distinct.



2. This books has loads of information, but it is in black and white and the fonts make it difficult to hold one's attention. I would not purchase this again.



3. I agree with those who have reviewed before me who believe that, as a reference, this book is ideal and a must-have for your collection. WARNING: I JUST got my hardcover volume and excitedly started thumbing through it - anxious to identify what the scores of quilt blocks I have purchased at farm and estate auctions were named - only to find that pages 241 through 256 were missing. To add insult to injury, I've also found that (presumably to make-up for the loss of the earlier 16 pages) there are two groups of pages 257 through 272, repeated one-after-the-other. So, I must go through the process of returning this copy, hoping that the NEXT one I receive will be correct. OVERALL - this reference is an amazing feat and kudos to Ms. Brackman and those who assisted her. This post is merely a long-winded warning to CHECK YOUR BOOK ONCE IT'S DELIVERED!



4. I think those who gave this book a low rating were unclear on its intent and purpose. This book is NOT a how-to book, or a book of pretty pictures on how to use quilts in decorating. It is not a book on how to design a quilt, although it's very useful for designers with the savvy to imagine or play with colorway variations, and to figure out how to assemble blocks, how to calculate patch sizes, and how to figure yardage requirments.
   
   This book is a reference primarily on how to identify quilt blocks. It is encyclopedic in its listing of just about every block pattern published in the US during the time period it covers. If you're trying to figure out the name of a block you've seen, or if you're trying to get your creative juices flowing, Brackman's book is just the ticket. I feel it's an essential part of the library of any designer or anyone with any interest at all in quilting history.



5. I was thrilled to find this book, but extremely dissapointed to find that more than a half dozen pages were missing. Tried ordering another, but the same was true for the second purchase.

1 comments about Rings: Jewelry of Power, Love, and Loyalty.

1. This book has a lot of pictures and gives a brief history of the rings. I can look through this book again and again and never get board. I would recommend this book. Well worth what I paid.

4 comments about To Have and To Hold.

1. Absorbing and beautifully written, with a great bibliography to lead you on in your travels through this fascinating genre. Blom does for the general subject of collecting what Basbanes did for bibliophilia in A Gentle Madness. Well worth the read.



2. At first I thought this was going to be a survey of some eccentric collectors in history, on which is does not disappoint, but it turns out to be a lot richer and contain some real pearls of wisdom about life in general, and flashes of historical insight.
   
   Reading through the chapters of this book was a lot like rummaging through a private collectors cabinet of curiosities. The chapter titles alone don't provide direction and only after a few pages does it begin to reveal its treasure. Chapters cover aspects of collecting as diverse as: people who collected experiences with women (Casanova), the collecting of body parts (religious relics), collecting memories, American billionaires who bought up European heritage (JP Morgan, Hearst), collectors of mass-produced items (milk bottles, food wrappers), Princes and Kings such as Rudolf of Hapsburg (17th C) who filled his castle with the worlds greatest collections and slowly went mad, collecting as a madness, as a substitute for love, as a form of autism, as psychology, as crime - and in the end, as a warning to all those who take it too far.



3. This is a book that takes you on a fascinating journey, is an enjoyable read and is also historically well-researched, so it can therefore be used by the student or academic as a useful reference. I came upon it quite by accident but now find it a very useful addition to my bookshelf. The story of the Ashmolean Museum's foundation was one of my particular favourites and really made my blood boil! Such stories are not often told about museum collections! I take my hat off to the author!



4. 
   In this excellent book,Philipp Bloom tackles a subject that knows no bounds.Anyone who has been a collector of anything knows what a madness collecting can become. Blom covers the subject from the earliest days ,when the idea of collecting was only something that was in the world of the extremely rich and powerful;and covers how through history it has changed to become a pursuit by anyone and at any level;and with the objects being collected being endless.
   Over and over again ,throughout the book ;we see that no matter how great and extensive a collection is;the owner of the collection must face the reality of death,and the collection of objects must pass on as well.The book is loaded with maxims that apply to all collecting;
   
   Just a couple are;
   
   "In order to take objects out of circulation or to devote oneself to finding useless things,one has to be able to afford the time and resources to do so."
   
   "The most important object of a collection is the next one."
   
   "Whatever we collect,we have to kill."
   
   "Can one be a collector without collecting?"
   
   "Show me your library and I'll tell you who you are."
   
   "Every passion borders on chaos,that of the collector on the chaos of memory."
   
   "Those who own more find dying harder."
   
   Reading this book is somewhat like visiting "The Smithonion";but only having a couple of hours to do so.It is well written,so it is still a pleasure.It is filled with interesting stories,unbelievable pursuits,amazingly addicted people,and something new,interesting and different on every page.
   In the last 200 years,collecting has changed so much that it is something that can ,and is, taken up by the "common man" There are no rules and no limits as to what can be collected;and the only limits are time and imagination. Of course,money can be an issue,but not a necessity.
   One of my favorite books is "Cadallac Jack" by Larry McMurtry,about an antique buyer and collections in the southern United States.It is filled with eccentric collectors.Imagine a collector in Texas who filled his house with bird nests. A great read for any collector.
   I have collected several things over the years.Stamps,in my youth.Rocks,Minerals and Fossils,Puzzles,Yo-Yo's,and of course books. I retired at 56,and my "collections" give me endless enjoyment.
   I think the thing that is most thoughtful about this book is the question "Can one be a collector without collecting?" Many people build collections such as playing different golf courses,visiting different countries,sport events,etc. I am also an avid Birdwatcher.I have seen 598 different birds in North America. We call that a "life List" and it is as much a personal collection as someone who attempts to the most World Series or any other events. I consdider my Bird Life List just as much of a collection as my other collections.
   Blom has also included copious notes that give the reader a wealth of references if he wants to dig deeper into subjects he mentions in the book.

2 comments about The Official Beckett Price Guide to Football Cards 2008, 27th Edition (Official Price Guide to Football Cards).

1. I was kind of dissapointed. It was confussing to find the right place for the right card. It was sent on time.



2. Like other reviews I find that some cards are simple to find, others are impossible. They may be listed, it has over 600 pages, but the way they are categorized is awful. I cant even find one of the cards shown on the cover! A 2001 Refractor reprint of a 1976 Walter Payton RC. Where is it?

3 comments about Gemstones: Understanding, Identifying, Buying.

1. If you need a book on Gemstones, this is the one. Awesome pictures and great detail on discribing the many different gems around the world. If you are a collector of gemstones, this is a MUST HAVE!"



2. A pretty good book, especially the opening sections about the history of gemstones and the methods used to identify diamonds.



3. I bought this book and received the volume immediately. The book is slender but has a great set of pictures of the different gems. The book is set up like a dictionary with a discussion of each major (and many minor) gem usually with a review of how to identify it and how to distinguish some of the more common fakes.
   
   My only objection is that the book wasn't long enough.
   
   I liked the book a lot and would recommend it to anyone who loves gems.

5 comments about Collectible Glassware from the 40s, 50s and 60s (Collectible Glassware from the Forties, Fifties, and Sixties).

1. This is another important addition to my library of collectible, kitchenware and depression glass books.

   More than 40 new patterns are included and pricing and many pictures have been updated. I like the alphabetical listing because it is easy to find the patterns I'm looking for.

   As an avid collector, I find this book invaluable in helping me pay reasonable prices for my collectible glassware.

   I would give this book a 5 star rating if it had more information on Fenton's Hobnail pattern. This pattern is often wrongly identified with other similar hobnail glass pieces and it would help me immensely if the pictured pieces showed the manufacturer's number.

   I heartily recommend this book to collectors and dealers.




2. I always find gene florence book the most helpful for research. I did find somethings that where discontinued I would have liked referenced. I still rely on his resources.



3. Gene Florance is, I think, the best person to go by, when it comes to depression glass and collectible glassware. his books are like the bible to me.
   one of the best things about Gene's books, they are easy to follow and the pictures are AWESOME! I'm a better person to compare pictures than try to read what someone is telling me. so thats why, I dont leave home without him/it!



4. This guide was great if you don't have any other volumes. The pricing so far seems to be very accurate to the market. If you have another earlier edition of 40's 50's 60's there are not very many new patterns in the book. Great photo reference.



5. I found the book to be very informative about the collectibles I have interest in collecting. It even gave me insight on others that I have seen and may consider collecting. Great, Great book!!!

5 comments about Improvisation Starters.

1. This book is an incredible value. There are, as the title indicates, hundreds of different improvisations. There are improvisations between coworkers, spouses, friends, salespeople/customers, managers/subordinates, and many more. There are also sections where scenes for one individual are introduced. In addition to the different improv situations, the author also includes instructions for teachers or instructors. I am not all that experienced with improvisation but this book makes it easy. Two thumbs up to Philip Bernardi for his excellent contribution to this area.



2. This wasn't very useful to me. It contains merely lists of possible conflicts and conversations one might base an improvisation around. The ideas arn't particularly imaginative and are nothing I or my students couldn't come up with ourselves.



3. If you're thinking of buying this book in preparation for comedy improv classes, you're off track. You'll learn in the first weeks of your class that you discover what your scene's about as it unfolds, not a second before. That's what's funny about comedy improv, watching players discover in the moment what the scene's about. And the game is usually something little, something accidental, like everyone's wearing too much jewelry on the job. That's it.
   
   You and your partner figure out as you go what the game is in the scene based on the information you uncover, step by step.
   
   I keep cringing when I think about kids buying this book because instead of learning to explore character, activity, emotion, dialogue and stage picture as a way to build a throughline from scratch, they're being handed pre-packaged "plots" which burden the player with required attitudes and, saps the life and comedy right out of everything.
   
   The only way these scenarios may work is if you teach the kids to take the opposite point of view to what's expected. "It's 3AM and you were expected home from your prom three hours ago. That's my boy!"



4. Philip Bernardi's "Improvisation Starters" is a fantastic collection of scenes, moments, and games that will provide an excellent foundation for improvisational work, rehearsal, and performance. A must have for actors, teachers, and improvisors.



5. This book has a HUGE variety of improvisation starters which not only provide a scenario, but also provide the actors with an objective toward which to work. This has really helped my students focus their work and stay on track with their improvisations. The only thing that would make this book better is if there were some scenes set up for more than two actors, which would make it more useful for larger group/class sizes (it takes an awfully long time to get through a class full of students two at a time!), but some of the two person scenes can be adjusted to allow for four actors instead, so I would not rule out this book simply for that reason. This is a great resource for anyone teaching improvisation!

5 comments about Halloween Merrymaking: An Illustrated Celebration Of Fun, Food, And Frolics From Halloweens Past.

1. Diane C. Arkins' Halloween Merrymaking: An Illustrated Celebration of Fun, Food, and Frolics from Halloweens Past (2004) offers a poignant but hopeful glimpse back into American high culture and the "Golden Age of American Halloween," which the author locates between 1870 and the early 1930s. Today, many deny that such a high culture ever existed in this country, or, if willing to make such an admission, will tar that culture as "elitist" and "oppressive."
   Yet, at present, Americans everywhere crave a richer, more substantial, and refined existence than the mediocre model that the current popular culture promotes and sustains. Halloween Merrymaking looks back on a time when neighborhood and community, good manners and retail integrity, decorum and propriety, dress and composure, breeding and ingenuity, were all essential and unavoidable aspects of daily American life. Such cultural elements certainly represented strictures in some cases, but the rewards for such discipline was enormous: a thriving, evolving, positivistic, and multi - tiered society that strove to refine and improve itself in any number of ways.
   
   Stressing above all that Halloween in the Golden Age was "hardly a monster's ball by any stretch of the imagination," Arkins focuses on the holiday as it was celebrated in magazines and periodicals of the era, which subtly dictated the civilized manner in which this most anarchic of American holidays was enjoyed by parents and children alike, whether at family gatherings, church socials, classroom frolics, bridge parties, or comparatively chic adult soirees. While children's party treats include the expected cakes, donuts, and candies brightly wrapped in autumn colors, a typical adult menu unselfconsciously suggests Oyster Canapes, Lobster Bisque, Waldorf Salad, and Broiled Squab.
   
   Though the preface states that Halloween Merrymaking is not a "how - to manual" in the traditional sense, the book has sections lovingly devoted to "old fashioned" invitations, interior and exterior decoration, party favors, preparation of the party table, menus, costuming, appropriate music, and suitable games such as apple bobbing, nutshell auguries, tea leaf divination, and other forms of fun and fortune telling that have long roots in British history and folklore.
   
   Though the finest commercial Halloween decorations, party favors, and costumes of the period are featured and emphasized, there are also numerous suggestions for making comparable items from orange, black, and white crepe paper and cardboard, standard kitchen vegetables, and other readily available materials. Ingenuity, enthusiasm, and a happy "can do" attitude are underscored throughout. America was largely an agricultural society at this time, a fact the book reflects in a number of meaningful and practical ways.
   
   Halloween Merrymaking includes period photographs of parties and costumed partygoers, magazine covers and entire magazine articles (such as 1906's "A Jolly Forest Halloween" and 1909's "Under The Pumpkin Vine At Halloween"), and a wide variety of imaginatively depicted period reproductions of witches, jack o' lanterns, black cats, ghosts, harvest moons, owls, and fairies.
   
   Highly recommended to those seeking inspiration and a cure for cynicism, apathy, and the present third - rate norm.



2. I awaited the release of this book with keen anticipation, and overall, find it a delightful retrospective of Halloween celebrations of days gone by. The excerpts from vintage magazines and party guides are charming. My chief complaint lies with the design and treatment of the visuals in the book - they are painfully small. At such a reduced size, they don't allow the reader to fully appreciate the charm of the vintage advertisements, postcards, invitations and photos of costumed revelers.



3. A most thoroughly enjoyable book about Halloween. Wonderfully written and beautifully illustrated it takes you back to a bygone era of Halloween celebratons. A must have book for anyone who is interested in vintage Halloween.



4. Halloween Merrymaking: An Illustrated Celebration Of Fun, Food, And Frolics From Halloweens Past
   by Diane Arkins is a very fine year-round family or community library acquisition illustrating the Halloween celebration of fun, food and holiday partying. This is no repeat history: material from a range of the vintage party guides and magazines that guided hostesses in their party-giving endeavors is presented and showcased in a lively survey of festivities and small color photos.



5. We Americans tend to be somewhat near-sighted in our view of Halloween in thinking that our celebration of the day is relatively a modern fascination. And, in truth, Halloween has boomed in the past twenty years to become second only to Christmas in decorating and celebrating the season. As Diane C. Arkins shows in this wonderful book, however, Halloween has been widely celebrated for well over one hundred years and this book concentrates on what Arkins calls Halloween's golden age from the 1870's to the 1930's. The book is filled with hundreds of vintage photographs, illustrations, and magazine reprints from the period.
   
   Halloween was not the ghoulish, gory holiday that it is today, but rather a day of revelry when people would hold parties for adults as well as children. Throughout the book writers of the times dispense advice, squarely aimed at women, on how to throw a successful Halloween party. We begin with invitations with some classic examples of period artwork depicting pumpkins, witches or black cats. Showing far more thought, as well as sophistication, magazines even gave advice on what to write, often favoring catchy little rhymes.
   
   Halloween decorations became widely available during the 1910's and Halloween Merrymaking presents hundreds of photographs depicting these vintage decorations. Illustrations and photos show various themes of the times. Interestingly, many of these decorations are being recaptured these days by modern crafters. The fantastic crepe` paper and paper Mache decorations are a collectors dream!
   
   Party favors presented to children or adults were staples of Halloween get-togethers in the golden age. A popular idea of the 20's and 30's was "Jack Horner Pies" in which a centerpiece stood in the middle of the table with ribbons pulled to the end of the table, separating it into wedges, one for each guest. Within each wedge the hostess places small gifts or party favors such as fortunes, written in milk on paper so they would be invisible until held under a light, The fortune would hen be placed inside a walnut shell.
   
   The magazines of the era also offered advice on what to serve for your party and included such forgotten delicacies as Little Goblin Stuffed Eggs and Moon Sandwiches. The book even provides sample menus for different types of parties such as formal, informal, or children's. Next up is the entertainment with suggestions on music and dances and games, as well as advice on costumes. During the 20's and 30's occultism was extremely popular and the book offers numerous fortune-telling and divination games that people could play at their parties.
   
   Finally Arkins reprints several full, vintage articles on Halloween from magazines such as Woman's Home Companion, Woman's World, and Ladies Home Journal. You really get a sense after reading the book just how much Halloween was enjoyed back then without the rampant commercialism of today. This is a nostalgic walk back in time to an era of simplicity and fun. It's fun and educational to see how our grandparents and great-grandparents may have celebrated Halloween decades ago. Highly recommended!

5 comments about Antique Trader Antiques & Collectibles Price Guide 2007 (Antique Trader Antiques and Collectibles Price Guide).

1. This book works well to get a general idea of the value of items, but it has some bare spots. They cover some items in great detail and others in very general terms.
   
   I would have liked it better if there was more discussion about what causes the variation in prices of certain categories.



2. As always a useful reference for the collector. My wife and I buy and sell glassware as well as other small collectibles and antiques and find this to be one of the more useful general guides for pricing and identifying a range of items.



3. The weighty yet portable Antique Trader guide Antiques & Collectibles Price Guide 2007 may not fit in a jacket pocket but it will easily be a take-along to any garage sale or flea market for avid collectors. Public libraries strong in collectibles price guides and private collectors alike will find this annual reference follows the market, offering up the latest prices and some 5,000 new color photos and upgrades to this latest edition.



4. The 2007 Edition of Antique Trader Antiques & Collectibles Price Guide is superb. Filled with gorgeous color photography and to the point descriptions, this modern guide has become a leader in the field. I highly recommend that you add this guide to your library without delay!



5. This book is chuck full of antigues with prices and pictures, I highly recommend it!!!