5 comments about Antique & Collectible Fishing Rods: Identification & Value Guide.

1. Got this book to help me understand more about a number of rods bought at auction. Although helpful, it spoke more about what a perfect rod should be. It has a price guide, but limited pictures to cross reference to. Most collectors will not run into the perfect rod so it was hard to compare. Book is not tailored for the person new to collecting rods. It would be better for the new person with more pictures and more educational background.



2. This book is a great reference for the serious rod collector or antique dealer that is in need of expert information about evaluating old bamboo rods. The author includes a good sampling of close-up B&W photographs covering many of the historic rod makers. Old patent drawings are used to explain various rod designs and component functions. A comprehensive chapter is devoted to common rod defects to look for and how each one might lower the collectible value of a rod. The back of the book contains a 32 page rod price guide listing which is helpful in formulating an approximate appraisal of value. A very worthwhile addition to any tackle collector's library of reference materials.



3. I have 7 antique/vintage fishing rods and none of them were in there. Also, the prices were separate from the descriptions so I couldn't tell what I was pricing.



4. This book was perfect for the avid rod collector. The photos and detail were great and easy to compare your own rods to theirs listed in the book. Highly recommend.



5. While Homel's book is helpful in giving a general idea of a fishing rod's value, there are some gaps in information. For one, the material is four or five years old and collectible rods have skyrocketed in price in that time frame. So the dollar amounts placed on rods are not very realistic. Secondly, I have found that there are sizes and models of fly rods that are not included in the listings of the various rod makers or manufacturers. This can be a little frustrating when one has purchased, or is about to purchase a rod and cannot find any reference to it in the book.

1 comments about Furniture for the 21st Century.

1. This is a richly illustrated, panorama of contemporary English furniture makers and their designs. Several pages of color photos are devoted to each artesian. If there is a focus it is on lamination and the blending of several materials with wood, such as metals and glass. The quality of the illustrations could allow one to faithfully adopt proportions and curves to ones own designs. I look foreward to similar books dealing with other cultures and countries.

2 comments about Film Posters of the 40s: The Essential Movies of the Decade (Film Posters).

1. Just think about it - what are the movies you enjoy watching over and over again? "Casablanca" will probably top most lists. Which movie does your family gather to watch each holiday season? The feel-good "It's A Wonderful Life," of course. "Citizen Kane" is probably in the running for one of your all-time favorites, as is "Gilda" with an unforgettable performance by Rita Hayworth.

   As you may know, all of these films are from the 40s, often called the golden age of Hollywood. And now, in this collectible volume are found the stunning movie posters that served as advertisements in those days. There's "Key Largo" with Bogart and Bacall about to lock lips; "The Maltese Falcon" boasting the sinister stare of Peter Lorre, and what was steamier than "The Postman always Rings Twice" with Lana Turner and John Garfield?

   "Film Posters of the 40s" holds 118 full color illustrations of these posters highlighting your favorite stars in their most memorable roles. It's a must-have for film and entertainment buffs.

   - Gail Cooke




2. This marvelous collection of movie posters from the '40s sure brought back a flood of memories to this older viewer (71). As with all collections of this type, there will be many movies, that are favorites of other readers, that have been left out, but likewise, there are several that I was not familiar with myself. Some of these, especially in "Film Noir", I will be looking for to view in the near future. The printing and binding of this volume are very well done, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the subject of movies. I also have several other books in this series that are equally good. All recommended.

1 comments about Great Cruise Ships and Ocean Liners from 1954 to 1986: A Photographic Survey.

1. This is a great book, and a must for any ocean liner buff! With great pictures, and good linear notes, this, along with the others in the set, are some of the most comprehensive and excellent books out there. One of my favorites!

   ENJOY!

No comments about The Olympic Peninsula: The Grace and Grandeur.

1 comments about Weaving a World: Textiles and the Navajo Way of Seeing.

1. Like Lila O'Neale in her early twentieth century study Yurok/Karok Basket Weavers, the authors of this book, Willink and Zolbrod, have set about to "read Navajo rugs" through the eyes and minds of Navajo, mostly older weavers and their families. What we, the readers, get is a somewhat anecdotal filtering of ideas, recognitions, myth and oral history that indeed does lend surprising information about some of the designs.
   
   But, the real jewels of this book are the weavings themselves. Forty separate color plates show rug after rug, over half predating 1900, from the School of American Research Collections in the Museum of New Mexico's Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Each is magnificent in its own way. Accompanying text relates a separate story for twenty-seven of them, organized into: The Mythic Memory; The Collective memory; Ceremonial Practices; Harmony and Disharmony; and A World In Motion.
   
   What I personally love about this collection is the insight into balance, detail, symbolic representation and the fact that each weaving is strictly individual. A great reference for weaver and collector alike, my only criticism is that there aren't more close-up photos.

5 comments about How to Get Organized When You Don’t Have the Time.

1. This book is well written, easy to understand and right on target. I am a person who works with computers on a day to day basis, and it is exactly what i have been looking for. If you have no time, no energy, no clean area in your home, have a ton of things to do, and are about overwhelmed by everything that you need to do, and everything that you want to do. GET THIS BOOK!!!!!!! It will definately help. The hardest part is picking it up, after that you will be on your way.. :-)



2. I pastor a church, sit on a management committee for a ranching operation, coach soccer, raise four kids with my wife, and I felt buried underneath the load. Before this, I was president of a bank for nearly eight years. I never got organized. I had become completely unproductive and couldn't get out of the trap. Now, I have established goals and projects with deadlines and I'm meeting the deadlines!! The office is ORGANIZED for the first time in my life. I'm out of the trap!! Thanks Stephanie.



3. If you want to be told that you are a procrastinator and that you need to make a schedule to find the time to get organized than this book is for you. But if you are truly disorganized, sitting down and making a schedule is the last thing you will find the motivation to do. The author tells you,"don't procrastinate and get organized, set goals and make a schedule," but she doesn't offer any real techniques to help, and she attributes laziness to messiness. I recommend
   you read, "The New Messies Manual," by Sandra Felton. She takes the time to explain why you are disorganized, and HOW to get organized. She explains how to change your thinking to help you change your habits. Unfortunately, I expected more of that from this book. It is a waste of money and very dissapointing.



4. This author has some great ideas, but the author includes too much fluf. Whenever a person writes a book, they have to include fluf, but I find myself uninterested in the fluf.



5. I don't believe I've ever read such an unhelpful organizing book. Much of the book is spent on describing the assumed state of the problem, rather than on offering solutions to the problem. (Do I really need half a chapter to tell me that my kitchen is disorganized? If I didn't already know that, why was I reading the kitchen chapter?) The remainder of the "stuff" organization chapters (as opposed to the time management chapters in the first section of the book) consists of lists of tips. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these tips are things that most of us could have figured out on our own. "Write down what you're running out of BEFORE you run out of it." We don't necessarily all DO this, but I don't think we needed help coming up with the concept. Moreover, most of the methods the author recommends will only work well for a small segment of the population - that is, those who don't actually struggle with disorganization but who have simply not gotten around to getting organized before. For example, the method given for organizing a room is to dump EVERYTHING into the middle of the room, from all of the drawers, shelves, etc., and start from there. For some people, this may work great. For many of us, it would result in being immediately overwhelmed, crashing and burning when barely into the project, ending up with a much larger mess than what we started with, and, possibly, giving up on any further attempts to get organized.
   
   Besides the lack of helpful instruction offered, I did not care for the author's tone/attitude. The entire thing - especially the first section - made me feel as though I was constantly being beaten over the head. The author continually railed against the "excuses" I was supposedly making for not getting organized and why I needed to just suck it up and do it. Well, contrary to the author's perception, I had every intent of "sucking it up" and doing the job - that's why I bought the book and was reading it. She also operates on the assumption that everyone has loads of disposable cash lying around and that everyone's lifestyle is - or should be - like hers. ("When have you ever used more than one paper bag in a month?" How about when we had the newspaper delivered every day and we used paper bags for holding the newspapers and taking them to the recycling point? Does the author truly believe that NOBODY, ANYWHERE has a use for more than one paper bag per month?) She recommends paying someone else to do nearly every imaginable task, and her not-so-creative solutions to most organizing problems are to just "buy such-and-such a gizmo." If I HAD plenty of money to buy every organizing gizmo on the market, I WOULD NOT BE DISORGANIZED in the first place.
   
   Finally, she routinely discourages respect for the other people in our lives. If someone is late for dinner, she says don't heat up his dinner, because his own poor time management is not your problem. So if my hard-working husband is late for dinner because a job took longer than anticipated I should leave him to fend for himself because it's technically "not my problem"?
   
   I would skip this book, in favor of others whose authors are a little more knowledgeable AND gracious.

No comments about The Ties That Blind: Neckties 1945-1975 (Schiffer Book for Collectors With Value Guide.).

5 comments about A Movement in Time With Breitling & Rolex: An Unauthorized History.

1. I bought the book for the history on Breitling and that is exactly what I got. I have never read just an in-depth history on the company. The sections on how to identify fake watches I found exceptional. We seem to have so many replicas flooding the market nowadays. A new up to date book was needed. I have read the reviews here and see some are unhappy with the picture quality. I don't think they are the best, but this is the history of the watches and has pictures of early pioneers and watch wearers such as the red baron and his tri-plane. I doubt they had digital photography back then,
   I was not previously into 'Ball' watches but since reading the history I have now purchased one. I agree with some reviews here, it is not as good as the Hess/Dowling book, but good value for money.



2. The good points: The history on Rolex and Breitling I found enjoyable to read and very interesting. I liked the way the author matched certain events in history with the watches. The sections on how not to buy a fake will be helpful to me. The sections on Cartier and Omega I found interesting reading but this was not why I purchased the book.
   The bad points: Some of the picture quality was poor; this was a disappointment to me and let the book down.
   I was going to give it a 3 star but the jokes on watches at the back did make me laugh so I give it 3.5 stars.



3. If you are a knowledgeable (or even semi-knowledgable) watch person wanting to add to your library (or a person who thinks that a book, any book, should be proofread before being published) avoid this book - the pictures are worthless (I should have known by the out of focus cover shot), the writing/grammar beyond terrible and you will not learn one thing new. Plus the paper quality is below that of a 49 cent coloring book at Wal-Mart.
   
   Save your money and buy anything else.



4. There are not many (Three) books on Breitling watches. This has to be the best I have read, Yes it is the most current but it has the full Breitling watch history.
   It is a shame the author also included Rolex watches. I feel the Rolex is just hype and does not come close to Breitling. They just have a better marketing team.
   The book starts of the Breitling history when Leon Breitling was a child working in the cottage industry making watch parts for watch companies. It then expands throughout the life of Leon, his son and Grandson. To where the company is today. Throughout the various stages of world history, War and the birth of flight the author has included the watches and some very nice pictures of early pioneers wearing Breitling watches.
   I found the additional information on Cartier and Rolex interesting but it was not needed.



5. Book was shipped out and arrived in 3 days.
   Poor picture quality was my first impression, a few grammer errors noted.
   The history on Breitling and the role the company played during the ealry days of flight and both World Wars was very informative. It picked up here. Nothing new on the Rolex history. "How to spot a fake" was well written and I am sure will help many readers.

No comments about Outhouses.