Book Description
The Pearls Before Swine crew are at it again in their new book, Lions and Tigers and Crocs, Oh My! But even the wonderful Wizard of Oz couldn't help this bunch of merry misfits. Collecting strips from his last two books, Nighthogs and The Ratvolution Will Not Be Televised, cartoonist Stephan Pastis takes you on a magically malicious journey over the rainbow and into the rat trap of Lions and Tigers and Crocs, Oh My! As in the previous Pearls treasury collection, Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic, the comic strips are annotated, as only the smart-alecky, misanthropic-but-lovable Pastis can do. Following his yellow brick road of notes, readers gain great insights into the making of such classic Pearls bits as Rat's stint as a New York Times reporter, Angry Bob, Pig's plastic surgery, the Mallet o' Understanding, Mrs. Bootyworth, and the fraternal order of the Zeeba Zeeba Eetas.
A special bonus feature included in Lions and Tigers and Crocs is "The Good, the Banned, and the Ugly," a section of never-before-published and unedited Pearls strips.
So go, as fast as lightning, to the Emerald City¿or the cash register¿and buy this book, before a twister drops a Box o' Stupid People on you!
Customer Reviews:
Brillant!!.......2007-07-03
Pearls Before Swine is the best comic strip since Bloom County in its prime 15 years ago!
Pastis is a mad genious.......2007-05-09
I am fifty Years Old, and have been reading the daily comics in newspapers since the age of seven. Pearls Before Swine is without a doubt one of the most entertaining strips of all time. Stephen Pastis' wit is razor sharp, I look forward to reading Perls every day, and my of my best friends at work calls me every day and we laugh like all get out. I am glad he left the legal profession, and hope he never stops doing Pearls.
humor for the open mind.......2007-04-12
This book is very good. However it is one that some people need to take with a grain of salt. Stephen Pastis is a very gifted comic strip writer for the fact that he knows the English vocabulary very well and knows how to play with it. Also Pastis likes to venture on some of the territory that other comic strip writers would find taboo which in turn makes him highly controversial which is strange for the fact that he doesn't step to far over lines like most of the comedians now days that don't believe a joke is worthy unless he/she sees someone gag. When it comes the art, I at first was naive enough to take his simple drawings as bad or unpolished drawings when fact most of his strips would be ruined if the drawings were not simple and to the point.
Overall I think this is a book well worth owning and the author might not have the artistic flare as the author from "get fuzzy" or have the same view of comics as Bill Watterson where bigger is better or isn't as warm and fuzzy as "Mutts" and "Family Circus" but he is definitely a gifted writer and I believe and hope will go on for many more years.
I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Pig.......2007-04-04
It's fun to know what's going on in Pastis' mind when he writes. I have all of his books and also cut out his strips from the Norman Transcript.
Laughs For All Ages.......2007-01-21
My fifteen year old son laughed and laughed while reading this book. We all need more laughter and Stephan Pastis' humor reaches a broad audiance.
Book Description
Loserpalooza is Darby Conley's latest look at the interspecies antics of his wildly popular characters Bucky, Satchel, and Rob. At the center of this not-so-warm-and-fuzzy arrangement is Rob Wilco, a single, mild-mannered ad exec. Bucky is Rob's temperamental, buck-toothed Siamese cat with a penchant for mischief, a hatred of ferrets, and a love of rubber bands. Satchel is a sweet but naive shar-pei-yellow-Lab mix who haplessly ends up on the receiving end of Bucky's wayward schemes. An entertaining critique on popular culture and a bona fide hit, Get Fuzzy was named Best Comic Strip of the year in 2002 by the National Cartoonists Society and now appears in more than 400 newspapers worldwide.
Customer Reviews:
Hilarious.......2007-09-14
I have bought all of the Get Fuzzy books, simply because it's a great comic strip. I love the edge this stirp has to it. Connely has the abililty to make jokes that can be funny on a lot of levels. In my opinion it's one of the smartest comic strips out there. It has the perfect blend of slap-stick humor mixed with political, sports, and observational humor. It really has something for everyone.
LoserPalooza is a five star book, as are all the books in the "Get Fuzzy" series.
Another great Get Fuzzy Treasury.......2007-08-11
I won't go into how fantastic this comic strip is, but it is easily my favorite comic strip of all time. :)
For the uninitiated, there are 6 collections so far and three treasuries. The seventh collection is not yet released.
Please keep in mind that each treasury is two collections put together, so as far as I know the treasuries are the same as two of the collections, except I believe the treasuries have the Sunday comics in color while the collections have them in black and white.
In chronological order, the collections are:
1. The Dog is Not a Toy: House Rule #4
2. Fuzzy Logic: Get Fuzzy 2
3. The Get Fuzzy Experience
4. Blueprint for Disaster
5. Say Cheesy: A Get Fuzzy Collection 5
6. Scrum Bums
7. I'm Ready for My Movie Contract: A Get Fuzzy Collection (not yet released)
The treasuries are:
1. Groovitude (encompassing collections 1 and 2).
2. Bucky Katt's Big Book of Fun (encompassing collections 3 and 4).
3. Loserpalooza (encompassing collections 5 and 6).
These comics are beyond hilarious, and I would highly recommend them to pet lovers/haters of all ages. :)
Great book.......2007-07-21
First, I must say that I am a huge Get Fuzzy fan. I have all of the books. This one is one of the better "treasuries". If you aren't a big fan yet, buy it and you will be. If you are already a fan, add the book to your collection. Enjoy.
Laugh out loud..........2007-07-16
I found this collection to be laugh out loud hilarious. I'm not one to do that too often. My only negative comment is that this collection is compiled of Scrum Bums and Say Cheesy. Both of which I have purchased through amazon a few months ago. They neglected to mention that in the product description. So yes it is a great buy, if you dont already own them.
very good purchase for get fuzzy fans.......2007-07-05
This third treasury in the get Fuzzy series is a wonderfully funny collection of daily strips done since the last treasury was printed. Like the previous two, the cartoons are both black and white, and the weekend ones are in glorious color. I had the feeling that some strips were omitted, and had a sense that they were not all in chronological order, but I havn't double checked my collection of cartoons cut from the papers yet - I've been too busy laughing. I do wish that there was a statement telling readers which years and which previous books were included in this third treasury, so I do not miss any.
Much of the humor lately seems written for an older audience, perhaps, but my preteen grandson and I love the Get Fuzzy characters, jokes and short weekly themes. Bucky's sideways glare and the sad wonder of Satch express emotion without a single word needed. This collection is still very fresh and enjoyable, but I agree with a previous reviewer that lately in 2007 the author occasionaly gets too wordy and loses the simple basic focal points that made the strip so incredibly catchy six years ago. May Darby Conley continue the strip, and may be inspired to keep it simple and fun. For the heavy thoughts, I'll read Doonesbury; for years of fun, laughs, and emotions, I'll read Get Fuzzy books again and again - including Loserpalooza.
Book Description
When it became syndicated in 1989, Dilbert struck a nerve with workers everywhere. Through its frames they saw life on the job as they knew it, with all the absurdity, craziness, and dry humor that underlies any living, breathing organization. The fact that the strip focused on a hapless engineer and his cynical dog just made it all the more funny.
Now work life seems downright unimaginable without Dilbert and Dogbert's take on everything from management ill-practices to nonperformance reviews. What Would Wally Do?, AMP's twenty-sixth Dilbert book, delivers that same combination of pain and humor that readers count on. This collection especially highlights Wally, Dilbert's colleague, fellow engineer, foil, and fool.
Wally's that short quirky guy with little hair, plenty of horn-rimmed frames, and almost zero work ethic. After all, who's got time for a job, thinks the self-proclaimed "Lord Wally the Puppet Master," when you're busy surviving the "Mobility Pool," turning your cubicle into a tourist attraction called "Sticky-Note City," and selecting a mail-order bride from Elbonia? Weasel-Boy makes a point of highlighting his poor performance and lack of respect . . .and usually gets another raise for his efforts. Such is life in Dilbert and Wally's world. Such are the laughs in What Would Wally Do?
Customer Reviews:
Disappointing - Scott Adams should be mad.......2007-07-06
Dilbert is a great comic strip, and it's a fine idea to assemble a bunch of funny strips about Wally. I don't even mind that it's all recycled material.
But it's an insult to the reader to assemble the strips so badly. If there are two strips from the same sequence, why separate them by several pages? I'm taking this one back - it doesn't add anything new and it's edited badly.
A book about Wally or by Wally?.......2007-06-28
I can't decide if the poor editing in this book is intended to be part of the humor or not. The "Wally Version 1.0" back story was entertaining and, as always, there were some laugh-out-loud strips in this book.
Unfortunately though, it seems that the publisher assigned some interns to pull out all the Dilbert strips they could find where Wally supplies the punch line and then put them in the book in no particular order. At first, it appears that the strips are being presented in the order they were written or published but that "theme" is not maintained. At one point, there are three strips on one page that are obviously part of a single narrative but the last strip on the page is the "setup" for the punchlines in the first two. This was only the most glaring example of the lack of effort put into this book. Several other related strips appear out of order (in at least one case, separated by about 1/3rd of the book). Other strips are presented without critical context (presumably because the contextual strips don't feature Wally?) so they lose a lot of their punch.
I laughed while reading the book but I couldn't help imagining the publisher was also laughing on his way to the bank with my money.
REVIEW.......2007-04-16
I am a big fan of DILBERT, and I'm sure that you will think this book is hilarious. Wally is probably my favorite character, and Dilbert is my second. Office politics are so funny, and Scot Adams hits them on top of the head.
Almost too funny collection by Scott Adams.......2007-01-15
I'm a fan of comics, but I'm very picky about which ones I choose to love. "Peanuts" will always be the standard, since I followed them since I was old enough to read. Of course, many other classics have hung around for decades, some, like Beetle Bailey, like seeing an old friend, and magnum puke affairs like "Family Circus", which is so square and traditional, you just know they're all neo-con evangelicals.
No strip out there matches day to day the wit, sarcasm and accuracy of "Dilbert", Scott Adams' view of the workplace and all the idiocy that comes with it.
"What Would Wally Do?" celebrates the worst worker in the world (although I know a few who could be serious contenders) or maybe the greatest work avoider of all time, depending on your point of view.
Adams is always on the money when it comes to the stupidity of corporate America, and it's scary because in so many cases it's true, especially in the suck-up world of management, where snitching, butt kissing and treachery are more important for success than dependability, hard work or intelligence. Wally, Dilbert's co-worker, knows the system and how to beat it.
All of the "Dilbert" books are brilliant and will make you laugh out loud and best of all, will assure all of us that in the world of the workplace, when it comes to dealing with morons and slackers, we are definitely not alone.
The History of Wally.......2006-10-20
In the introduction Scott Adams talks about his time at Pacific Bell and the management decisions that resulted in the real-life Wally, an employee that worked hard to be in the bottom 10% so that he could be laid off with a substantial severance package. From there we move to the strips which cover most of the range of the Dilbert Years right from the early, unpolished days of Wally. Reading the collection we can see hoe the coffee mug carrying character has developed over the years.
Since this is a Wally retrospective there are no real story arcs in this collection. Instead, we get the strips that specifically showcase just how low Wally can sink. There are a small handful that seem like they don't belong to the collection but most give us the unvarnished truth about our favorite comic slacker. If you are a fan of Wally then you will need to read this almost-biography. General fans of the strip will still like the collection as it also showcases how the strip as a whole has changed over all these years. Check it out.
Book Description
Rat, Pig, Zebra, and Goat, the central characters of Pearls Before Swine, are back in their new book, Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic, the first Pearls Before Swine treasury-supersized for your enjoyment. But this is no ordinary cartoon treasury. Like the influential Beatles album that inspired the book's title, Sgt. Piggy is full of surprises. In addition to collecting in one volume all of the Pearls cartoons that appeared in BLTs Taste So Darn Good and This Little Piggy Stayed Home, cartoonist Stephan Pastis takes readers on a VIP backstage tour of one of the most successful new comic strips in newspapers today. In Sgt. Piggy, Pastis explains the genesis of Pearls (hint: it didn't begin at an artist's easel), why he was initially reluctant to show it to newspaper syndicates (and the surprising reason he changed his mind), the unexpected responses from readers to his work (oh, the letters), which Pearls strips worked and which ones didn't (and how he would have corrected the ones that didn't). The result is a rare and revealing glimpse into the world of Rat and Pig, Goat and Zebra. Full of humor and insight, sardonic asides and unexpected truths, Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic is a book that comics fans everywhere can enjoy anytime-even when they're 64.
Customer Reviews:
Totally Awesome!.......2007-05-30
I've been a Pearls Before Swine fan for a while, and I love this book! The comics are funny and realistic (rather), though a bit dark. But it's still worthwhile. I like how Stephan Pastis puts little comments under some comics. It's nice to see some insight from the author. The beginning is good as well, with Pastis telling how he got into the comic business. Overall, I highly recommend this book to Pearls Before Swine fans, and to anyone looking for a funny (but not always happy) comic.
Great book!.......2007-05-03
I always start my mornings out with a nice healthy strip of Pearls. This first Pearls treasury is a must for all fans! It contains all the strips from the first two books (BLTs Taste So Darn Good, This Little Piggy Stayed Home), but the Sundays are in color and Pastis even includes some personal comments for select strips. The comments offer a different way to look at the strip, giving insight to what the author was thinking or how the audience reacted to the strip.
Best Comic Strip Out There.......2007-01-24
The first Pearls comic I've ever saw was the strip where Pig made Fidel Castro cry and I've been hooked ever since. I've had this collection for about a year and it still makes me laugh. A great gift for friends or yourself, an instant classic.
Hilarious!.......2007-01-20
This book is fantastic. I am a Pearls reader, but anyone with a dry, sardonic sense of humor will like it. For Pearls fans, it has an introduction and bonus comments by the author, which are illuminating and very interesting. I laughed out loud at least fifty times while reading it, then I bought it for my brother, too. Highest recommendation!
See my review of Lions & Tigers & Crocs .......2007-01-05
The second (or first, I forget which) anthology of PBS and I loved it.
I have the strip about women and shoes posted on the fridge so my wife can see it every day. It hasn't stopped her from buying shoes but it makes me laugh every morning.
Book Description
In Mutts, Patrick McDonnell strikes a delicate balance between lighthearted fun and responsible social commentary through the exploits of Earl the dog and Mooch the cat-now chronicled in their 16th book collection.
Earl and Mooch, along with supporting sidekicks Shtinky Puddin', Sourpuss, Guard Dog, and Crabby, humorously approach a range of subjects-from napping and daydreaming to summer vacations and Christmas anticipations-in addition to tackling important issues like responsible pet ownership, animal shelters, and saving our endangered species. Syndicated since 1994, Mutts appears in 700 newspapers in over 20 countries and receives at least one million visits each month to its official Web site, www.muttscomics.com.
Customer Reviews:
Totally wonderful.......2007-08-07
McDonnell surpasses even himself in this whimsical, lovely collection of animal friendly cartoons. A must own! I bought others for relatives and friends. You should, too.
Great Mutts book and the Sundays are in Color.......2007-07-06
This is McDonnell's second Mutts collection (the first being Everyday Mutts) where he has both color Sunday strips and daily black&white strips. This format is really fantastic, and I hope he continues to do his collections this way. Plus there's some added artwork that you won't find anywhere else. Mutts is my favorite comic strip and this collection does not disapoint; Mutt's is getting better all the time.
Book Description
Get Fuzzy collections are flying off the shelves: More than 500,000 copies have been sold to date. And Bucky Katt's Big Book of Fun, the second full-color treasury of the outrageous antics featuring Bucky, Satchel, and Rob, is sure to attract more readers of the strip voted Best Comic Strip of 2002 by the National Cartoonists Society.Behold the world of Get Fuzzy. Meet Bucky Katt, the Siamese smart-ass who coexists under protest with Satchel Pooch, the sweet-tempered shar-pei/Lab mix, and Rob Wilco, the human who keeps the refrigerator stocked. Each day in 400 newspapers around the world readers visit the place where cats, dogs, and humans meet and learn a little bit more about each other-not necessarily by choice. By turns hilarious, poignant, and even human, Get Fuzzy is the smartest, funniest comic strip in newspapers today.
Customer Reviews:
A Get Fuzzy Reading Guide.......2007-08-11
I won't go into how fantastic this comic strip is, but it is easily my favorite comic strip of all time. :)
For the uninitiated, there are 6 collections so far and three treasuries. The seventh collection is not yet released.
Please keep in mind that each treasury is two collections put together, so as far as I know the treasuries are the same as two of the collections, except I believe the treasuries have the Sunday comics in color while the collections have them in black and white.
In chronological order, the collections are:
1. The Dog is Not a Toy: House Rule #4
2. Fuzzy Logic: Get Fuzzy 2
3. The Get Fuzzy Experience
4. Blueprint for Disaster
5. Say Cheesy: A Get Fuzzy Collection 5
6. Scrum Bums
7. I'm Ready for My Movie Contract: A Get Fuzzy Collection (not yet released)
The treasuries are:
1. Groovitude (encompassing collections 1 and 2).
2. Bucky Katt's Big Book of Fun (encompassing collections 3 and 4).
3. Loserpalooza (encompassing collections 5 and 6).
These comics are beyond hilarious, and I would highly recommend them to pet lovers/haters of all ages. :)
YES, YES, YES.......2007-04-09
O.K., first things first. Yes, this book is a compilation containing The Get Fuzzy Experience:Are You Bucksperienced and Blueprint For Disaster collections. Yes, the only difference is that the Sunday strips are in color. Yes, purchase of this might be just for completionists. What's your point? I bought it for the same reason that I bought every book put out by Larson, McGruder, and Watterson. Enought said.
Too much fun, but a bit was reused.......2007-02-15
My copy of the book has some pages duped, but the funnies are still there. He's a great cartoonist.
Whip cream, WORD!.......2007-01-19
I just want to echo that all people (and Animals) who enjoy Bloom County, Opus, Calvin and Hobbes, Douglas Adams, Lacrose, and Baby Blues (in rememberance of single days) that I know love this series.
NOTE: this book has the same items as "The Get Fuzzy Experience" and "Blueprint for Disaster". So you may be disappointed, unless you collect anything FUZZY.
Great gift for any Get Fuzzy reader.......2007-01-04
I got this for my wife who is also a GF fan, and she loves it. This collection has a lot of older strips, and the art has changed significantly since then. Good coffee table fodder.
I don't know if Conley does this with the covers for all of his collections, but he pays a little homage to fellow cartoonist Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine) by including Rat (a main character from "Pearls") as the pilot of the airplane flying behind Bucky and Satchel. Another GF collection, "Scrum Bums," has the name "DILBERT" written down the side of a rugby ball on the cover.
Yes, I'm a dork.
Average customer rating:
- Wonderful
- Books, Books, Books
- A page turner...
- A Book Lover from Birth
- For real pundits and book lovers
|
A Passion for Books: A Book Lover's Treasury of Stories, Essays, Humor, Lore, and Lists on Collecting, Reading, Borrowing, Lending, Caring for, and Appreciating Books
Harold Rabinowitz , and
Rob Kaplan
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0812931122
Release Date: 1999-10-06 |
Book Description
"When I have a little money, I buy books. And if any is left, I buy food and clothing."
--Desiderius Erasmus
Those who share Erasmus's love of those curious bundles of paper bound together between hard or soft covers know exactly how he felt. These are the people who can spend hours browsing through a bookstore, completely oblivious not only to the passage of time but to everything else around them, the people for whom buying books is a necessity, not a luxury.
A Passion for Books is a celebration of that love, a collection of sixty classic and contemporary essays, stories, lists, poems, quotations, and cartoons on the joys of reading, appreciating, and collecting books.
This enriching collection leads off with science-fiction great Ray Bradbury's Foreword, in which he remembers his penniless days pecking out Fahrenheit 451 on a rented typewriter, conjuring up a society so frightened of art that it burns its books. This struggle--financial and creative--led to his lifelong love of all books, which he hopes will cosset him in his grave, "Shakespeare as a pillow, Pope at one elbow, Yeats at the other, and Shaw to warm my toes. Good company for far-travelling."
Booklovers will also find here a selection of writings by a myriad of fellow sufferers from bibliomania. Among these are such contemporary authors as Philip Roth, John Updike, Umberto Eco, Robertson Davies, Nicholas Basbanes, and Anna Quindlen; earlier twentieth-century authors Chris-topher Morley, A. Edward Newton, Holbrook Jackson, A.S.W. Rosenbach, William Dana Orcutt, Robert Benchley, and William Targ; and classic authors such as Michel de Montaigne, Gustave Flaubert, Petrarch, and Anatole France.
Here also are entertaining and humorous lists such as the "Ten Best-Selling Books Rejected by Publishers Twenty Times or More," the great books included in Clifton Fadiman and John Major's New Lifetime Reading Plan, Jonathan Yardley's "Ten Books That Shaped the American Character," "Ten Memorable Books That Never Existed," "Norman Mailer's Ten Favorite American Novels," and Anna Quindlen's "Ten Big Thick Wonderful Books That Could Take You a Whole Summer to Read (but Aren't Beach Books)."
Rounding out the anthology are selections on bookstores, book clubs, and book care, plus book cartoons, and a specially prepared "Bibliobibliography" of books about books.
Whether you consider yourself a bibliomaniac or just someone who likes to read,
A Passion for Books will provide you with a lifetime's worth of entertaining, informative, and pleasurable reading on your favorite subject--the love of books.
A Sampling of the Literary Treasures in A Passion for Books
Umberto Eco's "How to Justify a Private Library," dealing with the question everyone with a sizable library is inevitably asked: "Have you read all these books?"
Anatole Broyard's "Lending Books," in which he notes, "I feel about lending a book the way most fathers feel about their daughters living with a man out of wedlock."
Gustave Flaubert's Bibliomania, the classic tale of a book collector so obsessed with owning a book that he is willing to kill to possess it.
A selection from Nicholas Basbanes's A Gentle Madness, on the innovative arrangements Samuel Pepys made to guarantee that his library would survive "intact" after his demise.
Robert Benchley's "Why Does Nobody Collect Me"--in which he wonders why first editions of books by his friend Ernest Hemingway are valuable while his are not, deadpanning "I am older than Hemingway and have written more books than he has."
George Hamlin Fitch's extraordinarily touching "Comfort Found in Good Old Books," on the solace he found in books after the death of his son.
A selection from Anna Quindlen's How Reading Changed My Life, in which she shares her optimistic view on the role of reading and the future of books in the computer age.
Robertson Davies's "Book Collecting," on the difference between those who collect rare books because they're valuable and those who collect them because they love books, ultimately making it clear which is "the collector who really matters."
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful.......2007-09-12
This book is so much fun to read. This is a must read for anyone who loves books and who, like me, continues to buy books despite not having enough time to read the ones already owned. If you fit that description you will repeatedly see yourself in the quotes, anecdotes, and stories presented within this book.
Books, Books, Books.......2005-11-29
This anthology celebrates the physical book, not the idea of books, or reading books, or writing books. There is something special about shopping for books, whether in a used bookshop, a megastore, or at the library. It is really a different pleasure than the actual reading of the book.
I found this book in my local used bookshop, in the new arrivals section. The paperback cover is a bit curled where someone opened it and left it. Someone marked the lists of great books, indicating which they had read, or perhaps which they hadn't yet read. I didn't mind the marks, in fact I enjoyed comparing notes with this unknown reader.
In addition to the lists and the cartoons, and the biblio-bibliography (not a misprint), I enjoyed many of the articles and essays, especially the more recent ones. A favorite was Harold Rabinowitz's (one of the editors) story of the day his friend didn't win the Pulitzer Prize.
I agree with another reviewer who wished that a few women had been included among the contributors here, there is an atmosphere of gentlemen's club here. And I'm afraid I really don't understand the compulsion to collect books. I love to read, but once I've read a book, out it goes. Of course, there are a few exceptions: if I am sure I'll want to read it again (unfortunately, most of those are library books), or if I want it for reference. Most books are not hard to find and I don't see any reason to keep a book for years on the offchance I'll read it again. If I eventually do decide to reread it, I can easily find another copy.
With that in mind, having enjoyed A Passion for Books, I will take it back to the used bookshop and trade it in for credit.
A page turner..........2003-05-16
Harold Rabinowitz and Rob Kaplan have compiled a wonderful collection of stories, essays and poems that anyone with a passion for books is sure to find wonderful.
Ray Bradbury, in his foreword, helps to explain this passion...
Including contributions from current and previous writers who have explained their passions for books, this collection is witty and intelligent, and perhaps a bit over-the-top for those who do not share a similar passion.
Umberto Eco explains both how to organise a public library, and how to justify a private one. On the former, suggestions such as exceeding complex call numbers, mysterious locations of books and periodicals, and the attitude of librarians to patrons...These would seem enough in themselves to justify a private library, but Eco has yet a further purpose. A private library ensures that one can discern in visitors if they have a sufficient feel and appreciation of books...Further comment showed astonishment, in that my reviews (several hundred strong by that point) didn't include many 'cheap' books, but where all 'high priced hard backs' -- I do confess that a larger proportion of my income goes toward book-buying, but then I consider, I will keep these books all my life...Even the cost of a volume (and thankfully, most of my books are only half that amount), amortised over time, becomes a very good deal indeed; far less expense in time and petrol than running to the library to then be disappointed because the volume isn't there.
However, one of the sticky issues of having a private library becomes lending privileges. Christopher Morley wrote a wonderful thanksgiving to one of his returned books...
Rabinowitz and Kaplan include such treasures as an Ode by Petrarch, entitled My Friends, which takes some careful reading to tell that it is an ode to books, and not to people. The editors include various top-ten lists (Norman Mailer's ten favourite American novels, W. Somerset Maugham's ten greatest novels -- these two lists share one book in common, namely Herman Melville's Moby Dick) and various top-one hundred lists. Various essays on the history of book writing and book production are included to give a sense of substance to the mystery that is the love of books.
For any bibliophile, this book is a necessity.
A Book Lover from Birth.......2003-03-05
Although I do not consider myself obsessed with books, I have loved reading since I figured out how. Even when I was in elementary school, I frequently got in trouble for reading during class. Thankfully, with age this hasn't changed. I prefer reading to every other pasttime, and I just don't get people who don't like to read.
I purchased this book sight unseen completely on the basis of its title; I was not let down. I think that the authors/editors did an excellent job of compiling essays, articles, and lists, about the greatest pasttime a person could have; unfortunately, it will never take the place of night baseball. I found several of the articles highly amusing, especially the one story about a man willing to kill for one particular volume. I also found quite a few good reading recommendations through this book. A PASSION FOR BOOKS should not be read straight through like an average novel; it is meant to be absorbed little by little so that the same passion starts to sink in.
You must remember that the title is A PASSION FOR BOOKS, not A PASSION FOR READING. This book is all about books -- good ones, bad ones, weird ones -- and the people who adore them. It extols the virtues of books.
For real pundits and book lovers.......2002-09-13
I could not put this book down, I treasure the stories and content. The way I got to look into others live that also love books made me feel a part of a family that had this special content to contend with. I recommend it as light reading, bedside, to children, to read front to back non-stop or any other possible way. Any way it is read does not matter cause its there to be read and that is what makes it all that much more wonderful. It fuel my passion to read more that ever. I am a happier person for having this in my collection, for having read it and for having giving it to others to read.
Book Description
Debuting in 1999, Get Fuzzy has rocketed to the top of the charts. Now appearing in more than 200 newspapers, including the San Francisco Examiner, the Chicago Tribune, the L.A. Times, the Boston Globe, and the Detroit Free Press, Get Fuzzy has become a hit cartoon with its bitingly funny portrait of single life with pets.And why not? The laughs come fast and furious. Get Fuzzy features Rob Wilco, a single, mild-mannered advertising executive who's the so-called guardian of Bucky and Satchel, anthropomorphic scamps that still live by their animal instincts. Bucky, a temperamental cat who carries a boom box and goes on spending sprees, definitely calls the shots in this eclectic household, while Satchel is a kindly canine with a sensitive soul who tries to remain neutral, even though he bears the brunt of his feline companion's mischief.Between the three of them, the Wilco household faces a whole host of trials and tribulations that classify them as family. Satchel wants his boundaries respected. Bucky refuses to eat vegetables but insists on snarfing up Rob's plants. Rob tries to meet women, but his pets continually subvert his efforts. In every frame, Get Fuzzy depicts the hilarious war between the species, giving the animals an equal footing in hilarious one-upmanship.Get Fuzzy has become the comic strip for everyone who loves their pets with an attitude. That said, Groovitude is Get Fuzzy at its finest.
Customer Reviews:
Funny!.......2007-09-27
these books just crack me up, my only complaint is they are too short! I never want to put them down, and read the whole thing in one sitting.
Another great Get Fuzzy Treasury.......2007-08-11
I won't go into how fantastic this comic strip is, but it is easily my favorite comic strip of all time. :)
For the uninitiated, there are 6 collections so far and three treasuries. The seventh collection is not yet released.
Please keep in mind that each treasury is two collections put together, so as far as I know the treasuries are the same as two of the collections, except I believe the treasuries have the Sunday comics in color while the collections have them in black and white.
In chronological order, the collections are:
1. The Dog is Not a Toy: House Rule #4
2. Fuzzy Logic: Get Fuzzy 2
3. The Get Fuzzy Experience
4. Blueprint for Disaster
5. Say Cheesy: A Get Fuzzy Collection 5
6. Scrum Bums
7. I'm Ready for My Movie Contract: A Get Fuzzy Collection (not yet released)
The treasuries are:
1. Groovitude (encompassing collections 1 and 2).
2. Bucky Katt's Big Book of Fun (encompassing collections 3 and 4).
3. Loserpalooza (encompassing collections 5 and 6).
These comics are beyond hilarious, and I would highly recommend them to pet lovers/haters of all ages. :)
Hysterically Funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2007-03-16
Darby Conley has successfully introduced the next great strip in the vein of "Calvin & Hobbes" meets "The Far Side". This strip is a riot even if you hate pets - I have copies of many of the strips on my office wall. Buy this "Treasury" version as it contains all the strips from the previous 2 "Collections" and is only a little more expensive.
Fuzzy!.......2007-01-10
This book rocks! Get Fuzzy is so good and Groovitude has some of the best comics in it!
Cat + Dog + Man + Darby = Hilarity.......2006-01-27
This is unabashedly my favorite comic strip. Yes I have owned a cat and a dog, at the same time, but that is not the reason that I love this strip. I love this strip simply because it makes me laugh out loud at every panel. There is no set-up, set-up, punch line in the Peanuts/Dagwood strips of yore. This strip is fresh and funny.
Darby has taken a cliché situation, and given it new life. This is not Garfield, Marmaduke, or Heathcliff. This is Bucky and Satchel, a conniving Siamese cat and a dimwitted pooch, who were taken in by Rob, their soft-hearted keeper. This is the "Seinfeld" of comic strips. There is no ongoing plot, just the characters acting out what is their usual, and hilarious, behavior. Just as "Seinfeld" made occasional references to past episodes, so does this strip. The memory of Darby is long, the opposite of many other contemporary comic strip artists. The funniest strips are the ones that relate back to past strips.
Therefore, the treasury is the ideal place to start if you have just become a fan of Get Fuzzy. It contains mostly strips from the first two books and is a great place to start to learn all about the early adventures of Bucky and Satchel and Rob and Joe Doman.
Book Description
Tadpoles in the toilet, backseat border wars, emergency homemade diapers . . . welcome to another year in the life of the never-a-dull-moment McPherson family. While sister Zoe and brother Hammie's budding sibling rivalry reaches new heights (and volumes), baby Wren is making great strides of her own. With the advent of "the climbing phase" no coffee table, countertop, or bookshelf is too high.
Bound into this beautiful treasury is a bonus feature: A special magnet for framing your favorite Baby Blues strips on your refrigerator!
For the past 16 years, the team of Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott have given readers a too-funny-to-be-true, too-real-not-to-be insider's view of the American dream. They get the details and dilemmas so right, in fact, that it's a wonder they haven't been indicted for domestic surveillance.
Baby Blues is syndicated in over 1,000 newspapers worldwide with a readership of 40 million-most of them operating on very little sleep.
Customer Reviews:
Baby Blues never end........2007-05-09
Eventhough our children are in their teen years, the Baby Blues comic strips still make me laugh until my belly hurts which is ironically healing! Laughter is good medicine!
LOL.......2007-04-18
Laughing Out Loud is not something I am known for, but I got Lots Of Laughs form this book and am having to resist buying more of the series - and will probably end up caving to the temptation to L O L more.Framed!: a Baby Blues TreasurySomething Chocolate This Way Comes: A Baby Blues Collection (Baby Blues Scrapbook #21)
Book Description
I am Jeremy and I am, unfortunately, 15 years old. A high school freshman with, thank God, four good friends but other than that a seriously boring life in a seriously boring town made livable only by the knowledge that someday in the far-off future at least this will all be over and I'll turn 16 and get a driver's license, which I so richly deserve, and then life will finally be good. Which it isn't now, although it isn't completely bad since I've got best friends (Hector and Pierce) that I can totally trust (seriously), Sara, a girlfriend (sort of) that loves me (sort of), a band that's beginning to come together, no joke, and sounds fairly okay but would sound even better if everybody would just show up for practice for once on the same day at the same time, which, by the way has only happened once. Oh, and my parents are seriously ruining my life. This Zits treasury combines strips from Thrashed and Pimp My Lunch. That means fans can once again enjoy such Zits classic moments as the joys of instant messaging, the proper way to apply deodorant, how to put on an attitude, and much, much more. This is Zits at its best.
Customer Reviews:
Laugh out loud funny.......2007-09-01
If you have a 15 year old son (or know someone who does) you'll think the authors have you (or them) on cadid camera. So many times my husband and I looked at each other AFTER we finished laughing as if to say, "that just happened here!".
We used to clip the comic strips to send to our son when he was in college. Turns out his roommates' parents were clipping them and sending them, too!
Now that he is a recent graduate and living far away from home, he still gets a few clippings from time to time.
This book is wonderful when you need a laugh!
3.5 Stars: A Bit of a Letdown.......2007-07-11
I have all the Zits' treasuries, and while I enjoyed this latest one, have to admit that it was the least entertaining of the bunch. Some of the jokes are retreads of previously done jokes from other books, and unlike previous collections there weren't any strips that segued together to form a storyline. I was also disappointed to see so many one panel strips, like Family Circus.
Entertaining, but not as good as previous compilations.
Jeremy sulks again.......2007-04-10
This is a great compilation of Jeremy's antics and that of all his friends who thrive to drive parents to the edge. It's hilarious as always, and anyone with a teenage son can relate to the moods and to the parents' frustration. It's fun and quick reading and when you get to the end, you beg for more. The wit and sarcasm is classic Zits.
Another fabulous book by Jerry Scott!!!
agreed.......2007-01-20
Thanks for the warning on the overlap. I am getting a little tired of that.
What books are in each collection needs to be noted.......2006-12-08
I agree with the previous comment. I LOVE Zits, but have spent a fortune and waaaay too much time, trying to make sure my sons have each issue
without duplicating them. Each collection needs to clearly indicate on the front which sketchbooks are contained therein - only a few of them do this.
Books:
- Little Black Girl Lost 3
- Marilyn Monroe: The Complete Last Sitting
- Mother Angelica's Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality
- Murder in Dealey Plaza: What We Know Now that We Didn't Know Then
- My Life So Far
- Our Dumb Century: The Onion Presents 100 Years of Headlines from America's Finest News Source
- Our Hearts Fell to the Ground: Plains Indian Views of How the West Was Lost (The Bedford Series in History and Culture)
- Passing Through Paradise
- Phillips' Book of Great Thoughts & Funny Sayings: A Stupendous Collection of Quotes, Quips, Epigrams, Witticisms, and Humorous Comments. For Personal Enjoyment and Ready Reference.
- Pokemon Fire Red & Leaf Green (Prima Official Game Guide)
Books Index
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