Book Description
Here is the book that Tolkien fans have needed for half a century--a detailed, book-length chronology of J. R. R. Tolkien's complex tale. Whether you are a serious Tolkien fan or simply someone who enjoys reading the story over and over again, this is the book for you. It's the first totally new reference for The Lord of the Rings since the 1970s.
Beginning over 1400 years before the major events in Tolkien's epic, it describes, year-by-year, the amazing and imaginative background history that Tolkien created for his masterpiece. Then for the main narrative, it becomes a day-by-day reference, describing what each character does on that day and all the places where those events are described in Tolkien's writings. You can find out, for instance, what Merry and Pippin are doing as Sam perpares rabbit stew on the morning of March 7.
Probe deeper into Tolkien. See why someone as serious as Gandalf was interested in fun-loving Hobbits. Discover an exciting new plot, based on Tolkien's notes, that begins when Aragorn captures Gollum. Follow along as the Black Riders and Gandalf race for the Shire. Decide for yourself whether Sauron and the Ring have any ties to Hitler and Stalin. Explore what Tolkien believed about nature and technology.
A few facts illustrate how helpful this chronology is. Most of narrative is a deliberately confusing sea of next days and third days that leave readers as confused as the tale's main characters.The middle 60 percent of The Lord of the Rings gives the current date only once. In the narrative as a whole, the date is given only 23 times, or once for every 43 pages, and most of those come when the plot is moving slowly. That's why those who want to dig deeper and understand better what Tolkien was saying will find this book a must-have.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Resource.......2006-12-10
Perry has done a wonderful job in untangling the very intricate tale woven by J.R.R. Tolkien. Of particular help are the copious margin notes which reference exactly where Perry is drawing the information contained within that section of his book. The commentary made by the author is a welcomed pause for reflection on the events that are taking place and keep the book from being a mere listing of dates and events. I teach a course on J.R.R. Tolkien and have found Untangling Tolkien a valuable resource, since it covers the entire history of Middle-earth: what comes before The Hobbit and what takes place after The Lord of The Rings. Bravo Mr. Perry, I look forward to reading your other books.
Knits up the ravels.......2004-10-31
An amazing accomplishment by a dedicated Tolkien fan.
That is how I'd sum up the book Untanging Tolkien. Michael Perry has first unraveled all Tolkien's "dates" -- which can be extrapolated from phases of the moon -- and then knit them together again in a cohesive outline, presented in much greater detail than Tolkien's own timeline (found buried in Appendix A of LOTR). By incorporating information from other Tolkien writings, the author of Untangling Tolkien collates additional facts about all the characters and the circumstances surrounding the War of the Ring, folding them all into this detailed chronology. He includes material that sheds light on possible parallels between Tolkien's work and events that were contemporary, and he provides original commentary that suggests some additional motivations for Tolkien's characters. Sidebars offer references to every source for the information presented and for each conclusion the author has drawn.
I found the format, with quick-reference bulleted lists and clearly delineated sections and subheadings, well-organized and easy to use.
NOTE: I read the third printing that was published in May 2004. Apparently the author has corrected many of the errors that David Bratman objected to (below). You won't find a better overview or a more throrough treatment of time and dates in LOTR than Perry provides in this book.
A Radiograph of LotR........2003-12-27
This book is layed out as a chronological record of the events covered by Tolkein's masterpiece with prefaces that explain the calender system created by Tolkein and its conversion to our more mundane (and possibly inferior) system. The type is clear, and margin citations clear and present for every entry. It's primary utility, at which it succeeds admirably, is as a kind of radiograph of Tolkein's work that reveals its astonishing complexity more clearly and allows one to admire, and more importantly, explore the book itself more quickly, easily, and deeply.
The book also contains copious notes inline with the chronology. These vary from informative to tangential, but at worst do not detract from the book's primary function. Mr. Perry is perhaps foremost as Lewis scholar, and so C.S. Lewis, a close acquaintance and friend of Tolkein, makes a number of appearances. Also making appearances in the notes are William Shakespeare and Winston Churchill.
All in all, a unique book which will save anyone who wants to do an in depth study of LotR a lot of time.
Splendid Tolkien Reference Work.......2003-12-21
Superb, exhaustive chronology of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings saga. Perry does a superior job in untangling a number of thorny chronological issues in Tolkien's narrative, and he employs some fine literary detective work in reconstructing what events are happening across Middle Earth on any given date. Especially admirable is his reconstruction of how much moonlight there was during each day of Frodo and Sam's journey into Mordor.
In addition to chronology, Perry supplies a lot of background information about Tolkien's themes and sources, as well as biographical tidbits about Tolkien. For example, there are fascinating discussions of Tolkien's views of technology, freedom, and totalitarianism. Perry also discusses Tolkien's stance toward the misuse of Germanic myths by the Nazis.
This is a great resource for Tolkien-lovers everywhere.
a giant mass of undifferentiated trivia.......2003-12-21
A year-by-year, later day-by-day, chronicle of the war against Sauron from the founding of the Shire to the glorious conclusion seems at the outset like a good idea. Perry calls LOTR's Appendix B, the Tale of Years, "far from complete" but it covers the whole period: what he means is that it's not detailed enough for him. Appendix B won't tell you which day Sam cooked coney for Frodo; Perry will.
But alas, the book does not stop there. The entries are written as bullet lists like a PowerPoint presentation, and many add pointless little flowcharts such as two-generation family trees. They reduce Tolkien's magnificently complex subcreation into a giant mass of undifferentiated trivia. And each yearly or daily entry comes with its commentary, whether directly relevant, side points, broader considerations, or dogmatic essays in applicability. The unrelieved banality and inappropriateness of these must be read to be believed; as also the author's clumsy, grammatically inept style, and his smug superiority to the characters. (He frequently criticizes the good guys' "blunders," all of them more complex than he implies.)
There's actually some good chronological analysis and speculation hiding in here. But how can someone who knows his Tolkien that well say that the wizards were Valar, or that Rohan gave Isengard to Saruman (it wasn't theirs to give, and Saruman was made its warden, not a freeholder), that Boromir and Faramir had a sibling rivalry (Tolkien specifically says not), or suggest that Galadriel should have sent daily eagles to check up on the Fellowship?
These are not isolated examples: the bloopers and misconceived ideas go on and on. The whole book is like that: it has the soul of a PowerPoint presentation. I can't recommend it on any terms.
Average customer rating:
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Classic Movie Monsters
Donald F. Glut
Manufacturer: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0810810492 |
Average customer rating:
- A comedic delight filled with sassy pop culture kitsch
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Scooby Doo Movie II: Monsters Unleashed: Junior Novelization (Scooby Doo)
Scholastic
Manufacturer: Imagination Studio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
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ASIN: 1400085411
Release Date: 2004-02-24 |
Book Description
Scooby-Doo and the gang are all back to tackle another mystery with the return of the original cast including Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, and Linda Cardellini. Joining the gang will be guest stars Alicia Silverstone and American Idol Ruben Stoddard.
The kids from Mystery, Inc. are about to receive their highest honor yet . . . a lifetime achievement award from the Coolsonian Museum! The whole town of Coolsville has turned out to thank the gang for unmasking so many scary monsters.
But--ruh-roh--in the middle of the awards ceremony, Scooby and Shaggy accidentally set all the monsters free again! Now all of Coolsville hates them. Worse, the gang has got to capture all the mosters they've ever faced . . . at the same time!
Customer Reviews:
A comedic delight filled with sassy pop culture kitsch.......2004-05-08
Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed is the unabridged audio CD novelization of the second and extravagantly entertaining Scooby-Doo motion picture. The familiar gang of Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo are invited to an award ceremony at a grand museum -- but when our klutzy heroes accidentally release a flood of monsters, there's hellhounds to pay! A hilarious, comedic delight filled with sassy pop culture kitsch, Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed is comprised of two CDS, and has a running time of 2 hours 26 minutes.
Customer Reviews:
This is a good book.......2000-04-04
I liked this book a lot. I liked that there are pictures and there are definishions for words that you may not know. There are also parts where wishbone tells you about things. He tells you about places and interesting facts that go along with the book. The scientist that makes the monster has to go and find it because it is killing people.
Average customer rating:
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Classic Movie Monsters
Glut
Manufacturer: The Scarecrow Press Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IOWVD2 |
Book Description
This Companion is designed to provide the enquiring music lover with helpful insights into a musical style that recognizes no contradictions between the accessible and the sophisticated, between the popular and the significant.
Book Description
This Companion is an essential guide to all aspects of the organ and its music. The early chapters examine the instrument's history and construction, and consider the scientific basis of its sounds, pitch and tuning. Central chapters investigate the practical art of learning and playing, and introduce the complex area of performance practice, while the final section explores the vast repertoire of organ music, by country, focusing on a selection of the most important traditions. The contributors are all experts in their field, making this the most authoritative reference book currently available.
Customer Reviews:
Better than I'd expected.......2005-01-20
The comments from "a reader" (anonymous and pseudonymous reviews should be discouraged as a matter of Amazon.com policy; in non-life-or-death matters like critiques of musicology texts, surely the courage to sign your name is a prerequisite?) indicated a rip-off. In fact this publication turns out to be useful far beyond the confines of Dutch and Central European baroque topics. There can be no argument with complaints about unevenness. One section (the chapter on Austrian / South German baroque composers) is written with genuine panache; another (on Franck, his precursors, and his successors in the Gallo-Belgian romantic repertoire) is almost equally worthwhile; the advice on optimal practice methods for organists is uniformly well-judged; alas, all too many of the other sections read like - and probably were - extracts from humdrum doctoral dissertations.
The treatment of Spanish and Portuguese 16th- and 17th-century organ writing is, at least to the non-specialist writing this review, largely incomprehensible (and where not incomprehensible, is dubious: can it really be true that the "royal trumpet" stops which characterized Iberian organs, and which so well suit 17th-century Iberian "battle music", are an 18th-century invention?). A more obviously encyclopedic approach, such as Julie Anne Sadie employed when she edited Cambridge's COMPANION TO BAROQUE MUSIC, would have been superior to what we have here.
Still, here is one church organist who feels very grateful to this tome's staff-notation passages for having introduced him to valuable pieces by Teutons (the mid-17th-century's J. K. Kerll), Americans (the late-19th-century Dudley Buck), and Englishmen (somebody named Henry Smart, who apparently died in 1879), hitherto mere vaguely-contemplated names, or else, in Smart's case, not even that. Better to treat this COMPANION as a goad to the performer who seeks fresh and agreeable sheet music, rather than as a reference resource.
Only a companion to baroque organs and uneven........1999-08-05
Those who are used to the Oxford series of "Companions" will be surprised to find this Cambridge Companion is not an encyclopedic reference book. It is a collection of articles on a broad range of topics--construction, esthetics, performance technique and the repertoire--with a very uneven level. Some articles address the basics (sit up straight while you are playing) while others assume that you know everything already (off hand references to organs you should know about.) Almost all the organs discussed in any depth are the German-Dutch baroque instruments and their modern replicas, with just a few words on large romantic instruments. In sum, it may be an interesting "read" for the connoisseur, but it isn't very useful as a reference for the interested amateur.
Book Description
The Cambridge Companion to the Piano is an informative and practical guide to one of the world's most popular instruments. This collection of specially commissioned essays offers an accessible introduction to the history of the piano, performance styles, and its vast repertoire. Part 1 reviews the evolution of the piano, from its earliest forms up to the most recent developments. Part 2 explores the varied repertory, up to contemporary music, with a final chapter on jazz, blues and ragtime. The Companion also contains a glossary of important terms and will be a valuable source for the piano performer, student and enthusiast.
Customer Reviews:
GREAT BOOK FOR KNITTERS.......2007-08-06
As with all Kaffe Fassett books, this volume is luxuriously illustrated, inspirational, and chock full of fabulous projects. It's great for beginners and experienced knitters alike.
Book Description
In this revised edition of her best-seller, noted sales consultant Linda Richardson offers salespeople the tools they need to successfully use customer-focused, dialogue selling. Featuring real-world dialogue samples, helpful dos and don’ts, self-tests, checklists, and other useful tools, this guide offers insight on every aspect of face-to-face selling, from the initial introduction through the needs identification and the negotiation of terms and price to the successful close, with prime emphasis on the six critical skills necessary to the dialogue-driven sales call: presence, rapport building, questioning, listening, product positioning, and checking.
Download Description
In this revised edition of her best-seller, noted sales consultant Linda Richardson offers salespeople the tools they need to successfully use customer-focused, dialogue selling. Featuring real-world dialogue samples, helpful dos and don'ts, self-tests, c
Customer Reviews:
Great advice (if you can assimilate it).......2001-05-25
The problem with any "how to sell" book like this is, until you can integrate the advice given here so that it comes naturally to you, you will sound as mechanical and forced as some of the "tellers" Richardson criticizes. I used to sell big-tiicket business-to-business, and I can say the advice here is timeless: engage your customer, identify what your customer's needs are and position your product so that the customer realizes that your product meets their needs. Of course, if the customer doesn't need your product, then maybe you need to learn some of those "hard-ball sales" techniques (or find a better product!). No amount of customer empathy, listening, or product positioning will help you overcome a customer-product mismatch. Which brings me to a point: although Richardson argues against this, I think playing hardball has a place in negotiations; remember, the party you are negotiating with doesn't always have to feel warm and cozy inside in the process. A true persuader will know when to be soft and fluffy and when to apply the pressure.
Also, the whole paradigm-replacement languuage ("we are moving into a new age of selling...") is corny. The advice Richardson is giving is not new or revolutionary, as she claims. But she has succeeded in organizing a lot of really good sales principles in a clear and coherent way which can easily be appreciated by readers.
I read this book together with Richardson's "Selling by Phone" and frankly, one is just a rehash of the other. Richardson copied entire paragraphs from one in writing the other. So save your money and buy just one of the two. But if you are an accidental salesperson, or even if by trade you are not a salesperson but you are occasionally called upon to negotiate (maybe you are a lawyer or a manager) Richardson's books will be a refreshing introduction to the discipline of negotiation and persuasion.
excellent, customer oriented common sense.......2000-07-08
After reading plenty of those "say what I say, exactly as I say it" sales books, none of which I found truly helpful out in the field, this book was like a breath of fresh air. Easy to read and easy to adapt to personal styles it is a treasure trove of good advise. If you actually care about your customers and want them to return to you on a regular basis, this is the book for you.
should be a textbook for sales classes.......2000-06-09
From my many varied experiences, I realize that I just don't like selling, but when I was trying to bone up on my sales skills, I found this book to be the most useful. It is heads and shoulders above other books on the subject and it was so intersting that I probably read it cover to cover in a day or two. The advice is extremely practical and you are learning great principles of selling. You are not learning a bunch of closing dialogues that only work for the person who invented them. Easily digested, the principles allow you to adjust your approach in mid-sale because you are asking questions whose answers will tell you what you need to do or say next (positioning.) Tons of great info here. It should really be a textbook for sales classes.
Eye-opener and Instant Results Obtained.......2000-04-01
I manage a distributor sales force throughout the U.S. and Canada. After reading this book (actually WHILE reading this book) I applied the information and witnessed immediate success, as did my sales reps. The information is direct, common sense, well presented, easy reading and entertaining. It is not full of 'theory', but actual 'meat' that can be applied each day after reading even a chapter or two the night before. I am buying books for each of my reps and feel it is one of the best gifts I could ever give them. Well done!
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- Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic
- Walking with the Wind (Voices and Visions in Film)
- We're in the Money: Depression America and Its Films
- 60 Great Horror Movie Posters (Illustrated History of Movies Through Posters, Volume 19)
- A Field Guide to Monsters: This Book Could Save Your Life
- A Night at the Movies Or, You Must Remember This
- A Pound of Flesh: Perilous Tales of How to Produce Movies in Hollywood
- A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film
- Acting A to Z: The Young Person's Guide to a Stage or Screen Career
- Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (Cambridge Film Handbooks)
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Tolkien on Film: Essays on Peter Jackson's the Lord of the Rings.
The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion
The Children of Húrin
Understanding The Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism
The Essential J.R.R. Tolkien Sourcebook: A Fan's Guide to Middle-earth and Beyond
