Hitch : The Life & Times of Alfred Hitchcock

Average customer rating:

Great Book!

Hitch : The Life & Times of Alfred Hitchcock
John Russel Taylor
Manufacturer: Berkley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 042504436X

Customer Reviews:

Great Book!.......2001-12-08

It's likely that readers who have watched many of Alfred Hitchcock's films can't help but have noticed how frequently he depicts fetishism, sadism, and voyeurism. Because Hitchcock was a reclusive man and a guarded interview subject, almost everyone who writes about him turns to his work for insight into his life. These writers generally conclude that the director himself was possessed by the very pathologies that resound in his movies.
But John Russell Taylor didn't have to go that route. He wrote this biography with the participation and blessings of the man himself. In Hitch, Taylor admits that his subject often projects his fantasies onto the screen. He also provides a good deal of insight into Hitchcock's domineering, obsessively courteous demeanor. But the focus here is on the details of Hitchcock's life, the preparation and production of his movies, and his relationships with the countless cinematic luminaries who worked with him, including Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, and James Stewart. --Raphael Shargel

Hitch : the life and times of Alfred Hitchcock / by John Russell Taylor

Average customer rating:

Hitch : the life and times of Alfred Hitchcock / by John Russell Taylor
John Russell Taylor
Manufacturer: New York : Pantheon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000VSYOVM

Average customer rating:

Delightful Surprise despite the Gloss
Fascinating!
Have her dry-cleaned
Many glaring omissions
Great book! Really covers his films in depth. Excellent Work

Hitch/life And Times
Taylor John Russell
Manufacturer: Berkley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0425075931

Amazon.com

But John Russell Taylor didn't have to go that route. He wrote this biography with the participation and blessings of the man himself. In Hitch, Taylor admits that his subject often projects his fantasies onto the screen. He also provides a good deal of insight into Hitchcock's domineering, obsessively courteous demeanor. But the focus here is on the details of Hitchcock's life, the preparation and production of his movies, and his relationships with the countless cinematic luminaries who worked with him, including Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, and James Stewart. --Raphael Shargel

Customer Reviews:

Delightful Surprise despite the Gloss.......2007-02-27

This is a wonderful glossily written biography. It is written with much gusto. This is one of the first biographies of Hitchcock that I read. I knew that Alfred Hitchcock was a great filmmaker, but his antics off-screen were equally droll. Despite the fact Hitchcock's films are superficially discussed, the author, John Russell Taylor manages to narrate Alfred Hitchcock's life and times in such a way that I could not put it down, and I read it in record time (at least for me). There are better biographies on Hitchcock out there (Donald Spoto's for instance) but this edition makes for enjoyable reading. The facts are all there but it is indeed a matter of interpretation of how the numerous anecdotes are retold that makes the difference here. Author John Russell Taylor definitely takes the high road.

Fascinating!.......2002-12-09

This book was a really easy read. With tales of Hitch's career and providing insight - I believe - into the man behind the much misunderstood myth.

"Hitch" is mostly filled with tales from behind the scenes rather than an examination of Hitch's craft and technique. I enjoyed it because I think knowing the PERSON behind a picture will often explain his technique better than any self-proclaimed "expert" who will often take technical necessity and make it symbolist bull.

Well written and very interesting subject matter. A must for anyone!

Have her dry-cleaned.......2000-12-31

Highly readable and informative. Recommended for all Hitch fans as well as anyone interested in the history of cinema. Beyond the basic facts,there are lots of telling anecdotes and perceptive observations, such as Hitchcock's famous distinction between shock and suspense. My favorite Hitch quip: a father wrote to Hitchcock for some advice. After seeing Les Diaboliques his daughter refused to take a bath, and now after seeing Psycho she wouldn't take a shower either. "Have her dry-cleaned" was Hitchcock's cheerful reply.

Many glaring omissions.......2000-01-04

Hitchcock is my very favorite film director, and I think he's definitely one of the best, if not THE best, directors ever, so I was very disappointed to read this book which only skims over Hitch's life, giving some films barely a page or two. Taylor looks at Hitch's many movies with neither a critical or even historical eye--and many, many details are left out, and many facts are just plain backwards, especially that "Notorious" was based on an idea provided by David O. Selznick, and that "Spellbound" started as Hitch's idea (it was in fact the other way around, with the recently depression-cured Selznick wanting to make a film about analysis; in fact, in the few paragraphs afforded to "Spellbound," Mae Romm, Selznick's therapist who acted as an advisor on the film--and set--isn't even mentioned!). Donald Spoto's two books about Hitchcock, one a film-by-film analysis and the other a straight biography, are much better than this slight volume.

Great book! Really covers his films in depth. Excellent Work.......1999-10-17

The book was great it really showed his movies to the full extent. The beggining of the book(first 3 chapters) discussed his childhood, but could have went more in depth. It really makes you feel what Hitch was fealling when doing the movies.

Hitch - The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock

Average customer rating:

Hitch - The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock
John Russell Taylor
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O6D0ZW

Average customer rating:

HITCH THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK
John Russell. Taylor
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSYP40

Average customer rating:

Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock
John Russell Taylor
Manufacturer: Pantheon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NQH310

Book Description

Consuming Sport is the first book to explicitly and comprehensively address how sport is experienced and engaged with in the everyday lives, social networks and consumer patterns of its followers, the fans. It examines the process of becoming a sport fan, and the social and moral career that supporters follow as their involvement develops over a lifetime.
As well as developing a new theory of sports fandom and presenting a case for new ethnographic approaches to the study of sports fans, the book includes a wealth of unique research material. The text explores the argument that while concepts of authenticity, tradition, and locality continue to have importance, today, mass media and merchandising have a far greater influence on patterns of loyalty.

Average customer rating:

Very helpful

Excellent book for various skill-level users.

Decent SharePoint 2007 User's Guide

Valuable reference guide to make the most out of SharePoint functionality

A bit of a disapointment

SharePoint 2007 User's Guide: Learning Microsoft's Collaboration and Productivity Platform
Seth Bates , and Tony Smith
Manufacturer: Apress
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Administrator's Companion

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Microsoft SharePoint 2007 For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))

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Microsoft SharePoint: Building Office 2007 Solutions in C# 2005 (Expert's Voice in Sharepoint)

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Outlook 2007: Beyond the Manual

Windows Vista: Beyond the Manual

ASIN: 1590598296

Book Description

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is the next generation of Microsoft SharePoint technologies. These products expand on SharePoint's information-sharing and collaboration capabilities, which allow you to create true enterprise information management, information sharing, and collaboration solutions.

SharePoint 2007 User's Guide: Learning Microsoft's Collaboration and Productivity Platform is the follow-up edition to the successful SharePoint 2003 User's Guide (Apress, 2005). This book provides guidance about the new workflows, interface, and other technologies within SharePoint 2007. Authors Seth Bates and Tony Smith describe SharePoint in a variety of environments, and have the expertise and ability to stand behind this useful guide--catered to anyone who works with SharePoint technologies in any capacity.

Customer Reviews:

Very helpful.......2007-09-21

Recommended for "Power-Users," or those people that are comfortable working in Office, etc. Not for techies, per se, and perhaps a bit much for the average user. Get it for those people that will comfortably read a 300 page book on a computer program and then actually do something with it. Don't get it for those whose permissions you wouldn't dare leave without significant restrictions.

Has been very helpful to me as someone new to SharePoint. Only 4 stars because it's a bit much for the average user that we have in our organization -- I 'm not sold that I could distribute this as a User's Guide and expect increased understanding of how it works from the typical user. Perhaps it takes this much detail to present the information, but the lack of a general "how-to" or "quick-start" section makes me think that most users will be intimidated by the size and scope of the book and never crack it open.

However, from a Power User perspective, this book is excellent. The writing is clear and well-organized. I've been able to find just about everything I've needed to understand and answered most questions that have come to mind. I like how the book presents the different choices available, without shoe-horning you into the author's preferred choice. Comparing it to explanations available online, the information it typically presented better in this book.

Excellent book for various skill-level users........2007-09-07

This book is easy to use both as a learning tool and a reference tool. The many examples provided give good background on the context of the desired function, and explicit, step-by-step instructions. The book has lots of "usage" suggestions.

Decent SharePoint 2007 User's Guide.......2007-08-20

SharePoint 2007 User's Guide definitely touches on the many topics necessary for the end users to learn the MOSS productivity platform.
Overall, the book is very informative. My only complaint is the style that it is written doesn't include any examples/exercises for the user to follow. There are definitely how-tos in this book, however, there are more examples for what can be done and not how to do it especially in the waning chapters of the book. There is very little useful hands on in the chapters regarding Document Management and Collaboration.
Regardless, it is still a good short reading and if you are new to SharePoint you will get much out of it.
If you are interested in a more robust read try Beginning SharePoint 2007 from Wrox. A book on the same topic with much more useful content.

Valuable reference guide to make the most out of SharePoint functionality.......2007-08-05

We have learned our lesson that the more we customize in SharePoint 2003, the harder it is to upgrade to SharePoint 2007. Going forward, we want to leverage more of the out-of-the-box functionality and stay away customizations. This is a great reference book for making the most out of SharePoint. If you know the functionality you want in team-collaboration sites (e.g. project team site, deal site, product site) or information-sharing sites (e.g. research & publication site, HR & benefits site), it is a valuable resource to understand various building blocks and know which tool to use.

I do not recommend this book for developers, but found to be useful for power-users, business analysts, functional analysts, content managers, MsOffice specialists or anyone else who wants to learn what you can do with SharePoint.

A bit of a disapointment.......2007-07-09

For a technology book, it's well below par.

The majority of the content in this book is just a repackaging of the help available in SharePoint; and much of that is pretty well obvious. I knew zero (nothing) about SharePoint before getting this book. I found that the organization and presentation of information in the book didn't parallel any sandbox/tutorial workflow, nor did it approach topics from any broader "good design" perspective. To date, well more than 90% of my SharePoint answers have come from the web, not this book.

The chapter on "list concepts" was helpful, and probably saved me some time and effort. For that alone it was worth the $26. But overall, I was hoping for a better book based on the early reviews I read (Note: only the April-07 reviews were here when I bought the book).

SharePoint 2003 User's Guide (Expert's Voice)

Average customer rating:

Good Reference
Poor explanations and useless for a Project leader
Better than any other book, or any phone support from Microsoft
Great book on SPS features and solutions
Excellent read!

SharePoint 2003 User's Guide (Expert's Voice)
Seth Bates , and Tony Smith
Manufacturer: Apress
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1590595149

Book Description

...covers the core SharePoint features and in my opinion covers them very well.

— Paul Schaeflein, schaeflein.net

Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services address a variety of information-sharing and collaboration needs, providing an innovative way for you to manage information. In order to get the most out of SharePoint, you need to understand its capabilities to create materials, collaborate with others, and share enterprise information.

Whether you're a beginner or an experienced SharePoint user, SharePoint 2003 User's Guide is designed to provide you with the information you need to effectively use these tools. The authors, who are experienced SharePoint consultants, take a real-world look at the best practices for Microsoft SharePoint 2003 and include many detailed examples you can build on.

The first section of the book describes the basic and advanced building blocks in both of the SharePoint technologies. With step-by-step examples, the authors explain features like portals, sites, lists, and libraries. Advanced topics include targeting content, managing security, and integrating with Microsoft Office 2003.

The second section expands on these features by showing you how to build the most commonly used SharePoint solutions. The book describes the challenges these solutions are designed to address and the benefits that are realized by using a SharePoint-based solution. The authors provide specific instruction and examples that will allow you to effectively configure SharePoint for document collaboration, information centers, and other detailed scenarios.

Customer Reviews:

Good Reference.......2006-03-20

If you need another good reference then this book will help. It has several examples and suggestion that all levels of experience can use.

Poor explanations and useless for a Project leader.......2006-02-28

You will have more help on the help menu or much more help on the discovery kit that you can get downloaded from Microsoft.

This book doesn't give you a needed view and does not give you a real example of a deployed scenario. It does not explain the role of the Active directory and how to take advantage of it. It does not explain why you would need to create a Portal Area and why you would need to change the factory properties (like Division, Region) that come with the product.

The explanation is very straightforward but it's useless for a project leader.

Better than any other book, or any phone support from Microsoft.......2005-11-24

I have used this comprehensive users guide as my support for any and all issues regarding development of the sharepoint site. Online blogs didn't help. Microsoft phone support didn't help. This book helps. It has a description of every aspect of the sharepoint system and is just unbelievably helpful. This book has already paid for itself in terms of time and money saved. GREAT!

Great book on SPS features and solutions.......2005-08-12

I am an IT executive who has been a heavy SPS user for the last 1.5 years. During that time I have met with many companies that have an interest in Sharepoint, but who do not have a good vision on how to use it. I have seen a gap in understanding the core capabilities as well as how to put the pieces together into a solution. This book fills that gap. It covers all the core capabilities of Sharepoint in a clear, understandable way. In addition, it shows how to put the pieces together into solutions such as document collaboration, project collaboration, meeting mangement, and information centers. This book will appeal to a broad audience, from IT and business/IT execs to information technology implementers. This book is a good place to start if you are considering implementing Sharepoint or you just want to learn more about it. If you have already implemented Sharepoint, this book can fill in the gaps in your knowledge.

Excellent read!.......2005-08-12

Excellent read! The book held my hand through some of the rough areas of Sharepoint and helped me set up a comprehensive Project Management site for my team. The samples were very helpful and covered the right topics. You get a good appreciation for what Sharepoint has to offer and how you can customize it to your needs.

I recommend this book to anyone just starting off with Sharepoint. No deep technical knowledge required.

SharePoint User's Guide (Infusion Development Corp)

Average customer rating:

Not real thrilled with the audience selection for this title...
Sharepoint User's Guide
Not good enough introduction to SharePoint
A journey to nowhere
a natural extension of blogging

SharePoint User's Guide (Infusion Development Corp)
Infusion Development Corporation
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596009089

Book Description

There's nothing like teamwork for making progress on a project, but sharing information and building on each other's successes can be challenging when your team is scattered across the miles. Microsoft's SharePoint helps teams and organizations close the distance. With SharePoint, groups construct web sites specifically for collaboration--sites where individuals can capture and share ideas, and work together on documents, tasks, contacts, and events. It's the next best thing to being in the room together. Unfortunately, much of the documentation for SharePoint is written to help system administrators get it up and running, which often leaves end users in the dark. The SharePoint User's Guide takes another approach: this quick and easy guide shows you what you need to know to start using SharePoint effectively and how to get the most from it. You'll learn how to create sites that your organization can use to work together or independently, from an end user's point of view. Now, even beginners can learn how to:

access sites that are already set up
create new sites
personalize sites
use the document and picture libraries for adding and editing content
add discussion boards and surveys to a site
enhance security

You'll learn how you can receive alerts to tell you when existing documents and information have been changed, or when new information or documents have been added. You can even share select information with partners or customers outside your organization. No one that uses SharePoint collaboration services can afford to be without this handy book. The SharePoint User's Guide is designed to help you find answers quickly, explaining key concepts and major points in straightforward language. With SharePoint, any team or organization can overcome geographic or time-zone challenges, and the SharePoint User's Guide will show them how.

Customer Reviews:

Not real thrilled with the audience selection for this title..........2006-09-25

Microsoft's SharePoint software is currently attracting a lot of attention, so I thought it would be interesting to do some reviews of books touching on that subject. SharePoint User's Guide by Infusion Development Corporation was one of my early choices for review, and it's a book with a somewhat confusing target audience.

Contents: Working with Sites and Workspaces; Basic Web Parts; Extending Site Pages; Securing SharePoint Sites; Integrating with Office 2003; Setting Up Windows SharePoint Services; Index

This book is targeted for SharePoint users looking to do the most common tasks within the package. As such, I would think that I could theoretically give this to my end users as a guide to the software. But there's far too many references to other software packages like IIS, SQL Server 2000, etc. There's also an entire chapter on how to install SharePoint, which is really outside the capabilities (or interests) of that end user base. OK, so perhaps this is better for a technical user audience. But in my experience, that audience wants a lot of details on the guts of the software, not just a guide that says "do this, this, and this..." So if that's the case, what group *does* this book hit? I really don't know...

The information in the book isn't bad, it's just that it's difficult to determine who best would benefit from the material without an inordinate amount of inappropriate stuff thrown in...

Sharepoint User's Guide.......2006-08-15

This was a difficult book to wade through and was not user friendly. The last several chapters were useful.

Not good enough introduction to SharePoint.......2005-06-01

Ordinarily, a computer book starts by introducing what the topic is, in this case SharePoint. However, Chapter 1 of this book did it insufficiently. Past Chapter 2, I still did not know exactly what Sharepoint was. The authors mumbled something about collaboration, discussion, HTML pages, etc. Funnily, the last chapter covers SharePoint installation. Shouldn't be in Chapter 1 so the reader can easily follow?

I had to do my own research, and found this from Microsoft website:

-----------------------------------------------------------
Windows SharePoint Services is a collection of services for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 that you can use to create team-oriented Web sites to share information and foster collaboration with other users on documents. You can also use Windows SharePoint Services as a development platform for creating collaboration and information-sharing applications.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Which I think is more useful than chapter 1 of this book.

A journey to nowhere.......2005-04-14

I am going to try to put this as delicately and professionally as possible. Do not waste your money. Sure it is only $10 plus shipping but it is still $10. If I could give this book a rating of lower than one star, I would.

The book is very small in size and contains about 130 pages. It claims to be for end users, but wastes almost 20% of those pages (at the end of the book) telling you how to setup SharePoint.

The barely legible examples in the book are based on the authors writing of the book. Most contain very little of substance causing me to wonder how much real world experience the authors have with SharePoint.

The help system is free and there is another end user book (which I reviewed positively) available in the same price range.

a natural extension of blogging.......2005-04-10

This slender book feels like an O'Reilly pocket guide, though it is slightly larger. It gives you a quick starter on getting up to speed on SharePoint. Obviously, the emphasis is on using it in a collaborative mode with others.

The book shows that SharePoint may have the feel of an elaborate blogging package, to some of you. Given the popularity of blogging, you might already have your own blog. One way to understand SharePoint is as a natural extension of a blogging package, that now permits intensive multiuser participation.

Which can be both good and bad for SharePoint. Good because it enhances the potential user base. But possibly bad because out of the blogging sector, a competing package may well arise.

Essential SharePoint 2007: A Practical Guide for Users, Administrators and Developers

Average customer rating:

Essential SharePoint 2007: A Practical Guide for Users, Administrators and Developers
Jeff Webb
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596514077

Book Description

If you're considering the vastly improved 2007 version of SharePoint, this concise, practical and friendly guide will teach you how to get the most from the latest version of Microsoft's information-sharing and collaboration platform. Essential SharePoint 2007 demonstrates how your business can use SharePoint to control documents, structure workflow, and share information over the Web using standard tools business users already know -- Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer.

Written in a conversational tone by internationally recognized SharePoint consultant and trainer Jeff Webb, this book helps SharePoint administrators, site owners, and power users quickly gain the skills necessary to perform a wide variety of tasks for intranet and extranet web sites, and explains what's new in SharePoint 2007 for experienced SharePoint 2003 administrators. Essential SharePoint 2007 teaches you how to:

Use SharePoint 2007 with Outlook, Word and Excel, and as a document management tool, replacing, for example, shared network drives with libraries
Build and customize sites, lists, libraries and web parts for intranets and extranets
Use SharePoint 2007 for team communication through blogs, wikis, surveys, and RSS and email alerts
Build a SharePoint workflow application
Create and program web parts in order to deliver custom services and data to a site
Deploy and administer SharePoint 2007

Each chapter ends with a summary of best practices advocated by the author, and the first few chapters of the book are ideal as training materials for end users. Later chapters give developers and administrators tools not only to keep company sites running smoothly, but also to customize and extend them. The book also contains several appendices with a glossary of terms and hard-to-find information.

Essential SharePoint 2007 is a one-stop task-oriented guide for learning what's necessary to make this tool a vital part of team productivity.

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