5 comments about David Busch's Nikon D300 Guide to Digital SLR Photography.

1. I bought this book because I got a Nikon D300 and I knew I would need more than just the manual that comes with the camera.
   My friend is a Canon fan and owns the Canon 40D, but I always heard Nikon is a better camera, and I bought the Nikon D300. Why tell you this?
   Because when I was debating what camera to buy I read my friends Canon 40D book by this same author. So when I was looking for a book, I saw that David Bush wrote this book, and bought it.
   While reading the book I felt I had already read this book. I started coming across information I had already read. I went to the local book store to compare since I didn't have the copy of the Canon book anymore.
   Surprise! Not only did I find one book by Mr. Bush with the same information but two (one Nikon and one Canon). Not only does this author reuse the same text throughout the book, but the same pictures are used throughout (Some are not exactly the same but you can tell they were shot in the same time frame). Some image look old and they might not even be digital.
   I feel ripped off! I would expect the author would use images shot with the camera. The author is taking a general photography books, adding a few menus from the specific camera, and passing himself off as an expert on the Nikon. Or is he a Canon expert? I can't tell.
   This author should be ashamed selling the same book with different covers. Refund!



2. This is an excellent guide for owners of the fantastic Nikon D300! The author certainly knows the camera and his photography expertise adds another dimension to the learning process. I was very impressed with the full color photos that accompany the text and the guide is layed out in an extremely organized manner. David's hints and recommendations for particular settings were invaluable to me for getting started with the camera. This is a great value.



3. Only in 3rd chapter, but this book is far better than any of his others. Diagrams and pictures are large and in color and Busch is extremely thorough. All content is about the D300; not a lot of generic digital photography fluff. Not only is this the first book out on the D300, but probably the best, by far.



4. The book is very well written and gives an excellent explanation of all camera controls and options. The best part is the explanation of the "why" of all options.



5. Beginners and advanced photographers will love this plain-speaking, but in-depth explanation of the new Nikon D300 digital SLR.
   
   David Busch is becoming one of my favorite authors. I've reviewed several of his books, including a few of his camera guides, and what I appreciate most is that he has the ability to write at exactly the right level for his intended audience. His guide to the Nikon D80, for example, was aimed at entry-level photographers who aspired to greater proficiency, and did a good job of guiding them along this path while explaining the features and settings of the camera fully.
   
   Now Busch has written a guide for the Nikon D300, and he seems to recognize that a book that sticks to an entry-level approach won't work with a camera that has such a rich set of capabilities. Even so, he does a good job with the first few chapters and the introductory material in later chapters of providing a solid grounding in basic ideas.
   
   New photographers are not dumped in over their heads. Even more advanced photographers may learn something new from Busch's explanations. But this book excels when it comes to going beyond the basics, providing more detail and advice than you're likely to find in other, less ambitious guidebooks. For example, his explanation of autofocus, particularly as it applies to the two methods available with the D300's Live View mode, is the clearest I've ever seen.
   
   If you want a book that is much more than a rephrasing of the product manual, and which contains everything you need to know to get the most out of your D300, this is the book.

5 comments about Things I have learned in my life so far.

1. I was excited about this publication by one of the century's foremost design icons. Imagine my surprise when I opened the long-awaited package to discover that it is not a book at all! Just a short series of paper promotion-style vanity pieces containing entertaining truisms, but little substance. As a design student, I feel this is nothing but a waste of my hard-earned money. I expected a great deal more from Sagmeister. I will definitely be returning this "book." It is nothing more than a coffee table gimmick and a commercial sell-out.



2. In our very visual society, word are getting less and less appealing, so Sagmeister, being a prominent graphic artist, is increasingly conjuring to put them in a wider contest. Installations and visual performances in types and images are rarely any political stances, but here a peculiar wisdom emerges. Being a European a very sophisticated imagery give way to a delicate and subtle world of thoughts well framed, equally well supported by a completely new typhographical format.



3. Sagmeister is amazing! I just saw him do a lecture on this book in Columbia. It brought so much life to the work hearing his personal experiences. This book is so fun and interactive it embodies the spirit of his work perfectly. It is a box with a die-cut out of his face on the cover. Inside are 10-15 smaller booklets each covering one of his many projects. As you switch the order of the books in the box it shows through the holes in the cover changing the design. It's really cool...I am so excited to add it to my collection.



4. This is no ordinary book, it is in and of itself a little piece of art! I bought this book in anticipation of an upcoming lecture from Stefan Sagmeister. Reading through the first time, I loved the sincerity of each part of the book. It's such a heartfelt, personal journey through this massive project. Reading through a second, third, fourth and so on, I get details I missed the first time around. After having heard Stefan speak for the first time, the book was brought to life like never before. I will treasure this publication, as it rightfully earns a spot on my bookshelf of design greats. I cannot wait to see what Stefan has in store for us in the future!



5. Many publishers produce hundreds of thousands of boring books in the hope that they will be able to keep paying dividends to their investors and salaries to themselves. One could be forgiven for thinking that their professional teams of editors, art directors, and sales executives review potential titles and remove challenging material, unexpected, imaginative, or risky concepts, and especially self-indulgent works created for the pure pleasure of their own existence (instead of for the express purpose of making money). In this tragic environment, it's a small miracle that a book like Sagmeister's Things I Learned... emerges unexpurgated and fresh - with the potential for sales to millions who simply love his passion. My friend the photojournalist Philip Jones Griffiths who died last month, created the book Vietnam Inc. He made no profit from it in the beginning, but It helped end the Vietnam war. Philip's passion was for peace. Stefan's is for something else - beauty? truth? I think everyone should buy this book - if only to prove to publishers and media moguls everywhere that we want more truth, more beauty, more passion in our lives - and we're willing to vote with our wallets: "All together now..."
   
   Robert Appleton, AGI

5 comments about The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition.

1. I own all of Edward Tufte's books, and regularly order his booklets for my MBA students. The reason is simple: to make good decisions, and to help others make good decisions, one must convey data as information and not simply as numbers, words, or even pictures. Business periodicals regularly violate the admonitions we learned in our introductory statistics courses, including failing to use zero as the bottom of any scale (these periodicals don't use zero in order to exaggerate changes). The reason that intelligent people convey data inappropriately is either to deliberately distort it, or because they've failed to read Tufte's books.
   
   Once you've purchased this first book by Tufte, you will never look at charts or other graphical displays without a jaundiced eye. You will also will begin to be more honest in how you convey information to others. You will make better decisions, and you will raise the standard for other communicators and decision makers. Life and death decisions do get made on the basis of data, and not just in the sciences and medicine. Buy this book and you will have a very tough time putting it down.
   
   Aneil Mishra
   [...]



2. This is Tufte's best book in my opinion, maybe because this was his first book I bought. I use this book weekly. I learned many good lessons from Tufte.



3. Everybody should read a book like "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" and I do not mean the professionals in the field but really everybody. Tufte really opens your mind and makes you aware of the possibly malevolent or just misleading representations of data we are faced with every day on magazines, newspapers, TV and the web.



4. The book came in wrapped as it was described. Highly recommend for excellent amazon seller.



5. This was the first of three books written by Tufte on graphical displays. This book has been heralded by famous statisticians and average readers as an eloquent description of the how to and how not to make graphs. Now in its sixteenth printing, this is still a classic and the pictures tell the story along with the prose.

No comments about The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company.

5 comments about The Design of Everyday Things.

1. I recommend this book to anyone, but particularly to those who are in the business of building or design.



2. Very good, but very outdated at the end when computers were discussed. Sounds like it was written pre-windows i.e. late '80s.



3. I take it from other people's reviews that this book is considered by stome to be a classic in the design field. However, I found it unreadable and gave up after a little over a hundred pages. The book failed me on a number of levels, which is particularly surprising considering that the subject of the book is designing things that conveiently and elegantly meet the needs of the user.
   
   Although I was a young adult when the book was first published in the late 1980's, the examples in the book (telphones, sewing machines, typewriters, film projectors, etc.) are so dated, the typesetting so badly done and the pictures of such poor quality, that I felt at times that I was looking at a book from the Eisenhower administration.
   
   His points about good design are valid but are obvious and well known(in his defense, perhaps when he wrote the book they were novel). Devices like single serve coffee machines, ipods and blackberries have brought good design principles into the general consciousness.
   
   He also spends very little time providing interesting examples of good and bad designs and how they came about and their consequences and instead spends too much time rambling. There's an Andy Rooney-ish quality to his musings that was usually annoying but occasionally quaint (his musings that in a decade there would be a good pocket sized computer device that would track his meetings and other information had me checking the book's copyright date). His grumpy complaints about having to remember phone numbers, phone card codes, zip codes and the codes for those new fangled ATM machines brought to my mind images of Homer Simpson's dad, not a man with cutting edge ideas on design.
   
   By the time I gave up halfway through the book, I wasn't sure why the book had been written. Norman seems particularly obsessed with door handles and I just couldn't share his passion on the subject. I would have been more interested in important examples of design failure (e.g., if memory serves, the Audi 100 series' placement of the brake and accelerator pedals that resulted in "sudden acceleration" problems at the time he wrote this book) rather than an obsession with the layout of knobs and burners on stove tops.
   
   I threw my copy in the trash.



4. Dome-headed engineering professors call it "human factors engineering," "interaction design" or "usability engineering," but the purpose of this strangely-named discipline is far simpler than these appellations suggest: to make everyday items do what users expect them to do. Donald Norman has been thinking about usability issues longer than almost anyone and has insights commensurate with his experience. Norman knows how both people and machines work (he has degrees in psychology and engineering). More importantly, he knows how to bridge the gulf between the human mind and the devices the mind wants to use, from toasters to telephones to teapots. In this classic, he provides a few simple precepts and many wonderful examples showing how to design the most important component of any technology - the user's experience. While some of Norman's examples are a little long in the tooth (he discusses VCRs, not DVDs), we find that the principles he describes in this friendly book are still sprightly almost 20 years after their initial publication.



5. Have you ever stood in front of a door, or a microwave, absolutely flummoxed, because the damned thing gave you no clue whatsoever how to open it. If so (even if not), you will enjoy this book. In clear, coruscating prose he exposes the miserable flaws in the design of everyday objects which conspire to make our lives less convenient, more miserable, and sometimes more dangerous.
   
   The book is not just an exposé of the appalling laziness and hostility to consumers that is commonplace among designers( e.g. in the software industry, which is a story unto itself - see "The Lunatics are Running the Asylum") - it is also a clarion call to action. We need not live in a world where it appears that appliances conspire to make us feel like idiots. And when they do - when you can't figure out which button to push, or whether a door opens inward or outward - remember that you are not the one at fault. It is the lazy incompetent designer of the thing which is making you miserable who is deserving of scorn and ridicule.
   
   Far too often, in a design world which favors form over function and usability, crimes against the user get rewarded with prizes and the acclaim of the design cognoscenti. People who presumably never have to struggle with the consequences of their own reckless disregard for the usability of the objects they design.
   
   This book is an outraged and eloquent call for change. Though it was written several years ago, the central arguments hold up well, and the style is humorous and engaging.

5 comments about Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students (Design Briefs).

1. I like this book a great deal. The next time I have a chance to use this in a class (to teach) I will. There are lots of good examples, the language is clear, and it's not too ethereal or esoteric. I think it's a great introduction to typography and laid out very well.



2. I love type, but I lack an educated background on its use. I was so looking forward to learning about such details as when to prefer a sans-serif versus a serif in certain situations, how people react to various different families of faces, prescriptions for when to apply different types of layouts, and so forth.
   
   When I got was a partially complete history lesson on how different types of faces and families evolved, an introduction to grid layouts with very little prescriptive advice, and weirdly, a brief editorial primer teaching how to mark up the printed page with pen.
   
   To its credit, the book is full of examples of layouts. As I read, I expected any minute I'd penetrate the entry level "Here we see an example of a layout" to the real meat, but it never ever happened.
   
   To the author's credit, the book was meticulously assembled and was clearly the product of a great deal of effort. And, this is not the first design-related book I've discovered that lacked meaningful depth.
   
   But to any practicing designer looking for some guidance for taking their use of type to the next level, or understanding beyond his own innate instincts when to apply certain techniques, this is not the book for you. In fact, I'm not sure who this book is for.



3. It's informative, it's inspirational, it's philosophically engaging, it's warm and welcoming. But it might not turn you into a master typographer.
   
   A beautiful read, this book presents history and theory into well-thought, easy to swallow bite-sized chunks. Along with exercises, this kinda gives it away as a student's textbook, which might be less than what you're after, if you're a working designer wanting to advance your typographic skills. It might still worth getting the book. Did you knew Gutenberg used alternate glyphs and ligatures? I know now. Smart guy, this Gutenberg.



4. Simple and elegant this book has engaged me even further in my exploration of good use of typography. Anne's fresh and encompassing approach makes it easy to get involved in using type well. The book has several exercises and a wealth of information that helps appreciate type, and use typography. The advice is not software specific making it useful for many years to come, and encompasses the printed page and web/screen use of type. A great grounding book in Type and Typography.



5. This is the book you should read if you are in any way interested in typography - and that includes all those interested in the web.
   
   The topics are basic and historical, exactly what is needed for a firm foundation; it's refreshingly easy to read for a technical book.

5 comments about Envisioning Information.

1. This is my 3rd favorite of Tufte's books after Visual Display and Visual Explanations, but it would be a good addition for any Tufte collection and still contains useful info.



2. I admit. I do not have natural tendencies for developing web sites, color maps, charts, schedules, power points, diagrams or GUIs. Anything as such comes out in complete discord until I came across Edward Tufte's name in a seminar brochure.
   
   Edward Tufte scrutinizes design strategies all they way back in time from the Renaissance period into the 20th century. Initially I wondered, how on earth are these prestigious techniques presented in ancient times similarly applied today? They are not common today. Computer programs and marketing propaganda have limited our visual expectations to only broad and small pieces of information, limiting our learning space about the world we live in. Beyond contemporary appeals, Edward sheds out underlying utility out of these relics into everyday use. His prime example is a 1735 London figure of two dancers. The drawing describes their dance in time, motion, and sound without common resort to animation.
   
   Chapters in this book: Escaping Flatland, Micro/Macro Readings, Layering and Separation, Small Multiples, Color and Information, and Narratives of Space and Time.



3. This book is about telling a story. Tufte has selected a collection of the most beautiful charts. He then presents each chart design and argues the qualities and defects in each and how sometimes small differences can be used to distort the numbers. If you were to buy a single Tufte book then I'd recommend his other book "Visual Display of Quantitative Information". But if you have a few bucks to spare then this is certainly a nice plus.



4. This is the second book in Ed Tufte's trilogy on graphical displays. It is a sequel to "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information". In this book Tufte shows how color, multiple pictures from different perspectives, graphs, charts and even newspaper text can be used to convey on a flat piece of paper information for high-dimesional data.
   
   Most important is the ability of two-dimensional pictures to display the information of the three dimensional world that the human mind can comprehend through sight. This is the reason for the title to the first chapter "Escaping Flatland".
   
   However, as interesting as the pictures are themselves it is necessary to read the text and look back and forth between pictures to fully appreciate the points of the text. As with his earlier work, Tufte demonstrates the principles of good graphics through effective demonstration of ideas conveyed by good and bad examples. The difference is a broader coverage of techniques and greater emphasis on the good examples.
   
   This book is a nice lead in for the third book, "Visual Explanations", which deals with examples where Tufte believes the graphical displays actually lead to good inferences about a problem under study.



5. As a student of Information Science and an admitted non-designer I decided to study "Envisioning Information" after looking at Mr. Tufte's biography and well-crafted website. I was hoping to gain some insight on the rules of design especially when it came to presenting information clearly in an aesthetically-pleasing way, in teaching me these skills Tufte's book does an admirable job.
   
   From the beginning I was drawn in by the quality of the book itself; flipping through it for a quick skim, one cannot be left unimpressed by the vivid graphics, which serve as examples for the text; it is easy to stop, read-a-little and move on. Another integral part of the presentation is the layout of the pages; the eye is able to capture the main text, the annotations, and give the examples the attention the deserve without feeling a certain pressure to continue. This is in opposition to most instructional books, in which side-bars and special sections pull my eyes away from the main text, serving as distractions rather than additions. Tufte's design makes sure everything on the page is related - meaning the text relates to the image, relates to the annotation. Plus, the main text is set in Bembo, which is a nice loose font; easy to read closely, as well as skim quickly.
   
   "Envisioning Information" is broken up into five main chapters (not counting the Introduction and short Epilogue), each chapter has a main idea that is elucidated primarily by the examples Tufte presents. A criticism of the book is its relative lack of conceptual density (aside from the chapter 'Color and Information,' which, for me, required several close readings) - Tufte has his main ideas and briefly clarifies them, but does not go much beyond that, in fact, much of the text is used to describe the examples which [the description] is only pertinent to the concepts in a passing way. The reliance on visual examples can give the reader more an experience of viewing a slideshow than reading a text. It is these images that have the most potential to teach the reader; while the text can reasonably be understood with a quick reading, a close examination of the visuals is required to truly benefit from "Envisioning Information."
   
   Repetition (Tufte does not shy away from repeating his concepts when examples illustrate similar ideas as previously discussed) and conceptual density issues aside, I found "Envisioning Information" to be what I was looking for. The positive impression this book left on me is not solely because it taught me useful design/presentation ideas as I went through it, but because I know I will be able to enjoy it at length upon future forays into the subject.
   
   All of the above is simply to say, in long-form: it is recommended.

5 comments about The Marvel Encyclopedia.

1. Received merchandise in a timely manner. And for the price we paid (half off cover) the condition of the book was good



2. This is one of the best books I have ever bought. If you want to learn the history of Marvel characters, then buy this book. I was basically just a Spiderman fanatic, but now I love Marvel Comics. What interesting stories and tidbits you get with this book. This one is well worth the money.



3. If your a comic book fan,you need this.every marvel hereo and villian ever,all in one book.Excellent background on all the main characters.I really liked the feature that lists important issues and story lines.You cant usually buy every copy,so this gave me certain issues to look for.



4. Fun book. If you need to get an idae of Mrvel characters, well this will help.



5. Being I am not a comic guy in that I don't have allot of specific character knowledge and so this book was great at the back story on each and the animations are wonderful.

5 comments about Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines (Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines).

1. The graphic design industry bible on how to understand and execute the business of graphic design. Needs to be next to you at all times when beginning any kid of project. These best practices are the standard for running a design business.



2. Great book for pricing guidlines. Lots of good general information. Recommended if your getting started in the graphic field.



3. Finally, your search is over! This is the definitive must have for any graphic arts professional. Not to mention, anyone who is considering using a graphic arts professional. This guide is geared especially toward the entrepreneur in the graphic and digital arts industry. Anyone from a partner in a large agency down to the smallest 1-man show can gain invaluable information from this book.
   
   I have a bookshelf full of generic small business guides and "how-to" books for business. This one takes ths cake. It's specific to the web professionals, graphic designers, illustrators, etc. I goes in-depth into:
   * How to engage clients and how to write proposals
   * How to price with current surveyed price points from GAG members
   * Collection procedures
   * Fair trade practices
   * Detailed copyright law
   * Sales tax
   * Step by step procedural recommendations into each type of project (i.e. brochure, logos, etc.)
   
   It's by far the best book I've ever seen on the industry. It's like a bible of sorts for the graphic arts professional and anyone interested in working with one. It has virtually everything I've been looking for condensed into one single source.



4. This is an excellent technical book, with a wealth of information between the covers. Most of that information seems "crammed" into the odd sized pages, and reads like a technical manual. For a handbook that's current and relevant, I can't think of a better one out there.



5. This guide is really a useful resource for a freelance artist like myself. It's most useful feature, in my opinion, is the legal advice it offers including templates for standard contracts for different types of work, as well as explaining in detail the pros and cons of the different ways that you can sell the rights to your work, many of which were not known to me. I find the pricing aspect less useful since all my work is on the internet, but they emphasize traditional media and have only a very brief treatment of "new media" (i.e. online) practices and pricing. Still, the legal advice is germane regardless of medium.

5 comments about Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art.

1. Understanding Comics is a very, very deep dive into the history, meaning and creative processes involved in creating comics. The author, Scott McCloud, has clearly studied his topic. You will not walk away from reading this book without a deeper appreciation for the medium.
   
   Yet, I found I lost interest pretty quickly in what the book was teaching. There are four reasons for this. First, I was thrown by the fact that the book, itself, is a comic. I can count on, well, one finger how many comics I've read that attempt to convey scholarly information. While Mr. McCloud's illustrations are very well drawn, the medium itself caused me to expect a lighter approach to the subject matter. Second, the author occasionally goes beyond teaching to preaching. Third, many of the book's concepts are confusingly conveyed. For example, Mr. McCloud uses a pyramid to show the range of different comic authors' styles. Unfortunately, this explanatory vehicle is hard to follow to start with, let alone when it's abbreviated and repeated quite often in subsequent pages. Fourth, Mr. McCloud goes on too long with some of his arguments. I often felt the urge to skim or skip past particularly long discourses where little new information was being added to earlier information provided.
   
   If you're looking for a deep, scholarly analysis of comics, this book is for you. If you're looking for an easy to read, interesting new perspective on comics, you will probably not enjoy this book.



2. good stuff, though i felt 'making comics' was better all around. easier read, and more pertinent information... though this is a nice companion book.



3. This book is an excellent, entertaining, and easy read for anyone interested in art, not just comics. It analyzes the visual society of comics and other art in nearly every aspect imaginable in a splendidly playful fashion, that will surprise even the skeptics. No wonder it features in French comic recommendation lists and catalogues.
   
   If you browsed to this page and you don't have this book, you should probably buy it. In my (and others') experience, the book will subsequently travel through your circle of friends because its appeal is universal, making it hard to put down.



4. I read this and it made me a better cartoonist McCloud really makes you THINK about art and the philosophy of cartooning. And of course, his illustrations serve to really make this an enjoyable book to learn from. You owe it to yourself to check out this work.



5. I happened across this book in the library, and was _that_ close to putting it back on the shelf. I was looking for art books to teach sketch drawing. I went back to the shelf for a second look, then couldn't put it down.
   
   The comic book method of combining words and pictures to convey a message was amazingly effective in this book. It's a book about how to understand comic books, and it is itself a comic book. What opened my eyes was just how powerful a medium it is.
   
   The medium hasn't even remotely been explored completely. It's wide open. This book is itself an amazing poster child for the art itself. McCloud's artwork is beautiful, and absolutely effective in every line. His range of capabilities is astounding. It's a pleasure experiencing this book. When my kids get older, I want them to read it and I hope they'll get excited about drawing.
   
   Anyway if you're interested in creating comic books of your own, or are interested in learning about comic books themselves, this book is a must read. It is certainly McCloud's best work. The drawings are clearly drawn by hand with pen and paper. McCloud's later work is clearly done on computer, and something precious is lost in the translation. I'm sure the computer saves a great deal of time, but the end result is...just not the same. This book spoke to me in a very profound way. Get a copy for yourself.