5 comments about Making Books That Fly, Fold, Wrap, Hide, Pop Up, Twist & Turn: Books for Kids to Make.

1. I was SO disappointed in this book. I'm an experienced card maker but thought there might be a simple idea that I could expand on. Not only were there no useable ideas, the pictures were awful and the explanations were pretty bad. I would hate to have to teach using this book! It was a total waste of money. I can't believe that Amazon recommended this book in an email to me because I had bought "similar items" before. It was NOT similar in quality nor content.



2. As a teacher, this book is a great resource for ideas to show students how to write and product there own work of literature. We used the book as the basis for a "Make a Book Night" sponsored by our PTA. Students and their parents attended a night of book making and story writing choosing from one of the many book ideas presented in the book. It was a great experience for one and all. If you love books, like to write poetry, stories or journals I highly recommend purchasing
   
   Making Books That Fly, Fold, Wrap, Hide, Pop Up, Twist & Turn: Books for Kids to Make



3. I recently purchased this book and have found it to be a terrific resource for teaching children how to make beautiful books.The instructions and diagrams are easy to follow and very clear. My favourite is the T.V. book. The children in my class had a blast making these books.



4. Good ideas for books to make with kids, and also some basic ideas to further explore in more complex books.



5. I used several ideas in this book to teach an afterschool bookmaking class for K-3rd graders. The books are eye-catching and pretty simple to make, although I did a bit of prep work for the kids.
   
   It was really wonderful to see how much the children loved their projects. They were extremely creative and innovative too, every child made the book their own by doing something interesting or different with the materials provided. This is in stark contrast to several adult bookmaking classes I've taken, where the adult students want to recreate the teacher's book EXACTLY.
   
   Anyway, I highly recommend this book to anyone is willing to spend some time making books with kids. Children older than 4th grade MIGHT be able to use this book independently, depending on their experience and motivation.
   
   Regardless, I think this book is wonderful for showing kids just how fascinating and rewarding it can be to make their very own books.

No comments about Alfred Kubin: Drawings, 1897-1909.

1 comments about Andy Warhol: The Record Covers 1949-1987, Catalogue Raisonne.

1. very instructive - recommended for disk collectors.
   Nice jacket, as Warhol used to do!

5 comments about Basics of Design.

1. The book is "designed" for beginners. It is great for brainstorming about - say - crafting a corporate identity using logos, newsletters, business cards, etc. However it is dated. Few pages are in color. The author doesn't assume the reader has access to industry-standard design software like the Adobe Creative Suite, or even to a computer for that matter. The author sometimes suggests the reader use crayons to "recreate" various design techniques involving color.
   But the basics are there, the principles are well explained and the price is right. Skip over the dated stuff and use the book to get a good foundational intro to the world of layout and design.



2. There are just enough illustrations. The chapters are setup in a way to support teaching a begining Graphic Design class. Exercises, a mini quiz and examples are built into each chapter-subject of good basic design.
   
   Book lays flat when going through the pages and the binding should hold up through many page turning days.



3. The book contaings a whole lot of reading but very little illustration. I do not understand how the author anticipated to convey design, layout and typography by writing about it only. A book like this must be full of illustration. To write about design without illustrating them is an oxymoron. I would definitely not recommend this book for beginners.



4. This book takes you through the basics of the page design process, focusing in each chapter on one of a number of themes such as contrast, repetition and alignment (and several others). I'm not an expert but have designed pages off and on for some years and this book was a breath of fresh and inspirational air. It is clear, useful, has loads of examples and, above all, it had an instant impact on my page designs from CV to web page to software interface to data sheet. Highly recommended. As comparison, I bought another book at the same time on typography, didn't learn a thing about design, and set it aside having suffered pages of historical theory.



5. There is not much mistaking the purpose of this book judging from the title. It is for beginners, and it delivers admirably. Graham takes the reader step by step and in a very systematic way through the basic tenets of graphic design. Each chapter deals with a specific aspect of design and how the reader can use it to communicate more effectively. Graham gives plenty of examples of what to do as well as what not to do and the text is well illustrated, though it could have used more examples in color. That is a small criticism though and one that does not really detract from the book in any way. The beginning designer will come away from this book with a firm foundation in design and with skills that they will utilize for the rest of their career. If you are looking to learn about graphic design then this book is the perfect starting point.

5 comments about The LaTeX Companion (Tools and Techniques for Computer Typesetting).

1. If your trying to do anything complicated with Latex and need a reference to this is the book you need.



2. This is perhaps the definitive reference book on LaTex. It's totally comprehensive. For that, it's perfect and you need one if you're going to do some serious LaTex work.
   
   It's not so good as an instructional manual or for someone like me who wants to learn LaTex. Not enough examples and "show me" illustrations on how to achieve, for example, common typsetting and formatting layouts. Wish it had more examples of how to do the top 25 most common layout tasks.



3. This is a compilation of many concisely written topics. I have not enjoyed the writing much, and have found examples more clearly written on many web sites.



4. An up-to-date reference for experienced LaTeX users. This book does NOT contain an introduction to LaTeX. Rather, it assumes that the reader has a working LaTeX system and has written some documents before. The value of the book lies in its breadth of coverage. There is a solution for just about any LaTeX problem I can think of. Mostly, the solutions consist of a recommendation for some third-party LaTeX package (style file) and a short review of its use. But the book also covers some quite esoteric issues in-depth. For example, it contains the only introduction to BiBTeX style file programming that I'm aware of.
   
   An indispensable resource for serious LaTeX writing for those with high standards for their typesetting.



5. If you are going to buy one book on latex this is the one. It covers all the basics of document typesetting with latex. I actually own the first edition of the book but of course, you should always get the latest one. In the book there are sections to cover the following topics:
   
   - Setting-up single or multi-column layouts
   - Typesetting basic headings and text
   - Creating tables using either the "tabular" or the "array" packages
   - How to have tables span multiple pages
   - Working with floating figures
   - How to typeset beautiful math formulas
   - Handling accented characters
   - Basic pictures and graphics import
   - Installing new fonts
   - Creating indexes
   - Adding tables of contents and tables of figures
   - Adding good looking bibliographies with Bibtex
   
   Lots of material is covered. Though there is overlap I also think that the book by Leslie Lamport is a good complement to this book. Leslies book is shorter, more to the point and perhaps a better introduction to latex than this one. But on the down side it covers less material. This is why I consider this book to be the one to get if you get only one.

2 comments about The Designer's Desktop Manual.

1. Thanks to the author!!! amazing, amazing, amazing! This book has helped me finally grasp the principles of Adobe Indesign. I have been slowly teaching myself the program and have more than a few instructional books. Concepts that I have previously thought diffictult to understand are now clear! This book is so clear and concise that it makes learning a breeze. It covers information about photoshop, illustrator, web design, Quark, and dreamweaver. It is very well written and the directions for applications are easily understood. I love this book! I give it a 10! If I would have had this book to begin with, I would have learned how to manipulate the program a long time ago...



2. I'm fairly new to many of the topics discussed in the book, including color, photoshop tips, etc. It was quite helpful. It is also helpful for designers going between windows and os x- it gives basic differences and how to deal with that.

4 comments about As I See: The Fantastic World of Boris Artzybasheff.

1. The "fantastic" in the title covers both the amazing fantasy in the art as well as the quality of the drawings. I have already gone slowly through the book twice.



2. Boris Artzybasheff was born in the Ukraine, fought with the White forces in Russia and moved to the US in 1919. In the early days here he illustrated books (over 50), including Gay Neck: The Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji, which won the Newbery Medal in 1928. "As I See" was originally written by Artzybasheff, and used copies sell for hundreds, even thousands of dollars. This superb re-issue is sure to become a collector's item when it no longer is in print.
   
   I grew up with Artzybasheff's art without actually knowing that it was his art. We subscribed to "Life", "Fortune", and "Time" and he illustrated many of the covers, including more than 200 "Time Magazine" covers between 1941 and 1965. He illustrated many advertisements' I remember ads for Xerox, Shell Oil, Pan Am, Scotch Tape and Parker Pens. And, as a stamp collector I was so impressed with his R. Buckminster Fuller stamp that I bought a full sheet in 2004.
   
   Artzybasheff writes in the Introduction from As I See: "I am thrilled by machinery's force, precision and willingness to work at any task, no matter how arduous or monotonous it may be. I would rather watch a thousand ton dredge dig a canal than see it done by a thousand spent slaves lashed into submission. I like machines."
   
   His images of people have a mechanical aspect while retaining the essence of the subject's personality. Even more impressive, his images of machines often have a human character. One World War II image that sticks in my memory shows a cringing bomber with its engines "clenched" like fists, while a grinning fighter plane dives down, machine guns sharp and gleaming from its wings.
   
   I've included a short bibliography in the first Comment; search Google images for Artzybasheff to see for yourself. If the images don't enchant you, nothing I can write will convince you to purchase this book. Otherwise, don't miss it.
   
   Robert C. Ross 2008



3. Boris Artzybasheff was best known for his magazine work -- both cover illustrations and, especially, advertising art. Single original pages of his ads from Time and Life, dating from the 1940's through the early 1960's, regularly sell on eBay for $10 to $15. To the best of my knowledge, though, the only book ever published that consisted entirely of Artzybasheff art was his "As I See."
   
   For a long time, this volume has been nearly impossible to find, and when found, tended to demand an astronomical price. It has now finally been reissued in a remarkably inexpensive edition.
   
   To describe Artzybasheff's style as "surreal" is to oversimplify. I suggest you do a Google image search to see examples of his work. Then jump on this new edition of "As I See" before it goes out of print.



4. Amazon sent me a "new" copy of this book with covers seriously bowed. I recommend Artzybasheff, but suggest seeing this book before buying. Buyer beware.

5 comments about The Art of Peter Max.

1. This isn't a book that you'd just pick up and read by any means. It does have some nice biographical information on Max, but it's so generic and propaganda is it's disgusting.
   If you're a Peter Max fan and collect his art this book is a must have for you coffee table/book shelf. Has a great selection of his work reproduced nicely for viewing.
   If you're looking for information about Max, who actually seems to be one of the harder living artists to find FACTUAL information about , this is not the book you're looking for.



2. For pop culture collectors - or those old enough - the art of Peter Max may have been initially seen through his picturesque work on school supplies, like pencil boxes and book covers. Max essentially penned the pages of Pop Art as the people's artist by making access a vital concept.
   
   The beautiful layout of this intriguing volume is a retrospective on Max's life, though with an emphasis on his more recent - Americana - explorations. There is a special happiness and eternal optimism in Max's artistic endeavors, which makes this collection especially brilliant.



3. I LOVE THIS BOOK! It is a wonderful complete collection of some of Peter Max's finest works. He is one of my favorite comtemporary artists. I love his use of color and inventive themes. If you love bright colors and/or psychedelic art this is the book!



4. This book is GREAT - it gives you a complete understanding of his art past and present.



5. I first saw this book on a cruise and knew I had to have it. Its an excellent book for the art enthusiast and a beautiful book for display. I highly recommend to anyone.

4 comments about Chinese Calligraphy Made Easy: A Structured Course in Creating Beautiful Brush Lettering.

1. This book provides the basics for understanding the complex workmanship and discipline required to produce quality Chinese Calligraphy.
   This is an excellent book, if you are truely serious about learning this Ancient Art.



2. This is a good book to start working with Chinese Calligraphy. The instructions are clear and helpful, and many examples of characters are given to practice, in such a way that you can see and work with the different variations of the basic brushstrokes. While this book won't lead to mastery, it has certainly helped me in achieving more consistency in writing the characters.
   
   The art projects were fun to do, and I have ended up doing some of them several times as friends and family wanted one of their own.



3. If you'd like to learn to write the "ABCs" of written Chinese, this is the book for you! (That's a joke, by the way, since Chinese has no ABCs.) The book gives very complete and detailed instructions for making the strokes of the Chinese characters, and building them into beautiful characters. I particularly liked the way little arrows show the movement of the tip of the brush, while up and down symbols told you when to lift the brush to its tip, or press it down.
   
   The book is interspersed with attractive little projects you can do with Chinese characters, but the heart of the book is definitely how to write the characters themselves.



4. This is a fabulous introductory how-to book on Chinese calligraphy. The text and examples are large, the overall presentation of the material is clear and artful. Using this book is really easy.
   
   The publisher's description says:
   
   - Unique, systematic teaching method builds
   from basic to advanced brushstrokes,
   enabling you to create new words with each
   brushstroke you learn
   
   - Two fold-out cover flaps carry key
   information to remind you of the anatomy
   of each character as you progress
   
   - Organized into a series of lessons and
   projects which, as they are worked
   through, build the reader's knowledge
   
   - Includes beginner-level projects for
   greeting cards, decorative ceramics, and
   calligraphic artwork
   
   Some 100 characters are covered. There are chapters on preparing the brushes, holding and loading the brush, wrist and elbow movements, pressing and lifting the brush, various brushstrokes, making a traditional writing book, a greeting card, the five golden rules of Chinese calligraphy, mounting a xuan paper artwork, and more. An appendix shows where Chinese calligraphy supplies can be obtained in the U.S and U.K., each listing has a website.
   
   I happily give this book a full five stars.

2 comments about How to Wrap Five Eggs: Traditional Japanese Packaging.

1. I have been trying to find an affordable copy of the original "How To Wrap Five Eggs" from the 1960s, and this is a very satisfying compromise. It includes wonderfully descriptive photographs, and provides insight into the deceptively-simple art of Asian packaging, as well as a primer on Why We Love Paper. Elegance, style, simplicity, function. Terrific!



2. This book does not provide instructions on how to wrap various items or goods, but it does have one section discussing the act of wrapping itself. However, pictures are intriguing because there are various objects and products wrapped in the most creative ways possible. The only bad part about that is it makes you want to learn about wrapping more.