Book Description

This new edition of the highly acclaimed Selling Graphic Design brings designers, both veteran and amateur, up-to-date on the best ways to find clients, develop lasting relationships, and maximize sales.

The book explains in a professional, no-nonsense style how to write effective proposals, offer the right design solutions, and provide services to fit a client's needs and budget. Full of tips on pricing, billing, portfolios, promotion and networking, and turning low budgets into successful projects, the revised version includes new chapters on Internet promotion, electronic design technology, selling Web page designs, and protecting your electronic files. ... Read more

Reviews (16)

If You Work In Design, You MUST Have This Book!
I started my own graphic design business three years ago and I don't think I could have done it without this book. Although I had worked for other people for years, I had never written a proposal, sought out clients, or had to promote a company before. Selling Graphic Design explains the terms and trade customs, as well as the best-practices that can make all the difference between being a money-making designer and being a starving artist.

If I ever meet Don Sparkman personally, the first words out of my mouth will be "Thank you!"

Deceiving title..
I bought this book while thinking it had methods and techniques for freelancers to promote their work.
It turned out to be addressed at people whose job is "sales" at larger design firms. In other words, this is a book for salespeople, not a book for designers.
It has some useful techniques inside, but it's certainly not the stuff designers would like to do (like cold calling).

Keys to Success
The business of graphic design has changed drastically in the last few years and many of us feel we are looking at a locked door without any keys. Don Sparkman's 2nd edition takes a practical and step-by-step approach to giving you those keys to selling your design services. Whether you have been in business two minutes or twenty years, you need the current protocols for getting clients to hire you because the old ones don't work anymore! Pay attention to turning cold calls into warm calls in Chapter 3, "other elements" in Chapter 8 and every word of Chapter 11.

Good Book on Basics
A good foundation to build on!
I manage a full-service printing facility catering to both the design community and surrounding tech industries. I read this book afer a local designer passed it on to me. I have encouraged my sales staff to read it and use the strategies found in the book that are common to all visual communication companies. The book is filled with common sense rules that can make a difference in success or failure.

An easy read and very informative
Don Sparkman's book, Selling Graphic Design is a quick read, very informative and easy to understand. While much of the information is aimed at the begining designer as well as the non-designer sales rep, there are plenty of fresh ideas for even an old-timer like myself. I liked the conversational tone of the book. Sparkman doesn't preach, he informs. Based on his years of experience, he lays out information in a straight forward manner that can be turned into successful sales strategies by anyone. ... Read more

Amazon.com

New York, New York, it's an edible town. The soul food's up and the knishes are down. In New York Eats (More), Ed Levine tells where to find the best of both, and of every other gustatory possibility this melting-pot city has to offer.

In this update of the original New York Eats (1992), Levine adds 200 entries.In all, he covers stores in 15 neighborhoods in the five boroughs, spanning 30 ethnic groups.

Fair warning: Look up one entry and an hour later, you will still be reading. Levine's passion, sometimes controversial opinions, and ardent style are utterly compelling. Present and former New Yorkers can kiss off half a day every time they get near this book. And Levine now shares his e-mail address, so you can argue back and share your own favorites.

Die-hard ethnic foodies may notice one shortcoming in New York Eats (More). Some identities within major ethnic groups, such as Thai in the Asian entries, are missing. This may have happened because Levine does not cover restaurants. When this shortcoming is remedied, as it no doubt will be in a future edition, this will be the ultimate, as well as the most exciting, New York food guide.--Dana Jacobi ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Because of New York Eats I bought this book
Ed Levine is the host of a funny and very informative local New York restaurant and food review show called "New York Eats". I have repeatly sent in emails hoping to get a free copy of his book but to no avail. Alas I recently bought this book and it has helped me on many occasions. From finding the best pizza in NYC to the best take out fois gras. A indispensable gift for someone living in New York City and surrounding areas and even better for someone about to visit and they want to know where to get the best food in the best city on earth.

Comprehensive and entertaining - fun and useful
My copy of the previous edition of this book is dog-eared and worn because I use it so much as a guide, reference and and entertainment. Levine knows New York, food, and people. He knows his stuff but he's not snooty about it. He's as much at home writing about Gray's Papaya hot dogs as he is about the finest wines ... Read more

Amazon.com

With Amazonia, James Marcus adds to the ever-simmering stew of Amazon.com analysis a new, almost quaint perspective: that of an employee hired for his expertise in literature. Marcus traces the company's familiar climb, plummet, and re-ascent, but this time we witness the pyrotechnics from the book-strewn hallways of the editorial department.

After an abbreviated heydey, editorial talent lost cachet at the burgeoning Internet behemoth, replaced by metrics worship and automated innovations like "truncating widgets." Despite the demoralizing shift, Marcus makes evident the loyalty editors continued to display, a "quasi-religious devotion… almost impossible to explain to outsiders." The concept of making history was just too intoxicating for most to abandon (as were the stock options).

Marcus's writing has enough genuine humor and self-deprecation to squelch any accusations of "optimizing for optics," or worse, whining. Aside from a few sections that feel somewhat adrift (oblique mentions of an imploding marriage and an extended Emerson sidebar) the prose is driving and the voice engaging and remarkably fair.

For anyone who worked at Amazon.com in the early days, reading Amazonia is akin to leafing through a high school yearbook (I was an Amazon editor from 1997-2002). Nostalgia is inescapable--even for the irritations of the time, like All Hands Meetings (pep rallies) and the exaltation of MBAs (the popular kids). The thing about yearbooks, though, is that we're really only interested in our own. Whether outsiders will be as captivated by this surf down virtual memory lane is questionable. For alums, it's a lasting keepsake.--Brangien Davis ... Read more

Reviews (16)

Dull re-visit to already covered territory
As a current Amazonian I looked forward to reading this book by a former colleague. Unfortunately, Mr. Marcus' work falls far short of expectations. Covering much of the same ground as Mike Daisey in "21 Dog Years..." and Robert Spector in "Get Big Fast," the author brings neither Daisey's sweaty sense of humor nor Spector's euphoria about e-commerce to a look at the first years of Amazon.com. Marcus seems light on the facts (he messes up more than a small number of time frames) and bored by his subject matter. As a writer I expected a better story and as an insider I know that there is more that he could have told. Sadly, this is not the definitive book on Amazon.com.

Literate Personal Story from inside Amazon.com Little sizzle
'amazonia' by former amazon.com senior editor James Marcus is a memoir of that company's fifty-fifth employee, hired just a few months after the company moved from founder Jeff Bezos' garage in Seattle, the home of tech giant Microsoft and the fast becoming mythical Bill Gates.

In spite of the high tech world in which amazon.com moved, it's operation, at least from what the reader can glean from these pages, was remarkably low-tech, and this may be a source of disappointment to some readers of this book, which is much, much more of a personal memoir than it is a chronicle of the company and its times. It is also done from the perspective of a non-technical literary editor who, in 1996, was not conversant with the few tech totems encountered in the book such as HTML and UNIX.

One of the very few insights into amazon.com's technology was given when, in that same year, early in his employment, Marcus had to rotate the content of the site, thereby bringing the current internet content off-line and bringing an updated copy of the site content on line. By 1996, this technique is incredibly primitive, and the fact that it is being done by a copy editor signals an utterly 'fly by the seat of your pants' operation. It is an expected relief to a frequent amazon.com user and customer to have the author say that times changed and the company Information Technology staff soon would not let a copy editor within two solid doors of a terminal capable of doing this task. Even so, this is pretty tame stuff. In 1996, working in Information Technology for a pharmaceutical company, we were doing database based content which was more sophisticated than this, and our business was drugs, not Internet content.

But, this is all a symptom of the fact that this book is not about technology. It is about marketing and people and organizations. Unfortunately, the principle characters in the book, lead by amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos simply does not have the kind of larger than life presence of Bill Gates of Microsoft or Larry Ellison of Oracle Corporation. Bezos simply comes across as a talented stockbroker with a good idea and the chuzpah to pull it off.

One of the stronger lessons of the book is that in struggling to survive, organizations have little or no mercy regarding the lives of it's employees, even an organization like amazon.com, born in the very enlightened atmosphere of 1990s United States. One of the most common occurrences repeated thousands of times in hundreds of larger organizations is the story of how the author's performance rating was dropped from a 4.5 out of 5 down to a 3.6, even after a staff reduction, due to rankings being mapped to the famous bell shaped curve, where there must be a lot more ratings in the middle of the scale than there are at the top of the scale. It is no surprise at all that this policy was imported from Microsoft.

The thing which makes this book so interesting is the fact that amazon.com is a great success story, being one of the most prominent survivors of the bursting tech bubble which deflated at the end of 2000. Of course, the story of amazon.com's IPO and the fortunes of its stock prices and the author's options values are a central theme of the book. One could wish just a little reflection on what made amazon.com work where others did not.

Ultimately, the book was interesting. I am glad I read it and it provided useful insights into young organizations. But, it was not what I was hoping for, and it had little of the drama surrounding other computer epics from the creation of Colossus during WWII by Alan Turing to the rise and fall and rise of Apple, Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle.

This is a good read, an interesting personal memoir, and a nice insight into a small part of the Internet boom. I just love the irony of writing a review for amazon.com of a book by an editor of reviews for amazon.com.

Rediscovering the 90's with a great read
James Marcus's Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.com Juggernaut is a surprisingly quick and absorbing account of the author's five-year stint as an editor at Amazon.com. Hired in 1996, in the early days of the e-tailer's historic march to world domination (Marcus was employee number 55), the author watched the value of his stock options explode in value during his tenure, and he saw his job as a provider of editorial content become increasingly marginalized as Amazon turned to "personalization widgets" to automate the content of its pages.

For an Amazon enthusiast like myself (I placed my first order--for a copy of Alison Weir's The Wars of the Roses--relatively early, in October of 1997, and have handed over bagfuls of money to the company since), Amazonia offers a titillating view of life behind the web site. Have you ever wondered, for example, what a professional Amazonian's take on the reviews of Harriet Klausner (Amazon's top-ranked reviewer) might be? But the book also reminds us of our recent history, which, given the frenetic pace of change in the computer age, seems very long ago indeed--those early days in the mid-90's when the average man on the street was only vaguely aware, if aware at all, of the wonders of the world wide web. Remember PlanetAll, for example, an online datebook service Amazon acquired back when PDAs weren't ubiquitous? I remembered, but vaguely, once Marcus jogged my memory. Reading Amazonia, then, is an experience akin to reminiscing with a rediscovered friend from grammar school. It's also a great read.

Being a literary editor at Amazon in the heyday
There are "editors" at Amazon today, but what they mostly do is censor reviews by Amazon.com customers. There was, however, a Hellenic time not too many years ago when euphoria wafted across dot.com land like the heady scent of flowers in springtime, and nobody really knew what they were doing, and everybody was going to get filthy rich.

It was then in 1996 that James Marcus, literary type, was lured to Amland to bring, he thought, some literary class to a commercial venture. He was thus among the original denizens of Amazonia, #77 on the hired list--a list that eventually included over eight thousand names. Hired to write quickie reviews and interview writers and blurb up the Amazon pages, Marcus also learned how to answer e-mail cheerily and helpfully, how to change the content on Amazon's pages, and occasionally how to stuff product into boxes for shipping.

One can see that Marcus was a little older, noticeably less geeky, and somewhat of a literary dandy compared to his fellow stock option holders. One can further see that he played the game with an eye on the exit and was never completely comfortable being a corporate cog. I was reminded of the strong allegiance to the corporate family that the modern corporation demands of its white-collar types, the long hours, the frequent meetings and the morale- and team-building conferences, the pep rallies, the employee trips and outings, etc.

The story here is not a tell-all (although there are some juicy tidbits) nor is it a chronicle of the rise and fall, and rise again of one of the Internet's stellar giants. Instead it is a very personal tale of being hired by Amazon in 1996, what he did, whom he met and worked with, what they said and did, and why he eventually left. His own personal rise and fall of fortune, peaking at about $9-million early in the year 2000 (consisting mostly of unvested stock options that he couldn't yet sell) and ending during the meltdown, is an interesting one nonetheless, and Marcus tells it well. As a literary type, he takes his time to polish the prose and use authentic diction; and there is considerable evidence of a brow-knitted search for le bon mot, which he often finds. Mainly, he has uncluttered the text and attended to the reader's needs, and so the story flows.

One can see, of course, that this was premeditated. Marcus knew he was going to write about his experiences at Amazon as soon as he was hired, or perhaps before. That is, he took notes while he whistled while he worked, which is why he can simulate conversations eight years old and can recall the exact titles of books he chased down in Amazon.com's mammoth Dawson Street warehouse.

But one is struck by how downright mundane Marcus gets at times. Here he is at the warehouse doing the obligatory help-out during the Christmas rush. He's talking about the employees who ship the stuff year round. He says, "They considered themselves the core of the business, the extreme employees. Yet they weren't being rewarded with stock options like their white-collar counterparts. It made for the occasional display of territorial rudeness." And then he gives us some action and conversation that amounts to "a tall guy with a tongue stud" standing in his way and not responding to his "can I get by?"

Not exactly exhilarating stuff, and to be honest, some of this will bore a lot of readers.

More interesting is this story: Marcus was at a morale-building ski trip conference in his first year at Amazon. He joined a group at the hotel bar playing a parlor game in which you have to name a movie star of the same sex that you would have sex with. Jeff (the Jeff) was in the group. Guess whom Jeff Bezos named? Indiana Jones! (That would be Harrison Ford.)

Marcus's portrait of CEO and visionary Jeff Bezos is carefully if sketchily drawn, and Marcus seems to get as much of Jeff into the book as he can. There is Jeff planning, scheming, laughing, flying everywhere, appearing, speaking, guiding, cajoling, mesmerizing, seemingly having a lot of fun. Jeff even worked (briefly for show, of course) in the warehouse running a cart up and down the aisles "picking" books to send to customers.

Marcus recounts some of Jeff's mistaken purchases (what's a few hundred million dollars more or less?), and reports on once seeing Jeff give an employee a public dressing down. But mostly we see Jeff at something close to play: Jeff genially allowing himself to be dunked at a company picnic (by employees throwing a ball at a target), Jeff in a hula skirt, etc. Indeed, Marcus finds nothing negative to say (or show) about one of the Internet's most powerful moguls. One gets the sense that Jeff never showed his claws in Marcus's presence or that Marcus is being more than careful.

In the Epilogue, we see Jeff playing tennis against Anna Kournikova in a PR stunt while Marcus watches, the manuscript of this book under his arm, hoping to get Jeff's attention and hand it to him.

In the final analysis what Marcus finds out about Amazon is that it's "always day one" (one of Jeff's slogans) and what really counts is "monetizing those eyeballs" and "revenue velocity."

Bottom line: a little too precious at times, a little too mundane, but overall a good read that will especially appeal to dot.com watchers and Amazonians, past and present.

Get an insider's view into Amazon's growth
For somebody working in the Internet industry for a long time it is great to read about how a company like Amazon developed itself. Not from a pure marketing or financial perspective, but from a people and organizational perspective. Anyone interested in finding out how it was or would have been to go through the growth stages of an Internet start up that executed on a vision and succeeded with that, this is a great book. It is easy to read, not too long or too short. With the departure of the author from Amazon in the early 2000's you wonder how life in Amazon has changed since then. But anybody familiar with the rollercoaster ride of the late nineties will attest that that surely was the most interesting period. Go read! ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Enjoyable
This book chronicles the fur trade era from 1822-1834 through the eyes of William Ashley's men and the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Such giants of the times like Jed Smith, Jim Bridger, the Sublettes, Tom Fitzpatrick and many others are given thorough examination of their roles in attempting to capture the fur trade business, along with their exploration accomplishments of the American west. The cutthroat competition from the Hudson's Bay Company, Astor's American Fur Company and the Missouri Fur Company, not to mention Indian hostilities, hunger, thirst and the always present forces of nature, made the fur trade business a precarious way of life. If one is not familiar with the geography of the west, it would be helpful to have a map handy as there is not one in the book. There were a few typos which can be overlooked, but there is one historical blunder I must point out. This is on page 50. It is mentioned that Vanderburgh and Carson were exempted from Leavenworth's criticism of the Missouri Fur Company's handling of the Aricara battle. This is NOT Kit Carson as the index states it is. This man was Kit's older half brother Moses. Other than these few discrepancies, the book was presented very well and was a pleasure to read.

Proof-reading is soooo much trouble!
Never have I seen such a poorly proof-read edition of so fine a book. It's criminal. Page 61 has legendary mountain man Hugh Glass being killed by hostile Indians in the "winter of 1932-33." That would have made the poor guy over 140 years old at the time. And that's just the beginning. There are over 15 typos in the first five chapters alone, which would disqualify this publisher (Comstock Editions) as the operator of a Quick-Copy franchise.

Great book! But you're going to have to track down a much earlier edition in order to appreciate it.

History without peer!
Having long ago lost my original copy from the '70's, I'm glad to see this classic back in print. Fully rounded with details of Jim Bridger, Hugh Glass and others on the world economic canvas painted by John Astor, Berry gives us the complete picture. It should be on the short list for any course in American history along with the Lewis and Clark journals.

Great overview of western fur trade
The best book I've ever read for giving the complete picture of the fur trade out West. Not only the unique and colorful individuals, but the international scene that sets the background or framework for the times. Gives info on Hudson's Bay, trappers from Santa Fe, John Jacob Astor, as well as the St. Louis firms. Highly recommended for anyone interested in those exciting times. Shows who REALLY opened the West.

Best book bar none!
My favorite comment about this book comes from the author himself. When criticised for his lack of credentials by the academic historians, Berry replied, in defense of what is still generally held to be the best book on the subject: "History is the fiction that the historians write." ... Read more

Amazon.com

Leading by Design is really, of course, the story of Ingvar Kamprad, the Swedish furniture retailer who turned Ikea into a company that now has 41,000 workers at 150 stores in 30 countries who annually distribute 100 million catalogs and sell $6.25 billion in goods. And what a story it is. Based on extensive conversations with the subject, 100 additional interviews, and various documents both public and private, business journalist Bertil Torekull employs an unusual mixture of blunt first-person recollections and narrative overviews delivered with literary flair to peel away the intricacies of Kamprad's life. Along the way, Torekull reveals the creative forces that propelled Kamprad's distinctive entrepreneurial drive and fashioned a successful company. "Imagine one of the coldest little countries in the world. Think of the most barren part of that country. See in front of you a godforsaken place deep in the wild spruce forests," Torekull begins. "This book is about a man who grew up in that harsh environment, which was to mark his whole life and fundamentally color the philosophy with which he built his vast empire." Delving into a fascinating career that began taking shape at the unlikely age of 5, Torekull presents this tale in a way that entertains as well as educates. --Howard Rothman ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Misunderstood!
Really, this book describes the IKEA way really good. But after reading others people reviews of this book I can understand how hard it is for non-swedes to grasp the real lessons learned in this book. It doesnt make it better that the guy that wrote this book is a quite "boring dude".
The book is well written and researched, all the facts are true and THE MAN HIMSELF Ingvar KAmprad has had a finger with in this book.
AND INGVAR KAMRAD IS IKEA. You cant separate the founder of IKEA from the company itself. Yes, Ingvar has put his soul in to this company and it is this mans thoughts and actions that has made this company to what it is.

At first glanze this book is really boring. But if you give it time, let it melt in and try to see how it was in Sweden for 50 years ago: IF you can put the book in to context you really get a complete and a invaluable picture of THE IKEA WAY.

Without sounding to cooky I just wanna say that this book is right up there with the books about Nordstroms, Jack Welch and etc.

Really, buy this book if you wanna learn lean and mean business the IKEA way. The customers rule....this is the IKEA way...

So you think Jack Welch is better? Just wanna tell you that Ingvar Kamprad made the 50 riches people in the world list!!! THATS SOMETHING!!!

Nice Store, [bad] Story
Who doesn't like IKEA? Too bad this book isn't as good as the store is. What's wrong? Certainly not the subject of the book, but rather, the writing is repetitive, monotonous, circular, and repetitive...egad...it's contagious!

Pass on THIS book and learn about IKEA and its very interesting challenges, history, strategy, and product line (and its founder) from better authors around the Internet.

Progress by Experiment According to Family Principles
If you read many of my reviews, you already know that I seldom rate a book this low. I would normally not finish such a book, and not write a review. However, I felt that this book would attract a lot of readers who, like me, wanted to learn more about the lessons of IKEA's success. What I found instead is one of the most poorly constructed case histories of an interesting company that I can imagine.

The book claims to tell the IKEA story, but really focuses on writing a biography of Ingvar Kamprad, the company's founder. As a biography, the strength of the book is in describing the family and physical environment that were early influences on Kamprad. Past about the first 30 pages, the book doesn't add much. The most interesting parts of the biography come late in the book when Kamprad's early associations with a fascist group are detailed in the context of press reports exposed in the late 1990s. These should have been fully developed early in the book, rather than treated as a later discussion of how to handle bad publicity. Most good biographies teach you something that you need to know. When I was done with this one, I didn't feel like I had learned anything. There probably were lessons there to be drawn out, but the author did not succeed in helping me find them. That meant that I knocked the book down one star.

IKEA has been an interesting international success with an unusual formula. The book assumes a great personal knowledge of that formula. Yet there are very few of the IKEA stores in most countries, so many people who will read this book will lack the experience of knowing about what is being described. Originally written for the Swedish market, that lack of handling the perspective of what the store experience is like limits the book's ability to translate its lessons. I rated the book down one more star for insufficient background early in the book on the reasons why the business works and how it works today. These are dropped in occasionally, so many of them are there by the end. You would then have to read the book a second time to really understand the relevance of the points.

Next, the book attempts to describe the company's success. A lot of time is spent on this, but the author seems to lack the perspective to pick out what is important and what is not. Kamprod is a classic experimenter. If something works well, he does a lot more of it. After a while that pattern becomes something he will not vary from. Since he was not a systemmatic experimenter, it meant that many developments were delayed. On the other hand, he always made it a place where people liked to work so he had someplace to stand on for continuity as the experiments continued. Without the necessary perspective, this is a little like reading 30 annual reports. Unless you have lots of management background, you will have trouble seeing what the important management lessons are in this book.

Basically, Kamprod is an advocate of low-priced distribution of low-cost, mass-produced goods based on high quality designs. His personal values are those of family and treating people with hospitality (like an honored guest). Having started his business from the family farm in Sweden with family and neighbors having been the first customers and employees, you can see the influences quite easily. What is unusual is that his business model developed earlier than that of other furniture merchants. It was reasonably complete by 1960. Only in the last ten years have we seen a reasonably similar store experience in the Boston area.

The best part of the book is that it contains lots of first-person stories from Kamprad. As such, this book will be a valuable source for the first person to write a good book about IKEA as a management case history. I hope that book will soon be written. There must be important insights to be gained about how IKEA developed its business model so many years ahead of others, but I could not figure out what those insights were.

In the meantime, unless you have a compulsive interest in learning more about IKEA today, skip this book.

A fascinating history of a unique man and his vision
Leading by Design has been well researched and covers not just to good times, but also the major challenges faced by Ingvar Kamprad while building IKEA. The interesting conflicts of satisfaction at a job well done and insecurity about choices and the future is a well developed theme. The conclusion I draw is that this is a unique man and his successful company that could only have started in Sweden with it's own interesting social mix. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Absolutely Fascinating!!
This is one of the most interesting and fascinating books on drugs I have ever read. Amazingly thorough and enthralling. It has so many tidbits of information and gossip.

Entertaining and Informative
As a pharmacologist, I found this book very interesting and much more informative than I expected it to be. I expected the book to be a simple review of drugs in pop culture, having read a little bit about the 'zine Pills-A-Go-Go that this book is based on. Mr. Hogshire presents some very thorough information about the processes of drug manufacture, marketing, and information control used by pharmaceutical companies. He also gives us a good history of pharmacies and the role of physicians in perpetuating this nation's obsession with prescription drugs. The book is written in a magazine style with lots of graphics, quotes, and lists. I love the use of old drug advertisements to show the history of pharmacetucial marketing toward doctors. I recommend this book to anyone interested in a career in pharmacy, pharmacology, or medicine, as well as anyone simply interested in "pill culture".

I only have two minor problems with this book. First, there are a ton of spelling and grammatical errors, which don't necessarily detract from the book's content, but do make the book a harder read. Second, the book is often very subjective and tends to follow Mr. Hogshire's very strong opinions on the pharmaceutical and medical industries. While this is to be expected based on the nature of the 'zine, it could have been written with a little less bias. In his defense however, he does a good job of telling all sides of the story on many subjects. Overall, this is a wonderful book.

Informative Beyond My Expectations!
All I can say is, wow! This book is chock full of absolutely fantastic pharmaceutical information- more than I had even hoped for! Mr. Hogshire is right on the mark on his views of grumpy pharmacists- that was a classic chapter! I admire his bravery in writing this work- no doubt many narrow minded people will dislike this book intensely for obvious reasons, but never mind about them! I stayed up until 2 a.m. just happily reading every little interesting factoid. A MUST for all of us PDR freaks! Highly recommended!

"High" praise
Jim Hogshire's "Pills-A-Go-Go" is an exceptionally entertaining and informative work that is great to read in a couple of sittings or in bits, a page or two a day.

This book is a good reference point to distingish the huge difference between a drug USER and a drug ABUSER.

There are MANY issues covered here that I have rarely (if ever) seen addressed elsewhere. One example is the fact that most pills are effective to treat things that they have not been officially approved to treat but if a doctor prescribes a drug for a non-government-approved reason he risks losing his licence. Also, much inside information on the relationship between doctors and the pharmaceuticle companies. And, the fact that government agencies have more input - as to what type of and how much of a drug you need when you are sick - than your doctor does! (How certain agencies of our government think it is more important to stop someone from "having fun" with a drug than to allow someone with, for example, a severed spine to have proper relief from their pain).

Highlight chapters include "The Pill as Virgin/Whore", "Rude Pharmasists", "Rape Drugs" (in which Hogshire points out that the date rape drug of choice is nor Rohypnol... it's ALCOHOL!), "Before Viagra, Better Sex Through Pills", "Pill Road Tests" (including a roll-on-the-floor hilarious account of an extreme Robitussin "experience"), and much more.

Well written & compiled, wonderful design & layout and great artwork.

WARNING: If you lend books, you may want to buy more than one copy... this is the type of book people borrow, then "forget" to return!

irreverent, informative, amazing
This is a beautifully done book. I was surprised by the content and delighted by the artwork. Every page is an unexpected joy. Hogshire probes our pill-taking conscience and examines the cultural significance of pills. He is playful, provocative and informative. Don't make the mistake of dismissing this important work as merely another how-to for druggies. This book transcends popculture and should be required reading for pharmacists, healthcare providers, even cops. It is a seminal work. I love this book. ... Read more

Book Description

This text addresses the methods available for estimating the dollar value of human resource development programs. It has been thoroughly updated to reflect all the changes in government regulations as they affect the cost of human resources to a company or organization. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Very Helpful to the HR professional!!
I actually bought this book because I was working on a class project for Labor Relations and needed to read Chapter 7. Once I got the book, though, I realized that I had actually gotten a treasure. This book will help any HR professional who wants to think strategically and find a way to quantify the value of any organization's most valuable commodity-its people. The book is surprisingly easy to read and understand.

It contains very helpful and useful information. I would recommend this book very highly. ... Read more

Book Description

Located in the heart of the Andes, Potosí was arguably the most important urban center in the Western Hemisphere during the colonial era. It was internationally famous for its abundant silver mines and regionally infamous for its labor draft. Set in this context of opulence and oppression associated with the silver trade, Trading Roles emphasizes daily life in the city’s streets, markets, and taverns. As Jane E. Mangan shows, food and drink transactions emerged as the most common site of interaction for Potosinos of different ethnic and class backgrounds. Within two decades of Potosí’s founding in the 1540s, the majority of the city’s inhabitants no longer produced food or alcohol for themselves; they purchased these items. Mangan presents a vibrant social history of colonial Potosí through an investigation of everyday commerce during the city’s economic heyday, between the discovery of silver in 1545 and the waning of production in the late seventeenth century.

Drawing on wills and dowries, judicial cases, town council records, and royal decrees, Mangan brings alive the bustle of trade in Potosí. She examines quotidian economic transactions in light of social custom, ethnicity, and gender, illuminating negotiations over vendor locations, kinship ties that sustained urban trade through the course of silver booms and busts, and credit practices that developed to mitigate the pressures of the market economy. Mangan argues that trade exchanges functioned as sites to negotiate identities within this colonial multiethnic society. Throughout the study, she demonstrates how women and indigenous peoples played essential roles in Potosí’s economy through the commercial transactions she describes so vividly.

Latin America Otherwise:A Series Edited by Walter D. Mignolo, Irene Silverblatt, and Sonia Saldívar-Hull ... Read more

Reviews (2)

This book was written for the Novice in Web Catalogs
This book is written for the beginner in Web Catalogs. If you have an idea of what a Web Catalog can do for you and how you want to display your information, dont bother reading this book. I also didn't like the fact that it dealt with their included software package.

Informative, Good for Beginners
I am just beginning on developing a site for a retail store. Hope is that this site can literally be another distribution avenue. I believe this book gets people going in the right direction. A series of reference books are helpful to have in addition as the provided information is a bit thin. I would have loved to seen more information on alternative sources/techniques and methods of achieving what the provided GT/Catalog software was designed to do, like: creating managing server databases, JavaScript coding, etc. I understand that they want to push their software, but sometimes it seems a bit excessive to the point that it neglects to mention or give specific examples of alternative methods for achieving the same features found in the provided software. I had the feeling at times that their software was the only solution and you'd have to pay $800 for a full version of it. Don't get me wrong, if you don't have the time or resources to program for yourself, this is a great alternative. It would have also been nice to have an html version of the book on the cd as well ... Read more

Book Description

Cigarette smoking is risky. Yet, official epidemiologic evidence indicates that less risky cigarettes are both desirable and feasible. Indeed, during the '70s, the National Cancer Institute, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the US Department of Agriculture, and the cigarette industry cooperated in an intensive and promising program to develop less hazardous cigarettes.

That program was shut down in the late '70s by intervening abolitionist policies aiming at a smoke free America by the year 2000. Predictably, those policies have failed and by the end of the '90s the number of smokers in the US alone has stabilized around 50 million. Thus, countless preventable illnesses and deaths could be attributed to an abolitionist intransigence blind to the opportunities of less hazardous cigarettes.

The world could do well without tobacco, but over a billion people on the planet will continue to smoke for a long foreseeable future. Declaring cigarettes illegal would only succeed in creating an illegal black market with ugly consequences. In the US such realities have led virtually all States and the tobacco industry to negotiate settlements, with the open acknowledgement that smokers are here to stay.

The settlements guarantee a steady stream of hundreds of billions of dollars into federal, state, and local revenues, predicated on a continuing, thriving, and legal cigarette market. On ethical grounds, these new official arrangements could not avoid raising again the moral obligation to reconsider less hazardous cigarettes, and their once tragically rejected opportunities. A program in this direction could be funded with a negligible fraction of tobacco tax revenues, and could prevent millions of premature deaths even if only partially successful. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

The formal theory of bargaining originated with John Nash's work in the early 1950s. This book discusses two recent developments in this theory. The first uses the tool of extensive games to construct theories of bargaining in which time is modeled explicitly. The second applies the theory of bargaining to the study of decentralized markets. Rather than surveying the field, the authors present a select number of models, each of which illustrates a key point. In addition, they give detailed proofs throughout the book.

Key Features
* Uses a small number of models, rather than a survey of the field, to illustrate key points
* Detailed proofs are given as explanations for the models
* Text has been class-tested in a semester-long graduate course ... Read more

Book Description

"Gershman's guide may be the best guide for novice and pro shoppers alike," praises The Washington Post, and you'll agree. For more than ten years, Suzy Gershman has been leading savvy shoppers to the world's best finds. Now Born to Shop Paris is easier to use and packed with more up-to-date listings than ever before. Inside you'll find:

• The best of the shopping scene, from tony designer boutiques to funky flea markets
• What's new and hot, from the revitalization of the Left Bank to the trendiest young designers
• Excellent values, from bath and body to home style
• Great gift ideas, even for the friend who has everything-plus the best gifts for less than $10
• The best airfare, hotel, and dining values-so you can maximize your shopping dollars
• Tips on customs, shipping, and détaxe laws

Reviews (11)

Useful but not the bible
Working in middle management at a French company, I travel frequently to Paris. On each trip, I spend a day sightseeing or shopping. Recently, I purchased this book and have found a lot of helpful tips. For instance, snobby friends back home are more impressed by a $5 box from La Maison du Chocolat than a larger box of (potentially better) boutique chocolate. Or the fantastic convenience of a Carte Orange. Or where to ask for the discount card at Galleries Lafayette. And I agree with her commonsense recommendations, like avoiding buying American fashion or Japanese electronics while in Paris.

The book is not perfect, however. Many of her favorite Parisian stores are not so interesting now that they are appearing in the Western Hemisphere, like Sephora and Occitane. And I don't rely on her restaraunt recommendations. But the little tidbits have more than paid for the cost of the book.

This book could be much more useful
I am in Paris now (I come here all the time) and someone left a copy of this book in my apartment. It is a bewildering book. The names of the streets are wrong, often. For instance, she talks about Rue du Vielle Temple-- how long would it take to look it up and realize it is Rue Vielle du Temple? Etc.

Some of the descriptions are amusing but sometimes quite inconsistent -- e.g., she says that it is difficult to find a helpful salesperson at Chanel (agreed) and then two sentences or so later that most of the salestaff there are very nice.

I think the book needs an editor, stat. With very careful editing (and PERFECT addresses-- necessary in a city with no right angles and many streets with similar names) this book would be much better. Oh, and it is always nice to provide more upfront about the author and her tastes, so that the reader knows if the book makes sense for them.

If Shopping is your priority...
What a great book for the truly shopping oriented trip. Suzy tries never to bog anyone down with nonshopping related tips or information, unless she is including a lunch or coffee/tea break...her review of the louve involves a rundown on the gift shops and her D'Orrsay recommendation involves only the Rotunda Restraunt. You have to admire her dedication.
Her hotel reviews are super snobby, she raves on about 5 star hotels and seems pained to review anything less. Overall, I loved this book!

don't leave home without it
Long live Suzy Gershman! This was the best, most helpful travel book I have ever bought and made this trip to Paris my most productive, happy and fun EVER. Every suggestion was right on target. Her taste is fabulous and her walking/shopping tours unbeatable. I will follow this woman anywhere.

Much fluff with little substance
It was difficult to wade through her tasteless anecdotes (mostly about her age) to find much substance. She seems more interested in trying to build a personal fan club than trying to give out great information on the truly wonderful shopping in Paris! Her "great deals" on hotel rooms are between US$200 - $300 a night, so beware that she's writing for those with beaucoup d'argent to burn.

I like books that I can carry with me for reference when I shop in Paris. It's nearly impossible to do that with this book because there is so much "chit-chat" included in the reviews of stores. It's very difficult to look up a specific area or kind of specialty store that you seek. You pretty much have to read the entire book to sift through her laborious writing to find what little helpful information actually exists. She includes one map of Paris which may be good for an overview of where shops are located, but a more detailed map is truly warranted.

This book is adequate if it's the only one to which you have access,... I'm sure Suzy has adequate experience of shopping in Paris, but her book needs some serious reorganization and brevity to make it more widely appealing to those who aren't as experienced as she is.

Bottom line: Not worth the effort to read it when there are far more informative books available. Sorry, Suzy. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

monkey business
Mr Staten might have worked in a hardware store but he still lacks some basic knowledge like what the difference is between a stillson wrench, a pipe wrench, or a crescent wrench.

A bit of history, and nostalgia
I've been seeking out and reading books that bring back a sense of nostalgia and "what made America great" type books. I felt the author didn't put the essence of that into this book. One of the reviewers was quoted on the cover of my edition of this book - that Staten provided "odd facts and interesting tales" and there WERE some odd facts but the tales for the most part, left a lot to be desired.
Everyone has a memory of the corner hardware store, all the assorted "stuff", fasteners, paints, stains, ladders and knife display cases. The author grew up in hardware stores, his father owned hardware stores, yet there just wasn't any sense of enjoyment or adventure, nor a sense of excitement of this in the book. I know I would have been there everyday exploring and getting the scoop on everything.

I may have been expecting more out of this book than could be delivered. I recently read Tools of the Earth and Tools of the Trade, both by Jeff Taylor. I think I was looking for what Taylor was able to deliver in his books. You may want to check these titles out if you're interested in the subject.
John Row

Amusing... but sloppy.
I bought this book on a whim in the middle of a major house remodeling project as a bit of a diversion from all the technical reading I was doing on architecture, construction practices and so forth. Like a lot of guys (and some girls) I'm a bit of a tool freak, so what could be better recreational reading?

Well, lots of things, actually. Staten's book isn't bad, and it does have a lot of interesting stories and a few out of the ordinary facts. But it has a few problems, too, like the huge number of factual errors. There are, for example, retellings of long refuted myths, like the one about Thomas Crapper and toilets. And then there are some downright dangerous misstatement, such as the claim that a string-type weed whacker won't cut flesh.

What I found most offputting was Staten's writing style. He likes the short. Punchy. Sentence.
And lots of new paragraphs.
Of one sentence.
Each.

After a while this really starts to grate, as does Staten's idea of what passes for a joke. But taken in small doses- and with a large grain of salt- the book is still reasonably entertaining. Keep it in your toolbox for reading on breaks, or atop the porceline convenience.

Exceeds Expectations
This book is wonderful, especially if you love hardware stores, tools, and doing stuff and always wondered why a cotter pin is called that. Humor, pathos, plenty of it, no photos, but who needs a photo of a ten-penny nail? Plenty of books tell you what to buy, but few tell you who were Black and Decker and why tools and gadgets are so important to the world. Etymologists should buy this book as well, a true nuts-and-bolts effort. Great timewaster. More, please. My dad loved tools and would have devoured this book.

Little to No Humor
I guess I was expecting more humor. It's not there. When they billed this as being enjoyed by people that love Tool Time I thought it would be funny. There's more history than I cared to read about. I'm not saying it's a bad book, just that it didn't meet my expectations. ... Read more

Book Description

Value-Based Human Resource Strategy demonstrates how HR strategy can be positioned and implemented to generate real shareholder value, using case studies from BT, Dyson, Marks and Spencer and others.

The following topics are covered:
* Scope, positioning, process
* Strategy techniques
* Links with managing for value
* Project managing HR strategy
* Specific HR strategy issues and breakthroughs
* Being an HR strategy consultant

Many HR managers are trying to become more of a consultant than an HR administrator and don't know how to - this book addresses that need. It is practical and contains visual tools to work through HR issues.

* Shows how the implementation of HR strategy can generate shareholder value
* Focuses on the practical issues rather than the theoretical underpinning
* Features extensive summaries, checklists, examples, exercises and case studies ... Read more

Book Description

A corporate history that also illuminates a difficult and significant period in U.S. history. ... Read more

Book Description

Examines the many travel pleasures and shopping treasures found in Egypt's major destinations:Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, Aswan and Sharm El Sheik. ... Read more