Informative but not useful
593743
I guess i was really expecting something different from these cards. I was looking for more of a flashcard setup, not a book contained within a series of cards on a giant bulky ring. I found it entirely useless, as the cards say the same thing my eight jillion organic help books and textbooks also say, only in an extremely difficult to transport and even more difficult to use setup.

If you're curious as to the size/bulk of these cards, i can wear them on the ring as a bracelet with room to spare. Definitely not a throw in your backpack kind of item.

Overall if you're looking for a book replacement then this may be good for you, but if you're looking for flash cards you are better off making your own.
4230961
This might make a passable high school or elementary college text, but as a serious reader of history I found it disappointing. American exceptionalism is clearly a topic with a lot of current political importance, and had hoped for an illuminating discussion of the ways in which America really is different. The author points out the obvious differences -- a limited government, loosely disciplined political parties, individualism and localism -- and takes a quick look at their possible sources, and their potential implications. There is, however, little in the book that was new or thought-provoking. Indeed, it is to a large extent a review of existing literature, and not a very useful one.  Moreover, it is a pain to read.
1210923
The information is a little redundant and mostly common sense. The author repeats herself a lot, which I suppose is to both drive points home and fill up the pages of the book. The most helpful thing for me would've been to read a summary online and then just do it. There is nothing ground breaking or new in the book.
973160
This was more of a pamphlet with general knowledge about general topics dealing with coding than anything else.  I would not consider this a book.  The information is useful but can be applied to any aspect of life not specifically coding.  Do not get this if you are looking for detailed info on getting into the tech scene as a self taught programmer.
2166517
Poor aid to the novice.  Undefined terms, long listings of bugs and diseases without pictures. Some useful info if you use additional texts.  Would not order it if I knew what I know now.
1754100
Do not waste your money on this book - there are many others out there that are much better.  First, it is NOT an "User's Manual".  It's got a lot of useful info in it, certainly, but a "Manual" it isn't.  Here's why:  Although it has a Table of Contents, almost all of the listings start with one of three words: "What's", "How", or "Using".  You have to read every line to the end to find out what that section of the book is about.  Second, there is no Index.  An Index is usually found at the back of text books, i.e. manuals or instruction books, where keywords are arranged alphabetically with page numbers where those words appear, so that if you want to know about "Lollipops", the Index will tell you every page where "Lollipops" appears.  This book has no Index.  And third, the book is written in dreadful prose, in what I can only call "Adolescent-speak" (my apologies to the middle school, high school and college crowd).  I presume that's supposed to make the book friendlier, but nevertheless a "User's Manual" is surely isn't.
2130342
I would rate this volume four stars for information, except that there's little on inherited health issues, but only two stars for tone. After reading every section on the twenty or so breeds I was considering, I found myself becoming quite discouraged; it seemed that every breed demonstrated one or more characteristics that should discourage any potential owner from making a purchase. From the point of view of some breeders, this might be seen as a useful purpose, but I was certainly looking for something more positive. The book relies on sketches of each breed rather than photographs.
1890638
This book is a fairly comprehensive report on the ancient mayan city of Copan.  I say that in the context of having no experience in the field of central american archaeology.  If you're searching for a really in-depth explanation of all aspects of Copan, you may want to seek elsewhere.  If you're like me then this short book should suffice.

Like the title of my review, I found this book to be informative yet boring.  It upheld it's purpose for me, which was as a resource to writing essays on Copan...but don't get this book and expect to go for an adventure because it will leave you yawning.
1395858
This book provides a useful bunch of information about Asterisk but is primarily aimed at newbies rather than more advanced users.  I think that using the word "Definitive" in the title is misleading.  One could take that word to mean "correct" but I would expect that it also imply "complete" and this book is not that.  In my view, a "definitive guide" should be the only documentation required.

The section on the AMI interfaces is just a sketch at best.  I bought this book because I wanted more complete documentation on AMI than I could find anywhere else but was disappointed in the coverage given in this book.

I needed exactly one specific piece of information I could not find anywhere on the web by doing the usual searches.  When I use the "originate" command to make a call from a SIP channel to an outside number, I need to know the outbound channel on which the call was placed in case I want to do a programmed transfer (to an outgoing voice message to be left on an answering machine).  The book gives no guidance on this and not even a hint as to where else I might find this information.  This particular function is the entire reason I am considering the use of Asterisk so it was quite disappointing to buy this book, read it all, and still not have a clue how to do the one thing I wanted to do.
4671126
Though widely available in Alaska, and praised as the best book on the topic, I found it a disappointment. It reads as if it were a collation of encyclopedia articles - one or two pages on each topic such as Yupiat population, housing, culture, and so on. Oddly, the book does not discuss indigenous languages or efforts to preserve them.

Surprisingly, the best chapter is the last one, on Historic Change. Langdon feels free here to offer a more synthetic, big picture account of political issues from the 1960s to the present. It's the best-written chapter.

Overall, its a useful, short reference book that is written in an overly descriptive style. However, Im not sure how useful the main chapters will remain in a Wikipedia world, where such information is easy to find.
4909977
Anybody who is interested in eating healthy should know all the facts in this book already. There is no shocking new information presented, no genuine discovery, nothing you couldn't get from the Internet if you where really interested in this. The writing style of the author is rather long-winding, and he repeats himself all the time. This book, condensed by at least two thirds, getting rid of all the bloated prose and just leaving the facts, would make a nice compendium of knowledge. As it is, the read is rather tedious and boring.
1405183
This book is full of the most useless information anyone could think up.  It drones on and on about the history of every little thing in boring detail.  I stopped reading less than 1/2 way through because I just could not take it anymore.  There is tons of information, but it is all non-usefull mumbo jumbo.
552523
While this book represents a somewhat useful compilation of information drawn from other sources, frankly the author displays very little understanding of how Tesla Coils actually work.  Many of his numerous formulas and graphs are not relevant, and for those that are their relevance is rarely explained.

Many important topics are not even touched upon, such as the necessity to protect the primary transformer's secondary winding against sure RF damage by adding a filter between it and the gap. Also while he correctly states that neon sign transformers are excellent for Tesla coils, he neglects to mention that modern ones are useless because they have built in ground fault interrupters.  This not nit picking; rather, overlooking these (and many others) will spell sure grief for any builder.

For the advanced builder there is no mention of how to choose the coupling between the primary and secondary, and the interesting phenomenon of how energy washes back and forth between the primary and secondary coupled tuned circuits for several envelopes before gap quenching takes place.  No actual oscilloscope traces are to be found in the book; instead everything is drylabbed.  There are too many other instances where the book is incomplete and unauthoritative, except to mention that the author perpetuates the myth that the reason that small coil discharges don't shock you is because their high frequency currents travel over your skin (not...see Wikipedia).

I don't regret buying this book however the TC community has advanced well beyond it and I urge any potential builder to spend time on the web where they will find information that is more relevant, practical, and trustworthy (for example those by richieburnettis.)  I understand that my review represents a different perspective than that of some others however I felt these things needed to be said.
3634449
Unfortunately, not informative enough.  Assumes the reader already knows a lot on the topic, which I don't.
3506345
I am doing a report on the education of Native Americans.  This book has bits of interesting information, but you have to go through a lot of dullness to find it.  Unimportant information (ie, Dickinson College and phyisal layout of Carlisle) could have been summed up in two pages but instead droned on for many more.  There weren't many testimonies and I felt that it lacked pictures to back up what it was talking about.  All in all, I would suggest reading another book (try Education for Extinction by David Adams).
4656394
There is some very useful information in here, but the author gets very repetitive and frequently goes off on a tangent as to why he thinks his system is better than others.  It suffers most from lack of professional editing; a good editor could reduce it by 50% and not lose any information.
12267
I saw this book in a store and I bought it when I figured out that it was about raising chickens.  The title might lead you to believe that this book is about learning to tolerate chickens; fortunately it isn't.
This book is useful but not an especially valuable source of information.  The pictures are good and the quotes are sometimes interesting.  You could live without this book.
If you decide to purchase this book, also get a more useful one such as Storey's Guide To Raising Chickens.