great resource - but use footnotes!
598107
For some reason, Christopher Tolkien did not extend his History of Middle-Earth scholarship to the Hobbit. Rateliff provides an invaluable contribution by chronicling J.R.R. Tolkien's writing of his first and arguable best novel.

In many respects, the early drafts of the Hobbit do not differ much from the published version. The first phase of the draft (most of which are covered in this volume) remains startlingly similar to the final book. The key plot elements - from the unexpected party to the trolls to Beorn - are all present. There are a few minor differences, particularly the names (I won't spoilt the surprise, but Gandalf and Thorin go by different aliases).

In the second volume, the end of the second phase of the draft and third, and fourth phases deal with the latter half of the Hobbit story, and boy were there some changes. Bard wasn't the original dragon-slayer - not by long shot! It's fascinating to see how Tolkien originally envisioned the story and how much it differs from the final version.

Finally, the book covers the fifth phase, Tolkien's attempt to rewrite the Hobbit in 1960 to make it better fit the style of Lord of the Rings. Ultimately, Tolkien only got to Rivendell and most of the changes only affect the tone, not the plot, of the story. Still, it's a fascinating "what if".

I took off one star for something that bugged me throughout Rateliff's book. Rateliff supplements Tolkien's drafts with hundreds of detailed endnotes at the end of each chapter commenting on the text. These are generally very insightful, but because they're endnotes it's difficult and quite frustrating to have to flip back and forth to see how the comment relates to the text. This is especially so because the endnotes refer to very specific language or details in the text. The book ought to have used footnotes, or sidenotes such as those found in the Annotated Hobbit, so that readers can read the note right after reading the relevant text.

Other than that quibble, this is a MUST for any Hobbit fan.
261699
It helped me.

Hint hint:use table of contence.

It may be faster!!!:)
4685353
I'm only about halfway through this work, and it's rather brilliant. Either this is a spectacular and masterful translation of an articulate piece, or it's a dumbed down one, because I'm reading it with great ease and clarity. Fantastic.

I will say, though- the footnotes are distractingly excessive. Sometimes there are only five lines of the piece on the page, because the rest is filled with footnotes.

With any copy of a philosophical or historical text, the footnotes can either make or break it. My copy of the complete works of Plato had just the right amount, in only the places they were needed. My copies of Aristotle had too few footnotes, and the ones present where were I didn't need any.

This one is like if you gave a guy Adderall and told him to do footnotes. Any and every historical or mythological reference is footnoted. Even Erasmus's obvious intentions have footnotes ("Here, he is being satirical.").

If you're reading Erasmus, chances are you have a passing familarity with Greek mythology that you don't need every reference annotated. And if you're reading The Praise of Folly, you surely have a grasp of what the book is, and was intended to be. Some things are best left unexplained. No one is picking up this relatively obscure work for a beach read. I didn't bother with the introduction, but, like the footnotes, the length seemed excessive. Could be a masterpiece, I don't know, but there's a lot of page-filling here.

Penguin has exceptional binding and texture, though, so they're generally my go-to. If you can find this translation elsewhere, without the footnotes, I would recommend that instead. It's simply impossible to enjoy the text when 7/8th's of the page are footnotes. I stopped reading them, except when I legitimately did need clarity, but it's wildly distracting. Seriously. Four stars for the translation, fantastic printing by Penguin, and quality of the work. But two stars for all the footnotes. Shop around, maybe.
2223240
Helpful in explaining the rules and breaking them down. Especially for Civil Procedure Semester heavy on rules! The footnotes are a great resource as they provide cases if you need examples for when the rules are used in a certain context to better understand.
1506851
Finally, the resource I was looking for! This guide gave the details, with step by step instructions and screen shots that got me through. I finally think I have some comprehension of styles. Following the instructions in the book, I was able to make those unruly headers and footers behave.

My one complaint is that the tips given are not presented in the order you should do them. The section that gives instructions on how to set up sections breaks comes after the header and footer section. But at the beginning of the book, the author clearly advised readers to read the whole book, experiment on a sample manuscript (not the one you plan on formatting), and then go back and format your manuscript. Had I followed that advice, I would have saved myself some time.

Another valuable feature is that instructions are given for Word 2007, as well as for older versions of Word. Additionally, information about formatting ebooks is also included.

If you want detailed instructions on how to format, this is the guide for you.
4630693
I've read about half way through 1 Samuel so far. At least every other chapter has an article sharing historical and archaeological findings related to the content in that chapter. Of course, some of the articles are relevant to more than one passage, so the footnotes point readers to all other articles that would add meaning.

It's been very interesting to read, and to think about the Bible stories in  their historical context. It's adds depth to the accounts, clears up some details that seem odd out of context, and validates the reality of the Bible stories.
1373050
I like the tack the authors have chosen (or maybe it's imposed upon O'Reilly's "In a Nutshell" series).  All the info about XML and associated technologies is there but it cuts to chase. Lean and mean, but with enough examples--which is so important! I must say I've learned much about XML reading this book and use it as a desktop reference (as it was meant to be).
The bad news as other reviewers have pointed out is that the 1st ed. is littered with typos and errors. Sadly some of them are in the code examples. I'm frowning because I actually copied an error thinking that it was the proper syntax.
...
The second edition is forthcoming, June 2002 according to O'Reilly. Hope the authors have a much cleaner text this time. May I suggest going for this new edition instead?
2613949
I saw someone else mention in his/her review, and I am having the same problem.  When I go to the table of contents and click on Chapter 1, 2, or 3, it just loads up a popup window that says footnotes.  I have to go to Chapter 4 and go backwards if I want to go to Chapter 1, 2, or 3.  Other than that, so far it works fine for me.
1644155
This book is very easy to read and the footnotes are really helpful to give a more in-depth understanding of the text. You can navigate between the verses and footnotes with with the touch of a button. Looks great on kindle fire HD!
3826813
If someone knows, please explain an easy way to use footnotes and concordance and then go right back to where you were reading.
3233796
Great book. Lots of footnote and resources to help your search. Hope I don't have to refer to this too many times.
4679483
This is an essential reference for the music fan.  My review regards the 6th edition of the book (I write this knowing the 7th edition is the most current). I own the first edition, released around 1983. As much as I loved the first edition (adding that my interest in top hits after about 1986 has dwindled), I have gotten so much out of this 6th edition. What has been added, besides hits from 1983 - 1995, is an incredible amount of information about the various artists. The biographies, which in the first edition were practically non-existent, are now teeming with information. Also, some interesting footnotes on songs have been added since the first edition. I have one major beef: my copy had bad glue, and almost all of the pages are falling out! Hopefully, that's not your experience. I would highly recommend the 7th edition.
4320195
A lot of people in my class liked having this book b/c it was like having a  portable, pocket-sized Netter's atlas with clinical correlations (seems like a good idea right?)

BUT be warned, there are some CRAZY formatting problems on some of the pages.  I've never seen anything like it in a book before.  Something weird must have happened to their computer during the editing process, b/c certain words will be cut-off or some pages will be close to gibberish.

If you don't believe me, check out page 85.  "nur to disc initiates inflaator process"  or "iscoenicpain" are two examples of sentences on this one page.

Thankfully, this doesn't effect the entire book.  It's only a few pages out of the ~650 total pages.  I think the book is still an excellent resource to have, but I like to know the flaws of things I buy before I buy them.  Hopefully the publishers will see this and fix the next edition!
4139828
Five stars for the book itself, which is a hilarious sendup of Shakespeare.  There is a relatively minor but annoying problem with the Kindle edition, though.

The book has lots of footnotes (funny ones, written in a mock-erudite, pseudo-scholarly style).  For some reason, though, about 1/8 of the footnotes have a problem of some sort.  Sometimes the text points to the wrong footnote and/or the "right" one is apparently omitted altogether.  Some of the footnotes are multi-paragraph.  The Kindle, for some reason, puts these on multiple pages.  Which is OK, but sometimes the additional paragraphs are missing.  For example, Footnote 68 purports to reveal new scholarship on the "Et tu, Brute" line: "Jess' research... indicated that the full dialogue between Caesar and Brutus went something like this:"

But that's the entirety of the Kindle footnote - no dialogue appears on that page, and Next Page goes to Footnote 69.
1869766
Good reference for quick use!
Extensive to a point.
514257
Old puritan writing, reformatted with added footnotes, and illustrated by Aaron Youngen....Yes Please!!! Having the scripture that Sibbs references written out at the bottom of the page in a footnote is extremely helpful. I highly recommend this book.
144881
the bible itself is great - IN PRINT. the electronic version (at least what is available for the voyage and paperwhite) is severely lacking with respect to navigation.

i haven't tried all books in the bible of course, but the ones i've spot-checked have all been the same (i just verified on both genesis and 1 john):
navigating to the book table of contents, you are presented with links to introduction and each of the chapters by number. selecting introduction takes you there. selected chapters 1-3 all result in a footnote pop-up; the pop-up can be closed with an X in the upper right corner or near the bottom you can choose to go straight to the footnotes. but nowhere is there an option to go to the chapter. if you really want to see chapters 1-3, as far as i can tell your only options are to start at the introduction or chapter 4, and page forward/back to where you really wanted to be in the first place.

this is not the only issue i've found but it's the one that frustrates me the most.