I received this as a review copy. I am not a hockey coach but live in hockey country and know many people involved in the sport. I think this book would be very useful for anyone coaching or attempting to start up a club program (for any sport for that matter, but obviously in particular for hockey). As a spectator, I found many of the descriptions of strategies and different playing styles interesting and useful in my understanding of the sport, and there were a lot of neat little tidbits about hockey history as well. My hometown of Austin, MN even gets a nod in the annals of hockey history!

I liked that each chapter is written by a different prominent coach, and there is a description of each coach's experience in the back of the book.

With the advent of excellent online research tools like Wikipedia.org, one might be tempted to believe a book like Benet's "Reader's Encylopedia" is obsolete. Au contraire, mon frere.

The advantages of using Wikipedia to gather information about a particular work or author: it's comprehensive, entries easily link to further information, and it's fast. The disadvantages: it's not always focused on the literary importance of every cultural reference, and it's generally more information to wade through than you really need for casual reading.

Using online reference sources is like consulting a reference librarian; cracking open the "Reader's Encyclopedia" is like having a highly literate friend hanging around in your den--you can ask him for a quick fact, and depending on your mood you'll get your answer and go back to your book, or you'll wander off on a tangent and chat for hours about related topics.

There are certainly those who disagree with me and feel a focused subject encyclopedia like this is outdated--and I'm probably an old fart for thinking this way--but if books are your friends you won't regret having a copy of Benet.

I think the title of this book is a little misleading. A reader's "companion" typically consists of annotations, information tangential to and explanatory of the work in question. The subtitle, "Reflections on the Art of Living" is more accurate: this book is a distillation of the essense of Campbell's life work. You don't really even have to have read Campbell to find value in this book.

More spiritual, less academic, than the body of his work itself, "Reflections" is something of a capstone course if you will...but as I said it stands alone as well. This is more of a book of inspirations based on Campbell's scholarly work, and if you're not into that kind of thing you might want to give this one a try anyway. A taste:

"The warrior's approach
is to say "yes" to life:
"yea" to it all.

Participate joyfully
in the sorrows of the world.

We cannot cure the world of sorrows,
but we can choose to live in joy....

The world is perfect. It's a mess.
It has always been a mess.

We are not going to change it.

Our job is to straighten out
our own lives."

If that rings true at all for you, I think you'd enjoy having this book on your shelves.

This book came out in response to the era when everyone and their stupid uncle had William Bennett's "The Book of Virtues" on their nightstand and was pretending to read it. Like "Virtues," "Vices" is a compendium of essays, short stories and literary excerpts that illustrate moral principles. As you might expect, "The Book of Vices" highlights the negative of the concept of morality. It is thoroughly enjoyable, but it is not a light read. With quotes and excerpts from everyone from Muhammed Ali to Xenophon, the book goes heavy on Greek philosophers and medieval writers like Bocaccio. If you like that sort of thing, I think you'll enjoy reading these selections, which are conveniently organized according to the particular deadly sin they illustrate, with happy little quotes at the beginning of each section, such as St. Augustine's "Da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo" ("Give me chastity and continence--but not yet!") How can you beat something like that?

But, like "Virtues," it's really quite heavier intellectual lifting than you might be expecting from a book with this premise, hence the reason so many people bought "Virtues" and never read it, is basically the same reason this little gem never took off in popularity. It's one of my personal favorites, however. I find the selections witty, apt, thought-provoking, and a great way to encourage you to read more of a particular author or work you discover. Nearly all the works are available in the public domain show more and therefore accessible on places like gutenberg.org. Enjoy. show less

A lot of intelligent people have a snobbish attitude about backgammon. They seem to feel that "it's all luck" and that chess is the preferred game to showcase what a hotshot strategist you are.

I have no objection to chess, but if you think backgammon is "all luck," I would love to play it with you for a few hours and watch you marvel at my incredible run of luck. Yes, there's some chance involved. And it is only a game, after all, and a simple one at that. But backgammon is so much more enjoyable than chess to me because backgammon mirrors life. It's pretty simple--you just keep rolling, take what comes your way and move forward. And it's not about being the smartest, or having the most experience, or winning all the time at all costs...it's about taking what the universe sends your way and making the best of it. You might lose here and there through no fault of your own, but if you have the right approach and attitude, you're going to come out a winner in the long run.

Anyway, that's my little personal philosophical take on the joys of backgammon and has nothing to do with Bruce Becker's fantastic little book on backgammon strategy. Play a bunch of backgammon, find someone really good at it, get your hiney kicked a while, and when you get tired of that, read this book and apply Becker's concepts. He basically talks a lot about odds and why the odds of the dice rolls don't quite tie to your moves in the ways you'd sort of expect them to. He also talks about the show more appropriate and necessary use of the doubling cube. Most people don't use the doubling cube and that is a huge mistake because it increases the fun of the game 64-fold. Even if you're not betting anything other than bragging points and trashtalk rights, a game involving the doubling cube is going to bring out some nice healthy (and bloodthirsty) competitiveness. show less

How can one not love Nancy Drew? She does the right thing whether or not it's easy or conventional; she always gets to the bottom of things; she follows through on her commitments. Plus she drives keen cars and has great fashion sense. I have a tattoo of her on my ankle to remind me that smart girls with a passion for discovery and a strong desire for truth and justice, are never out of style.

The complexity of this book impressed me. I expected something lighter, along the lines of Victorian-author trivia, but the book really delivers a multifaceted analysis of the Victorian Zeitgeist as well as important politicians, events, thinkers and writers of the time.