Customer Reviews:
Graphic SF Reader.......2007-09-03
Loki reveals to the Asgardian gods who Odin is and how he has manipulated them. Mephisto's plotting is also revealed.
Captain America, being dead, is in the afterlife, and still thinks something is rotten, so gather a band of like-minded heroes and decides to do something about it.
They have to find out what the builder of Paradise true motivation is.
Great but unfinished.......2004-07-24
I've loved this the entire X series, the Earth Xs, Universe Xs, and Paradise Xs. They encompass the entire Marvel Universe and redefine it, connecting every flailing strand in the comicverse together. Paradise X worked well to further the tale, though left me wanting more. There were still some loose threads at the end which I hope will be tied up in future X issues (anyone know if there will be some?). Hopefully there will be.
Confusingly Bad..........2004-06-26
Wow, where to begin. This book is horrible. I can't believe I wasted my time reading both volumes. It is one of the most confusing, incredibly muddled storylines that I have ever read. The pacing of the story is awful and Krueger leaves us with an unsastifying ending. I would have expected more after investing so much time into this series. I came into this trilogy expecting an enjoyable read and haven't gotten much from it since book one. The writing is awful and is way too wordy for its own good. It seems that Krueger would be better off writing novels. Alot of the story revolves around no name characters bantering back and forth. The art is not very good as well. I wish that John Paul Leon would have continued with the pencils for these sequels, so at least you have something to look forward to. I guess he was smart to abandon ship before it got really bad. Overall, its a disappointing read. I, once had great expectations for this series but have been underwhelmed. I do urge you to read Earth X, the first book in the series and a very fun read. Earth X had a compelling interesting story with all of the big Marvel names and some beautiful artwork accompanying it. It sort of reminds me of the Matrix movie trilogy. But at least the Matrix sequels were somewhat entertaining. These sequels are boring and will leave you upset and wishing that you never spent the time and effort reading this drivle.
Could have been better.......2004-02-23
This volume completes the Paradise X series and I was disappointed in the finished product. A number of story lines were left incomplete; in fact, the book had a very rushed and hurried feel to it. It was if Krueger and Ross ran out of steam to finish the tale and simply threw something together to make the deadline.
While not in the league of The Watchmen or the Sandman series, it is an acceptable diversion for a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Book Description
Warning: This is not your parents' nature writing! A distinctly contemporary take on the genre, A Leaky Tent Is a Piece of Paradise features original essays by twenty gifted writers, all thirty and under, whose strong and diverse voices redefine nature writing for the twenty- first century.
Editor Bonnie Tsui's cast of accomplished contributors wrestle with integrating nature into daily life while putting down roots-- often in urban environments. Included here are The New Yorker's Andrea Walker on learning to hunt with her father; noted fishing author and painter James Prosek on the mythology and mystery of eels; writer Hugh Ryan on being taught how to pitch a tent by a sixfoot drag queen at a Radical Faeries camp in Tennessee; poet Cecily Parks on reconciling her adventuress self with her fear of lightning; and African-American journalist Alex Kellogg on rethinking his ideas about race and identity on a visit to Kenya and Eritrea.
Theirs and the other writings in this collection illuminate questions about self and place, belonging and rootlessness, and the meeting of created and natural landscapes. Brimming with insight and humor, A Leaky Tent Is a Piece of Paradise rewards us with new perspectives on personal identity in relation to nature, and on the impact of landscape and place on our lives.
Book Description
Throughout history, humans have searched for paradise. When early Christians adopted the Hebrew Bible, and with it the story of Genesis, the Garden of Eden became an idyllic habitat for all mankind. Medieval Christians believed this paradise was a place on earth, different from this world and yet part of it, situated in real geography and indicated on maps. From the Renaissance through the Enlightenment, the mapping of paradise validated the authority of holy scripture and supported Christian faith. But from the early nineteenth century onwards, the question of the exact location of paradise was left not to theologians but to the layman. And at the beginning of the twenty-first century, there is still no end to the stream of theories on the location of the former Garden of Eden.
Mapping Paradise is a history of the cartography of paradise that journeys from the beginning of Christianity to the present day. Instead of dismissing the medieval belief in a paradise on earth as a picturesque legend and the cartography of paradise as an example of the period’s many superstitions, Alessandro Scafi explores the intellectual conditions that made the medieval mapping of paradise possible. The challenge for mapmakers, Scafi argues, was to make visible a place that was geographically inaccessible and yet real, remote in time and yet still the scene of an essential episode of the history of salvation. Mapping Paradise also accounts for the transformations, in both theological doctrine and cartographical practice, that brought about the decline of the belief in a terrestrial paradise and the emergence of the new historical and regional mapping of the Garden of Eden that began at the time of the Reformation and still continues today.
The first book to show how paradise has been expressed in cartographic form throughout two millennia, Mapping Paradise reveals how the most deeply reflective thoughts about the ultimate destiny of all human life have been molded and remolded, generation by generation.
Customer Reviews:
Scholarly and Breath-taking work of Art.......2007-07-08
I have been doing research from a Secular Humanist point of view on the whereabouts of the Garden of Eden for 30+ years and this book is absolutely the finest ever done on the subject! The scholarship is world-class of the first order and the maps assembled are simply stunning, extending from Early Medieval Times to 2002 (including some research found the Internet). This book is a _must_have_ for anyone doing serious research on the Garden of Eden and the various proposals for its location! The scholarly notations are very welcome as are the photos of maps. The author has taken the care to have line drawings made of some of the maps that were written in languages other than English, rendering the sites in English for those not having a mastery of said languages (Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, German). Some maps are in color the majority are black and white photos, with some pen and ink line drawings, as noted earlier.
ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL.......2007-03-12
this book is a real treasure. it's very well written, the illustrations are excellent (and made even more excellent by the author's representations). it's worth every penny and more.
Customer Reviews:
Graphic SF Reader.......2007-09-03
When you do a job too well you can have a problem. The problem with the Celestial at the earth's core, and the reason so many heroes exist on earth has been revealed and put to rest, but this caused other problems.
Mar-Vell's revolution in Death's realm has unforeseen consequences, namely that terminal patients in agony, and others cannot die.
Book Description
*Over 400 color photos
* 9 x 12
More than 100 natural sites around the world have been chosen by the United Nations' World Heritage Committee for their beauty and natural significance. This book is the only photographic and descriptive collection of these sites.
The spectacular color photos depict the world's most awe-inspiring natural sites, including the Grand Canyon, Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Virunga's mountain gorilla habitat, and the Galapagos Islands. The rare and exotic animals, as well as the old favorites, make this an ideal family book and one that will be a great asset to school science projects.
Customer Reviews:
Highly recommend.......2004-04-25
This book is a joy to browse and it sends a powerful conservation message. Anyone from artists to photographers to wildlife enthusiast will appreciate this beautifully done book. It can be used as a photo reference or placed on a coffee table. A gorgeous piece of work.
Book Description
Young Earth verses Old Earth. The debate has gone on for centuries with most modern Christians disputing the scientific claim of an ancient earth. But is an old earth truly inconsistent with Scripture Dr. Mark Whorton seeks to give biblically based answers and challenge the modern thinking that to be an evangelical Christian is to believe in a young earth.Using evidence as diverse as the bombardier beetle and St. Augustine Dr. Whorton a Christian apologist and genuine rocket scientist provides a compelling answer to one of the most difficult and heated issues for modern Christians.
Customer Reviews:
A breath of fresh Old-Earth revelations amidst stale Young-Earth diatribes.......2007-03-28
I have been a born-again believer since 1974, taught science at a private Christian school, and now work in medical research studying mitochondrial respiration and inflammation pathways.
Cut to the chase -- I was a devout Young-Earth Creationism (YEC) for about a decade until the whole paradigm started to crumble under the weight of scientific REALITY. The Bible, the Word never faltered but the YEC ship was sinking fast. Worse yet, when trying to discuss Old-Earth Creationism (OEC) evidences with YEC friends they turned a deaf ear and essentially refused to consider clear evidence from many fields of science. I took a 20-year hiatus from the whole mess. That was then, this is now.
I cannot more highly recommend the fine work Dr Whorton has put into approaching YEC arguments and clearly freeing the spirit and the mind of believers to at last walk in the freedom of the OEC paradigm. Whorton shows that being an OEC adherent doesn't demand one leave their faith in the Redeemer/Creator. Neither must an OEC visionary drop their God-given, open-minded intelligence at the doorstep of YEC's psuedo-science theories and their tradition-staled theology of homocentrism.
Creation was not about a Paradise for Man to frolic in that God just whipped together in 144 hours -- no way! God's timeless and eternal Purpose has been snowballing for billions of years and the Garden of Eden was just a small part, the stage for Man to dance well or not -- and all in all will be in the culmination -- the Glory of God and when He looked over all Time and Creation he saw it was indeed "very good".
I predict YEC has a current viable lifespan of about 40 years or at least until the Creator, the Ancient of Days, Yeshua the Lord returns . . .
Supplies an overlooked part of the controversy.......2006-11-10
There has been, and still is, a raging controversy over creation and evolution. Most of the fighting takes place between scientists who believe in a natural origin of the universe, life, and life's species, and, on the other hand, Bible believers who think that the Bible requires belief in a recent (about 6,000 years ago) creation by God's miraculous power.
Whorton, a scientist and a Bible student also, believes that both sides have part of the truth, but that this controversy can, to a large extent, be settled by a better understanding of the Bible and of scientific findings.
I believe his primary contribution to this debate is his distinguishing two different views people have had of the Bible's creation accounts. The recent-creation view holds that the initial creation was perfect until Adam sinned in the garden of Eden. There was no human death, and no animal death (at least for higher animals). Death came after man sinned. Therefore, all the fossils and other evidences of animal death must have come in the last several thousand years, after humans were created, perhaps mostly in the flood of Noah. Whorton calls this the "Perfect Paradise Paradigm."
Whorton offers a different view of the Bible's teaching. God created the universe, Earth, animals, and humans in a condition that allowed illness, death, and other "evils." He did this because he had a bigger plan in mind. As a sovereign God, with an eternal plan designed to glorify himself and to bring chosen humans into everlasting righteousness and glory, this universe was a staging ground for a better future--"the new heavens and new earth" spoken about in the Bible. The existence of animal death before the fall helped to prepare the earth for humans and for advanced civilization, including modern industry and technology. Also, since Adam's fall into sin was foreknown by God (and even a part of his plan), this universe was designed to be temporary. When God finished the creation, he said it was "very good." This does not mean "perfect as it is." Rather, it means "perfect for the purpose I have made it." Whorton calls this the "Perfect Purpose Paradigm."
This book should be especially helpful for Christians who struggle with the idea of death before the fall. Also, it is helpful for those who think the Bible is hopelessly out of date and unscientific.
Reinterpreting the Past.......2006-05-17
Dr. Whorton's book is excellent for readers regardless of their faith. It advocates a view of Creation that logically demonstrates an ancient Creator with a perfect purpose reconciled with Man's ever-increasing scientific knowledge. Dr. Whorton is able to accomplish this by reexamining the Bible to demonstrate instances where translation and interpretation by former scholars may have closed off alternative theories.
Evil/Sin/Curse/Death/Suffering/Fossils NOT on Earth until Gen.3.......2005-12-27
Interesting, thus 2 stars.
Still no conclusive Scriptural argument in the book to disabuse Christendom of the reality of Paul indicating in Ro.8 the curse, frustration, groaning, suffering, futility, etc. brought about by Adam's ushering in of sin into earth's created order (nowhere in Old or New Testament is there indication of mortal sin/curse and aftermath BEFORE Gen.3 on the planet).
What Reasons To Believe and its followers need to really wrestle with is Genesis 3 and Romans 8 and the whole institution of God's Curse: i.e. the Origin of Global Sin. There has been scant understanding of how and when this occurred on earth as per the Bible (conventional university-orthodox anti-Biblical scientific methodology notwithstanding).
Too much of the reasoning here tracks with secular evolutionary paradigm of 'built-in-suffering-ab-ovo' over billions of years a la textbook timescales and philosophy. Why for 3500+ yrs had Judeo-Christendom not discovered the crucial insights of this book until old-earthism began to come of age during Lyell/Darwin/Huxley's contra-supernaturalist skepticism?
Still waiting for the definitive anti-young-earth-no-death-before-Adam's-fall evidence from Scripture that demonstrates categorically that the Curse was built in from Gen.1:1 getgo.
Recommended reading/study:
"The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." - 1st ever blood sacrifice; 1st ever animal death; 1st ever clothing; 1st ever curse-covering/atonement; 1st ever nephesh loss of life (plants were given as food - non nephesh; no carnivory/predation); 1st ever Curse & consequence. Gen.3:21
"The fear and dread of you will fall upon ALL beasts of the earth and ALL birds of the air, upon EVERY creature that moves along the ground, upon ALL fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. EVERYTHING that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you green plants (non nephesh), I NOW give you EVERYTHING (nephesh critters)." Not only did the FALL change earth's created order, so did the PLANETWIDE GLOBAL FLOOD. Careful study shows many 'firsts' in terms of death, evil, curse, bloodshed, carnivory, predation, hunting, fossils, suffering, disease, entropy, fear/dread, etc. ONLY AFTER ADAM'S SIN, NEVER BEFORE. Gen.9:2-3
"just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin"(was there 'sinless death' pre-Adam? No Biblical warrant for such a notion.) Rom.5:12
"The creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the One Who subjected it, in hope that the creation will be liberated from ITS BONDAGE TO DECAY."(was there bondage to decay pre-Adam? No Biblical warrant for such a notion. One wonders what God meant multiple times in Gen.1-2 by 'God saw it was good/very good') Rom.8:20-21
"There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. No longer will there be any curse." (The Bible knows no notion of 'pained periled Paradise' either in Eden or New Jerusalem. Was there 'curseless carnivory' in Paradise? How, if God only sanctioned meat-eating in Gen.9:2-3?) Rev.21:4;22:3
Jesus said, "Are you not in error because you don't know the Scriptures or the power of God?"
Peace to all who let Christ's Bible speak of a death-free creation's one young week in six workdays' fossillessness physique.
Historical point missed in the book: Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim et al generally accepted established creedal confessional settled doctrine of Creation is PERFECT PARADISE without exception.
Now comes modern sciencism to redefine and revise Creation to the 'perfect purpose' paradigm. They have replaced Paradise with paradigm.
Not only does this do violence to historic received theology/doctrine of Creation as held by all monotheist faiths, but obviates the clear parallelism/analogy of faith in Revelation where Genesis is alluded to constantly. Jesus Himself references "Paradise of God" in Rev. 2:7.
The neo theology of 'paradigm of God' renders this null & void. The Tree of Life presupposes no death at all in Eden until sin arrived. Of course, there was no 'tree of death' or 'tree of life/death'. This book's novel teaching would bring us a new doctrine completely foreign to all historic established Creation theology, and necessitate (if true) a rewrite of all systematic theologies from Augustine to Aquinas to Calvin/Luther to Wesley to Spurgeon to modern texts. In fact, I know of NO reputable 'scholarly serious' exegetical evangelical theology texts that even suggest replacing PerfectParadise with periledparadigm. The dictionary definition of Very Good is clear. Here we are offered the contradictionary definition as something other than God-imaged/ Good/Righteous/Perfect/Holy/Flawless/Sinfree. The word 'Good' derives from 'God'. For Him to originally create Cancer and initiate its ravages throughout nature billions of years pre-Adam and have it labeled by the Holy Spirit thru Moses as Very Good stretches Christian credulity beyond mature sensibility.
Reminds me of much of the debate today about Inerrancy and Infallibility of Scripture. Liberals tend to redefine terms using contradictionary definitions: the Bible is not paradisical, but paradigmatic; rather than being perfect per se, it is merely 'perfect in purpose/intent', whatever that disingenuous theospeak is supposed to mean!?!
Long Over Due Refutation of Troubling YEC Theology.......2005-12-06
This is an important book, maybe the most important in the creation-date debate. A full-book treatment on the young-earth creationist (YEC) "no Death before Adam" argument was necessary and long overdue. The "no Death before Adam" argument is their fallback, and most important, position. Mark calls this their "Perfect Paradise Paradigm," others call it their "Death Tautology." It has been so effective because it appeals to emotion, but as Mark shows, even a simple attempt at engaging one's mind when reading the Bible shows the Perfect Paradise Paradigm to wrong on every level. From accusing God of messing up in Eden, to equating animals with man in such a way that ties salvation in with the mix, most don't know the bizarre lengths YECs will go in rewriting biblical scholarship to support their preconceived conclusions. A must read by all OECs and YECs.
Customer Reviews:
Lovely.......2005-09-10
This book is on a lot of ET stuff.
So, if you are in to that, as I am, this book would most surely be a good read for you.
Like all her books, they contain an immense amount of info, on all kinds of topics.
I hope this helps.
Forever Love, Rich Macy
We are all hungry for true information.......2005-08-04
I am referring to Book 2 of the Matthew series, revised edition 2002. The five stars are given to that book only.
Whether you believe in or agree with what it says, this book is a well-written "mini-encyclopedia" of new age "philosophy", or should I say "ideas"? Though few books can rival with the Seth Material in this field in depth, this one did offer an even wider, panoramic perspective in a succinct way. There is a synthesis of western spiritualism, Indian philosophy, quantum philosophy, and UFO religions. Sure, there are many repeats, nothing very original. But this book has its own coherence.
Furthermore, the author is one of the few channelers that gives comments on contemporary politics (see Book 3 of the series and take a look at the author's website - www.matthewbooks.com). This helps add some exciting feel to the series. However, one may find those "stories" on politics quite elusive and there are lots of conspiracy theories, a characteristic commonly shared by all sorts of UFO religions. They say, there are always some powerful gangs out there having their own hidden agenda with the ultimate aim to dominate the whole world, if not to destroy it. Could any one gang do that and why is the domination of the world so attractive? What sort of domination it is? Don't they have better things to do? Of course, you are not always sure whether the stories are symbolic or not. The Bush we see on the television screen is a clone, again they say (see the author's website). You may also sense that the Matthew Material as a whole is on a delicate balance between provocation of fear and promotion of message of love. Ying and yang, may be.
Anyway, since I am an "easterner" - a "Chinese" in Hong Kong - to be more specific, I would like to learn more about the role the eastern people, the Chinese in particular, play in the big scheme as portrayed by Matthew, and how different races of people interact in the so-called "Heaven". Do people of a particular race flock together in a particular "village" there? I love stories of these kinds, say the "true" history of the people(s)(and the living things) on earth, and of our cosmic families in "all" the galaxies and universes. More details please. However, you may also have noted that there are so many different versions of "true" history out there, one canceling the other out. I also wonder why there are so few, if any at all, channelers giving these sorts of material in the eastern world.
At last, like so many authors of this kind of books, the author is so sincere, who is a lovely mother who has lost a lovely son. As for the content, yes, you and me must discern. Anyhow, anyone interested in new age philosophy should not miss this book, really.
One more thing, interested people may also like to look at the horoscope of Matthew whose birthday is available at the author's website, which did have a distinctly prominent philosophic, religious, mysterious, and "life and death" tone compatible to the style of the book. Yes, the more books I read in this field (around two hundred or more in the past twenty-plus years), the more I find the earth an interestingly strange or even bizarre place to live in.
Average customer rating:
- First Do Your Homework
- lost in san francisco
- A good 'beach book' on the beach
- The best history of the evolution of beach vacations!
- As beach reading, it's OK
|
The Beach: The History of Paradise on Earth
Lena Lencek , and
Gideon Bosker
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 History
| Subjects
| Books
| Africa
| Americas
| Ancient
| Arctic & Antarctica
| Asia
| Audiobooks
| Australia & Oceania
| Books on CD
| Books on Cassette
| Europe
| Gay & Lesbian
| Historical Study
| Large Print
| Middle East
| Military
| Military Science
| Russia
| United States
| World
General
| Transportation
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Oceans & Seas
| Nature & Ecology
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Essays & Travelogues
| Reference & Tips
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
Nature Writing
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Outdoors & Nature Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Travel Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Down the Jersey Shore
-
Beaches
-
Beach : Stories by the Sand and Sea
-
A Week at the Beach: 100 Life-Changing Things You Can Do by the Seashore
-
Beach Wisdom: Life Lessons From The Ocean
ASIN: 0140278028 |
Amazon.com
In The Beach: The History of Paradise on Earth, Lena Lencek and Gideon Bosker chart the history of beaches from the time of their formation to the present, examining the shifting significance of beaches to Western cultures through the centuries. Lencek and Bosker are capable historians whose love of beaches shines through in their writing. They assert that the way people approach the beach reflects their culture's current beliefs about sexuality, class divisions, aesthetics, and leisure. At times, the authors go a bit overboard in proving how important beaches are to society, but it is easy to forgive them because this book is crammed with interesting tidbits and choice sentences, such as, "The sands of Oregon's Florence Beach squeak with the high-pitched bark of distant chihuahuas." Great old movie posters, photographs, and odd tourist brochures are sprinkled throughout the book, enlivening the text.
After a chapter on the geological makeup of sand and beaches, the authors chronicle the waxing and waning popularity of beaches through the ages. It seems that people did not always think of the beach as a good place to kick back, get a tan, and leaf through a book with lots of pictures. During the Middle Ages, many Europeans avoided the ocean in part because they believed water was connected to the horrible plagues that occasionally devastated the region. Later, an entrepreneur convinced the British upper class that drinking saltwater was a good way to cure "windiness of the spirit" and other ailments. Gradually, the rich figured out that the beach is not only healthful, it's fun! Technological innovations made it easier to get to the beach, and so more people of all classes went there. Swimsuit styles changed as textiles, sexual mores, and ideals of beauty evolved. This book should appeal to many readers because it is packed with good tidbits to ponder between naps on the beach, things such as the origins of suntan lotion, the development of the Australian crawl, and the singing dunes of Kauai, Hawaii. --Jill Marquis
Book Description
An absorbing, original account of the beach--its history, customs, spectacles, and how it became the undisputed Nirvana for pleasure seekers.
Turquoise water, pillowy sand, and a warm, salty breeze--today the beach is regarded as the best possible place to restore body and soul. However, this has not always been the case. In other centuries the beach was considered a remote, terrifying wasteland on the margins of civilization. In their entertaining, elegant, and illuminating account, Lena Lencek and Gideon Bosker trace the four-billion-year evolution of the place where land, water, and humans meet.
Embedded in the narrative are the histories of sexuality, health, fashion, sport, the rise of the great resorts--St. Tropez, Catalina, Newport, Miami Beach--and the beach tales of Columbus, D-Day troops, and castaways Cook, Melville, and Swinburne. Including a marvelous selection of images evoking the beach's hypnotic appeal--Impressionist paintings, archival photographs, advertising art, and postcards--and an Appendix of the world's most beautiful, unspoiled beaches, The Beach will fascinate any reader from Coney Island to Bora Bora.
"Engagingly eccentric [and] briskly good-humored ... [an] entertaining, handsomely illustrated book." --The New York Times Book Review (front page)
"The perfect beach book, any time of the year." --Chicago Tribune
Customer Reviews:
First Do Your Homework.......2007-10-15
The authors love their work! That is, they love the beach. They want to cover the topic completely so they start at the beginning, at the birth of the oceans. Their scenario for the formation of the world ocean is that the water originated in the planet's interior. I think that today's idea is that the water is mostly extra-terrestrial, and came with comets etc. Once the surface cooled below 374K, liquid water precipitated out and accumulated.
They speculate on early man's being dazzled and terrified by the beach, yet in the next paragraph they have men venturing out to sea for various reasons. Evidently they were able to bypass the beach in this enterprise.
They have the odd idea that it is warm at the equator because "...the earth lies closer to the sun..."
The biggest howler is their discussion of meteorology and the Atacama Desert in Chile. I am a meteorologist. I happen to have spent four months in Coquimbo on a field project, and I can tell you that their ideas on why this desert exists next to the ocean are nonsense. The facts are simple -- the air is descending here. It is part of the descending branch of a Hadley Cell which is a semi-permanent planetary-scale circulation feature. Descending air compresses, warms and dries. This occurs above the surface-based mixed layer or marine layer. The shallow mixed layer easily saturates over the ocean and forms extensive stratus clouds or fog, just like it does off California. This cool stable air comes ashore, warms and mixes out; the fog/stratus dissipates yielding sunny skies. There are places where it has not rained in a thousand years, it is so stable.
When I got this far, I quit. What I wanted was a discussion of the geophysical features of beaches, something to go along with Waves and Beaches, and maybe some cultural considerations.
Read this if you want a completely subjective personal reminiscence. Otherwise, forget it.
Too bad.
lost in san francisco.......2000-12-31
Why, oh, why do swimmers get "lost" writing about San Francisco? Answer: ? Lencek and Bosker have 11 1/2 pages of bibliography, (including "Haunts of the Black Masseur:The Swimmer as Hero" by Charles Sprawson,published in 1992.) While Sprawson's book focuses on the swimmer through history, and thus touches on PLACES where the swimmers swim, Lencek and Bosker (hererafter "LB") focus on the beaches through history and thus touch on the same beaches and places that Sprawson visits,or in some cases writes about without having visited (his first edition was published in Great Britain)and while Jack London gets ample admiration, the book has a world-wide approach to swimming through the ages---Byronic,English,German,Japanese,American periods are among those explored via word and art.) They may have walked through San Francisco together to reach the Sutro Baths(or never seen them), but they all got lost before placing Fleishhacker Swim Pool on the wrong side of San Francisco Bay. Sprawson:"The great Sutro Baths of San Francisco were founded in 1896 by an engineer who had made his fortune from devising a tunnel to drain the flooded shafts of the silver mines in Nevada.Sutro then turned his aquatic genius to designing the most remarkable pool ever built." LB:"An engineer who had grown wealthy by devising a tunnel for draining the flooded shafts of Nevada silver mines gave San Francisco the equivalent of Mediterranean bathing in oceanside swimming pools.In 1896 he opened Sutro Baths, a remarkable complex situated high above the Pacific. Sprawson:The railway company ran two lines directly to its entrance, from where stairs descended to what was the largest glass-roofed building in existence,situated high above the Pacific,full of palm trees that stretched up to its ceiling, stuffed anacondas, a Tropic beach, restaurants, and in the main amphitheatre, seven separate swimming pools overlooking the ocean. LB:In the main amphitheater, seven swimming pools, holding two million gallons of seawater and ranging in temperature from icy to warm, overlooked the ocean. Sprawson:Their temperature varied from ice-cold to warm. They held two million gallons of sea water, and could accommodate ten thousand bathers at a time,who could vary their swimming with swinging from the rings and trapezes, or diving off the nine springboards and several high platforms. LB:At any one time, ten thousand bathers swam, swung from the rings and trapezes, and dived from the springboards and platforms. BUT SPRAWSON AND LB somehow misplace the Fleishhaker swimming pool, which they call "the Fleishhaker." The pool,no longer in existence, was south of Sutro Baths, along the Pacific, yet Sprawson (writing from Britain, perhaps) writes: "On the other side of the Bay was the largest open-air pool in the world,the Fleishhaker, that resembled a lake with an Italian Renmaissance changing room stretching almost its entire length."Well, it was a thousand feet long and lifeguards had a rowboat or two among their patrol tools, but despite its size, it resembled a large swimming pool, not a lake. LB:"Across San Francisco Bay (NO,NO,NO) was the Fleishhacker,another gargantuan swimming facility. Its Italian Renaissance changing rooms were the height of elegance (NO, not by the 50's or 60's, anyhow). Sprawson:But the water was never warm, and divers were put off by the perpetual mist that hovered over its surface..." LB:"The size was something of a liability,however:the temperature of the water was always on the cold side, and a constant fog hovered over the swimmers." Both neglected to note that the water was "on the cold side" because it was pumped directly from the Pacific Ocean less than a quarter mile away. AND IT WASN'T 'ACROSS THE BAY.' It was next to the ocean, and on the same "side of the bay" as Sutros. That said, hey, if you like the beach, add it to your collection. And if you like the beach, you probably like the water, too, and in that case, bette add Sprawson's book to your collection too. His cover, swimmer "Houlgate" sitting on the wet sand, 1919 by Jacques_henri Lartigue, is enough reason to get the book...plus a wonderful selection of classic and modern artwork depicting the world of the swimmer. No maps of "the Fleishhaker."
A good 'beach book' on the beach.......2000-12-03
Lencek and Bosker describe themselves as specialists in popular culture and that they are. Their book on the history of the beach should be properly be described as history lite.
The central theme of the work is what people have and are doing on it and in it, what do they wear to the beach and not wear to it, etc. In short this is a social history of the beach with only passing references to its many other aspects such as geology, economics, politics, history, ecology, etc.
The book also looks at the beach at length only in the U.S., the U.K. and on the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The social history of the beach in the rest of the world, were in fact most beaches are located, is never discussed other than in passing.
For those going to the beach with time to spend reading this is a fine book. For those looking for serious history you may wish to look elsewere.
The best history of the evolution of beach vacations!.......2000-04-21
I finally found a book that takes the reader through the history of society's love for the beach! It is a wonderfully light and easy read that reveals tons of interesting information about beach going. As a sand dune ecologist, I was very impressed with the representation of the present problems facing beach development. The historical trace enables the reader to understand why we keep pouring money into a disappearing shoreline!
As beach reading, it's OK.......1998-09-20
As a lifelong beach-lover, I picked this book up just before leaving on vacation to -- you guessed it -- the beach. I read it while sitting -- right again -- on the beach. Unfortunately, neither the book nor the vacation were especially enjoyable and I left it behind -- on the beach. I hope the next person who occupies the beach cottage enjoys the book -- and has a better vacation.
While the authors have dug up a lot of interesting material, I felt that I was not so much reading a book as reading the notes for a book. Had to resist the urge to tear out all the pages and put them in the "right" order.
Average customer rating:
|
Paradise on Earth: Some Thoughts on European Images of Non-European Man
Henri Baudet
Manufacturer: Wesleyan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Civilization & Culture
| Historical Study
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Social Philosophy
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0819562033 |
Books:
- Participating in Nature: Thomas J. Elpel's Field Guide to Primitive Living Skills
- Photographing the Southwest: Volume 3--Colorado/New Mexico (Photographing the Soutwest)
- Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!, The
- Planet Earth: As You've Never Seen It Before
- Process Engineering for Pollution Control and Waste Minimization (Environmental Science and Pollution Control Series)
- Rivers Running Free: A Century of Women's Canoeing Adventures (Adventura Books)
- Rocky Mountain National Park: The Complete Hiking Guide
- Science on Trial: The Case for Evolution
- Sharks in the Desert
- Sharks of the World Coloring Book
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Root Cause Analysis Handbook: A Simplified Approach to Identifying, Correcting, and Reporting Workpl
- McDuff Saves the Day
- Imagining Identity in New Spain: Race, Lineage, and the Colonial Body in Portraiture and Casta Paint
- Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man
- Music for More than One Piano: An Annotated Guide
- The Complete Anne of Green Gables Boxed Set
- Ngorongoro
- 51 Ways To Find A Job Fast -- Guaranteed!
- Information Interviewing: How to Tap Your Hidden Job Market
- United Kingdom Industrial And Business Directory
Paradise X, Vol. 1 (Earth X 4)
Universe X, Vol. 2 (Earth X 3)
Earth X (Earth X 1)
New Avengers Vol. 5: Civil War
Civil War: X-Men
