Book Description
From reviews of earlier editions:
"This fine book is an authoritative and comprehensive summary of a geographically and zoologically varied region of the Pacific and is an important contribution to ichthyology. The authors have done an excellent job summarizing the complex and diverse fish fauna of the Sea of Cortez; the illustrators ...provide a great service to the reader in providing their collection of superb drawings and paintings."
—Aquaculture
"The collaboration of an ecologist, a taxonomist, and an artist-photographer with years of experience in the Gulf of California has resulted in an excellent book on the reef fishes of this area.... Certainly this merging of scientific disciplines has produced a book with a broader scientific, as well as popular, coverage of a regional fish fauna than many of its contemporaries."
—Terra
"Hallelujah! Fishwatchers, natural historians, and biologists alike are rejoicing with the reprinting of this guide.... Contains many fine drawings, color plates, and photographs; easy-to-read text emphasizing ecology, Spanish names for each fish (a nice touch).... A great addition to your library, whether you want to study fish or just catch and eat them."
—Books of the Southwest
First published in 1979, this guide has become the standard resource for scientists, divers, and spearfishers interested in the fishes of the tropical Pacific Coast. The authors have revised and updated this edition to include the most current taxonomic information, additional species descriptions, and new illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
Pros and Cons.......2005-11-22
I'm sort of in between the other two reviewers. Yes, the pix are all in black and white, and it doesn't work well as a handy guide after an afternoon's snorkeling trip. But it gives a lot of information -- far more than the other fish guides for the region. So I wouldn't be without it, but I also rely on the other guides that DO have more color pictures. I wish there was one comprehensive guide for this area, but there isn't, so you need to buy two or three if you really want good coverage.
An excellent overview of the Sea of Cortez fishes.......2004-05-29
I noticed that one person reviewed this excellent book from a narrow perspective and I want to say that I totally disagree. This book is not really intended as a hand guide to identify fishes for the snorkeling amature. It is intended to give you an overview on what is known about the fishes of this region AND for the experienced snorkeler or diver or fisherman, it truly is an excellent guide in identification to species. I have worked as an ichthyologist in the region numerous times and the book was invaluable. I think it is well written and is full of interesting facts about the fishes of the region. The challenge with the black and white illustrations (which are excellent) is using them in concert with the written description. It's a fun book to use and read. I highly recommend it!
Disappointed.......2000-12-04
Summed up in one word, disappointed. I never dreamed that the pictures in this book would be in black and white. So much for fish identification when snorkeling, which is why I bought this book. If you want this book for Identification purposes, forget about it. However, if you don't mind seeing page after page of these beautiful fishes in black and white (What is the point?) then this book is for you.
Book Description
To the casual visitor, the Gulf of Mexico shores offer mainly sun, sand, and sea. Even the standard field guides, focused on one group of animals or plants, barely hint at the wealth and diversity of habitats and species along Gulf shores. Shore Ecology of the Gulf of Mexico, using a "whole habitat" approach, breaks new ground in describing all the conspicuous vascular plants, algae, birds, mammals, mollusks, crustaceans, and other invertebrates for each marine habitat. The area covered begins west of the Mississippi delta in Louisiana and follows the shores west and south to the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. Transitions between habitats also receive detailed treatment. The authors discuss changes in flora and fauna that result from differences in climate, shore geology, and patterns of precipitation in the succeeding habitats along the Gulf rim. They include discussions of more than 1,000 species of plants and animals, both on shore and in the nearshore subtidal zone, to give a virtually complete picture of western Gulf coast ecosystems. Excellent line drawings and photographs of over 800 species complement the text. For marine scientists, students, and knowledgeable beachcombers, this is a complete source on Gulf coast marine life.
Book Description
This ground-breaking work is the first to comprehensively document the traditions, philosophy, and techniques of one of the world's most varied, exciting, and practical martial arts—Hapkido. More than 9,000 photographs introduce over 2,000 martial techniques, including strikes, kicks, blocks, avoiding movements, holds, joint locks, chokes, throws, falls, tumbling, ground fighting, and weapons. Numerous closeups show precise grips, leverage methods, pressure points, hitting surfaces, and direction of force. In addition to self-defense techniques, chapters are included on East Asian philosophy, martial arts history, anatomy, meditation, healing, and pressure point fighting, as well as in-depth, previously unpublished interviews with the world's preeminent Hapkido Grandmasters and renowned Grandmasters of related martial arts. Because of similarities between Hapkido and many other martial arts, including Taekwondo, Jujutsu, Aikido, Judo, and Tai Chi Chuan, this book is a useful reference for practitioners of all martial arts styles, from novices to masters. This unique work of exceptional quality is the definitive text on Hapkido, and destined to become a classic of martial arts literature.
Customer Reviews:
A true martial artist's dream........2007-05-24
I have been involved in martial arts and teaching for more than 20 years and this is one of the mast comprehensive manuals on martials arts that I have ever come across. It has some of the best technique in easy to follow daigrams and it is an excellent source of information for any and all martial artists
Great service for a great book.......2006-11-10
Book was delivered is great condition and ahead of schedule. Thanks!
Full of techniques.......2006-11-05
I recommend to buy this book no matter what style of martial arts you practice. Thank you Mr Tedeschi.
Great book!.......2006-08-04
One of the most amazingly comprehensive books on martial arts I have seen. Lots of detail on just about everything.
Excellent reference........2006-03-24
This volume is well written and extremely well photographed. I have been practicing and teaching Korean martial arts for 30-years and I am very comfortable with the format the book is written in. As a reference for instructors it is outstanding, but the novice may find it daunting.
Book Description
The first edition of Garner's Modern American Usage established Bryan Garner as "an American equivalent of Fowler" (Library Journal). With more than 23,500 copies sold, this witty, accessible, and engaging book has become the new classic reference work praised by professional copyeditors as well as the general public looking for clear advice on how to write more effectively. In 1999, Choice magazine named it an Outstanding Academic Book and the American Library Association dubbed it an Outstanding Reference Source. With thousands of succinct entries, longer essays on key issues and problematic areas, and up-to-the-minute judgments on everything from trendy words to the debate over personal pronouns, GMAU is approachable yet authoritative. Since the book first appeared in 1998, Bryan Garner has diligently continued tracking how we use our language. The second edition includes hundreds of new entries ranging from Dubya to weaponize (coined in 1984 but used extensively since 9/11) to foot-and-mouth, plethora (a "highfalutin equivalent of too many"), Slang, Standard English, and Dialects. It also updates hundreds of existing entries. Meanwhile, Garner has written a major essay on the great grammar debate between descriptivists and prescriptivists. Painstakingly researched with copious citations from books and newspapers and newsmagazines, this new edition furthers Garner's mission to help everyone become a better writer, and to enjoy it in the process.
Customer Reviews:
An Indispensable Usage Guide.......2007-03-04
Someone somewhere wrote, "Thank you for the invite!" An alarm bell rang and this reviewer had to open this book to find a pithy comment followed by two examples. The entry on the use of the word 'invite' in Bryan Garner's Modern American Usage says: "Use it in the traditional way as a verb. Avoid it as a noun displacing invitation."
On the use of 'invite' as a noun, if you compare Bryan Garner's comments quoted above with Fowler's (First Edition) passive "It has never even as a colloquialism, attained to respectability" or the New Fowler's (Ed. R.W. Burchfield) rather evasive "....has never quite made its way into uncriticized neutral use" as well as "the general verdict is still that it properly belongs to the informal...corners of the language", you know that Bryan Garner is more straightforward and forthright in his judgements than his illustrious predecessors.
If you are more interested in writing correctly and transparently rather than in following the endless, and at times hackneyed, debate between the descriptive and the prescriptive linguists, if all that you need is sound judgement on language issues from a scholar you can rely on, then GMAU is the first usage book you should buy. It isn't a luxury item for your desk; it fulfils a real need.
GMAU is an excellent help book to guide you in making those innumerable critical choices and those small, yet significant decisions a writer is supposed to make every day. At the same time it will prove to be an excellent read for many readers even with a cursory interest in the English language. It will prove to be a friend when you are busy; it will also be an excellent companion when you are not.
What makes GMAU so readable is Bryan Garner's sense of wit. For example, in his note on the use of 'Nouns as Adjectives' under 'Functional Variation' he says: "......It would be unwise for one writing about a statute concerning invalids to call it an invalid statute". Elsewhere, while referring to the inflected forms of 'Breed' (>bred) he has recourse to pun: "Yet the ill-bred form 'breeded' sometimes appears." There are numerous entries in the book like his marvellous comments on 'Obscurity' that will make you laugh! When he speaks on 'Redundancy' and says: "This linguistic pitfall is best exemplified rather than discoursed on", you can almost see a glint in his eyes. In his witticisms and humorous observations, Garner is a worthy successor of his illustrious precursors in the field.
This book will make you feel that good writing and eloquence are as much a matter of talent as they are of clarity of thought and hard work. It will reinforce your view that in order to communicate your thoughts economically, intelligently and transparently, you need to act and educate yourself in a responsible manner. It will also make you realize that it is foolish to think that the rule of law is needed everywhere in civil society except in the domain of the written words.
For anyone dealing with written English in any form or manner, Garner's Modern American Usage should be an indispensable component of his desk. But for its examples, culled largely from American journalistic and literary corpus, this book may be considered as a usage guide for 'Standard English'. For an excellent note on what that may mean, please refer to the book itself.
It is difficult to find any lacunae in this book, which is appended with a 'Select Glossary' of the terms used in this guide, an informative 'Timeline of Books on Usage' and an excellent bibliography. Its only limitation appears to be physical and spatial -- It had to end somewhere and hence there must have been limits to the number of entries it contains. Who wouldn't ask for more of such a delightful fare?
Wonderul.......2006-11-10
I'm an English teacher and an English enthusiast. Whereas most of my friends are mathematicians and technology oriented, I'm much more into linguistics. This is a great dictionary of American usage. I had the earlier edition and I have this one. You should get it too.
The best........2006-05-20
Believe the accolades! Garner's is indispensable. And absorbing! Wallow in it. You will not regret a minute you spend with this book.
Amazing, well done Mr. Garner!.......2006-03-22
If you are a writer or just love words, this is the dictionary for you. It was edited by David Foster Wallace, and he contributes some of his well known loved penchant for footnotes. This is not your typical dictionary. Nr. Garner reviews that this book is more about linguistic issues, not resorting to dry,boring academic jargon. I also ordered The American Heritage Dictionary Of The English Language ( a MASSIVE book, HUGE ) Mr. Garner's Modern American Usage is a book I use every day for my wring- not only to look at spelling words, but for the clear, precise prose. BUY THIS NOW.
Terrific.......2006-03-09
For years I have relied upon and loved Fowler's Modern English Usage. I think Garner is a terrific successor to Fowler. He expands upon what Fowler offers and puts more of an American spin on his entries. I particularly like his expanded entries on pronounciation, phrasal adjectives, and hypercorrection. I think this volume is very useful for those who taking writing seriously.
Amazon.com
If they had to state a preference, surely all individuals who ever had occasion to write (be it a memo, love letter, quick e-mail, college essay, or novel) would opt for using appropriate, grammatically correct English. The problem isn't in the intent, it's in the availability and accessibility of clear, understandable answers. Most writers (professional and amateur) get by on what sounds right, their memory of compound predicates and serial commas being a little fuzzy. They might turn to a dictionary or even a thesaurus (or, more likely, depend on the convenience of the computer spell-checker and thesaurus functions), but grammar books are rarely cracked outside of high school English classes.
But what if there were a book that explained the rules of grammar and usage and that was precise yet easy to understand? A book that was useful, and didn't make you feel like a dunce for not knowing where to put the period when you use quotation marks? A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, written by Bryan Garner and published by Oxford University Press, could be the start of a new movement, a brave new world in which people cheerfully polish their prose, where participles rarely dangle and "less" was not substituted incorrectly for "fewer." Garner, a lawyer and lexicographer, has created a scholarly and readable masterpiece. He clarifies the dos and don'ts of commas and quotation marks, explains why it's not so awful to end sentences with prepositions, and tackles common confusions, such as lay and lie, flaunt and flout, and assure, insure, and ensure. Erudite and dryly witty, spectacularly organized and up to date, and attentive to both basic usage and advanced nuances, A Dictionary of Modern American Usage is destined to become the reference of choice for students, scribes, editors, executives, and language devotees. --Stephanie Gold
Book Description
In every age, writers and editors need guidance through the thickets of English usage. Although some language issues are perennial (infer vs. imply), many others spring anew from the well of English: * Is it all right to say alums instead of alumni or alumnae? And should it be spelled alums or alumns? * Should I say empathic or empathetic? Do you home in or hone in? Is it a couple of dozen or a couple dozen? * What's the singular of paparazzi? Is paparazzis an acceptable plural? What about graffiti--singular or plural? And what about kudos? * What's the correct pronunciation of concierge? Or schism? Or flaccid? This book will tell you. In 750 pages of crisp, precise, and often witty pronouncements on modern American English, Bryan Garner authoritatively answers these and thousands of other questions that bedevil those who care about the language. Garner draws on massive evidence to support his judgments, citing more than 5,000 examples--good, bad, and ugly--from sources such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek. Here is a usage guide that, whether you're a language connoisseur or just a dabbler, you can savor in a leisurely way, a few paragraphs at a time. And if you don't have the time for savoring, but simply want a quick answer to an editorial riddle, this book is your best bet. As the most influential language in the world, English is a-changing. DMAU is the most up-to-date chronicle of the shifting and drifting. Don't be caught unawares (not unaware!)
Customer Reviews:
A worthy heir to Fowler.......2003-12-06
For three generations, a single book dominated the market as the authoritative reference in matters of grammar, style, and usage in the English language: "A Dictionary of Modern English Usage" by H.W. Fowler, first published in 1926, ably revised by Sir Ernest Gowers in 1965, and now in its third edition (published 1996). But by the century's last quarter, the modern English language -- particularly its American dialect -- had begun outgrowing Fowler, and several newer guides began competing with it. The third (1996) edition of Fowler was a disappointment, and left the field without a clear leading authority.
That gap was filled in 1998, when Bryan A. Garner wrote "A Dictionary of Modern American Usage" (published by the Oxford University Press, which also published Fowler). Finally, someone had written a book that matched Fowler -- not only in its erudition, but also in its accessible style, and even its wry sense of humor. And Garner's book had the advantages of being written both in modern times for a modern audience, and in the United States by an American author about American English. The book is a gem, and as authoritative a reference as you will find in this field in the last several decades (and probably the next several too).
"DMAU" went into a second edition in 2003, under the title "Garner's Modern American Usage," renamed after its author in view of the acclaim that the first edition earned. A new edition was appearing after only five years because, as Garner explains in the second edition, "changing usage isn't really the primary basis for a new edition of a usage guide: it's really a question of having had five more years for research." The second edition builds upon the first: the first edition was a dictionary of words in usage, rather than words about usage, and therefore assumed that the reader possessed a certain working knowledge of basic grammatical terms and concepts. For example, the first edition didn't define such basic terms as "sentence," "phrase," "clause," "word," or "part of speech." The second edition appends a glossary that defines many such basic concepts, in addition to many new or expanded entries in the dictionary itself.
Virgules and Variants, Explained.......2002-12-11
Here's something that should make language lovers sit up and take notice: a thorough, gently entertaining but always informative book about the American language, written by a lawyer, in plain English.
For those who love the language, those who revere H.W. Fowler, John Bremner or Theodore Bernstein, but don't need the posturing or pomposity that sometimes accompanies columns or books on language, or those who simply enjoy wandering through the pages of a book that examines and comments upon commas, virgules, variants, Bryan A. Garner's Dictionary of Modern American Usage is the book to read.
Garner takes on all manner of problems, from the proper way to use the word each, to Hobson's Choice, to ordinance vs. ordnance and hundreds of other misuses and misunderstandings about American usage.
Most entries are quite short, as in the notation that "meld together" is a redundancy, while others, such as the entry on mendacity/mendicity/mendicancy, detail the distinctions that should be made in using these similar-sounding words. Most entries are accompanied by good, contemporary examples, but are sometimes explained through citations of older works.
The book is quite long,707 pages of entries in the hardcover edition, but worth the time of anyone who wants to brush up language skills, rediscover old rules, dispose of some other old rules, or broaden understanding of the differences between American and British usage.
Garner frequently cites newspapers and magazines when pointing out correct usage or mistakes, which makes the material fresh and relevant:
Comprise and compose: If the whole comprises the parts, the reverse can't be true, e.g., "Of the 50 stocks that comprise the index, 40 had gains...", From Florida Today, June 15, 1997.
In other words, comprise is not synonymous with "make up", no matter how many times people use it incorrectly.
extradite, indict, the former meaning to surrender or deliver a fugitive to another jurisdiction, the latter from the Latin to "write down" but some write as if the words are related, e.g., Ventura has a court hearing Thursday in San Juan, where she is expected to waive her right to fight extradiction (read extradition)..." From the Boston Herald, Oct.4, 1994.
and
Prosecutors argued that..he had jumped bail after a 1984 federal mail-fraud conviction and disappeared for nine years until being found and extradicted (read extradited)..." From The New York Times, Oct.7, 1994.
deceptive, deceptious. The latter is a needless variant. Or, if we have a perfectly good word, we don't need the invented alternative, which just causes readers to pause wonder about its meaning.
He also provides some useful definitions I've not encountered before, for example: dysphemism, the substitution of a disagreeable word or phrase for a neutral or even positive one. It is the opposite of euphemism. Some examples:
bean counter for accountant
jock for athlete
jarhead for Marine
bleeding heart for liberal
sawbones for surgeon
mouthpiece for lawyer
nerd for intellectual
stiff for cadaver
fascist for conservative
This book serves as a ready reference and a guide to those who love English. It's worth its hefty price.
Not half as good as his other books.......2002-06-03
Stick with his legal writing books, especially The Winning Brief and A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage. Here Garner bites off more than he can chew. (His legal writing seminars are well worth the cost.)
Excellent resource.......2002-05-22
When I had to give up my office's copy, I bought my own. This is a superb resource for those who wish to use words with care.
Good Reference Work.......2001-11-24
Over the years I've collected dozens of books on writing and English usage. This book was a recent addition to the collection. I found the coverage of each language topic thorough; providing insight to a Canadian that lives in a schizophrenic world of English usage - caught between the Queen's English and that of America's.
My only complaint with this book was based solely on a stylistic issue rather than its content. Each entry tried to compress space by placing examples of good and bad usage directly inline with the author's commentary. I thought Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage did a better job in formatting its entries by clearly separating commentary from examples through the use of paragraphing and indentation.
Nevertheless, Garner's Modern American Usage book makes an excellent reference and a fun read.
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Garner's Modern American Usage.: An article from: Technical Communication
Barbara A. Simmons
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Title: Garner's Modern American Usage.
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Technical Communication (Refereed)
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How Pixie managed to sustain even her very low place in the class was a wonder to her companions; but in truth she had an unusually quick brain, so that when she chose to apply herself she learnt as much as slower girls would do in twice the time, while her Irish wit enabled her to place her scraps of knowledge in the most advantageous light, and rescued her from awkward questionings. Nowhere was this faculty more marked than in French, of which she knew least, yet in which subject she made the most rapid progress.
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How Pixie managed to sustain even her very low place in the class was a wonder to her companions; but in truth she had an unusually quick brain, so that when she chose to apply herself she learnt as much as slower girls would do in twice the time, while her Irish wit enabled her to place her scraps of knowledge in the most advantageous light, and rescued her from awkward questionings. Nowhere was this faculty more marked than in French, of which she knew least, yet in which subject she made the most rapid progress.
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