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Pompeii: A Novel
Robert Harris
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Archangel
ASIN: 0345475674
Release Date: 2004-10-26 |
Book Description
All along the Mediterranean coast, the Roman empire’s richest citizens are relaxing in their luxurious villas, enjoying the last days of summer. The world’s largest navy lies peacefully at anchor in Misenum. The tourists are spending their money in the seaside resorts of Baiae, Herculaneum, and Pompeii.
But the carefree lifestyle and gorgeous weather belie an impending cataclysm, and only one man is worried. The young engineer Marcus Attilius Primus has just taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct that brings fresh water to a quarter of a million people in nine towns around the Bay of Naples. His predecessor has disappeared. Springs are failing for the first time in generations. And now there is a crisis on the Augusta’s sixty-mile main line—somewhere to the north of Pompeii, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.
Attilius—decent, practical, and incorruptible—promises Pliny, the famous scholar who commands the navy, that he can repair the aqueduct before the reservoir runs dry. His plan is to travel to Pompeii and put together an expedition, then head out to the place where he believes the fault lies. But Pompeii proves to be a corrupt and violent town, and Attilius soon discovers that there are powerful forces at work—both natural and man-made—threatening to destroy him.
With his trademark elegance and intelligence, Robert Harris, bestselling author of
Archangel and
Fatherland, re-creates a world on the brink of disaster.
From the Hardcover edition.
Download Description
All along the Mediterranean coast, the Roman empire's richest citizens are relaxing in their luxurious villas, enjoying the last days of summer. The world's largest navy lies peacefully at anchor in Misenum. The tourists are spending their money in the seaside resorts of Baiae, Herculaneum, and Pompeii.
But the carefree lifestyle and gorgeous weather belie an impending cataclysm, and only one man is worried. The young engineer Marcus Attilius Primus has just taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct that brings fresh water to a quarter of a million people in nine towns around the Bay of Naples. His predecessor has disappeared. Springs are failing for the first time in generations. And now there is a crisis on the Augusta's sixty-mile main line -- somewhere to the north of Pompeii, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.
Attilius -- decent, practical, and incorruptible -- promises Pliny, the famous scholar who commands the navy, that he can repair the aqueduct before the reservoir runs dry. His plan is to travel to Pompeii and put together an expedition, then head out to the place where he believes the fault lies. But Pompeii proves to be a corrupt and violent town, and Attilius soon discovers that there are powerful forces at work -- both natural and man-made -- threatening to destroy him.
With his trademark elegance and intelligence, Robert Harris, bestselling author of Archangel and Fatherland, re-creates a world on the brink of disaster.
"Blazingly exciting... Pompeii palpitates with sultry tension... Harris provides an awe-inspiring tour of one of the monumental engineering triumphs on which the Roman empire was based... What makes this novel all but unputdownable... is the bravura fictional flair that crackles through it. Brilliantly evoking the doomed society pursuing its ambitions and schemes in the shadow of a mountain that nobody knew was a volcano, Harris, as Vesuvius explodes, gives full vent to his genius for thrilling narrative. Fast-paced twists and turns alternate with nightmarish slow-motion scenes (desperate figures struggling to wade thigh-deep through slurries of pumice towards what they hope will be safety). Harris's unleashing of the furnace ferocities of the eruption's terminal phase turns his book's closing sequences into pulse-rate-speeding masterpieces of suffocating suspense and searing action. It is hard to imagine a more thoroughgoingly enjoyable thriller."
LONDON SUNDAY TIMES
"Breakneck pace, constant jeopardy and subtle twists of plot... a blazing blockbuster... The depth of the research in the book is staggering."
DAILY MAIL
"[A] stirring and absorbing novel... The final 100 pages are terrific, as good as anything Harris has done; and the last, teasing paragraph, done with the lightest of touches, is masterly."
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
Customer Reviews:
Great Natural Disaster Recreated In Historical Fiction.......2007-10-20
We all know the ending. It is certain that Vesuvius will blow and the beautiful seaside resort of Pompeii will be buried, its people immortalized forever in stone and ash. However, knowing the ending does not in any way detract from the suspense and impending sense of doom as this novel races to its inevitable conclusion.
I readily admit that historical fiction is not my favorite genre, but I was anxious to read this before visiting the Pompeii Exhibition now touring the US and scheduled to open soon in my area. While I found the painstaking detail Harris gave to describing the structure of the Roman aqueducts and the scientific explanations for the eruption a bit much, I can certainly appreciate the importance of his work and the background it gives to those who relish discovering the WHY of everything.
That being said, I did enjoy this for the wonderful details he gave of Italian life in 79 A.D. The customs, lifestyles, manners, and more have all been amazingly researched and presented by the author. I know this will make a spectacular transfer to the screen and am glad to read that Roman Polanski is doing this very thing with a target date of 2009 for the movie to arrive in theaters.
Attilius, the young aquarian and hero of this novel, has been sent to replace the former aquarian who left his job under suspicious circumstances. Many things have been happening that are out of the ordinary: the failure of the matrix, the trembling of the ground, springs running backwards into the earth, sulphur poisoning of eels, and more. Attilius promises Pliny, the eccentric historian, that he will repair the aqueducts and insure a water supply for the people.
But can the good and decent Attilius overcome a natural disaster of this proportion? Will his growing romantic interest in Corelia consume him? Will her evil father Ampliatus have Attilius murdered? Can the eccentric historian Pliny make sure his reports survive so that others can benefit from his observations?
Beginning two days before the eruption and ending shortly after, this book gives you the feeling of being transported for a time to this epic event. As the author reminds us with a quote from the Encyclopedia of Volcanoes, "It is dangerous to assume that the worst is over after the initial explosive phase. Predicting an eruption's end is even more difficult than predicting its beginning."
pompeii.......2007-10-07
This book is beyond excellent - a compelling drama even though you know the ending!
Good Read.......2007-09-17
The author knows how to build excitement and develop interesting characters. This is difficult to do in a short, action book.
Those who enjoy novels by Stephen Saylor will like this book too.
Got me very interested in Pompeii.......2007-08-14
After completing the book, I was inspired to learn even more about Pompeii even though I've visited there! There's a plethora of fabulous books at Amazon. Wish I'd read this one before I went. I am really thrilled to know that Roman Polanski is now making the movie version of it.
The aqueduct system detail-upon-detail was of less interest to me, and I found myself skimming through some of it, but with the inspiration to read more on life in Pompeii, this book is close to the top of my reading list this year.
Conduits of Man and God .......2007-07-16
What do aqueducts and volcanoes have in common? A lot, in Robert Harris's remarkably fast paced and lucid historical fiction "Pompeii".
The Roman aqueducts are one of the towering achievements of ancient engineering. Built to lengths of 50 kilometers with a constant gradient of 1 meter per kilometer, the aqueducts snaked around mountains and valleys to supply water to the Roman cities. These aqueducts were constructed and maintained by the Aquarii, the hydrology engineers of Rome.
It is in 79AD, as we meet the protagonist Marcus Attilius Primus, young, incorruptible, recently widowed and the new Aquarius of the aqueduct Augusta. Aqua Augusta, a massive 50-mile aqueduct that supplies water to a quarter million Roman people is suddenly failing. The previous Aquarius has disappeared mysteriously. The perturbed Marcus Attilius skillfully determines that the aqueduct is facing some obstruction near the city of Pompeii, situated beneath the famed Mount Vesuvius.
Racing against time, Attilius forms a small expedition and dashes to Pompeii, promising the Admiral of the Fleet, Pliny The Elder, that he will restore the water supply in a couple of days. Pompeii, a profligate corrupt city , is the center of the story.
As the young engineer is working feverishly to detect and clear the man-made conduit, another conduit made by the Gods is forming under the bowels of Vesuvius. The man-made one bringing water, the one from the Gods bringing fire. The two stories collide and as we know from history, the Gods' conduit erupts, devastatingly.
Few writers bring out the details from a long dead civilization as beautifully as Robert Harris does. As you read the book, you feel the heat of the sun, the smell of the sulphur in the springs, the noises from the streets and ports of Ancient Rome, the degrading sights from the brothels of the city and the awe-inspiring dread from a cloud of pumice stones raining death on Pompeii.
This book is at times a morality play, at times a love story, at times a mystery and at others, a fast paced action thriller. But mostly this story is about the two conduits, between the man-made one and the one wrought by God, one bringing life, the other death.
A fast and entertaining read.
Product Description
Editorial Review Ancient Rome: While Mount Vesuvius silently bubbles and smokes, citizens of the world's sole superpower relax in their luxurious villas while its navy lies peacefully at anchor in the Bay of Naples. But engineer Marius Primus, newly in charge of the Aqua Augusta, the aqueduct that brings fresh water to a quarter million people around the bay, is worried. Springs are failing for the first time in generations, and something is wrong with the Augusta's main line on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. As he heads to repair the aqueduct before the reservoir runs dry, Marius discovers forces that even the Roman Empire can't control. Told through the eyes of an engineer and a scientist, POMPEII offers an entirely original perspective on this terrible catastrophe.
Customer Reviews:
Beware: the recording is abridged........2007-09-12
This happens all too frequently with audio recordings. I've reported this fact to Amazon.com before, but the listings always remain unchanged. This audio recording is abridged. The slipcase says "THIS ABRIDGMENT HAS BEEN APPROVED BY THE AUTHOR." The written novel is superb and the reading is very well done. But it's not unabridged and it should not be advertised as such.
This unabridged version is worth it!.......2004-06-09
I highly reccommend this unabridged reading of Pompeii, a Novel. The narrator, John Lee, is excellent, the story gripping, the detail delicious. Take it with you on a long trip and it will transport you to an ancient Rome full of character and drama. You will learn interesting things along the way about engineering, fish, volcanoes. There is love, death, cruelty and a wonderful portrayal of Pliny, the scientist. This is too good a book to be abridged.
Product Description
two novels, "The Last Days of Pompeii" and "Harold - The Last of the Saxon Kings" in one 1850 Hardcover binding, written by Lord Lytton.
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Nine lives to Pompeii;: A novel of suspense
William Melton
Manufacturer: D. McKay Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: 0679504389 |
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This digital document is an article from Monthly Labor Review, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2006. The length of the article is 538 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Inadequate employment.(The Social Costs of Underemployment: Inadequate Employment as Disguised Unemployment)(Book review)
Author: Charlotte Yee
Publication:
Monthly Labor Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 129
Issue: 1
Page: 51(1)
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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The Social Costs of Underemployment: Inadequate Employment as Disguised Unemployment
David Dooley , and
JoAnn Prause
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Labor & Industrial Relations
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ASIN: 0521810140 |
Book Description
Comparing the effects of unemployment and inadequate employment relative to adequate employment, this text studies their effects on self-esteem, alcohol abuse, depression, and birth weight. Using longitudinal methods, it measures controls for reverse causation (selection) and studies a large representative sample of Americans from their late teens in 1979, to their early 30's in the last decade of the twentieth century through stages of different business cycles. The results point to a rethinking of employment status as a continuum.
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Tourism Employment: Analysis and Planning (Aspects of Tourism, 6)
Adele Ladkin ,
Edith Szivas , and
Michael Riley
Manufacturer: Multilingual Matters Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 187315030X |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, published by University of Queensland Press on January 1, 2003. The length of the article is 518 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Tourism Employment: Analysis and Planning.(Book Review) (book review)
Author: Charles Arcodia
Publication:
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2003
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
Volume: 10
Issue: 1
Page: 90(2)
Article Type: Book Review
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No Talking in the Lavatory
Tom Harmon
Manufacturer: V E A T U Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0961027606 |
Book Description
A new 192-page book documenting the influential second British invasion blues/rock band and their legendary lead guitarist, Alvin Lee. Heavily illustrated with 400 rare concert and backstage photos from Woodstock 1969 and many other historic classic rock events.
Customer Reviews:
The Holy Grail.......2007-06-27
I've been a TYA fan for 25 years. I own every album TYA and Alvin Lee has produced including seeing them when possible. All these years, it's been a search for more info on the band. Herb Staehr did an incredible job documenting the band and writing this book. It is certainly a must. The info you can pick up is priceless and really gets you "behind the scenes". You'll appreciate how hard the band worked, touring constantly and still produced some of the greatest rockin blues ever. Thank you Herb. Many links have spawned from the excellent book which have led to many live show recordings and web sites out there.
great book.......2006-07-03
in the deep of british blues with the complete and accurate work made in this book!
Great and rare photos within' an very good analysis of musicians and his music with date concerts over the years make of this book an must for fans and collectors.
A brilliant book.......2001-08-24
There are fans, and there are FANS. And after paying several thousand dollars at a London auction house, a couple of years back, for the Gibson 345 guitar used by Alvin Lee at the 1970 Isle of Wight festival, Massachusetts-based long-time Ten Years After fan, Herb Staehr, has most definitely earned his place in that latter category. But he didn't stop there. For during the last few years Staehr has been meticulously marshalling his extensive collection of TYA and Alvin Lee memorabilia into the production of this mightily impressive book - to the best of my knowledge, the first one ever written about either this seminal British band or its brilliant guitarist frontman. It is - as its title implies - primarily a photographic history of the development of TYA, from its early sixties roots as a three-piece teenage band known as The Jaybirds, to its evolution into the four-piece stadium supergroup of thirty years ago. And what astonishing photographs there are. Staehr has not only unearthed literally scores of rare and previously unseen photos of the band in its glory years, but also fascinating images of the aforementioned pre-TYA Jaybirds. Following the break-up of the band in the mid-seventies, he has produced here a comprehensive catalogue of pictures detailing the development of Alvin Lee's solo career right up to the present day. Photos of the various TYA comebacks and reformations are also included, as well as images relating to the solo careers of other band members. So, if its photos you want, there will never be a better place to come, or a better book to buy. They include not only the examples listed above, but concert posters, album sleeves, ticket stubs, magazine covers - you name it, it's here. But Staehr has also provided a wealth of literary information too. There is a band biography, an impressively researched and massively detailed "concert chronology", album and gig reviews, extracts from interviews with band members and associates, all concluding with a comprehensive discography, a listing of T.V., film and video appearances, and finally an extensive biography. It goes without saying that this superb book is a "must buy" for all fans of Ten Years After and Alvin Lee. Yet its appeal should go wider than that. Anyone who was a fan of late sixties and early seventies blues-rock, or who counts themselves a member of the "Woodstock generation", or who just likes a darn good rock and roll read, will find themselves glad they purchased this book. No band rocked the blues like Ten Years After. No-one has recorded and written about that fact as well as Herb Staehr has done here.
Customer Reviews:
Moving and informative.......2000-04-05
While a lot has been said about the influence of men's opinions on heterosexual women's physical appearance, not many books have addressed the specific body-image problems lesbians face. This book breaks new ground by dealing with the subjects of aging, eating disorders, and stereotypes in the lesbian community. It even deals with hair length, clothing, and butch/femme issues. Some of the articles and poetry are very touching. They will make any woman feel she's not alone in her insecurities, and provide ideas for how to deal with body-image problems.
Amazon.com
Before cooking a cheese blintz, it is crucial to know that John Black first appeared in Salem in 1985, swathed in bandages, where he was mistaken by Bo Brady for his long-lost brother Roman, an identity he assumed until the real Roman Brady reappeared. And how can anyone enjoy cake doughnuts without knowing the history of Alice Horton, stalwart matriarch of the Horton clan? Until now, cookbooks were filled with meaningless recipes that were unconnected to the lives of our favorite soap opera characters. All that has changed with Cooking with Days of Our Lives. Fans of the series will relate to these fine foodstuffs, and friends and family of fans will finally understand why one hour every weekday must be spent in rapt attention in front of the warmly glowing television screen. Plus, the recipes are easy to make and range from pedestrian dishes such as corn on the cob to haute cuisine show-off pieces such as smoked salmon canapés. Soapalicious!
Customer Reviews:
HILARIOUS.......2002-10-09
This is the first truly hilarious cookbook I have ever encountered!
For example here is an excerpt from "'I love you' cookies":
"Decorate the cookies with your message of choice: 'Good luck.' 'Love, Bo.' 'XOXO.'"
Now I want to make cookies for myself and write "Love, Bo" !
The only problem with this cookbook is if you are serious about cooking something, and not just looking for funny pictures of John, there is no organization except for themes like "Weddings" and "Trickery and Treats." So if you want to find pasta, you have to look page by page for a pasta recipe. But if you want to find the pasta Carrie and Austin ate at their wedding, you can find it quite easily, along with a great picture of Carrie slapping Sami.
So far I have only found one recipe I might want to make; all the other recipes are obvious (The "'I love you' cookies" are made with prepackaged cookie dough) or too expensive for my college budget. But who buys this for the recipes? Where else can you find a nice tart recipe next to John's letter to Marlena when he was awaiting execution for killing Tony? (who is alive and well now, but you already knew that)
Makes you feel like you're in Salem.......2000-03-18
This book REALLy makes you feel like you're in Salem with recipe's from the show, you're bound to feel like Mrs. Horton! I definately love the little inserts to each recipe like a reminicing to get you in the mood for clam chowder or Alice's donuts. Simply superb! As an editor for Bella Online's Days Site I personally recommend this book for any occasion such as weddings (have yourself a Salem wedding!), for a romantic evening with your honey (candlelight dinners like Marlena and John!), Holiday recipe's from Christmas gatherings at the Horton's! This book can take me back to the DAYS in Salem (especially when the show is off for the weekend!) just by brewing me up some of that Brady Pub clam chowder, YUUUM!
AN EXCELLENT BOOK FOR ANY DEVOTED FAN!.......1999-12-20
I absolutely loved this book. There are many beautiful pictures in this book as well as some very interesting facts about the show. (The letters from Hope to Bo or John to Marlena were especially touching.)The recipes also seem extremely delicious. ( haven't yet had the time to make any of them! ) this is a must-have for any Days devotee.
Really enjoyed this........1999-03-25
Good pictures, information and recipes. We have prepared the Mahi Mahi with roasted pineapple Salsa several times. Any Days fan ought to enjoy this book.
Eat what the Hortons eat!.......1998-03-29
The soap opera, Days of Our Lives (DOOL to insiders) has been on the air since November 8, 1965. I was in high school then, but I watched it consistently during summer breaks, and I've been watching ever since. Well, perhaps I missed a few episodes here and there -- OK, maybe a few years out of the past 33 years. This book has given me not only the chance to catch up, but also the possibility of duplicating the Romantic and Celebritory meals featured on the show. The characters are real people to me, so I jumped at the chance to purchase this book, which includes "recipes from Salem's most popular restaurants," "food you might enjoy at...a Horton-Brady family picnic," AND "menus for meals served at DOOL's most popular weddings." The recipes, compiled by the restaurant critic for the DALLAS MORNING NEWS, seem pretty do-able. Many of them call for frozen vegetables and bottled barbecue sauce ("your favorite brand"), but there is plenty here to challenge the from-scratch cook as well, such as Grilled Mahi Mahi with Roasted Pineapple Salsa, Lamb Chops Crusted with Vivian's Favorite Herb Blend, and Catfish Po'boy with Brady Pub Tartar Sauce. The book also offers helpful biographies of the characters (not the actors) who inhabit the sophisticated city of Salem, U.S.A. These documents have aided me in catching up on the storylines I've missed. For instance, I had NO IDEA that Vivian Alamain "stole Kate Robert's embryo and had it implanted into her own uterus." The mind boggles! Nor did I realize that Mike Horton "ran up huge debts, which limited his precious time with Margo as he worked to repay them." And critics say that soaps are unrealistic? Neither did I know that Caroline Brady, "the blue-collar, salt-of-the-earth" wife of a humble Irish fisherman (and propriatress of the Brady Pub) had AN AFFAIR, in 1985, with Victor Kiriakis, who is Bo Brady's real father! That would make Bo just 13 instead of thirty-something, but who's counting? This is like finding out that my own grandpa ain't really my grandpa. The book assures the reader/viewer/cook that "There is great comfort in knowing that no matter how much things may change -- or even if Satan comes to town -- Christmas will still be observed at Alice Horton's." They are not kidding about Satan. Who can forget the storyline wherein Marlena was possessed? I shiver to think of those big yellow eyes. The Christmas menu includes Holiday Hot Chocolate (with an "optional" cup of brandy or bourbon), Old-Fashioned Eggnog, Alice's Famous Cake Doughnuts, Cut-out Sugar Cookies, Fruitcake, Mixed Nut Cereal Snack Mix (with three different kinds of dry cereals AND pretzel sticks), Sugared Almonds, and Best Brownies. There is a special wedding section, where one can duplicate Bo & Hope's English Wedding Tea, Sami & Austin's Paris Wedding, and Bo & Billie's Trattoria Wedding. Non-viewers should be forwarned that none of these marriages have lasted much beyond cutting the cake, so let that be a thought before you put too much time into whipping up Bow-tie Pasta with Artichokes or Tiramisu. There is also a cooking section entitled "On the Set", which features interesting recipes from the Jennie Cook catering firm in L.A., who actually cater to the cast. I am planning to make Chicken Pieces with Miriam's Marinade for dinner this very evening. "Cooking With DOOL" is entertaining, glossy, and would make a great gift for that Susan Banks or John Black fan in your life. There is only one question left unanswered for me -- who in the heck is Brady Black's mother???
Amazon.com
Clint Eccher has designed professional Web sites for seven years and now makes some of his designs available as templates through his own site (A5design.com) and with his new book, Professional Web Design. You get 50 templates (each of which features home and second-level pages) and careful instructions on how to adapt them for your own use. Along the way, Eccher offers sound advice on good Web design practices; a little bit about HTML, cascading style sheets, and JavaScript; a look at JPEGs and GIFs; and some insight into "comping" (sketching) a site design for the client's approval.
For the most part, however, this book addresses just those aspects of Web design that readers will need to know in order to successfully utilize the templates. These are designed as "mortised" sites; that is, they are built with nested tables and sliced GIF/JPEG combinations, the kind of design made easy with the advent of Adobe's ImageReady and Macromedia's Fireworks. Although this is not a how-to about using those applications or about creating such sites from scratch, Eccher does help readers learn how to debug and otherwise adjust the source code in order to successfully implement the designs. In addition to trial versions of the major applications, the CD-ROM also contains the JavaScript Cookbook and HTML/CSS Developer's Resource Guide, which provide lots of cut-and-paste source code for all kinds of features (games, sounds, pop-up messages) that can be added to a Web page.
One caveat: despite the templates, this book is too detailed for beginners. For those with some experience, and especially for developers who lack design skills and like the A5design style, this book amounts to an intensive Clint Eccher brain-picking seminar. He offers a few tricks that can be applied to any design (like his tips on how to drastically reduce file sizes) and some good general advice (for example, "Do not get attached to the work" because a client may just decide against it). --Angelynn Grant
Book Description
Whether you are an intermediate Web designer looking to take your sites to the next level or a more experienced designer looking to improve your professional skills, you will find the tools to meet your needs in Professional Web Design: Techniques and Templates, Second Edition. This completely updated version of the best-selling book features the 50 professional-quality, license-free Web design templates from the original, as well as 15 new templates, all of which can be easily customized and extended. Each ready-to-use design includes a homepage, and one second-level page, and the framework to build subsequent pages. All of the specific techniques that are required for building these and other highly usable sites have been updated to cover the latest technologies, including HTML, XHTML, JavaScript, CSS, Photoshop CS, and PHP. Also included are five new HTML e-mail templates, an increasingly important marketing tool. Detailed tutorials and hands-on projects teach both basic and sophisticated design concepts, including how to create designs for low, medium, or high content sites and the strengths and weaknesses of each. The new edition also includes four new chapters on Cascading Style Sheets, using client-side scripting, creating dynamic sites, and an overview of the new Web designs. It covers important topics such as client- and server-side scripting, security, and using databases to update a site,s content.
Customer Reviews:
Pick out the good advice, leave the poor advice alone........2007-08-23
This book has a handful of useful things to say regarding the use of graphics, planning as well as a plethora of ready-made web site templates. It is also spotted through with handy advice and clear writing as well as good examples and discussion. There is a huge "if" though.
The book has become clearly dated in regards to current web site design practice. This book uses tables for layout and to be honest, xhtml/css is the industry preferred method separating content (provided by html/xhtml) from presentation (CSS). As such, I think those looking for a complete and professional introduction and presentation of current (mid-2007) methodologies would be better served by the following suite of books:
Usability Issues
- Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition by Steve Krug
Clear Presentation and Introduction to XHTML and CSS
- HTML Dog: The Best-Practice Guide to XHTML and CSS by Patrick Griffiths
Advanced CSS Design
- CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions by Andy Budd, Simon Collison, and Cameron Moll
Different Designs demonstrating what can be achieved using CSS
- The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web (Voices That Matter) by Dave Shea and Molly E. Holzschlag
While there are other great books about current best practice, these are the ones that I believe best encapsulate what "Professional Web Design: Techniques and Templates" tries to do. I think a 3rd edition of this book is needed to truly update it to current practice.
Not-so-professional Web design.......2007-05-21
The title of this book should be "Professional LOOKING Web Design." The numerous template sites provided look great, and are useful for running by clients and asking "which of these do you like?" However, under the hood, the implementation of these pages is anything but professional, at least not by modern standards of using CSS for layout, and tables only for content that is truly tabular.
Instead, the templates rely heavily on tables, and tables within tables, for dividing up the layout of the pages. This can make it hard to customize them (particularly all the chopped-up graphics), and gives you a headache when trying to figure out which cell-inside-a-cell you're editing. This is exacerbated by the poor layout of the HTML code, with tag pairs that don't line up, indents that don't reflect the document structure, and so on.
CSS is mostly relegated to providing styling for text. On page 42 of the 2nd edition, the author does briefly address the table-v-CSS issue, and concludes that CSS is more difficult than using tables (I'd disagree) and that not all browsers support CSS exactly the same way (true enough for some features, but in general a small amount of tweaking and testing will let your designs work in all major browsers).
There are some useful tips and tricks in this book, and the templates do provide some great *ideas* for design and layout, but not good *implementations*. When you come to designing your own pages, the best approach is throw out the book's HTML and CSS and start from scratch. Because this book is most likely to be used by beginning developers, it's unfortunate that it provides so many inadvisable lessons in implementing its templates.
Right now I don't have a good modern (CSS) design book in my library to recommend - I've found that many great resources are available on the Web, such as w3.org and the CSS Zen Garden.
Worthwile for any web developer.......2007-05-08
This book gives some good insights into web design, and is worth reading by any web developer no matter how experienced.
Great for learning certain techniques.......2007-05-04
So, I'm not sure all of the templates are the greatest I've ever seen, but they're really good. If they were better, you'd be buying them or creating them yourself. I think this book is really good at helping understand that given all the ways I could build a website and given the current trends and methods, why to choose what they recommend. I've been doing web design profesionnaly for over six years and I am glad I got this book.
Nice Job.......2007-02-24
I needed this book for a class, and I found it very helpful. The overall organization was good, with helpful details.
Book Description
Advanced Professional Web Design: Techniques and Templates (CSS & XHTML) is the must-have book for advanced designers who want to expand their skills and improve the quality of their designs. Learning CSS technology and continually improving one's design and developer skills is becoming increasingly essential for every Web designer in today's marketplace. This book teaches designers and developers how to bridge the knowledge gap from XHTML table-based design to full CSS-based design, and master the technologies and techniques needed. But the book isn't just about the theory behind design; it's about putting it into practice right away. Using the ~140 customizable designs, designers can use what they learn immediately. This indispensable collection of designs includes 20 CSS-driven templates, 80 XHTML table-based templates, 10 e-newsletter templates, 10 signature templates, and 20 Photoshop designs that can be coded. Too see some of the sample templates that come on the book's companion CD, visit the author's Web site at http://www.a5design.com/a5-book-designs. The book goes well beyond the authors' very successful Professional Web Design: Techniques and Templates by providing advanced tools and techniques that teach how e-commerce and shopping carts work, explain the concept of database-driven sites, and show how to create relative sizing designs, among other important topics. The techniques are taught with an emphasis on CSS, including explanations, examples, and templates that go far beyond existing CSS documentation. The database-driven and e-commerce examples in the book are written using CFML (ColdFusion Markup Language). Because the purpose of this book is to give a high-level explanation of such techniques, the techniques can be easily translated to other languages, such as ASP/ASP.Net, JSP, and PHP. This is a unique training course and free library of templates all in one!
Customer Reviews:
This book is not for Advanced Programmers........2007-09-03
As a professional programmer I purchased this book to master CSS & XHTML Table-less layouts. As as advanced programmer I was surprised to see the first 100 pages of the book were written as a beginner's overview of how the web works. (A total waste of time for me.) The second part of the book takes you through a step by step process of creating layouts. The problem is the code added in each step is combined with all the previous work and the reader is left trying to sort out the differences in the code examples. Additionally The code examples are NOT provided on the CD. For some insane reason the images in the book are provided instead. I tried to contact the author to inquire if I am using the book incorrectly, but there has been no response. It appears to me that what is missing is the layout concepts. Clint jumps right in to the examples before explaining the process. It was not until I combed through the 140 examples before I realized his technique was to nest absolutely positioned div's in parent relatively positioned div's. Once I deduced that small piece of critical knowledge, the rest fell into place. The 140 examples are nice, but really only 5-6 are needed.
A far better book is: HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS
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