Is it necessary to purchase a travel book or is it realistic that we can get similar information from other resources? Usually, most individuals have a major question on buying a travel book. So here are the pros and cons of purchasing one such book.

Advantages of a Travel Book

A travel book, which may be a paperback or e-book, comes in handy while traveling. Glancing through a travel book enables you to understand the custom and culture of a particular place in the world. So you can adapt yourself to that particular environment and stay there comfortably for longer periods.

1. They Come In Handy — The travel guide comes in various forms such as, e-books, paperbacks and the file formats. You can have easy access to these books, which would assist you with all details compatible to the region you are traveling to.
2. They Provide Enormous Information — Electronic or traditional travel guides provide you with answers to all types of questions such as how to learn some sayings that can be used in the place where you are traveling to? How to get data on where to reside, what to see and where to eat? How to get a clear knowledge about the history of a specific region or the atmosphere that it has?
3. They Suit To Your Requirements — To access full information about a specific country or a region, both types of general and specific travel books are made available. The e-book may easily fit into your e-book reader whereas the paperback can fit into your backpack.

Disadvantages of Travel Book

1. The Price — The e-book and paperback travel guides are very expensive compared to the information obtained from travel websites or from those who have moved or traveled to that region.
2. Qualitative Images In Travel Books — Most travel books are in black and white. Only a few e-books consist of colored photos. Hence make a thorough revision before purchasing a travel guide or an e-book.
3. Travel Books Make The Trip Less Natural — Traveling can be made more spontaneous by acquiring suggestions from locals than from travel books.

Conclusion

Considering travel books is essential while you are scheduling to travel. At the same time, never fail to revise the pros and cons in order to make the trip, the most memorable one.

f you are looking to learn how to achieve financial independence, Jeremy Kho has prepared a book just for you. "The Journey from Poor Procrastinator to Invested Millennial" will teach you the basics regarding how you should manage your finances and make you curious to learn more. However, the book is not limited to this topic, it can also just help motivate you to overcome your general state of procrastination.

Don't be scared that the information presented will be too technical for you, it is far from that. With a friendly tone, Jeremy Kho takes you on a journey of self-discovery. He uses a lot of colorful examples to make the economics part more accessible. There are plenty of stories with realistic characters throughout the book containing noteworthy morals. You might even recognize yourself in one or more of these.

As stated by the title, "The Journey from Poor Procrastinator to Invested Millennial", the goal is to help you evolve from a procrastinator to an invested person. While millennials are the target audience, this is not the only generation that might find use in the book. So, don't let this be an impediment in reading it. However, the tendency of millennials to engage in financial procrastination is investigated more in depth. The author identifies three major reasons: fear of unknown, difficulty in understanding, and the tendency of avoiding. With his help, you will be able to better understand each one of these reasons and learn how to overcome them. Financial procrastination has a snowball effect, the longer you postpone taking direct action, the bigger impact it will have on your future.

The goal is identified as becoming an invested millennial. By examining the specific traits of this generation, an ideal representative is outlined, especially from a financial point of view. There are four traits on which Jeremy Kho focuses on: having clear goals in life, value and invest in oneself, attaining financial freedom, contributing to society. Each of these will be presented in detail, and made achievable for those who have not attained them yet.

As previously mentioned, the target audience is aimed at the millennials, the book presents a personalized analysis regarding personal finance management of this generation. However, the fact is that anyone can benefit on so many different levels from reading it, regardless of the generation they belong to. "The Journey from Poor Procrastinator to Invested Millennial" is not one to be made alone, the people around you play a crucial role. However, it is only up to you to start this journey and choose your companions along the way.

Best selling author of the book ‘Those Small Lil Things’, Rahul Saini asks several questions in his latest book, ‘The Orange Hangover’ that include whether he would be able to follow his heart and stick to the values and ambitions? Would he be able to win the girl he likes? To get the answers of these questions, among others, you need to visit the nearest book stall and grab a copy of the book that highlights the comedy surrounding a relationship that goes wrong.

The minute you turn 25, everyone around just screams, jumps and starts to poke you with the same question over and over again – “When are you getting married? When are you getting married?” Oh come on. It can’t be that you don’t have a girlfriend. Why don’t you tell us about her and we can start arranging the wedding.

Conversations like these should not come as surprise in a man’s life prior to their marriage from friends, relatives or people from the society. A recently published book titled “The Orange Hangover” by Jaico Publishing House, written by author Rahul Saini reveals comedy about the relationship that goes wrong and shares his thoughts on how weddings are painful affairs at times. The book is comical and talks about the struggle for sticking to one’s values, doing good to others and about a person’s poor ability to gauge from his earlier experiences.

Born and brought up in the small town of Jalandhar, the author Rahul Saini is a high spirited young architect based in Gurgaon. Apart from his work, he takes active interest in painting and writing stories. His other fields of interest include film making and photography. He has also gained experience working as a dialogue writer, screenplay writer, and as an assistant director for a few films.

The author speaks about how at one point of time in life, he had the coolest lifestyle, enjoyed dinner with friends, movies (first day first show), good paying job and also a good girlfriend. Now with passage of time he is stuck in his small hometown with no job, no girlfriend and to make things worse, he manages to tangle himself in a terrible case of extreme crime.

The Orange Hangover asks if he would be able to follow his heart and stick to his values and ambitions? Would he be able to win the girl he likes? Would the terrible case of extreme crime ever be solved? The fiction based novel “The Orange Hangover” should be able to answer the questions being asked.

Rahul Saini is also the bestselling author of the book “Those Small Lil Things” that has earned accolades from all quarters and has been ranked one of the Top 5 books by NDTV and several publishing houses. The book has sold 100,000 copies till date and is a rage with young generation.

How Sachin Destroyed my Life – Now, that is a very brave title for a book released in India, where the name Sachin is synonymous with GOD. But Vikram surely got 50% of the attention and hype that is very much required for a non-fiction work with that title.

There were many books on cricketers and especially Sachin. People have spoken at length about his technique, temperament, character and his special hundreds. But Vikram offered a rare perspective. I cannot think of many cricket humorists and stand-up comedians other than Vikram Sathaye and Andy Zaltzman. In a way, the book voices the feelings of the entire male population of India. Sachin, in fact destroyed many lives. At some point or the other, Sachin played a part in our personal and professional lives. Vikram touches upon those aspects wonderfully. He just captures exactly what we, as the cricket mad population, went through watching Sachin grow from strength to strength. He, in fact, balances the feelings wonderfully. He laces each sentence with wit and humour. The moment you think he is hurting the Sachin fan in you, he makes you laugh out loud with those witty punch lines. The fact that he has not played the game at the highest level makes us perceive him as one of us – a common cricket fan. The fact that he lived the dream of every Indian cricket fan, without being a cricketer himself, gives us a sense of hope. The initial chapters focus very much on the struggles of Vikram as he tries to perceive his cricket dream. These chapters provide enough justification to the first half of the book’s title. You sympathize with Vikram all the way and you wish he was as successful at cricket as Sachin. When he does cross paths with his idol incidentally, you wish you were Vikram. His success story emphasizes the role of destiny in one’s life.

The most touching part of the book is the story of Mane Kaka, the team’s masseur. These are the people we never get to know. These are the people who take care of our heroes. It’s a great story and it ought to be told. Vikram should be lauded for introducing us to Mane kaka. In a way, I think both Vikram and Mane Kaka treaded the same path. If Mane Kaka’s was the most touching aspect of the book, the references to Virender Sehwag were heart warming. Sehwag is one of a kind player. He has a natural style and aura to his batting and character. Vikram dedicates a chapter to Sledging and it was great to learn how Sehwag reacted to Michael Clarke sledging Sachin. These are the aspects of the game a common cricket fan craves for. There are many such anecdotes in Vikram’s book. He touches up on some rarely discussed aspects as well in a serious tone. Commentators with a non-cricketing background were one such topic. He explains how difficult it is for a commentator or a presenter with no background of professional cricket, to survive in the cricket world.

The book is a wonderful read and it leaves you craving for more. Well done Vikram. You are now a Sachin for many, in your own right.

Business Quiz Book
Author: Saurabh Aggarwal
Publisher: V&S Publishers
First Edition: October 2011

Did you know that Subhash Chandra Bose was the CEO of Calcutta Municipal Corporation in 1924, the crossword puzzles first appeared in the New York World in 1913, and soon became a popular feature in newspapers or that Kellog's as a brand had spent $ 90,000 on advertising, more than 100 years ago in 1906, including one $ 4000 a page ad in the July issue of the Ladies Home Journal? Steve Jobs of Apple had lured John Sculley away from Pepsi because he wanted him to apply his marketing skills to the personal computer market rather than "sell sugar-water for the rest of your life" or come with me and change the world.

The author Saurabh Aggarwal claims to have included highly challenging quizzes like the above to draw the best of reasoning and logical ability out of your mental faculty. He further adds that it had been quite a fun preparing questions for this book by drawing ideas from crazy things like making a note of a hoarding across the road, from the menu card of a restaurant, or scribbling little facts from a book while browsing through at a bookshop …

This questions chosen have a defined objective … to emulate the framing of questions that are often asked in business quizzes these days. There are over 30 sections covering a vast spectrum of information ranging from automobiles, advertising, business gurus, FMCG to publications, management terms, quality control, management quotes. A special section for visual questions that are part of almost every business quiz these days has also been included.

Honestly speaking, most of the questions covered are workable ones and do not require any specific learning. Awareness about one's environment and an open mind are just sufficient to answer most of the questions. The length of some questions may be intimidating at some point but then the aim is to truthfully reflect the pattern of quiz framing.

It will serve not just as a stepping stone for people who are interested in business quizzing but will prove to be an ideal compendium for all aspirants searching for admission to professional colleges or career options in banking, insurance, defense, railways, state & central government services, besides many other top-tier professions.

About the author
Saurabh Aggarwal has passed a graduate degree course in Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering from Indraprastha University, Delhi and MBA from Praxis Business School, Kolkata. He is in his family business while at the same time pursuing his passion for quizzing. He has participated and excelled various national level business quizzes. This book is an outcome of his intense interest in business quizzing.

He runs a quizzing company called Thinking Hat.

In Leading in a Diverse Environment, Teddie E. Malangwasira, PhD looks at the steps leaders must take to create effective growth in an organization that also values diversity, makes everyone feel included, and seeks to develop individuals’ unique skills. Dr. Malangwasira draws upon his personal experiences as a leader, and as someone who has worked in diverse environments to make his points and provide examples of effective leadership. As an immigrant to the United States from Malawi, he has witnessed firsthand what happens when organizations do not celebrate diversity, and he has developed beliefs that diversity is more than just hiring people of different racial or cultural backgrounds. No two people are the same, so even if you have an organization composed of people, who all appear to be of the same cultural background, they will still have diverse skills and talents; therefore, you must find ways to use those skills to the organization’s benefit, rather than just hiring people to do jobs that may not always match their skills. This broad view of diversity makes the book relevant for any organization no matter who its team members may be.

Leading in a Diverse Environment begins with a Foreword by Dr. Blanche Wallace, Director of Dynamic Strategic Leadership Coaching and author of The Competent Coaching Leader. Wallace points out the many values of Dr. Malangwasira’s book, including that he advocates for developing the skill of self-awareness. Dr. Wallace states, “A leader who is not self-aware is operating from an uninformed position. To effectively connect with one’s environment requires awareness, authenticity, and avidity. These characteristics cannot be feigned.”

Throughout the book, Dr. Malangwasira focuses not just on the skills leaders need but also their own blind spots or weaknesses. As he states in the preface, leaders must “explore the differences between what people think is happening when leading others and the reality of how people feel when they are being led. This paradigm shift will help us look at diversity from a different perspective and remove the pretense that everything is all right when reality proves otherwise.” Dr. Malangwasira goes on to state, “We need to understand how we are different from other people. However, this understanding is not enough; we also need to understand how we can work with other people and leverage our differences to build a strong team.” I find these statements valuable since when I first became a manager, I often found myself surprised that other people did not see things the way I did or had different motives for working. Leaders need to embrace all these diverse characteristics of their team members if they truly want to lead.

Beyond knowing themselves, leaders also need to be clear what their goals are and align them with a strategy to achieve them; a big part of that strategy is motivating their diverse team members to adopt those goals as their own. As the tagline on the book’s cover states, this is “a journey of working independently together.”

Dr. Malangwasira divides the book into ten chapters that help the reader work toward this goal of using diversity to accomplish a shared goal rather than letting it hinder the goal from being achieved. In Chapter 5: Inspiring Others, he outlines the important steps leaders can take to inspire others. One of the most important, in my opinion, is being approachable. In Chapter 6: Attracting and Retaining Talent, he talks about how “you need to make sure when you have talented people that those people and their talents are recognized, developed, refined, and leveraged.” He also states that you must develop “an inclusive approach to the talent pool.” He gives examples from a company he worked for where people were hired for specific positions but then expected to work wherever the company needed them at the time, leading to high turnover and a lack of continuity in their work and the company’s overall progress. Dr. Malangwasira concludes, “It seems obvious, but through experience I’ve learned I have to say it. People in leadership roles need to understand that human beings cannot just be put anywhere the boss wishes them to be. Talented employees excel in their chosen fields. Let them do the jobs they interviewed for.”

To ensure diversity, Dr. Malangwasira also advocates for creating an individual development plan (IDP) for each of your followers. Building off the work of Peggy Simonsen in Promoting Development Culture in Your Organization, he argues that leadership cannot have secret plans for developing an organization’s culture, but rather, “individuals must be active participants in their development while leaders should make sure they support the agreed upon IDP.” I think this concept of an IDP is brilliant because it allows employees to feel included in their own development as well as that of the organization.

I’ll conclude by saying that I appreciate how Dr. Malangwasira writes in an easy-to-understand language, breaking down concepts to their simplest points. This book would be an excellent resource for college students in business and leadership courses because it not only offers the basics of what is required to be a leader but will challenge them to think about what kinds of leaders they will be when they face diversity in the workplace. Each chapter ends with a series of questions for the reader; this makes the book not just a reading experience, but a personal development experience; and that’s what a book that seeks to educate its readers should always accomplish. Once you read this book, I think your eyes will be opened about what a diverse environment truly is and how you can effectively use diversity to achieve the greater good for your organization and everyone involved.

Forget the latkes! This Thanksgiving, surprise family and friends with a fresh take on a holiday standard. Stephanie Pederson's go-to recipe for Potato Kale Cakes highlights this review of the book.

Stephanie Pedersen's book "KALE: The World's Most Powerful Super Food," published by Sterling Press is dedicated to the super food. Pederson is a mom to three growing boys, a nutritionist, coach, media personality and speaker.

After reading the book and trying the recipes, it's clear that Potato Kale Cakes are one of many recipes in Pedersen's book destined to it past discerning palettes to be gobbled up along with the turkey at any family gathering.

In the book, the reader learns that super-foods like kale have a tremendous value because they are packed with the nutrients and antioxidants needed to balance a carb-filled feast.

To introduce the cakes as a new food to picky eaters, cooks may simply place a plate of these on the kitchen table and let the food do the talking!

For those who wish to try potato kale cakes, Pedersen's favorite recipe is below: below:

Sauce (optional)

½ cup mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, 2 garlic cloves, minced, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 1⁄8 teaspoon chipotle powder (use more if you can take the heat), Salt, to taste, Pepper, to taste.

Potato cake

1½ pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1-inch cubes, ¼ cup whole milk, 2 tablespoons (¼ stick) unsalted butter, Salt, to taste, 3½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided, 1 cup onion, minced, 1 large garlic clove, minced, ½ pound kale, deribbed, coarsely chopped, Optional: ½ teaspoon lemon zest.

Directions: Sauce

Whisk all ingredients in medium bowl. Can be made one day ahead. Cover and chill.

Directions: Potato cake

1. Cook potatoes in large saucepan of boiling salted water until tender, about 25 minutes. Drain; return potatoes to same saucepan.

2. Add milk and butter. Mash potatoes until smooth. Season with ½ teaspoon coarse salt and ½ teaspoon pepper.

3. Transfer 3 cups mashed potatoes to large bowl and cool (reserve remaining potatoes for another use).

4. Heat 1½ tablespoons oil in large deep skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Sauté until onion softens, about 5 minutes.

5. Increase heat to medium-high. Add kale and cook until kale softens, about 7 minutes.

6. Add kale mixture, ½ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper to potatoes and thoroughly combine. Allow to sit for 45 minutes or more until mixture is thoroughly cool.

7. When the potato-kale mixture is cool, shape it by patting ¼-cup portions into patties about ½-inch thick. Keep shaping until all potato-kale mixture has been formed into patties.

8. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add patties and cook, without moving (you want a crust to form!), Until they are brown and crispy on bottom, about 4 minutes.

9. Carefully turn cakes over. Cook until brown on bottom, about 3 minutes more. Transfer to plates. Top each cake with dollop of optional sauce, salsa, or other condiment.

In 1997, Luma notified her parents she was staying in America. She came here at the age of 21. Her father was not happy with her decision. After graduating from college, she was determined to make it on her own.

In 2002, she got a job coaching girls' soccer at the local YMCA in Clarkston, Georgia. She stumbled upon boys playing a street pick-up game of soccer and felt she could make more of an impact with them. She quit her job and committed to starting a team with these boys. They named themselves the "Fugees".

Clarkston was initially resistant to the refugee newcomers. White people left and those who stayed were not welcoming. The police and mayor tried everything in their power to keep them in their place.

Over time, a few people began embracing diversity. A local grocer took advice from a Vietnamese girl who suggested he begin stocking the store with ethnic foods. A church renamed itself and welcomed all the groups. A new police chief righted wrongs. In 2009, the mayor's term ended.

Luma got an assistant named Tracy. The writer, Warren St. John shared their story. They got donations and hired two teachers to work with the team tutoring.

This book took a while to read because it went into the history of situations each of the players had come from. It does remind us of the difficulties refugees face. If we were in the same position, we would hope for kindness from someone.

I was blessed to have made a friend in 1999 with one of the "Lost Boys" of Sudan in Phoenix, Arizona. My daughter-in-law is from Sudan. God knew in 1999 when we met our friend that my son would marry a girl from that same country when he grew up.

In uncertain times, fear keeps us at a distance from the unfamiliar. Sometimes, events are out of out our control but we can miss out on opportunities by not getting to know refugees in our communities.

I love reading stories of people who made a difference in the lives of others. That kindness can have a ripple effect and multiply. Sometimes, it may be years before we find out how. I've witnessed it in my life. I hope to see more.

I thank God for those I've met and those I have yet to meet. Best wishes to everyone in this story.

This article is a book review on a series of six books that is the most comprehensive and lucid explanation of guitar tube amp architecture, circuits, tone, components and construction technique for DIYers I have ever found. The review deals with each book separately and recommends purchasing them in a specific order to grow your knowledge in step with your building experience.

Kevin O’Connor of London Power has created a series of books under the main title of “The Ultimate Tone.” These books are truly unique and carefully tailored for the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) guitar tube amp hobbyist and boutique amplifier builder. The books have a home-made ‘feel’ as well… all the illustrations are done by hand and the books are photocopy-printed on 8.5″x11″ paper and bound with plastic spines and clear plastic covers. There are six books in the series now with the most recent being released in the late spring of 2008. You may want to buy the entire series all at once and get a modest savings, but I think you should consider buying them one at a time and digest as you go, building projects along the way. A key point though… you don’t necessarily want to buy them in numerical order. I recommend the following sequence:

1. The Ultimate Tone Volume 3 – Generations of Tone
2. The Ultimate Tone Volume 5 – Tone Capture
3. The Ultimate Tone Volume 2 – Systems Approach to Stage Sound Nirvana
4. The Ultimate Tone Volume 4 – Advanced Techniques for Modern Guitar Amp Design
5. The Ultimate Tone – Modifying and Custom Building Tube Guitar Amps
6. The Ultimate Tone Volume 6 – Timeless Tone Built for the Future Today

The Ultimate Tone Volume 3 – Generations of Tone

This is the most important book in the series for the beginning tube amp builder.

Chapters 2 through 4 lay down the foundation of good DIY tube amp construction, filling you in on good electrical connections, grounding technique, lead dress and other wiring techniques, and mechanical layout including assembly methods like terminal strips, turret and eyelet boards.

The subsequent chapters each pick a particular ‘iconic’ amplifier, each iconic amplifier being a prototypical example of amplifiers of its class, and they are examined in detail as to the circuit topology, peculiar tonal characteristics that result and fatal flaws that the product is notorious for. Kevin provides the original schematics and then shows how you can apply the techniques detailed in the earlier chapters to improve the performance and reliability of the icon without harming the tone. The schematics are redrawn, layouts are provided and mechanical solutions are worked out to make each chapter a complete, self-contained, build-it-yourself amp project.

This process is repeated for several variations of the Champ in chapter 5 (this chapter greatly influenced my own single-ended amp project), then in quick succession: the Bassman, Plexi, 800, Bull Dog, AC-30, Portaflex, SVT, Bass Master, Custom Special, Guitar Mate, Herzog and Laney amplifiers are dealt with.

If you can only buy one book for your DIY guitar amp hobby I’d heartily recommend this one.

The Ultimate Tone Volume 5 – Tone Capture

Volume 5 picks up where Volume 3 left off, with a project-oriented approach and some sophisticated DIY tube amp solutions for guitar and bass.

The book starts off with a chapter overviewing vacuum tube operation called ‘tube tone,’ followed up by a chapter on guitar electronics and pickup characteristics.

The next two chapters are small projects: Sigma for effects switching and Triple-X for amplifier switching.

Chapters 5 & 6 are on transformers… important components but it made me yawn, sorry.

Starting with chapter 7, all the stops are pulled out and you are in project heaven… Major (200W), Soma 84 (EL84 amp), Standard (the London Power Standard Preamp from 1995 coupled to a 50W amp using four power tubes), Doppelsonde (mixing power tube types), AX84 (discussion on the original goal of a very low output power amp), Kelly (50W from 4 6V6s), and several other projects of lesser scope.

One favorite project I did was based on Kevin’s reworking of the HotBox tube preamp pedal from Matchless in chapter 16. I built this pedal in a truly “true point-to-point style” (meaning terminal strips) in a tube pedal enclosure from Doug Hoffman, substituting a Baxandall tone stack and reworking the preamp values to be more Dumble-esqe (non-HRM type).

What would you do to match an amplifier to Yngwie Malmsteen’s style? See chapter 18, ‘Swede.’

The Ultimate Tone Volume 2 – Systems Approach to Stage Sound Nirvana

Volume 2 is not project oriented. The bulk of the book, chapters 2 through 5, deals with power supply tricks and a comprehensive overview of power amplifiers, including tube, solid-state and hybrid power amps. Chapter 3, on tube power amplifiers, has some very practical information on mods and fixes to Marshall and Fender bias circuits.

I like the 1st and last chapters of Volume 2 the best. The first chapter is a short discussion of sound stages and how you might setup your gear on stage for the best audience/band experience. The last, chapter 6, is called “Pillars of Tone” and in this chapter the major contributors tone at the block-level of a guitar tube amplifier system design are discussed one by one and Kevin provides some very valuable insight into tone shaping throughout the preamp/amplifier.

The Ultimate Tone Volume 4 – Advanced Techniques for Modern Guitar Amp Design

This is the book you’ll want to buy if you feel the need to get deeply involved with the power scaling technology that Kevin has developed. Power Scaling, coined and trademarked by Kevin, is the way you can get aspects of power amp distortion (as opposed to preamp distortion) into your tone at bedroom volume levels. Volume 4 is not DIY project oriented but explores the issues, including attenuation, power scaling (both down and up), sag, and power management, tackled by modern guitar tube amp designers.

That said, the second-to-last chapter in Volume 4 might be important for a broader group of enthusiast builders… design philosophy. In this chapter Kevin provides a hierarchical design process that could be used to make key decisions on how you approach your next project.

The Ultimate Tone – Modifying and Custom Building Tube Guitar Amps

There is no volume number in the title of this book, it was the 1st. Personally, I bought it for completeness. I specifically wanted to have the ‘perfect effects loop’ information, although the loop itself is incorporated into a project in Volume 5. TUT also has some excellent material on reverbs and signal switching methods that is not explained in the other volumes. The first half of TUT introduces/overviews tube amp systems, power supplies & grounds then focuses on preamp and power amp modifications to commercial amplifiers (e.g. Marshall / Fender)… if you are totally new to tube electronics you may want to buy this 1st volume at the same time as Volume 3.

The Ultimate Tone Volume 6 – Timeless Tone Built for the Future Today

In many ways, Volume 6 is a continuation and extension of the material in Volume 4, where Power Scaling is introduced.  In Volume 6 a new ‘direct control’ version of Powerscaling is featured which was introduced in Vol 4 but flushed out with comprehensive circuits and applied to ‘sag’ and sustain control as well in Vol 6.  The new scaling circuits have many advantages for a DIY builder like greater noise immunity and less sensitivity to layout, etc.

I applied the new DC Power Scaling to a Trainwreck clone project and was really impressed with the improvement in ‘playability’ at lower volumes… the unmodified Trainwreck Express circuit is just too loud for domestic use, needing to be cranked to get the sweet tones it is renowned for.

One of the chapters in Volume 6 is dedicated to the Dumble amplifiers… something I was really looking forward to since many of my hobby projects focus on those circuits.  I found this short chapter to be a good introduction to the overall architecture of the Dumble amps, written from the point of view of the evolution from the early modified standard amps that Alexander Dumble started out doing, but I felt the chapter fell short in discussing some of the more important subtleties of the later Dumble models.

Volume 6 also has lots of other material in it, including a great tutorial on designing really high output power amplifiers and a great chapter on high gain amplifier designs with real-world circuits referenced and detailed.

In Summary…

Kevin’s books have a very empirical approach. He encourages you to set aside convention in some instances or not be afraid to try combinations of tubes or even pulling tubes and in all cases clearly explains why it is o.k. and points out any reasons why it wouldn’t be o.k. All the examples in the books are very practical and he certainly has the DIYer in mind as he is writing.

Kevin’s body of work is truly encyclopedic in nature, and considering that, one feature sorely lacking from his books is any kind of indexing… this is aggravated by the fact that Kevin constantly refers to previous writings rather than repeat himself in a new volume, and it is very difficult to put your finger on the reference even with the other book in hand. Perhaps search engine technology, like Google’s ability to search protected content, could be put to good use in this case and provide a kind of ‘auto-index’ on the web of all of Kevin’s books without actually giving away the book itself. Or better yet, how about an e-book format of Kevin’s entire collection of TUT books… I think all of the e-book readers include searching capabilities… and Kevin’s hand-drawn schematics would probably scale adequately and be very readable on the e-paper displays these devices feature.

Meanwhile, how do you get Kevin’s books today? The best way to get the books is to directly order them from London Power Press. They now have a shopping cart on http://www.londonpower.com.

Far from just another dystopia, Kyle Waller’s Ward creates an immersive universe of inviting darkness. The action packed pages will easily grip your attention. This makes for an easy and entertaining summer reading.

To begin with, this story has no heroes, in the classical sense, only villains. Thus, making it more difficult for the reader to identify with a character. On the other hand, dwelling more on the dark side is certainly more intriguing and perhaps even makes the events seem more realistic. After the main character is faced with the following proposal: Up the river? Or down in the dirt? He ends up in the prison-city of what once was Sacramento California. The Ward is a place of no redemption, only survival. On one hand, the condemned must face nature, as ash keeps snowing over the land. But on the other hand, far more dangerous are the people who inhabit these parts. As the inhabitants are divided into several groups competing for some very limited resources, the power-plays that emerge are the main threat. Well, Kyle Waller throws his main character in the midst of this ongoing war, thus allowing the reader to jump straight into the action.

However, beyond all the action and thrill of Ward, there is a more serious issue underlining the entire narrative, mental illness. While at certain points its presence becomes blatantly obvious, at other times, it is much more subtle. It is this subtleness that I found more impressive. In these cases, it resembles an invisible presence, something that you can’t see, but can only feel. And this sensation of uneasiness is masterfully woven into the pages of the novel. Setting aside the story line, the book can serve as an incentive to prompt more dialogue on this often ostracized subject, which in reality as well, lurks mostly in the shadows.

All in all, Ward by Kyle Waller is certainly a strong start to his The Ward Trinity. This first book is more than simply an introduction to a dystopian universe, it is an immersion. Even if at times, you resurface to reality for some fresh air, something keeps pulling you back to the remaining pages. While, the book is not suitable for certain age groups due to some strong language and images, it stays appealing to a large number of people. There is something reminiscent of such classic stories as Mad Max or Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, but with a strong smell of freshness in the air.