The Chess Player’s Bible is an illustrated guide to chess concepts and terminology. The book starts with the basics and explains the concepts, rules, techniques and strategies to play and win the game. Even though the book introduces the reader to the chess notation, it relies more on illustrations to explain the concepts and strategies.

The book is divided into 9 sections—Getting Started, Opening Principles, Game Types, Mating Patterns, Center and Wing Configurations, Tactics, Personal Considerations, Pawns, and The End Game. Each section illustrated in details the various topics with the help of excellent illustrations. In addition to these sections, the book also contains an excellent glossary, List of resources on the Internet, Recommended reading list, and index.

The author of the book James Eade has written a number of books on Chess. He is the former president of Chess Journalists of America (CJA) and was the editor of two chess journals. He was awarded the title of Chess Master by USCF (in 1981) and FIDE (in 1993).

This is an excellent book for beginners and chess enthusiasts who would like to learn chess the right way and from a ‘Chess Master.’ This book is an excellent starting point in your chess career and once you have mastered the topics covered in this book, you will be ready to tackle the more advance and highly technical books on chess.

Book Details:

• Author: James Eade
• Publisher: Batsford Ltd
• Year: 2004
• ISBN: 0713489251
• Cover & Page Count: Hardcover, 256 Pages

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This small yet extraordinary book tells the story of Christine Moore. Christine, a 37-year old nurse, is a typical burnout case—a frustrating career, many failed relationships, and very low self-esteem. She has lost faith in God, humanity and even herself. She is worn out, doesn’t have any idea of what she wants on life; just living aimlessly.

One day she meets God, who to her astonishment comes to her on a 1340cc Harley Davidson. He introduces himself as God, but asks her to call him Joe. Joe seems to know all about Christine and can even read her thoughts. Initially skeptical, Christine is drawn to Joe. In his company Christine rediscovers happiness, peace, self-confidence ad lot of positive things he had long forgotten. She learns to enjoy life, to see the goodness in others, enjoy her work, enjoy the simple pleasures of life, forgive and forget, and so on. The rest of the story is how Christine makes the transformation from a burnout case to a wonderful human being full of positive energy and love for life, of course with the help of Joe (God).

This is an excellent book that will touch, move and transform every reader. The advice Joe gives Christine—his commandments—are equally relevant to all of us. A must read, I recommend this book to all and specifically to those who need some motivation to change their lives. I am sure that this book will change your outlook in a positive way.

Book Details:

• Author: Joan Brady
• Publisher: Atria
• Year: 1997
• ISBN: 0671536222
• Cover & Page Count: Paperback, 176 Pages

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An exceptionally moving and touching true story. It will change the way you think, and will completely change your idea of God and your perspective about others and yourself. It is also the story of a beautiful friendship. A must read for all.

Book Details:

• Author: Fynn
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Year and Edition: 1975
• ISBN-10: 0007202024
• ISBN-13: 978-0007202027
• Cover & Page Count: Paperback, 288 Pages

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If you are a student researching for your project, a researcher conducting literature review for your thesis, a teacher preparing notes for your lectures, a speaker noting down a passage or quotation for your speech, or a writer researching for your new book, then this product is ideal for you. I am sure all of you have encountered situations where you have to write down a few passages or sentences from a book, journal, or other print references.

Writing down a few paragraph or a few sentences from large reference books or journals is a time consuming and strenuous task. Now you have an alternative—IRISPen Scanner. IRIS pen scanners are available in different versions. The product reviewed here is IRISPen Executive.

The IRISPen ^TM Executive is the full-featured OCR scanning pen. This scanning pen works just like a highlighter—simply slide it over printed information from newspapers, magazines, faxes, letters, etc. What you get is real and editable text, right at your cursor. The scanner recognizes more than 50 languages.

Figure 2. The Scanning Process

IRISPen Executive connects to your computer via a USB port. It takes a few hours to master the scanning process. But once you get the hang of it, near 100% accurate scanning is possible. I have a reasonable typing speed of 60wpm, but when I tried scanning the text instead of typing it took only about one-third the typing time, which is considerable productivity improvement.

The scanning is faster and most accurate when you are scanning from plain sheets or books that lay flat on the table. Getting perfect results using books that does not fully open or have a curved profile require some practice. The scanner is attached to the computer using a USB cable which restricts the free movement of the scanner. IRIS could have used a more flexible cable to make things easier.

This pen scanner scans text (font sizes from 8–20 points), dot matrix printer outputs, barcodes, small images, and so on. There is also a speech synthesis with which you can make the IRISPen speak out the recognized data for you. The speech synthesis is available in seven languages— Brazilian (Portuguese), British English, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Russian. Speech synthesis is easy; just scan the text and the computer reads it out. But enabling speech synthesis will reduce the scanning speed considerably.

Since the scanner is connected to the USB port using a cable, there is no need for external power supply. This is an ideal tool for anyone who wants to capture text into their computers. The scanner is an ideal companion for your laptop when you go to the library for research as you could scan in the text you want directly into your word processor much faster than typing.

Figure 3. A Stand for the IRISPen Scanner

There are a few things that IRIS could have done to improve the user experience. First as I have mentioned above the USB cord could have been more flexible.

Figure 4. End Cap for Protecting the Scanning Head

Second, a pen stand (see Figure 3) or an end cap (see Figure 4) for keeping the scanner would have been ideal for protecting the scanning head when it is not in use.

Figure 5. Wireless Scanner with Bluetooh Technology

Another option could have been to make the scanner wireless with a USB Bluetooth transceiver (see Figure 5) or store the text in the scanner (like a pen drive), which could be transferred to the computer when the scanning is finished (see Figure 6). One of the reasons IRIS went along with the corded USB option was accuracy, in that case, the only suggestion I have is to make the cord more flexible.

Figure 6. Storing the Scanned Text like a Pen Drive

An excellent product that is very useful for all who deal with information. More information about IRISPen products is available at IRIS Web site.

Copyright © On Writing a Book. Reproduced with permission.

This is a heartwarming story about the ups and downs in the life of Rick Dockery—a third-string quarterback for the Cleveland Browns.

In a deciding game, Rick manages to successfully orchestrate the downfall of his team from a 17-point lead. In that process Browns loses the game, Rick gets mashed up, ends up in the hospital, and becomes a national laughing stock and villain. He is dropped from the team.

Rick’s chances of joining another team in the US become zero as nobody wants him, but his agent finally finds a team that would accept him—Panthers of Parma of Italy. Italians play American football and each team can have one or two American players. Only the Americans are paid; the Italians play because they are passionate about the game. Most players have full-time jobs. The Panthers have a judge, an airline pilot, an engineer, several truck-drivers, two restaurant owners, a dentists, two stonemasons, a couple of auto mechanics, and so on.

Although the pay package offered by the Panthers is nothing compared to his earlier pay, Rick left with no other option decides to give it a try till something better comes along. He leaves for Italy with absolutely no idea about where Parma is. He does not speak or understand a word of Italian. The Panthers’ coach is American and he introduces Rick to Italy and to his team.

Once the cultural shock wears off, Rick starts to like Italy and his team. Italy—the land of opera, fine wines, excellent food, extremely small cars, romance, and more—fascinates and captivates Rick; his love for the country and Panthers become stronger by the day.

The rest of the story is about how Rick finds peace, friendship and love in Italy and how it changes his outlook and life. It is also about how he plays a crucial role in winning the first super bowl trophy for the Panthers of Parma.

An excellent read, but a few words of caution. First, a working knowledge of American football will help you understand the finer points, though it is not a must. Second and more important: do not read this novel when you are hungry, because the very detailed and graphic descriptions of Italian food and wine will surely make you want to go to the nearest pizza joint.

Book Details:

• Author: John Grisham
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Year: 2007
• ISBN (10):0385525001
• ISBN (13): 978-0385525008
• Cover & Page Count: Paperback, 272 pages

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Since its first publication in 1976, On Writing Well by William Zinsser has become a classic guide on writing nonfiction. It has sold millions of copies and still is the number one book on writing nonfiction.

According to New York Times, “On Writing Well is a bible for a generation of writers looking for clues to clean, compelling prose.”

The book has four parts in addition to an introduction, a bibliography and an index. The first part—Principles—contains seven chapters and deals with important aspects of writing like how to write clear, simple, and concise prose, the need and importance of reviewing, editing, and rewriting, how to avoid clutter, the importance of mastering the fundamentals, how to identify your audience and write for them, how to find the right words and where to find them, and so on. This section contains one of the most useful advices of this book:

The point is that you have to strip your writing down before you can build it back up. You must know what the essential tools are and what job they were designed to do. Extending the metaphor of carpentry, it’s first necessary to be able to saw wood neatly and to drive nails. Later you can bevel the edges or add elegant finials, if that’s your taste. But you can never forget that you are practicing a craft that’s based on certain principles. If the nails are weak, your house will collapse. If your verbs are weak and your syntax is rickety, your sentences will fall apart.

I’ll admit that certain nonfiction writers, like Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer, have built some remarkable houses. But these are writers who spent years learning their craft, and when at last they raised their fanciful turrets and hanging gardens, to the surprise of all of us who never dreamed of such ornamentation, they knew what they were doing. Nobody becomes Tom Wolfe overnight, not even Tom Wolfe.

The second part—Methods—deals with threes topics: unity, the lead and the ending, bits & pieces. In this part Zinsser explains one of the most fundamental truths of writing—“You learn to write by writing.” The first chapter in this section deals with the importance of unity—unity of pronoun, unity of tense, unity of mood, etc.—and why it is important to choose one unity and stick to it. The second chapter discusses the importance of leads (beginning) and ending. The author illustrates the various methods for writing captivating and interesting leads. He also tells us when and how to stop for maximum effect. In the chapter titled ‘Bits & Pieces’ the author deals with the correct usage of verbs, adverbs, adjectives, qualifiers, punctuation, and more. This is one of the best chapters of the book.

Part III (Forms), deals with the various forms of writing. The forms covered are nonfiction as literature, writing about people, places, yourself, science and technology, business, sports, arts, humor, etc. Each chapter gives valuable advice on how to make the writing interesting, how to find the right tone and mood and tips and techniques that the author has learned in his long and diverse writing career.

The fourth part—Attitudes—deals with issues like how to sound natural, how to handle fear, how to find confidence, and how to enjoy the writing process. It also discusses why it is important to write (at least during the initial stage of each writing project) without thinking about selling or getting published. According to the author:

Writing is related to character. If your values are sound, your writing will be sound. It all begins with intention. Figure out what you want to do and how you want to do it, and work your way with humanity and integrity to the completed article. Then you’ll have something to sell.

The chapter, A Writer’s Decisions, deals with the different decisions that a writer has to make during the writing process. With clear examples, the author illustrates how to create the leads, how to organize the content, what to include and what to omit, how to end, and so on. This part also has a chapter on how to write family histories and memoirs. The final chapter of the book is about how one becomes a writer, the importance of editors, and how to work with editors to improve the quality of your work.

This is a must read for every person, irrespective of the amount of writing he does. It should be a constant companion of all writers. The amount of wisdom, wisdom gained from years of practicing the craft, is invaluable and will help every reader to become a better writer. I strongly recommend this book to all and I end with another quote from the book:

Living is the trick. Writers who write interestingly tend to be men and women who keep themselves interested. That’s almost the whole point of becoming a writer. I’ve used writing to give myself an interesting life and a continuing education. If you write about subjects you think you would enjoy knowing about, your enjoyment will show in what you write. Learning is a tonic.

Book Details:

• Author: William Zinsser
• Publisher: Collins
• Year and Edition: 2006 (30^th Anniversary Edition)
• ISBN-10: 0060891548
• ISBN-13: 978-0060891541
• Cover & Page Count: Paperback, 336 Pages

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Copyright © On Writing a Book. Reproduced with permission.

The peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are entering the final phases. A series of seemingly random murders escalates the tension between the two sides and threatens to derail the peace process.

Washington recalls the ace negotiator and mediator Maggie Costello to set things right. But Maggie is troubled by her past—her mistake that caused her previous assignment to fall apart. He is also discouraged by her husband. But Maggie decides to return from her exile and becomes a part of the peace talks.

When she starts work, she finds that the solution to the peace process lies in the contents of a 4000 year old clay tablet that is looted from the Bagdad Museum of Antiquities. She also discovers that the killings are not random but related and all are tied to the tablet.

Soon Maggie with the help of Uri Guttuman—son of the murdered archaeologist Shimon Guttman—sets out to find the clay tablet, with their adversaries watching their every move, killing everybody they plan to meet.

The rest of the story is about how the duo searches and finds the tablet and the violence, treachery, and high voltage political drama that ensue.

An excellent story, told in a fast paced and gripping style. Excellent read.

Book Details:

• Author: Sam Bourne
• Publisher: Harper Collins
• Year: 2007
• ISBN-10: 0007203330
• ISBN-13: 978-0007203338
• Cover & Page Count: Paperback, 576 pages

Armed mercenaries disguised as monks butcher hundreds of people during a crowded service in Germany. The killers did not anything valuable, except the bones of one of the three magi who paid homage to infant Jesus. Days later the bones of other magi are also looted with equal bloodshed from Milan.

Vatican asks and gets the help of the SIGMA force—an elite team of scientific and special forces operatives. The Sigma team with the assistance of Monsignor Vigor Verona and his niece Lieutenant Rachel Verona of Rome’s carabinieri sets out to solve the deadly mystery behind the looted bones and the killings. They are against one of most powerful and deadly group of people—The Dragon Court—who will not stop until they get what they want.

Solving the mystery and breaking the cryptic codes and puzzles take the Sigma team to the sites of the Seven Wonders of the World. They are closely followed by the assassins of the Dragon Court, who are prepared do anything to get the secret treasure.

This is a high voltage drama where science, religion, greed, treachery, power, and violence unite to create a captivating story. An exceptional story; told in an exemplary manner.

Book Details:

• Author: James Rollins
• Publisher: Avon
• Year: 2006
• ISBN (10):0060765240
• ISBN (13): 978-0060765248
• Cover & Page Count: Paperback, 560 pages

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Human brain’s thinking pattern can be seen as a gigantic branching association machine (BAM)—a super bio-computer with lines of thought radiating from a virtually infinite number of data nodes. The more you learn/gather new data in an integrated, radiating, organized manner, the easier it is to learn more. From this gigantic information processing ability and learning capacity of human mind derive the concept of radiant thinking of which Mind Map is a manifestation.

Radiant Thinking (from ‘to radiate’ meaning ‘to spread or move in directions from a given center’) refers to associative thought processes that proceed from or connect to a central point. The other meaning of radiant are also relevant—‘shining brightly’ , ‘the look of bright eyes beaming with joy and hope’ and ‘the focal point of a meteoric shower’ (similar to the ‘burst of thought).

How do we gain access to this exciting way of thinking? With the mind map, which is the external expression of radiant thinking, we achieve this feat. A mind map always radiates from a central image or topic. Every word and image becomes in itself a sub-center of association, the whole proceeding in a potentially infinite chain of branching patterns away from or towards the common center. Although mind maps are drawn on two-dimensional pages, it represents a multi-dimensional reality, encompassing space, time and color.

Mind map is a natural function of the human mind. It is a powerful graphic technique that provides a universal key to unlocking the potential of the brain. The mind map can be applied to every aspect of life where improved learning and clearer thinking will enhance human performance.

The Mind Map, which has been called ‘the Swiss army knife for the brain’, is already used by billions of people worldwide. It has taken the educational and business worlds by storm and has allowed hundreds of thousands of students to improve their grades and many blue-chip companies to save or make thousands to millions of dollars.

ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5 is a powerful mind mapping tool that will save you a lot of time and effort by allowing you to create mind maps at warp speed. Since you don’t have to worry about the technical aspects of mind map creation, you can focus on the issue or problem at hand and reap the benefits of mind maps—learning, problem solving, brainstorming, decision making or creative thinking.

You can use ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5 for a variety of tasks including creative thinking, planning, organization, problem solving, presentations, decision making, note taking, team brainstorming and other tasks. ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5 is designed for effective team and personal work in business, marketing, advertising, education, home life.

ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5 is available in Personal and Professional editions. Personal version offers versatile mind mapping and drawing tools. Professional version supports extra file formats, multi-page documents.

With ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5, you can export and import the mind maps to and from a variety of sources. The following mind map illustrates the mind mapping guidelines. It was created using ConceptDraw MINDMAP and was exported to gif format and then resized to fit this page.

You can download the full sized mind map in the following formats: ConceptDraw MINDMAP native format (.cdmm), Portable Document Format (.pdf), and Graphics Interchange Format (.gif).

I have been using mind maps for the past 20 years. In the beginning it was a tedious and tiresome project. Creating a mind map using pencil and paper can be a frustrating experience. Initially the most common tool you will use will be the eraser! But once you learn the ropes and become an expert, then drawing complex mind maps will come naturally. But the pencil-paper mind maps are always difficult as you require color pencils, ability to draw figures and so on. The effectiveness of the mind map improves with the use of color, different line thicknesses, use of different fonts and font sizes, images, etc. Getting this kind of diversity in the paper and pencil environment is nearly impossible.

But these limitations are eliminated when one is using the mind mapping software. For example, I created the mind mapping guidelines map in about 15 minutes; it would have taken me a few hours if I were to do it manually; yet the end result would not have been this pretty and visually appealing. The ConceptDraw MINDMAP eliminates the limitations of the maps drawn on paper—one doesn’t have to worry about the spacing, the neatness, etc. of the map—the software automatically formats the maps so that it looks really professional. With ConceptDraw MINDMAP, one has the choice of hundreds of colors, fonts, font sizes, and so on. Also there is an impressive collection of graphics to choose from; and if you are not satisfied with the graphics that come with the software, you can import pictures that you prefer from other sources.

The following is a mind map on time management. It is a simple mind map and was created while teaching students about time management. By the end of the class, all I need to do was to take a printout of the mind map and give it to them—no note taking, no need for acronyms, or any other memory techniques—just the mind map. While using the mind map, you are using the brain as it is designed to function and hence once you have created the mind map the ideas and concepts will be etched in your memory. That is the power of mind maps and that is where the ConceptDraw MINDMAP helps you in tapping the true potential of your brain.

You can download the full sized mind map in the following formats: ConceptDraw MINDMAP native format (.cdmm), Portable Document Format (.pdf), and Graphics Interchange Format (.gif).

The tasks for which you can use mind maps are infinite—you can use this for learning, exam preparation, help with dyslexia, teaching, brainstorming, project management, decision making, problem solving, event planning, time management, information management, meeting management, daily planning, presentation preparing, SWOT analysis, etc.—the list is endless… The ConceptDraw MINDMAP has a feature that improves its value considerably. It has a very powerful brainstorming wizard. With this wizard, brainstorming is as easy as saying 1, 2, 3—just open the wizard, fill the details and you have a neatly created mind map in your hand. You can edit it, modify it and improve on it.

Another very useful feature of this product is its capability to export the mind map to other programs like MS-Word, text files, etc. in the outline format. This is especially useful when writing article or books. One can generate, organize and structure the ideas using the mind map and then export it to Word outline, text outline, etc. Here the outline or the level headings can be expanded to finish the article or book that you want to write. The organization and structure of the document will be much better as you have done all the conceptualization, organization and structuring to your satisfaction in CD MINDMAP.

For simple tasks ConceptDraw MINDMAP can be used as a tool for planning. But it is the integration of CD MINDMAP with CD Project or MS-Project that really increases its value. This feature enables your to conceptualize and idea, plan the various activities (assign schedules, resources, completion status, etc.) and then export the map to either CD Project or MS-Project and do the project management with those project management tools.

ConceptDraw MINDMAP also provides a variety of templates to help you jump start the mind map creation. You can also use these to learn the art and science of mind mapping, if you are a beginner. Power users will find the Reference Manual quite helpful. The on-line help is quite comprehensive and will get you out of trouble whenever you are stuck.

I recommend this product to all those who have to learn, remember, plan, organize, analyze, brainstorm, and so on. Learning how to tap the true potential using mind maps is one of the best self improvement things one can do and CD MINDMAP will help you doing that easily, quickly and effectively.

You can download a 30-day trial version of ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5 from the ConceptDraw web site. The ConceptDraw MINDMAP Learning Center provides you with tutorials and lessons to help you get started and once you have learned the basics to get the best out of the package. You can see some excellent mind map samples created using CD MINDMAP at the Image Gallery.You can also read what other users’ of this product have to say at Testimonials page.

References:-

1. Buzan, T., and Buzan, B., The Mind Map Book: How to Use Radiant Thinking to Maximize Your Brain’s Untapped Potential, Plume, 1996.
2. Carter, R., Mapping the Mind, University of California Press, 1999.
3. Marqulies, N., and Mall, N., Mapping Inner Space: Learning and Teaching Visual Mapping, Zephyr Press, 2001.
4. Wycoff, J., Mindmapping: Your Personal Guide to Exploring Creativity and Problem-Solving, Berkley Press, 1991.

Take the ultimate mental challenge! This book contains more than 50 different types of puzzles—baffling logic problems and cryptograms, 3D mazes, optical illusions and conundrums, visual and verbal teasers, tantalizing word games, and maths puzzles. The loose left ring-file format of the book with durable acetate wallet and wipe-clean pen increases it ease of use by enabling you to take out and work on a page whenever you want.

This book enables you to think fitter, faster and have fun. Its brilliant collection of mind-bending mental challenges helps in improving your mental agility and improving your brain power. Crammed with more than 1000 specially commissioned puzzles and challenges, you will soon find out what makes your brain tick.

Filled with mini-mysteries, conundrums, word search puzzles, verbal teasers, sudoku puzzles and so much more, you have all you need to fight boredom, improve your concentration and master your memory. You will find cryptic crosswords to develop your brain’s agility, memory puzzles to sharpen your mental recall and logic puzzles to enhance your lateral thinking.

Test your mental skills and find out which puzzles will improve your areas of weakness and which capitalize on your strengths. Every puzzle is color coded and graded for difficulty and each has full solutions and explanations.

This book contains enough puzzles to keep your brain agile for years. There’s no better way to develop your mental agility and sharpen your memory – and have limitless fun at the same time!

Book Details:

• Author: Reader’s Digest
• Publisher: Reader’s Digest
• Year: 2006
• ISBN: 0276441192
• Cover & Page Count: Hardcover, 400 Pages

You can order online at Amazon.