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Friday, December 30, 2011

THE CALL OF THE WILD BY JACK LONDON

 

THE CALL OF THE WILD

 BY

JACK LONDON

The Call of the Wild is a novella by American author Jack London published in 1903. The story takes place in the extreme conditions of the Yukon during the 19th-century Klondike Gold Rush where strong sled dogs were in high demand. After Buck, a domesticated dog, is snatched from a pastoral ranch in California, he is sold into a brutal life as a sled dog. The novella details Buck's struggle to adjust and survive the cruel treatment he receives from humans, other dogs, and nature. He eventually sheds the veneer of civilization altogether and instead relies on primordial instincts and the lessons he has learned to become a respected and feared leader in the wild.

The Call of the Wild is London's most popular work and is considered the masterpiece of his so-called "early period." The novella is often classified as children's literature because of its animal protagonist, but the maturity of its subject matter makes it valuable for older audiences as well. Major themes include survival of the fittest, civilization versus nature, and fate versus free will.
The Yeehat, a group of Alaska Natives portrayed in Call of the Wild, were a figment of London's imagination.
 

Monday, December 26, 2011

THE LOST WORLD BY SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

 

The Lost World is a novel released in 1912 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle concerning an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon basin of South America where prehistoric animals (dinosaurs and other extinct creatures) still survive. It was originally published serially in the popular Strand Magazine during the months of April 1912-November 1912. The character of Professor Challenger was introduced in this book. The novel also describes a war between Native Americans and a vicious tribe of ape-like creatures.

THE FASCINATING BOSTON How to Dance and How to Teach the Popular New Social Favorite


THE FASCINATING
BOSTON
How to Dance and How to Teach the
Popular New Social Favorite
By
ALFONSO JOSEPHS SHEAFE
Master of Dancing


INCE the introduction of the waltz, more than a hundred years ago, it has held the first place in the esteem of dancers throughout the civilized world. There has appeared, however, a new claimant for the place—one that possesses all the qualities that go to make a social favorite, and has the additional advantages of greater ease of execution, and wider possibilities of adaptation.
This is the BOSTON—not, as many persons suppose, a new creation nor indeed is it a novelty even to the American public, for it was introduced here more than a generation ago; but the great popularity of the Two-Step, which had just then come into vogue, and was fast gaining favor under the influence of such brilliant compositions as the quick-step marches by Sousa, operated against its immediate acceptance.
One of the reasons why the Boston should prove today a more attractive dance than any other, is the fact that now there are more captivating airs written for this particular form of dance than for any other, and as the Two-Step, in its time, found its most powerful ally in the music to which it was adapted, the Boston has today the persuasive intercession of such languorous and haunting melodies as "Love's Awakening" and "On the Wings of Dream," by Danglas; Sinibaldi's "Thrill," and others.
General taste has gradually found out the superior charm of the Boston; the pendulum of public favor has again swung in the direction of skilful dancing.
The recent revival of the Waltz in its proper form, has brought with it a larger appreciation of the more worthy and graceful social dances, and the entire world now recognizes the wonderful beauty of the Boston, and has welcomed it as a real competitor.
The Boston is not a Waltz, yet it is the perfection of it. It is one of those paradoxical things which, while it is impossible to be classified, contains all that is to be found in almost any other dance. Even the persons who have so long and so loyally clung to other forms of dancing, and have abated none in their zeal for their favorites, have been unconsciously, and perhaps unwillingly, charmed by the seductiveness of the Boston, until they now freely declare the new dance to be the superior of the Waltz. Therefore it is safe to say that the Boston will, eventually, supersede the Waltz altogether.
We demand a dance which combines ease of execution with attractive movement. That is just what the Boston does, and perhaps more. It is so simple in construction that, when acquired, it becomes natural, and its perfect adaptability assures it lasting popularity.
Owing to the urgent request of many of his pupils and colleagues, the author has undertaken this little book in the hope that it will meet the requirements of both teachers and students, and help to assure the proper appreciation of what is in reality the most delightful and artistic social dance since the Minuet.

INITIATIVE PSYCHIC ENERGY

 

INITIATIVE PSYCHIC ENERGY

Being the Sixth of a Series of Twelve Volumes on the Applications of Psychology to the Problems 

of Personal and Business Efficiency

 BY WARREN HILTON, A.B., L.L.B.

FOUNDER OF THE SOCIETY OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

Initiative Psychic Energy – Being the Sixth of a Series of Twelve Volumes on the – Applications of Psychology to the Problems of Personal and – Business Efficiency is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Warren Hilton is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Warren Hilton then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. Initiative Psychic Energy – Being the Sixth of a Series of Twelve Volumes on the – Applications of Psychology to the Problems of Personal and – Business Efficiency 

 

The Greatest Thing In the World And Other Addresses



The Greatest ThingIn the WorldAnd Other Addresses BY HENRY DRUMMOND

The spiritual classic The Greatest Thing In the World is a trenchant and tender analysis of Christian love as set forth in the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians. The other addresses speak to other aspects of Christian life and thought.

This is an electronic edition of the complete book complemented by author biography. This book features the table of contents linked to every chapter. The book was designed for optimal navigation on the Kindle, PDA, Smartphone, and other electronic readers. It is formatted to display on all electronic devices including the Kindle, Smartphones and other Mobile Devices with a small display.



 

Saturday, December 24, 2011

AS A MAN THINKETH BY JAMES ALLEN

 

AS AMAN THINKETH

 BY

JAMES ALLEN 

Author of "From Passion to Peace" 

Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes,
And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills:—
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
Environment is but his looking-glass.

Allen’s books illustrate the use of the power of thought to increase personal capabilities. Although he never achieved great fame or wealth, his works continue to influence people around the world, including the New Thought movement.
Allen’s most famous book, As a Man Thinketh, was published in 1902. It is now considered a classic self-help book. Its underlying premise is that noble thoughts make a noble person, while lowly thoughts make a miserable person.
 
 
This little volume (the result of meditation and experience) is not intended as an exhaustive treatise on the much-written upon subject of the power of thought. It is suggestive rather than explanatory, its object being to stimulate men and women to the discovery and perception of the truth that -
"They themselves are makers of themselves"

by virtue of the thoughts which they choose and encourage; that mind is the master weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance, and that, as they may have hitherto woven in ignorance and pain they may now weave in enlightenment and happiness.

James Allen




 

 

Friday, December 23, 2011

ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (TOM SAWYER'S COMRADE)

 

ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (TOM SAWYER'S COMRADE)BY MARK TWAIN

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by Mark Twain, first published in England in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885. Commonly named among the Great American Novels, the work is among the first in major American literature to be written in the vernacular, characterized by local color regionalism. It is told in the first person by Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, a friend of Tom Sawyer and narrator of two other Twain novels (Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective). It is a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

The book is noted for its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River. Satirizing a Southern antebellum society that had ceased to exist about twenty years before the work was published, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an often scathing look at entrenched attitudes, particularly racism.

Perennially popular with readers, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has also been the continued object of study by serious literary critics since its publication. It was criticized upon release because of its coarse language and became even more controversial in the 20th century because of its perceived use of racial stereotypes and because of its frequent use of the racial slur "nigger", despite strong arguments that the protagonist, and the tenor of the book, is anti-racist.


THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON


THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON
by
H.G. Wells
The First Men in the Moon is a scientific romance published in 1901 by the English author H. G. Wells, who called it one of his "fantastic stories."The novel tells the story of a journey to the moon undertaken by the two protagonists, a businessman narrator, Mr. Bedford, and an eccentric scientist, Mr. Cavor. Bedford and Cavor discover that the moon is inhabited by a sophisticated extraterrestrial civilization of insect-like creatures they call "Selenites."
The narrator is a London businessman who withdraws to the countryside to write a play, by which he hopes to alleviate his financial problems. Bedford rents a small countryside house in Lympne, in Kent, where he wants to work in peace. He is bothered every afternoon, however, at precisely the same time, by a passer-by making odd noises. After two weeks Bedford accosts the man, who proves to be a reclusive physicist named Mr. Cavor. Bedford befriends Cavor when he learns he is developing a new material, cavorite, that can negate the force of gravity.
When a sheet of cavorite is prematurely produced, it makes the air above it weightless and shoots off into space. Bedford sees in the commercial production of cavorite a possible source of "wealth enough to work any sort of social revolution we fancied; we might own and order the whole world." Cavor hits upon the idea of a spherical spaceship made of "steel, lined with glass," and with sliding "windows or blinds" made of cavorite by which it can be steered, and persuades a reluctant Bedford to undertake a voyage to the moon; Cavor is certain there is no life there.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

THE COMPLETE GOLFER

 THECOMPLETE GOLFER BY HARRY VARDON

OPEN CHAMPION, 1896, 1898, 1899, 1903 AMERICAN CHAMPION, 1900 WITH SIXTY-SIX ILLUSTRATIONS
SECOND EDITION METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON

MANY times I have been strongly advised to write a book on golf, and now I offer a volume to the great and increasing public who are devoted to the game. So far as the instructional part of the book is concerned, I may say that, while I have had the needs of the novice constantly in mind, and have endeavoured to the best of my ability to put him on the right road to success, I have also presented the full fruits of my experience in regard to the fine points of the game, so that what I have written may be of advantage to improving golfers of all degrees of skill. There are some things in golf which cannot be explained in writing, or for the matter of that even by practical demonstration on the links. They come to the golfer only through instinct and experience. But I am far from believing that, as is so often said, a player can learn next to nothing from a book. If he goes about his golf in the proper manner he can learn very much indeed. The services of a competent tutor will be as necessary to him as ever, and I must not be understood to suggest that this work can to any extent take the place of that compulsory and most invaluable tuition. On the other hand, it is next to impossible for a tutor to tell a pupil on the links everything about any particular stroke while he is playing it, and if he could it would not be remembered. Therefore I hope and think that, in conjunction with careful coaching by those who are qualified for the task, and by immediate and constant practice of the methods which I set forth, this book may be of service to all who aspire to play a really good game. If any player of the first degree of skill should take exception to any of these methods, I have only one answer to make, and that is that, just as they are explained in the following pages, they are precisely those which helped me to win my five championships. These and no others I practise every day upon the links. I attach great importance to the photographs and the accompanying diagrams, the objects of which are simplicity and lucidity. When a golfer is in difficulty with any particular stroke—and the best of us are constantly in trouble with some stroke or other—I think that a careful examination of the pictures relating to that stroke will frequently put him right, while a glance at the companion in the "How not to do it" series may reveal to him at once the error into which he has fallen and which has hitherto defied detection. All the illustrations in this volume have been prepared from photographs of myself in the act of playing the different strokes on the Totteridge links last autumn. Each stroke was carefully studied at the time for absolute exactness, and the pictures now reproduced were finally selected by me from about two hundred which were taken. In order to obtain complete satisfaction, I found it necessary to have a few of the negatives repeated after the winter had set in, and there was a slight fall of snow the night before the morning appointed for the purpose. I owe so much— everything—to the great game of golf, which I love very dearly, and which I believe is without a superior for deep human and sporting interest, that I shall feel very delighted if my "Complete Golfer" is found of any benefit to others who play or are about to play. I give my good wishes to every golfer, and express the hope to each that he may one day regard himself as complete. I fear that, in the playing sense, this is an impossible ideal. However, he may in time be nearly "dead" in his "approach" to it.
I have specially to thank Mr. Henry Leach for the invaluable services he has rendered to me in the preparation of the work
H.V. TOTTERIDGE, May 1905.



THE MAJESTY OF CALMNESS INDIVIDUAL PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES by WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN [

 

THE MAJESTY OF CALMNESS INDIVIDUAL PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES 

by 

WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN

Calmness is the rarest quality in human life. It is the poise of a great nature, in harmony with itself and its ideals. It is the moral atmosphere of a life self-centred, self-reliant, and self-controlled. Calmness is singleness of purpose, absolute confidence, and conscious power, ready to be focused in an instant to meet any crisis. The Majesty of Calmness by William George Jordan will teach you and guide you to obtaining calmness through this timeless motivational work in a paperback book edition.

WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN


Jordan was born in New York City on March 6, 1864. He graduated from the City College of New York and began his literary career as editor of Book Chat in 1884. He joined Current Literature in 1888 and became its managing editor. In 1891 he left Current Literature and moved to Chicago where he started a lecture program on his system of Mental Training. He returned to Current Literature in January 1894 as its managing editor and then resigned again in August 1886. In 1897 he was hired as the managing editor for The Ladies Home Journal, after which he edited The Saturday Evening Post (1888–89). From 1899 to 1905 he was the editor and vice-president of Continental Publishing Company. He was the editor of the publication Search-Light between 1905 and 1906.

On July 26th of 1891 The Chicago Inter-Ocean published an interview with Mr. Jordan where he discussed his thoughts about education and “Mental Training”. After the article was published he received so many requests for information that he scheduled a trip back in October to lecture on the subject. The Inter-Ocean in a September 24th article reported that:

    During the past few weeks the calls from Chicago have been so numerous, enthusiastic and positive for lecture courses and private society classes that he has concluded to resign his position in New York and come to Chicago.

He remained in Chicago for two years and then returned to Current Literature in 1894. In 1894 he published a short 20 page pamphlet entitled Mental Training, a Remedy for Education (this was republished again in 1907), that summarized his lectures. The opening paragraph starts as follows:

    There are two great things that education should do for the individual—It should train his senses, and teach him to think. Education, as we know it to-day, does not truly do either; it gives the individual only a vast accumulation of facts, unclassified, undigested, and seen in no true relations. Like seeds kept in a box, they may be retained, but they do not grow.

This style of speaking plainly about a principle and then drawing mind-pictures using analogies is a style that he utilized broadly in all his writings. It is style well suited to the general subject of self-improvement that was the focus of most of his publications.

After returning to New York the “The Literary Review”, said the following:

    Though Mr. Jordan has won a fine reputation as an editor he is one of the youngest of the magazine editors in this city. He has delivered many lectures on mental training in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, and other cities, and his system has been received with great favor in all of these. During the last year he has brought Current Literature to a place of really notable excellence by the keen watchfulness which he keeps over the literary work that is being done both in this country and in England, by his catholic taste, and by his swift judgment. Besides being a first-rate editor and lecturer he is an admirable writer, as his vigorous editorials prove. Thus far nearly all of his contributions to the magazine have been unsigned, and his forthcoming book, it is thought, will establish his reputation as an author with a distinct and forcible style as well as of strong and original thought.

He published his first book, The Kingship of Self-Control, in 1898 and his last in 1926, two years before his death.

In 1907 he published a pamphlet entitled The House of Governors; A New Idea in American Politics Aiming to Promote Uniform Legislation on Vital Questions, to Conserve States Rights, to Lessen Centralization, to Secure a Fuller, Freer Voice of the People, and to Make a Stronger Nation. This work was circulated to each state governor and to President Theodore Roosevelt. The concept was well received, and the first meeting of the governors was held in Washington January 18 through 20, 1910. Jordan was elected secretary of this body at the first meeting and then dropped  as secretary in September 1911. Nevertheless, the group became part of his legacy, and his part in its formation was often cited in later references to him by the press.

Jordan was married to Nellie Blanche Mitchell on May 6, 1922, in New York City at the Grace Episcopal Church.

He died of pneumonia in New York City on 20 April 1928 at his home.

UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE or THE MELLSTOCK QUIRE A RURAL PAINTING OF THE DUTCH SCHOOL


UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREEorTHE MELLSTOCK QUIREA RURAL PAINTING OF THE DUTCH SCHOOLby Thomas Hardy

Under the Greenwood Tree or The Mellstock Quire: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School is a novel by Thomas Hardy, published anonymously in 1872. It was Hardy's second published novel, the last to be printed without his name, and the first of his great series of Wessex novels. Whilst Hardy originally thought of simply calling it The Mellstock Quire, he settled on a title taken from a song in Shakespeare's As You Like It (Act II, Scene V).

The plot concerns the activities of a group of church musicians, the Mellstock parish choir, one of whom, Dick Dewy, becomes romantically entangled with a comely new school mistress, Fancy Day. The novel opens with the fiddlers and singers of the choir—including Dick, his father Reuben Dewy, and grandfather William Dewy—making the rounds in Mellstock village on Christmas Eve. When the little band plays at the schoolhouse, young Dick falls for Fancy at first sight. Dick, smitten, seeks to insinuate himself into her life and affections, but Fancy's beauty has gained her other suitors, including a rich farmer and the new vicar at the parish church.

20,000 Leagues Under the Seas


 

20,000 Leagues Under the Seas

An Underwater Tour of the World

JULES VERNE
Translated from the Original French by F. P. Walter

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (French: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1870. It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax. The original edition had no illustrations; the first illustrated edition was published by Hetzel with illustrations by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou.
The title refers to the distance traveled while under the sea and not to a depth, as 20,000 leagues is over six times the diameter of Earth. The greatest depth mentioned in the book is four leagues. A literal translation of the French title would end in the plural "seas", thus implying the "seven seas" through which the characters of the novel travel; however, the early English translations of the title used "sea", meaning the ocean in general.

Jules Verne

Jules Gabriel Verne (French pronunciation: ; February 8, 1828 – March 24, 1905) was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before air travel and practical submarines were invented, and before practical means of space travel had been devised. He is the second most translated author in the world (after Agatha Christie). Some of his books have also been made into liveaction and animated films and television shows. Verne is often referred to as the "Father of Science Fiction", a title sometimes shared with Hugo Gernsback and H. G. Wells.




LILL’S TRAVELS IN SANTA CLAUS LAND.


LILL’S TRAVELS IN SANTA CLAUS LAND.

EFFIE had been playing with her dolls one cold December morning, and Lill had been reading, until both were tired. But it stormed too hard to go out, and, as Mrs. Pelerine had said they need not do anything for two hours, their little jaws might have been dislocated by yawning before they would as much as pick up a pin. Presently Lill said, “Effie, shall I tell you a story.”
“O yes! do!” said Effie, and she climbed up by Lill in the large rocking-chair in front of the grate. She kept very still, for she knew Lill’s stories were not to be interrupted by a sound, or even a motion. The first thing Lill did was to fix her eyes on the fire, and rock backward and forward quite hard for a little while, and then she said, “Now I am going to tell you about my thought travels, and they are apt to be a little queerer, but O! ever so much nicer, than the other kind!”
WHAT HAPPENED TO KATHIE AND LU.
IT was a very great misfortune, and it must have been a sad affliction to the friends of the two children, for both were once pretty and charming.
It came about in this way.
Little Winnie Tennyson—she wasn’t the daughter of Mr. Alfred Tennyson, the poet-laureate of England, but was as sweet as any one of that gentleman’s poems—had been to the city; and she had brought home so many wondrous improvements that her two little bosom friends, Lu Medway and Kathie Dysart, were almost struck dumb to behold and to hear what Winnie said and what Winnie had.