Interesting Book of the Day

Book: Deerskins Into Buckskins: How To Tan With Natural Materials - A Field Guide for Hunters and Gatherers

Description:

Over 165 photos and illustrations bring you step by step from raw skin to velvety soft buckskin and then show you how to create beautiful garments and useful goods. You will also learn how to make rawhide and hide glue, tan in a wilderness setting and the best way to skin. History, humor and science make Deerskins into Buckskins not only practical, but fun!

Designed to be easily understood by the beginner yet rich with details for the experienced, this book teaches tanning as a natural process. No chemicals are needed! All the tools and materials are waiting around your home and land. While the tools are simple, having a great method is the key. This book has that method (see the following reviews).

Buckskin is durable, soft, washable and warm. A hand-made garment for people all over the world for millennia, it breathes and stretches with your body, cuts the wind and won't tear on briars. It is excellent to wear hiking, hunting or around the house. Plus you don't need to hunt. Deerskins that would otherwise go to waste are available every fall from neighbors, locals and butcher shops.

This photo highlights just a taste of what's in store for the novice buckskinner
who cracks open this book:

Buckskinner

Is it just me or does this guy bear a striking resemblance to Chris Pontius of MTV's Jackass fame, as seen below:

Chris Pontius

Funny Book of the Day



Sometimes you *can* judge a book by its cover

Book: Winning Table Tennis: Skills, Drills, and Strategies 

Description:

Five-time U.S. singles and 11-time doubles champion Dan Seemiller, possibly the best American table tennis player ever, shares his secrets for top-level play in Winning Table Tennis: Skills, Drills, and Strategies.

Readers will learn the best table tennis techniques, strategies, and conditioning methods for success. The authors provide beginning through advanced players with practical tips that make a difference.

The book features 29 drills for developing better shot-making skills. Seemiller's creative shot and grip innovations will give players an edge. The 124 photos and illustrations make it easy for players to learn the proper techniques and sharpen skills. Plus, the book offers drill variations designed to hone the skills of advanced players and professionals.

Highlights include - various service techniques:

Underspin hook serve, part 1



Underspin hook serve, part 2


And strength training tips:

Parallel squat, part 1

Parallel squat, part 2

Stiff-legged deadlift

Not now chief, I'm in the zone:



MUSCLE MILK!!!

Funny Book of the Day

Book: The Official Preppy Handbook by Lisa Birnbach

Amazon Review:

This book was a spot-on parody when it came out in 1980, but also a quite accurate and even useful "field guide" to the North American prepster. Almost 25 years later, it still holds up as humor, and also as a great guide to the prep look and lifestyle. And best of all, it may even be timely once again: An article in the New York Times a few days ago suggested that teen fashion trends are turning away from overexposure and punk and back toward plaid, chinos, polo shirts (with turned up collars, natch), even repp ties! Everything comes around a second time, so Lisa Birnbach call your office. It may be time for an updated edition for today's rising BMOCs.

Interesting Book of the Day

Book: Flickan Som Lekte Med Elden - Girl Who Played with Fire - Swedish Language) by Stieg Larsson

Wikipedia background:

The Girl Who Played with Fire (Swedish: Flickan som lekte med elden) is the second novel in the best-selling "Millennium series" by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. It was published posthumously in Swedish in 2006 and in English in January 2009.

The book features many of the characters that appeared in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, among them the title character, Lisbeth Salander, a social misfit, and Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist and publisher of Millennium magazine.

Widely seen as a critical success, The Girl Who Played with Fire was also (according to The Bookseller magazine) the first and only translated novel to be number one in the UK hardback chart.