David Plowden: The American Barn

Book Description

A tribute to the barn by the master documentarian of our time.

As an elemental part of our landscape and our history, barns evoke childhood memories for many of us, recollections of a simpler way of life. Regardless of their size or shape, their forms follow their functions. They are honest. They are beautiful. And they are rapidly vanishing. Across the land we see abandoned farms with barns falling down, being torn down, and only occasionally being converted to other uses. As urban sprawl eats up the countryside and food-producing Goliaths put small farmers out of business, the need for old barns has diminished. For most of his life as a photographer, David Plowden has admired and photographed barns. In recent years, as their disappearance accelerated, he made it his mission to document these beautiful structures, before they too are lost. The result is this beautiful book, his hymn to the American barn. 130 duotone photographs.

Customer Reviews:

Just Barns.......2005-04-15

When I was a child in the city, we always were told that barns are red. I can't remember how many I drew in kindergarten. In later years when I was an aspiring artist, I loved to do pastels of unpainted barns because of the wide range of colors in individual boards. So it has come as a surprise to me that some photographers have decided that their artistic record of the vanishing American barn should be preserved in monochromatic tones. Perhaps the photographers think that black and white is more artistic than color and that these barns deserve artistry. (Most people familiar with the works of today's color photographers would feel that color can be just as artistic.)

David Plowden's book is a collection of such black and white pictures taken of barns across the Northern United States from New Hampshire to Montana, with a few stops in Canada. The pictures are simple shots of barns, both inside and outside. Neither human nor animal appears in any of them. The photographer states that his purpose is to capture these structures before they vanish from the American scene. The pictures are direct and almost confrontational.

Given Americans' long-standing belief that we are an agrarian society, these pictures should appeal to some ineffable feeling in our souls. Clearly this book tells us that it is meant to be art. It's sized for the coffee table, has plenty of white space in the text and often has a blank page opposite a photograph. And yet this book seems curiously lacking in soul, and static. It seems merely a record.

The reason why is quite simple. The range of light in almost every one of the pictures is strangely constricted, as if the pictures were always taken on a cloudy day. Perhaps we've just been taught that black and white photography should cover the full range of light from the deepest blacks to the clearest whites. This is the tradition of fine arts photography passed down to us from the likes of Ansel Adams. Plowden seems to have taken a different path, and it doesn't contribute to his stated goal.

For someone interested in artistic pictures of America's barns that elicit a feeling of loss for the past, I would instead recommend "Harker's Barns", an unassuming soft cover book by Michael Harker, published by the University of Iowa Press. Unlike Plowden's book, this is an undiscovered treasure. And unlike Plowden's work, the pictures have a strong subtext of love for the subject.

A gorgeous coffee table book.......2003-12-08

Photographed, compiled, and presented by David Plowden, The American Barn is a grand, black-and-white photographic survey and showcasing of classic barns across America -- many of which are disappearing in an increasingly urbanized world of agribusiness and suburban sprawl. A brief introduction complements a majority of the photos comprising this visually impressive tribute, which is devoted to nothing but full-page photographic images. A gorgeous coffee table book The American Barn is recommended academic and community library photography collections as well as to rural architecture buffs with a special interest in barns.

Average customer rating:

Great Photos!
Outstanding photographic history/survey of Michigan's barns.

Michigan's Heritage Barns

Manufacturer: Michigan State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

During her time as an art student in New York City, Mary Keithan never imagined that one day she would drive the state of Michigan's labyrinthine back roads in search of architectural subjects for her photographs. But, in 1990, shortly after acquiring an 8" x 10" view camera, she began just such an odyssey. In the process she captured on film and preserved images of the rural landscape's most endangered visual treasures, its aging, historic barns.

Many of her "subjects" are in poor condition; many no longer stand. And while we might expect a photographic series on aging barns to be a sad chronicle of America's rural decline, instead Keithan gives us a visual story of endurance and perseverance, of a way of life that in our modern times continues to thrive.

What Keithan has captured with her camera and presented in Michigan's Heritage Barns is enriched with her own narrative, often including interesting histories from the barn owners themselves. Photographs from most of Michigan's eighty counties are included to create a collection that celebrates Michigan's rural heritage as no other does."

Customer Reviews:

Great Photos!.......2000-09-28

This book has great photos but I was expecting more information about the people who built the different styles of barns. The background information is really missing in this book.

Outstanding photographic history/survey of Michigan's barns........2000-04-04

In 1990 the author purchased a camera and began a trip across Michigan's back roads in search of old barns to photography: this is the culmination of her journey, adding historic notes which will prove particularly interesting to residents of Michigan as well as those studying old structures. The black and white images have themselves become history: many of these old barns no longer stand.

Average customer rating:

A wonderful book the whole family will enjoy!

American Barns: A Pictorial History
Jill Caravan
Manufacturer: Courage Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1561384712

Amazon.com

If you're tired of the suburban sameness that characterizes so much of the American landscape today, you'll find a walk through American Barns: A Pictorial History well worth the trip. This handsome coffee-table book not only presents barns as the ideal meeting of form and function, but also explores their distinct regional styles--from corncribs to hay barns to dairy barns to horse barns. Ninety-three color photographs accompanied by straightforward but informative text present a vision of rural America that can be, well, frustratingly hard to find--especially for those of us used to traveling by interstate, shopping at the mall, or living in cities or developments far removed from rural America. Here are the New England connecting barns, the Connecticut fieldstone barns, the round Shaker barns, the classic Vermont-red barns, the Southern tobacco barns, the Appalachian log barns, and the slope-roofed prairie barns. Seeing them all in one volume is enough to make you crave a slice of apple pie. --Kimberly Brown

Customer Reviews:

A wonderful book the whole family will enjoy!.......1999-02-09

I loved this book. My husband has a huge fasination with barns and he got my two little 5 and 6 year old boys into them too. For his birthday last month i got him this book. He was wild for it. When ever he is not looking at it (almost never) the boys stare at it for hours. It is never just sitting on a shelf at our house. They even have me into barns now!

Book Description

Michael Harker drove past old barns on gravel roads and blacktop highways for years. He generally dismissed them as obsolete outbuildings until November 1993, when he felt compelled to photograph a windmill in Clutier, Iowa. This single photograph launched him on a seven-and-a-half-year mission to document Iowa's barns and all they represent. The result is Harker's Barns: Visions of an American Icon.

Each of the seventy-five black-and-white images featured in Harker's Barns beautifully and heartbreakingly captures the glory and ultimate demise of one of rural America's most enduring icons. From square to round, wood to brick, Dutch to Swedish, occupied or abandoned, the barns documented in this stunning collection are a testament to a passing way of life that was once the lifeblood of Iowa and the Midwest.

Complementing Harker's photographs are vignettes by poet and writer Jim Heynen. Both whimsical and endearing, each vignette treats barns as organic and intelligent entities, reflecting the living history that can be found inside each rural structure.

Iowa's barns are disappearing and with them a way of life; Harker's Barns brilliantly documents their heritage for future generations. As Jim Heynen says, “A good photograph can maintain an old barn through blizzards and hail storms and tornadoes. It is the best support beam and wood preservative an old barn can have.”

Customer Reviews:

www.harkerphotography.com.......2005-04-05

The ophthalmology department at the University of Iowa is full of talented individuals. One of the ophthalmic photographers in our department is a historical photographer. Visit his website at http://www.harkerphotography.com to learn more about this outstanding artist who is preserving Iowa's history on film.

Harker states:

The images showcased here represent my philosophy as a citizen of Iowa and as a photographer. I am a documentary photographer whose main goal is to record Iowa's historically significant architecture from the 1800's before it disappears forever. My subjects are barns, one-room schools, courthouses, rural churches, banks, and houses from rural areas and small towns.

I work in large format black and white utilizing the scientific technique of Ansel Adams' Zone System to create images of outstanding technical quality. I draw my artistic abilities from my more than thirty year career as a professional photographer.

I intend to leave a lasting legacy in the annals of American Photography through my dedication to the people of Iowa - to visually preserve the early citizens' quality craftsmanship when they built these "cathedrals" of wood and stone.

My images are little time machines carrying forward to future generations of Iowans the dedication of their forbearers. People born a century from now will be able to look back in time to what was once glorious and real.

About Love.......2005-01-14

Thank whatever gods you worship for university presses. They undertake the publication of books, not because they expect them to be profitable, but because the books need to be published. "Harker's Barns" is such a book. It will never make a profit. It would probably have been too expensive for its creators to have self-published. And yet it deserves to be published, not just for what it tells us about barns or a vanishing agrarian society or even about the ways of photography, but for what it tells us about love.

The book consists of seventy-five black and white pictures of barns and other farm buildings. Those who care about black and white photography will admire the edge between peeling paint and dry wood and the texture of sun and wind bleached wood. They will also admire the sense of time hidden in some of the pictures. I am thinking of a photograph of a barn, obviously taken at the smallest possible f/stop, to get the depth of field needed to have the barn etched sharply from front to rear. And yet as a result of the long exposure necessary with this small opening, the weeds in front of the barn, blown about by a passing wind, are ablur.

This is a book about love, make no mistake. It is about the love of the photographer for his subject and what it represents in his mind, and it is about the death of a loved one. And it's about the love that many of the people who helped in the project must have felt for the subject, and perhaps for the vision of the photographer. And of course, it is about the love, perhaps unspoken and unacknowledged, of the farmer for his farm.

The photographer laments the gradual loss of the small family farm and expresses his hope that this book can somehow preserve it. And yet the photographer must know that this is a fatal economic disease from which there is no hope of recovery. The small Iowa farm that the author loves makes little economic sense in a modern society that requires efficiency in everything it consumes. Who of us will pay twice as much for a tomato from a merchant who tells us that such a price will support the farmer who continues to till the land in a way that makes no sense in an industrial society, but does so because that farmer wants to follow his heart rather than his reason?

Normally the text that accompanies a book of photographs is an unnecessary garnish, designed to fill space. But Jim Heynen is a poet, and his words are short and pithy and help us to look at the subject from a slightly different viewpoint. For example, he says "Windows in a round barn follow the light of the seasons, thus giving a sense of agreement with nature."

Even if you don't like black and white photography, even if you don't like farms, the very idea of this book may appeal to you. For it is clearly a work of love, and perhaps the reader can learn to love like the photographer.

Average customer rating:

Not great, but good
Worst Picture Book Ever

Barns of Arkansas
Naran Patel
Manufacturer: Naran B. Patel
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

BARNS OF ARKANSAS

Naran Patel has published his book about the " BARNS OF ARKANSAS" A PHOTO JOURNAL.

The barn pictures( with some explanation) shown in this book are but a small part of thousands of photographs Patel took over the last four years while traveling over the back roads and byways of rural Arkansas. Book has filled 176 pages with samples of rural life in the state.

Looking at his book's pictures you can almost smell the odor of fresh mown hay in the loft. If you listen carefully, you may hear the music and foot stomping of a BARN dance where everyone gathered to socialize and forget if just for a moment, the hard work that kept a small farm going. Or, you just might hear the clanking of the milk pails on a frosty winter morning as cows were herded into their milking stalls. The farm family's very survival depended on the contents of these old BARNS.

Patel's passion for these PHOTOGRAPHERS began when he was born and raised in an agricultural community in INDIA where he grew up working in his father's fields of cotton,rice,wheat and other crops. At early age, he moved to America to study in US universities, growing up in Los Angeles, California.

After locating to Arkansas in 2000, on Design/build/start-up project in Pine Bluff Arsenal, Naran's thrust for the outdoors emerged with more enthusiasm because so many interesting subjects in Our Natural State to capture in pictures. The strong roots and memories of the rural culture that he so loved was nurtured once more and it shows up in the pictures in this book.

Patel's beautiful photography takes you through the back roads and out of the way places to show you a cross sections of BARNS from modern to Pre-statehood.

Customer Reviews:

Not great, but good.......2005-07-21

As other reviewers have noted, the photographer was obviously not a professional, but in this case, that's ok. In my opinion, it is better to have scores of imperfect pictures of many barns than to have scores of perfect pictures of just a few. Barns represent an architectural history of regions and ways of life that are rapidly changing. Few farmers today will choose to build beautiful, gigantic wooden barns when prefab steel buildings are cheaper, faster, and easier to maintain.

It does appear that many of the photos were not originally taken with the intention of featuring the barns, but they nevertheless warranted inclusion in the book simply because of the presence of the barns in the frame. And while it is true that powerlines could have been removed to improve the quality of the image, to me they serve as a reminder of the encroachment of modernity into the simpler ways of life that barns represent.

My only serious complaint about the content in general is that there is no record provided of where the barns are located. Some I recognized, and could therefore place, but others were unknown and offered no clues.

More experienced photographers could certainly produce better work, and if they are interested in documenting barns and other interesting structures before they vanish, then by all means I encourage them to do so. In the meantime, though, we should all appreciate and praise the efforts of amateurs.

Worst Picture Book Ever.......2005-05-06

I don't enjoy doing bad reviews, really, but this is the WORST picture book I have ever seen!

Many of the pictures are blurred, some HORRIBLY so! I would list page numbers but there are none. Mr. Patel has no understanding of depth-of-field. In one shot the foreground grass is in focus but the barn, i.e. SUBJECT of the picture, is completely out of focus! Quite a few barn pictures have power lines running through the image that could have been composed out of the frame by an observant photographer or, at the very least, edited out in post. The vast majority of images are set against the ugliest white skies I've ever seen published in such a book. I won't even mention the typography!

It is the perfect example of how bad an ego trip can get. This is a self-published book. The author is an engineer who photographed barns during weekends of his three-year stay in Arkansas while working on a chemical weapons arsenal that is being destroyed. I'm glad he got around and saw more of the state than our chemical weapons stockpile, but as a life-long resident of the state, I find this book insulting. The only positive thing I can mention is that I'm glad I only borrowed the book from the library and didn't pay money for it.

Average customer rating:

California Plain: Remembering Barns
Morley Baer
Manufacturer: Stanford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Architectural | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0804742707
Release Date: 2002-06-12

Book Description

Widely acknowledged as the leading architectural photographer of Northern California, the late Morley Baer had an enduring passion for photographing barns, which he began doing in the 1950s. This book makes available fine-arts quality prints of sixty-eight extraordinary black-and-white photographs of California barns, those often ghostly but comforting shapes in a grassy pasture we glimpse as we fly down the freeway at seventy miles an hour.

The photographs also serve as a documentary record of a once common and now vanishing element of the landscape of California and the West. What is it about an old barn that wrenches a heartfelt pang from us today? Why do we photograph them, visualize them in their prime, and voice strenuous objections when new developments threaten to wipe them away? For many of us, abandoned farm structures are the focus of romantic reverie, an evocation of our agrarian roots, inviting us back to what we imagine must have been simpler, less complicated lives. A vision of life on the farm conjures a sense of wholesomeness and hard work, tillers of the soil taming the wild land as the American way of life moved West.

Enjoyment of the superb photographs will be deepened by Bright Eastman’s colorful discussion of the history and various roles and styles of barns, as well as by the description by Patrick Jablonski—Morley Baer’s last assistant—of how Baer took pictures, developed his negatives, and printed them.

Mr. Bristol's Barn: With Excerpts from Mr. Blinn's Diary

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19th century farmer's diary with 20th century photos

Mr. Bristol's Barn: With Excerpts from Mr. Blinn's Diary
John Szarkowski , John Bigelow Taylor , Gilbert T. Vincent , and Philo Blinn
Manufacturer: Harry N Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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John Szarkowski: Photographs

ASIN: 0810942860

Customer Reviews:

19th century farmer's diary with 20th century photos.......2003-03-30

This little book is beautifully produced with exquisite photos of an old barn taken by master photographer Szarkowski. The accompanying excerpts from Philo Blinn's 19th century are both poignant and evocative of life in Columbia County New York. Philo Blinn was just an ordinary farmer, but he had a way with words that make his life and that of his neighbors come to life.

Amazon.com

Secondary infertility is often a "hidden" issue, and couples suffering from the inability to have another wanted child often feel caught in the netherworld between the childless infertile and parents of larger families. Harriet Fishman Simons, a clinician specializing in fertility issues and a support group leader for RESOLVE, an advocacy group for infertile individuals, has been involved in infertility issues for over 20 years. In her book Wanting Another Child: Coping with Secondary Infertility, Simons discusses the plight of the secondarily infertile--the awkwardness of being among infertile couples without children, the pain of watching other families conceive again. The book takes a broad-based look at an issue that is becoming more common as more couples rely on fertility treatments to form their families. Simons weaves personal stories with theory and sociological data. She includes chapters on social and emotional issues (the effects of secondary infertility on the couple as well as friends, family, and coworkers), parenting during secondary infertility issues (helping children cope with their parent's secondary infertility), and possible resolutions to and strategies for coping with secondary infertility. Simons's style may be academic, but the information and message is not, and this book is a welcome addition to a new subfield of study. --Ericka Lutz

Customer Reviews:

shared emotions, but no solutions...........2007-10-05

I checked out this book from the library with high hopes of finding answers to my various questions about secondary infertility, but was v. disappointed that it was no more than a collection of experiences sent to the author by a wide variety of people who are living with this infertility. OK so there's a whole community out there who are experiencing similar emotions and questions; what I am looking for are some guidelines and helpful suggestions. The author fails to provide good advice or useful decision-making tools to those dealing with this issue. Although a subject such as secondary infertility has a very large audience, perusing this book made me no wiser in answering questions I have about the situation. 2 pts. for dealing with a topic important to many of us, -3 for not shedding light on my questtions. I failed to see the value-add from the author other than making the reader aware that there are many other people out there grappling with the same issues and emotions. Don't waste your time with this book.

Why is this out of print?.......2005-04-28

I found this book so helpful in making me realize I wasn't alone in this strange mixture of feelings. While I found it helpful to be part of a support group for others suffering from infertility, I also found it difficult at times to relate to those suffering from primary infertility, and I did not want to seem ungrateful for the wonderful child I had when so many people had no child at all. I have passed this book along to several other people and have suggested it to others online -- I only wish it were still in print!

Highly Recommend - it REALLY helped me!!!.......2003-07-03

Where was this book when I REALLY needed it!!! They need to reprint this because there are so many people who could benifit from this book. I have dealt with my secondary infertility for 8 years from childbirth complications. I have never really felt like I "fit in" with the infertile childless and the people who could have more kids. I recommend this book with 5 stars+++. It may bring on some tears but that is part of the process of coming to terms and the grieving process. You will read about how other ladies have dealt with other peoples pregancies, caught between two worlds of the fertile and infertile, how families do not really give the support you hoped for and knowing they still love you, the second child you had in your mind and heart will never be and you have to mourn for that child, validating your idea of what is a family, adoption as an option, and accepting an only child family. It really helped me out a lot to realise I am not alone and validate my feelings that I have had the past 8 years. If you are a good friend or family member dealing with secondary infertility get this and read it then pass it on to your friend. She/he will feel so good that you cared enough to give it.It was written by a RESOLVE counselor. It is an EXCELLENT book for husbands to read because they see this differently in a lot of ways and this book will help them see the wives point of view. I highly recommend it. Please reprint it!!

An Excellent Read for Those Coping, or if You Know Someone.......2001-08-06

I had no expectations when I opened this book, having read a number of books on infertility. What a pleasant surprise to discover that Ms. Fishman Simons knows the subject of secondary infertility so well and provides in her book just what couples experiencing this very much ignored problem need for guidance. While reading it was emotionally difficult at times, I found many perspectives that matched what I had felt and some insightful comments on how to get past secondary infertility. I highly recommend this book to anyone coping with secondary infertility, certainly as a beginning to "recovery," and to family and friends of the secondary infertile couple.

An Excellent Read for Those Coping, or if You Know Someone.......2001-08-06

Average customer rating:

We're not alone!
Don't read this if you're pregnant!!
Beautiful, complex writing about wanting children
Inspirational.

Wanting a Child

Manufacturer: Farrar Straus & Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Adoption | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books

General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0374525943

Amazon.com

This unique anthology features stories about an appetite as raw as any for sex or chocolate. It's about the sharp biological and emotional hunger for children: "A craving," writes contributor Rita Gabis, "hammered out of the bones of things, of winter, frozen groundwater, the sudden naked appearance of spring." In essays and short stories commissioned and republished from magazines such as Harper's and The New Yorker, authors including Kevin Canty and Lisa Shea write eloquently of the quest for children, of its derailments and its delights. Surprisingly often they tell of the pain endured in the search for a child of one's own. Lynn Lauber offers a heartbreaking piece on giving a daughter up for adoption at age 16, and finding her again as an adult. Bob Shacochis describes a grueling trip through the world of fertility treatments. "Between I'm not dead and I'm alive, the lesson to learn is fearless love," writes Jenifer Levin. "It isn't easy."

If there is one weakness in this collection, it is that it tells almost exclusively the stories of middle-class, middle-aged America--stories of remarkable privilege in which getting a child can involve months away from work, international travel, and expensive medical consultation. Nevertheless, Wanting a Child offers some dazzling writing and an often remarkable, openhearted honesty about parenthood that make it well worth reading. "Never have I felt such triumphs and inadequacies, such pleasure or such sorrow," writes Shea of her leap into single motherhood. "...And never have I relished so thoroughly the existence of another person in my life." --Maria Dolan

Book Description

Twenty-two writers-from Tama Janowitz and Peter Carey to Amy Hempel and Bob Shacochis-share their complicated journeys to parenthood, whether they involve surrogacy, in vitro fertilization, or adoption. Included are inspiring accounts of families that defy the traditional definition, from homes with same-sex partners to those with single parents or stepparents. The first book of its kind, Wanting a Child finally gives voice to the heartbreak, hope, and elation experienced by the many who discover that parenthood cannot be taken for granted.

Customer Reviews:

We're not alone!.......2003-01-28

So often during the seven+ months that my husband and I have been actively trying to have a baby, we have felt very alone. Like the rest of the world has not a trouble in the world getting pregnant, and we're the oddballs who can't manage it with him looking at me cross-eyed.

But this book was so wonderful, if only because it reminded us that we are NOT alone. There are MANY people in the world who are in our situation, or in more dire situations than ours. Sometimes it helps just knowing that we're not the only ones.

Don't read this if you're pregnant!!.......2002-07-15

I am 4 months pregnant and got this book as a gift. I'm not sure if the person who bought it for me realized what it was about. As an expectant mom reading stories of the troubles people had conceiving and carrying children, it made me depressed and anxious - what if my child has Down's syndrome, what if it's stillborn, etc. So, if you have had trouble conceiving, by all means, this book is great support. I believe people need to "bond" with others who share similar trials and tribulations. But if you are not, and are easily spooked, I'd suggest picking up something more light-hearted and happy.

Beautiful, complex writing about wanting children.......1999-02-12

I always find people's stories about their infertility and fertility to be very moving. Stories about children and parents are always the most heartbreaking. But in the hands accomplished writers like the 22 in this 90%-nonfiction anthology, the subject is very nearly devastating in its sadness, joy, and beauty.

I traded most of my own writing time for time with my own long-sought-after children, and reading these writers made me feel, really for the first time, the pain of what I gave up to be a father! Writing, too, can be so wonderful!

WANTING A CHILD is not a breezy read because the writing generally is complex, though always quite clear. And there are maybe two duds. But overall, it is just magnificent.

Inspirational........1999-01-14

I found this to be an excellent book. My husband and I are coping with secondary infertility. The real-life trials and tribulations of the people in this book gave me some new found hope to continue my journey. The writers of each of the individual cases did an excellent job of depicting their quest for parenthood.

Wanting More: Challenge of Enjoyment in the Age of Addiction

Average customer rating:

A much needed voice of warning and hope
Highly Recommended
Highly Recommended
You'll never look at going to the bathroom in the same way
addiction weight loss

Wanting More: Challenge of Enjoyment in the Age of Addiction
Mark, Ph.D. Chamberlain
Manufacturer: Deseret Book Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Substance Abuse | Recovery | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Adolescent Psychology | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1573458171

Customer Reviews:

A much needed voice of warning and hope.......2007-08-08

Dr. Chamberlain combines resources of academic research, well established inspirational writers and anecdotes of his own life and the life of his patients to create a simple, logical and convincing view of the dangers of our self-indulgent culture. His work shows how addictions affect all of us. He then shows how simple it is to reverse the trends of "more" in our lives.

If you think you are not part of the addicted society, this book will make you rethink your views. Then you can get on being part of the solution.

Highly Recommended.......2007-05-07

In his book, Wanting More, author and psychologist Mark Chamberlain explores two interesting paradoxes. The first paradox described by Chamberlain asserts, "Increasing the intensity of stimulation in our lives can actually spoil our capacity for enjoyment." The second paradox is intrinsically tied to the first, and states, "Tolerating less stimulation in our lives can actually increase our pleasure." In addition, Chamberlain explains how immediate gratification and excessive indulgence quickly damage and overload the human psyche, numbing the ability to experience pleasure and joy. He then fills his book with wise and hopeful suggestions designed to help the reader end their quest in search of ever increasing intensity and instead, learn to more fully appreciate and therefore truly enjoy life.

I highly recommend this book to others and bought several additional copies to give as gifts to my friends. Chamberlain offers practical solutions and sound advice on how to truly experience a fulfilling and joyful life.

Highly Recommended.......2006-04-01

I'm a college student. I'll say that I'm highly satisfied with life, but am always looking for more enjoyment (note: not stimulation :-)). I find that I have my little additctions / over stimulations that really do rob me from enjoying life fully. This book is awesome. Generally speaking it's concise, illustritive (sp), and enjoyable to read. Buy it now.

You'll never look at going to the bathroom in the same way.......2004-11-18

My wife, my 12 year old son and myself all read this book. I don't read many self-help books, but this one not only made me feel good while I was reading it, but the ideas also stayed with me since putting it down. As a person who generally tries to cram as much activity as possible into every minute, this book opened my eyes about our modern culture, and some of the things we can do to keep our sanity. As my 12 year old said, "everyone could benefit from reading this book."

addiction weight loss.......2001-10-26

I am a proffesional counselor with eight years experience. I have worked with addictions from weight loss to abuse and find this book a very clean and balanced presentation. This book summarizes what I want everyone to learn and understand about the choices we all make and the thoughts that we struggle with as human beings. I recommend this book to anyone wanting a better understanding of themselves and others. I also have had a chance to meet the author and found him to be authentic and caring.

A Man for Mum! Wanting His Child / The Boss and the Baby / One Mum Too Many

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A Man for Mum! Wanting His Child / The Boss and the Baby / One Mum Too Many
Penny Jordan , Leigh Michaels , and Vicki Lewis Thompson
Manufacturer: Harlequin Mills & Boon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Time Magazine June 3 1996 Who Speaks for Kids? * Exclusive: Hillary Clinton on Wanting a Second Child

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Time Magazine June 3 1996 Who Speaks for Kids? * Exclusive: Hillary Clinton on Wanting a Second Child
Time Magazine
Manufacturer: Time Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LE7WII

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Wanting A Child -
Jill Bialosky -
Manufacturer: Farrar Publishing -
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000QS2T0A

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Wanting His Child
Penny Jordan
Manufacturer: Thorndike Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0263161722
Release Date: 2099-10-01

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Wanting His Child ( LARGE PRINT )
Penny Jordan
Manufacturer: Thorndike Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQZQRM

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Wanting a Child
Jill (editor); Schulman, Helen (editor) Bialosky
Manufacturer: Farrar Straus & Giroux (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OX9BQM

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Wanting a Child
Jill (editor); Schulman, Helen (editor) Bialosky
Manufacturer: Farrar Straus & Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OXOJ9G

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