Customer comments on this Youngstown Ohio Book
When is this going to ship?
I purchased this on August 11,2006 and Amazon has asked me to write a quick review of this book. Too bad they have not shipped it as of November 3, 2006. Buyer beware!
Entertaining and overpriced
This book contains an entertaining overview of history of ties, including discussion of specific tie knots. If you do not know how to tie a tie, the book's illustrations are very useful (but presumably such illustrations can be downloaded from the web for free).
The science part of the book is rather weak. First, the number 85 is based on knots with up to 9 moves (so ``The" in the title is rather misleading). Even then they do not distinguish between knots with different finishes (some knots can be finished off by passing the thick end through more than one loop). These are mentioned in the book, but are not included into the count. The ``aesthetic" knots are the most symmetric knots in each of the many categories they define; knots are not compared across the categories. The ``math" sections are only vaguely linked to each other or the subject at hand; this is not uncommon in physics in general.
These comments refer to the 2000 Broadway Books hardcover edition.
Now my tie collection is growing...
I can't remember where I stumbled onto a reference to this book, but once I read the reviews here I knew I had to have it. I don't wear a tie on a daily basis, but I do enjoy wearing one on special occasions, or to make a "statement"! I also do some theater, and have come to enjoy the opportunity for character expression that ties sometimes allow. I've always been fascinated with the seemingly endless variety, and love going to Goodwill and checking out what's available, from the outrageous to the sublime. This book is a wonderful mix of right-brain and left-brain concepts that had me hooked from the beginning! Sufficiently scientific to realize that the authors know their stuff, and wonderfully aesthetic to illustrate the concepts they present. The pictures are a definite highlight, and the illustrations for tying the knots are wonderfully easy to use. For the first time in my life, I said "Whoa, that's a cool knot... now I have to find a tie to go with it!"
|