Model ship building does not have to be an expensive hobby. The author takes you by the hand on a journey through one of the oldest crafts - nowadays a hobby - and shows how you can build an end product of fascination, history, skill and value using low-cost materials and a minimum of tools - from 'scratch' in fact. The book starts by explaining hull lines and hull construction methods, then moves on to masts, yards, booms and gaffs, deck equipment and furniture, anchors, rigging and blocks, armament and simple sail making. Finally instruction is given to painting, mounting and displaying the models. The author's text is packed with useful hints and tips derived from his lifetime of modelling which, together with the large number of detailed drawings and photographs depicting many of the ship models in his collection, some showing useful close-ups on details and fittings, provides a very practical guide to the art and craft of model ship building.

The Art of LEGO Scale Modeling displays amazing, fan-built LEGO recreations of real-life vehicles, showing off every amazing detail with high-quality photographs. You'll love poring over dozens of models, including Formula 1 racers, construction vehicles, ships, trains, airplanes, and all kinds of trucks. Authors Dennis Glaasker and Dennis Bosman share their own impressive LEGO models as well as highlight models from builders around the world. The Art of LEGO Scale Modeling also includes tips and tricks that describe the design and building process.

Many children spend hours enjoying their first train set - but imagine that the hobby never runs out of steam and the train set develops into a lifelong hobby. That first set conceivably could have been made by Tri-ang ( (c) Hornby Hobbies Ltd), a member of the Lines Bros group of companies. Following a brief history of Tri-ang from its formation to the present-day Hornby, Dave Angell provides an enjoyable account of the overall range in general, covering some of the classic models in detail, and providing an overview of changes that were made over the years, as well as the kinds of details that collectors should look out for when sourcing rarer items. This book takes a wide look at collecting Tri-ang, including the tools and parts available from Tri-ang's network of service dealers, and some of the compatible systems that Tri-ang made to complement the railway system. Learn also where to buy items and discover the wealth of advice and enthusiasm in the social community that has grown up around collectors, both online and 'for real'; but above all, look through these pages and enjoy the happy childhood memories they are sure to conjure up!

In recent years, cultural commentators have sounded the alarm about the dire state of reading in America. Americans are not reading enough, they say, or reading the right books, in the right way.
In this book, Alan Jacobs argues that, contrary to the doomsayers, reading is alive and well in America. There are millions of devoted readers supporting hundreds of enormous bookstores and online booksellers. Oprah's Book Club is hugely influential, and a recent NEA survey reveals an actual uptick in the reading of literary fiction. Jacobs's interactions with his students and the readers of his own books, however, suggest that many readers lack confidence; they wonder whether they are reading well, with proper focus and attentiveness, with due discretion and discernment. Many have absorbed the puritanical message that reading is, first and foremost, good for you--the intellectual equivalent of eating your Brussels sprouts. For such people, indeed for all readers, Jacobs offers some simple, powerful, and much needed advice: read at whim, read what gives you delight, and do so without shame, whether it be Stephen King or the King James Version of the Bible. In contrast to the more methodical approach of Mortimer Adler's classic How to Read a Book (1940), Jacobs offers an insightful, accessible, and playfully irreverent guide for aspiring readers. Each chapter focuses on one aspect of approaching literary fiction, poetry, or nonfiction, and the book explores everything from the invention of silent reading, reading responsively, rereading, and reading on electronic devices.
Invitingly written, with equal measures of wit and erudition, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction will appeal to all readers, whether they be novices looking for direction or old hands seeking to recapture the pleasures of reading they first experienced as children.