(Applause Books). Jean Shepherd (1921-1999); master humorist; is best known for his creation A Christmas Story ; the popular movie about the child who wants a BB gun for Christmas and nearly shoots his eye out. What else did Shepherd do? He is considered by many to be the Mark Twain and James Thurber of his day. For many thousands of fans; for decades; "Shep" talked on the radio late at night; keeping them up way past their bedtimes. He entertained without a script; improvising like a jazz musician; on any and every subject you can imagine. He invented and remains the master of talk radio. Shepherd perpetrated one of the great literary hoaxes of all time; promoting a nonexistent book and author; and then brought the book into existence. He wrote 23 short stories for Playboy ; four times winning their humor of the year award; and also interviewed The Beatles for the magazine. He authored several popular books of humor and satire; created several television series and acted in several plays. He is the model for the character played by Jason Robards in the play and movie A Thousand Clowns ; as well as the inspiration for the Shel Silverstein song made famous by Johnny Cash; "A Boy Named Sue." Readers will learn the significance of innumerable Shepherd words and phrases; such as "Excelsior; you fathead;" and observe his constant confrontations with the America he loved. They will get to know and understand this multitalented genius by peeking behind the wall he built for himself a wall to hide a different and less agreeable persona. Through interviews with his friends; co-workers and creative associates; such as musician David Amram; cartoonist and playwright Jules Feiffer; publisher and broadcaster Paul Krassner; and author Norman Mailer; the book explains a complex and unique genius of our time. "Shepherd pretty much invented talk radio ... What I got of him was a wonder at the world one man could create. I am as awed now by his achievement as I was then." Richard Corliss; Time magazine online
#2889154 in eBooks 2008-06-01 2008-06-01File Name: B00GQZPNA0
Review
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful. All the Hymnal; None of the Weight (or Wait)!By Mark BuetowFinally! The churchs completely hymnal available on all your devices. CPH has some OK apps for the Treasury of Daily Prayer and the Pastoral Care companion; but neither of those contains the complete package that the hymnal does as far as prayers; hymns and services. Ive been waiting and hoping for an electronic edition so that I dont have to lug the book around. I always have my iPad or iPhone with me).The Kindle version of the LSB is the entire text as it appears in the print edition with the bonus of having ALL 150 Psalms available. Thats a definite advantage. Having said that; Lutheran Service Book has several hymns that are available only in the Lutheran Service Builder software; but not in the print edition of the hymnal. Why not include those? If youre adding extra things that arent in the print edition; why not add everything you can? Its a small niggle; but one that would have made the electronic edition not just equal to but maybe even better than the printed copy.Lets talk ease of use. The electronic edition of LSB is set up for super-easy navigation. It is well indexed and hyperlinked throughout. Add in the ability to bookmark pages as well as add highlights and notes; and I think the electronic edition is actually easier to get around. (In "live" tests versus a printed hymnal; Ive found that finding a section or hymn is just about equal in the time it takes to do so). One of the things that makes the indexing better than most Kindle books is that the titles of hymns are hyperlinked so that you can easily jump between the hymn and its section listing (like "Easter" or "Redeemer" sections; etc.) and the main index. Another cool feature is that the actual hymnal indexes are hyperlinked; so that when you look up a tune or meter or first line in the index; you can jump straight to the hymn.That makes using the hymnal very easy and I have actually done so in worship. I can jump between the Kindle app and a PDF of the bulletin and readings so quickly; that its like the book and paper except...without the paper!The formatting of this edition is the same as the print edition. That means it will look best on an iPad and not as great (as in; smaller and harder to read) on an iPhone. Id recommend setting your Kindle to "single column" and using it in portrait mode because that will maximize the page on the screen and be more like holding the actual book. Since some of the material in LSB is already in two columns (like the pages of the liturgy); it is too slimmed/crunched when set to more than one column.The only real fault I would find with the electronic edition of the LSB is that the hymns themselves are images embedded in the book; rather than nativey a part of the text. Im not sure how you could do it otherwise and still retain the same look as a printed page in the book. Note; however; that if there are stanzas of the hymn beyond those with the music; these are regular text that is a part of the book. This sets up the weird situation where if you wanted to use the Kindles search function to find words in a hymn; it would only find words in stanzas that arent in the portion of the hymn with the music; and that means you cant search the actual text of most hymns; because the search doesnt pick up the text in the graphical portions of the hymns. The other small detail I noticed when singing is that there is no indication if there is more of a hymn than what is displayed in front of you. For example; if you have a hymn (with musical notation) that is two pages in the printed version; it is certainly easy enough to swipe between the two pages on the Kindle (since you can only see one page at a time) but you might not know theres more to be sung if you arent familiar with the hymn. A little arrow at the bottom on such pages would probably be helpful.In summary; the electronic edition of the Lutheran Service Book is a faithful; complete; and entirely useful rendition of the printed hymnal into electronic form. If you are comfortable using a tablet; youll have no problems using the hymnal in the varieties of ways it can be used; without having to crack the cover of the actual book! For those techies like me thats awesome!8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. not the large print that I had hopedBy Shawn F. NeiderI agree with many of the other reviews; the hymnal itself is great and I have been anxiously awaiting this kindle edition but am disappointed in that it is not designed to allow the user to enlarge the print for those with inpaired vision. This is not the easy road to a large print edition. It does work better on my iPad for enlarging; but not conveniently.6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Better late than never. Thank you for working out the copyright and licensing issues.By Timothy QuindtI love the Lutheran Service Book and was desiring my own copy; but I was hoping and praying for a Kindle Version; given the convenience of an Ebook. When I contacted CPH over a year ago they told me that due to copyright licensing issues; an ebook verion was not available. I am so glad that something got worked out; although the fonts in the print version are different than the ebook version and the readability of the hymns is very dependant on screen size. (Great for a 10" tablet; not so much for a small smart phone.) I look forward to using it in worship without having to bookmark every hymn and being able to just jump right to it. I find it easier to read on my tablet than the print version.
