Surfing is a multi-billion-dollar industry, flinging hordes of people and buckets of money into the waves each year.

Though Warshaw's first three books (SurfRiders, Above the Roar, and Maverick's) were entertaining looks at surfers and surfing, this one makes him the official Kahuna of surf lore. A history of surfing introduces the entries at the end, a bibliography, round-up of surf contest results, and lists of movies, magazines, and music provide the big finish. Illustrated like a dictionary, this book has only one or two small black-and-white photos every couple of pages. Suddenly, hours have gone by and there's still the huge entry on Gidget to read. In fact, the book is a trap, leading unsuspecting readers on a wandering journey from pioneer surfer Duke Kahanamoku to the development of hollow boards to the lifeguards who used them to lifeguard Eddie Aikau to his home in Waimea Bay to. Not even the one on the technicalities of fin placement. Though the 1,500 entries are organized in typical encyclopedic style, one after the other alphabetically, none of them-not a single one-is completely boring. The most surprising thing about the book is its terrific readability. Author Matt Warshaw, former editor of Surfer magazine, and his fellow researchers took three years to put together this prodigious tome.

The Encyclopedia of Surfing chronicles nearly every bit of wave-riding-its history, places, mythology, champions, tragedies, in-jokes, and minutiae. Our impression is of a writer, like Faulkner, so confident of his resources and ultimate destination that he can bring any impossibility to life by hurling words at it.'-John Updike, The New Yorker, What's that sound coming from the beach? That's the rustle of pages turning, as would-be immortals look themselves up in The Encyclopedia of Surfing, surfing's first comprehensive reference book. It's tempting to think of it as his masterpiece.'-The New York Times'Saramago has the gift of gab. Such elements have rarely worked better together than in The Double. Saramago's Observations Come in Small Bursts That Lift Themselves Up in Startling Truth and Beauty., PRAISE FOR THE DOUBLE'In varying proportions is melancholy, funny, scary and socially enraged.

The Double by José Saramago