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The Massage Book: 25th Anniversary Edition |  | Author: George Downing
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy New: $9.98
as of 11/21/2009 08:18 CST details
You Save: $8.97 (47%)
New (28) Used (18) Collectible (2) from $6.36
Seller: evbooksllc
Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 41862
Format: Deluxe Edition
Media: Paperback
Edition: 25 Anv
Pages: 192
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 10.6 x 8.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 067977789X
Dewey Decimal Number: 646.75
EAN: 9780679777892
ASIN: 067977789X
Publication Date: December 1, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Published in 1972 and continuously in print since then, The Massage Book introduced Swedish massage to American culture.Still current and well regarded, The Massage Book was listed by National Health magazine as the first of twenty-five best books that have changed our thinking about our health and our world. Today, as alternative treatments are being discovered by mainstream health plans, massage is still going strong. In the last twenty-five years, countless books on massage have been published, but none rivals The Massage Book.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 20
 Good, but probably could have found something better May 18, 2009
Ijano (Vienna, VA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Maybe I'm just too young to appreciate the style in which this book was written, but the dated typewriter face used for the text of the book make it looks old, unappealing, and unprofessional. Also, the illustrations are a little wierd and their sketching style can not compete w/ either photographs or more detailed illustration style to really give an idea of the exact movements in the massage techniques being taught.
Now obviously, those are some shallow, superficial reasons to not like the book, so having sad that, the content does seem to be pretty good, if a bit, again, dated. I can't necessarily say I found anything bad about the content, but considering the rave reviews I saw here, I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't really anything all that special about it capable of justifying it's other flaws.
I think I probably could have found something with a much better layout (again, the layout in this book looks like some pages that just came out of someone's typewriter in the year 1984), which admittedly should be secondary to content, but let's face it, is still important. If it looks old and unappealing, you're less likely to want to read it again and again. So overall, not a bad book at all, but I don't really get why everyone hyped it up so much either.
 The great Esalen Massage classic January 7, 2009
birthrightuuc (USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
George Downing and Anne Kent Rush, The Massage Book (Berkeley, CA: The Bookworks, and New York: Random House) First printing, January 1972. First cloth printing, May 1972, price $7.95. In the U.S. there were thirty-eight printings until 1996 and also in 1972 an additional printing for the Book of the Month Club. This is the first manual on massage written for the layperson. Massage, as developed and practiced at the world-renowned Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California and in San Francisco, is described by the authors who were members of the teaching staff. With a first printing of only 30,000 copies, this classic text for Esalen Massage became a huge bestseller with two million copies having been sold worldwide. This book remains in print and remains my favorite for learning Esalen Massage. The beautifully simple line drawings by Anne Kent Rush illustrating the text seem to step off the page and are far more effective in conveying meaning than are still photographs. The Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition, 1998, has an added introduction by Anne Kent Rush; it's priced at $14.95.
Anne Kent Rush in her most recent book, Massage for Total Well-Being: Massage and Meditation for the Seven Centers of Health, with photographs by Victoria Rauhofer, (New York: A Byron Preiss Book, Universe Publishing, Rizzoli International Publications) Nov 2000, describes the inception of The Massage Book:
As of 1970, medical texts provided the only information on massage. . . . As both a massage enthusiast and a writer, I was inspired to produce a massage manual for the layperson. . . . I began teaching at the Esalen Institute in California and worked often with George Downing. . . . I led training groups for health professionals on how to integrate body-therapy techniques into traditional medical practice. I suggested my idea to George. . . . Don Gerard, managing editor of The Bookworks in Berkeley, was adventurous enough to take on the project when nobody else thought the general public would be interested, and we copublished The Massage Book with Random House. The book caught on like wildfire and is still in print today, enjoying an exceptional publishing life. Having been a part of bringing massage into modern American living gives me great satisfaction.
Anne Kent Rush is my favorite author of books that describe the operating procedures of the various bodywork approaches. She is the author of fifteen books, among which are the following:
Getting Clear: Body Work for Women (Berkeley, CA: The Bookworks, and New York: Random House) Mar 1973.
Feminism as Therapy; with Anica Vesel Mander (Berkeley, CA: The Bookworks, and New York: Random House) Jul 1974.
Moon, Moon (Berkeley, CA: Moon Books, and New York: Random House) Jul 1976.
The Basic Back Book (Berkeley, CA: Moon Books, and New York: Summit/ Simon & Schuster) Aug 1979.
The Back Rub Book (New York: Vintage/Random House) Jul 1989.
Romantic Massage (New York: Avon) Feb 1991.
The Dell trilogy (New York: Dell/Bantam Doubleday Dell and Byron Preiss Visual)
The Modern Book of Massage, Oct 1994.
The Modern Book of Yoga, Oct 1996.
The Modern Book of Stretching, Apr 1997.
Bodywork Basics: A Guide to the Powers and Pleasures of Your Body (New York: Dell/Random House) Jan 2000. A marvelous survey, guide, and introduction to the many bodywork approaches.
Massage for Total Well-Being: Massage and Meditation for the Seven Centers of Health, with photographs by Victoria Rauhofer, (New York: A Byron Preiss Book, Universe Publishing, Rizzoli International Publications) Nov 2000.
The Way of Stretching: Flexibility for Body and Mind (Boston: Little, Brown and Company) Aug 2005.
 Massage book October 12, 2008
Melinda D. Schultz (the Apen valley, Co.)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I know the world is changing, but this is sufficient for those learning the fundamentals.
love this book June 13, 2008
be the tree (arizona, USA)
i lost my first copy and had to buy a second. that's how good this book is! yes the drawings are a little outdated, but the information is timeless and helpful!!! highly recommend!!!
 An oldie but goodie October 19, 2007
K. Mauzy (overseas)
I purchased this book years before I was a licensed massage therapist. The pictures are somewhat basic (drawn nudity is shown) but the techniques learned are very straight forward and picked up with little practice.
I DO recommend this book as I have come back to it several times since becoming licensed. If I was bored or in need of a little different "style" change in a session, I would just flip to the section and off I go.
Worth the money for a good, not a lot of crap, on stuff you need if you want to be able to give a massage and not the "why why why" as to what is happening to the body during the session.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 20
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