Rating: 
Summary: A few comments
Review: Although there is some useful information here, and I give Dr. Holloway some credit for going to the trouble of compiling her database of 18,000 dreams and trying to correlate dreams and dream images with such things as stages of life and so on, the problem is that dreams are really not what people think and usually far too much significance is attached to them.
For example, consider the question of why most dreams seem to consist of collections or sequences of difficult to interpret images, thoughts, and memories that seem to be combined or strung together in a not very logical and difficult to interpret fashion. The reason why, contrary to the popular belief that this reflects some profound and not easily discernible meaning, is that the order really is almost random, or is governed by very weak associational processes. The reason why this is, and why most dreams seem so puzzling and difficult to understand is that when you go to sleep, the memory areas of the brain located in the temporal cortex become more active through a process known as corticocipedal disinhibition, allowing memories, images, and thoughts to flood into consciousness willy-nilly. This is prevented or inhibited during normal waking, otherwise the flood of thoughts and images would interfere with normal memory retrieval and thinking processes.
This explanation wasn't understood until about 30 years ago and comes from important research into the neurobiology of dreaming and consciousness. Most people, though, still have these old, pre-scientific notions that they have some sort of profound significance. If you're under a lot of stress, such as on the job, or whatever, and you dream that your boss just fired you, okay, that's different. Obviously the dream has some relation to reality (which in this case shouldn't be that hard to figure out).
But most of the time the dream will be something like the following: boss calls you into his or her office and tells you to fly away with him in a great, golden chariot with six magical, flying, white horses on a secret mission into the future, or the past, or whatever. So you do. At that point you wake up and think to yourself, "What the hell did that mean? I don't know but it must be something very profound. It must mean my boss really likes me after all, and that I'm destined to do great things on the job since we flew off together into the sunset in this great chariot drawn by six flying, white horses."
Unfortunately, the simple fact is that the dream doesn't really mean anything. It means you had a dream that used as its point of departure your boss or job, since that's what's currently on your mind, but after that, the free-associational flow of dream images and thoughts took over and produced the usual semi-nonsensical concatenation of dream images and thoughts.
I realize this explanation won't appeal to many people, but as someone wiser than I once said, "God is a mathematician, and so the universe works according to physical and biological laws, rather than as mystics, poets, lovers, romantics, and New Agers (and adherents of other touch-feely philosophies and beliefs), would have liked."
So, as I said, although I commend the author for her efforts and research, unfortunately she doesn't seem to be aware of the more rigorous neurobiological research on dreams and how they really originate from brain mechanisms relating to consciousness, memory, and sleep. (But I give the book three stars for effort).
Rating: 
Summary: This is not a contributing book.
Review: As I read the opening pages I knew right away that this book could not meet the expectations of what it's titled. This author is trying to convince that she has a new and fool proof means of interpretation, I was sickened by the entire philosophy. Buyer be seriously aware.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the most useful dream interpretation books
Review: Got a dream dictionary and find it useless? Think using a dream dictionary is like trying to form a cohesive picture from a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle where all the pieces are cut exactly the same? The Complete Dream Book takes a different angle on dream interpretation.
Based on a database of over 18,000 dreams, the author provides real-life interpretation of common dreams. There are common dreams that occur during certain stages of life, at certain ages, and during certain changes and situations.
This book looks at these common themes in dreams and what they mean to the dreamer. While she does cover common dream symbols such as cars, houses and the like, the fascinating part of the book is the common themes (can't get your locker door open or finding an new room in your home or finding a treasure, for examples).
This is the most useful and pragmatic dream interpretation book that I have ever read and I found myself regularly commenting about how appropriate an interpretation was for a particular dream of mine.
Kudos to Gillian Holloway for what has to be one of the most useful dream interpretation books on the market today.
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Summary: The previous 3 reviews are way off...
Review: I doubt any of them even read the book. This is an excellent book and it makes no sense that others dislike it so much. Can these people even read?
Rating:
Summary: "helpful"
Review: I feel like I was cheated out of my money
Rating:
Summary: Enormously helpful
Review: I greatly enjoyed The Complete Dream Book. (...)I have read many, many books about dreams and dream analysis and can confidently say this book is NOT a typical "dream dictionary," and it is NOT a "similar treatment" of the subject. Holloway takes the unique approach of starting from the dreams themselves and from the dreamers' lives. Finding correlations between dream life and waking life validates her interpretations, which often differ in surprising ways from "traditional" interpretations and make a great deal of sense.This book helped me make sense of three different recurring dreams I have had throughout my adult life, and helped me make connections between them. It also helped me understand a particularly significant, but puzzling dream I had recently. I consider my dreams a spiritual gift which have greatly enhanced my understanding of myself and my life. They have also aided the work I do to honor and develop my intuition. The Complete Dream Book has increased the depth of my understanding and has taken me further along the path to self-knowledge.
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Summary: Contemporary Themes, Clearly Written, Practical Ideas
Review: I like this book and its subject matter a great deal. I was a contributor of dreams to Dr. Holloway's Lifetreks website upon which much of the book's content is based, for four years. During that time I always wondered when I would find out what other people's dreams were like? Now the wait is over! It turns out, many of us have the same dreams. This book is a distillation of the most common themes, patterns and interpretations of the thousands of dreams collected from the site. Unlike the "dream dictionaries" based upon myth and folklore, this author is a psychologist with years of experience teaching people and working with their dreams. This book has practical tips for noticing what your dream is trying to tell you and real-world suggestions about what to do once the message is understood. You learn which myths people have about dreams are true and which are not, and which dreams are more common in different age groups and to which sex. Dream messages often reveal imbalances, feelings about people or situations, and personality styles. My favorite parts of the book are the frequent, gentle ways in which the author teaches the dreamer to recognize his or her own talents, interests, potentials and strengths, and use them in order to meet workaday challenges and to feel more happiness. "The Complete Dream Book" is an excellent book, as good as any by Patricia Garfield, another very wise dream author I would recommend. The only criticism I have is with its title. How can this subject ever be complete?
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Summary: Tom Cruise should read this
Review: If there was ever evidense that psychology is non-beneficial, it would be proved here in this book. I highly recommend reading other books on dream interpretation, Holloway's book is the absolute worst I have ever read. Nothing here is supported, the entire book is random, no train of thought, and the interpretations are absolutely vague and apply to any dream. Do not waste your time.
Rating:
Summary: Mundane Garden Variety Dream Book
Review: This book is terrible. It has all the common conventions of a Dream dictionary book. I would have to say that out of all the mundane, garden-variety dream books out there, this one rates in the top 5. Some of the older releases of these books are very racist! I find it interesting that if you dream of a black man or black person, that you will have bad luck (what bull$hit)!
If you want a real Dream Dictionary, *HUNT* for "The Dream Book" or "Dream Dictionary" by Evad Aras. This is the best dream dictionary I have ever used in my life. The book is extremely rare and hard to find. This book features numerolgy interpretations and very accurate interpretations of dreams. Evad Eras's book is far more accurate than this book. I almost believe that Gillians book is a knock-off that's been dumbed-down!
Another good book is the "Gypsy Dream dictionary" by Raymond Buckland. But *NO* book comes close to Evad Ara's books
Rating:
Summary: Sorrowfully off Target, decietful attempt to make a living.
Review: This horrid work is based on the exact opposite of brain function, or simply put,something the brain cannot do. All of our dreams have been scientificaly proved to be biologic brain function, not something of wishfull thinking or spiritual connections with god, the devil or any other wishful spirits. I believe this author has in fact found her own nitch in a business for more of making a living rather than true brain function during sleep,,, more or less not really caring if anyone gets help from this sad deciet. This wild work of ""theory only"" based on no scientific evidence whatsoever, at times goes to blind speculation at best to fill the trully unknown blank spots in her theories.
If you are of the wishful thinking group, those of you who have unrealistic high hopes that the Complete Dream Book" is on the correct approach, you buy this, and you more than likely will not like your self if you have an ocassional night mare. The interpretations may leave you feeling like" Gee, maybe I am a wife beater, or I always thought I could have been gay." Seriously I agree with many other reviewers here especially Magellan, he touches on to this a lot. But read them all, not just the 5 star ones you will see on the front page. They seem to get updated quite often.
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