Rating: 
Summary: Great Beginner's Book!
Review: I just finished reading Janice Kim's book, "Learn to Play GO" for the second time. It is fantastic. I bought the book based on a suggestion from somebody on the Yahoo game server. It's actually a funny story. I started playing the game after reading the rules very quickly. The rules I read made no mention of eyes. This, as you all know, caused me great pain when playing. I lost a 9x9 game 81-0. My opponent offered, "Do you want some advice?" I said, "Sure." His reply was simply, "Buy Learn to Play Go by Janice Kim." I bought it the next day and have since bought four more copies as gifts for friends. It's actually just a ploy on part to get more people to play with. ;-)
Rating:
Summary: Great Beginner's Book!
Review: I just finished reading Janice Kim's book, "Learn to Play GO" for the second time. It is fantastic. I bought the book based on a suggestion from somebody on the Yahoo game server. It's actually a funny story. I started playing the game after reading the rules very quickly. The rules I read made no mention of eyes. This, as you all know, caused me great pain when playing. I lost a 9x9 game 81-0. My opponent offered, "Do you want some advice?" I said, "Sure." His reply was simply, "Buy Learn to Play Go by Janice Kim." I bought it the next day and have since bought four more copies as gifts for friends. It's actually just a ploy on part to get more people to play with. ;-)
Rating:
Summary: The perfect "first step" into the world of Go
Review: I've read many of the "beginner to Go" books, and this is easily my favorite. Some seem to think that this is lacking in information. Not so! I think that it's perfect in content so as not to overwhelm the novice. When you're ready for more, just read on in the next book of the "Learn To Play Go" series (up to Volume 5 as I write this).
Rating:
Summary: The perfect "first step" into the world of Go
Review: I've read many of the "beginner to Go" books, and this is easily my favorite. Some seem to think that this is lacking in information. Not so! I think that it's perfect in content so as not to overwhelm the novice. When you're ready for more, just read on in the next book of the "Learn To Play Go" series (up to Volume 5 as I write this).
Rating: 
Summary: a touch simple
Review: If any of your friends play go, they could explain to you the information in this book in about an hour or two. You could skip to the book of problems by Kano Yoshinori without hurting yourself. I believe in thoroughly covering the basics, so I bought this book after reading KY's book, and it was too simple for me. I read it in a few hours.I do not want to cast a negative light on the series. The later books are probably more advanced, and the instruction is crystal clear. If you want the simplest and most straight-forward instruction you can get, this is probably it. One good thing about this book is it gives Japanese, Chinese and Korean terminology. It also introduces some famous go players and tells the history of go.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent introductory text, albeit a bit lightweight
Review: If you have little or no familiarity with the rules of Go, this is a great place to get started. Kim walks you through the rules at a comfortable (but reasonably quick) pace, and explains some of the general strategy. Unfortunately, that's basically where the book stops. I went through the whole thing in a short sitting, which is a testament both to its enjoyable style and featherweight content. This book is well-written and fun to read, but if you already know the general idea of how to play, you won't find anything useful here. Anyone but absolute beginners would do well to skip this and start with Volume II in the series.
Rating:
Summary: This book delivers.
Review: If you've always been curious about Go but have been intimidated by confusing books, this is the one for you. Most books that claim to be for beginners are too cluttered with jargon and concepts that are too advanced. This book avoids over-complexity. It is the perfect book for people who are curious about this great game. Reading this book helped me improve, and it left me hungry for even more go. Now I'm a go addict!
Rating: 
Summary: Clear and Concise, but only for absolute newbies
Review: The illustrations are great, and the book does a great job illustrating fundamentals. However, this book is for people who have played less than 5 games total.
If you have played a few games with your friends, you've probably gone beyond the scope of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Could have been titled, "Go for Dummies"
Review: This book is a fine, gentle introduction to the game of go. It is perhaps the easiest to read of all intros. If you just want to learn the rules and a tiny bit more, or if bang-for-the-buck is not a major concern to you, by all means buy it. But if, like me, you want to continue learning and improving, then you will need to buy at least the next two books in this popular series. Then, with 3 volumes, you will have as much useful information as you would get in ONE volume by some other authors. Again, this is not in itself a bad thing -- this series is probably the best-written and easiest to swallow out there. But you'll spend more money this way. My path was this: I borrowed this book from somebody else and read it (it doesn't take long!) but combined that with on-line study via several wonderful (and free!) web sites and also with free (downloadable) software. But when it came to spending my own (admittedly tight) dollars on a book, I found several other beginner-level titles that have much deeper coverage than this book for the same dollar amount or less. Yes, those other books are somewhat denser, but that cuts both ways: you have to read a little slower through them and think a bit harder, but you get more substance per page. I'm not talking about some of the incomprehensible advanced books or poorly-translated beginner books one could dig up, I'm referring to several other excellent beginner books that are out there. Bottom line: this is a very good book if you only want to learn a tiny bit or if you don't mind spending the money on the next two in the series. But it's far from the best bang-for-the-buck out there if you want to learn more than the very basics and care about minimizing expenses.
Rating:
Summary: A good beginner's book
Review: This book is very straightforward, and the answers are very easy. But it does answer alot of questions that beginners with absolutely no knowledge of go have - how to capture, what is a liberty, and some of the essential jargon. One should easily jump into the next book with very little effort, so I would recommend renting this part of the series. Its too bad they didn't combine Vol. I and II, but the writing style is very clear and easy to disgest. Overall, a wonderful series.
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