Rating: 
Summary: Clear, beautifully illustrated, simple instructions
Review: This book is much more than just how to tie knots. Rope construction, care, storing, and handling techniques are also clearly presented. The use of colored illustrations is capitalized on superbly. Different colored ropes are used to maximum effect where appropriate to give a clear picture of how a properly tied knot should look. Knots are grouped by type. Instructions for each knot are presented succintly, with steps and well chosen words accompanied with colored photographs showing hand positions with the ropes. (There is a nice touch of cultural diversity just simply there unobtrusively in the hands.) Anyone can readily learn how to tie any of these knots without having to read and re-read instructions. The relative pros and cons of similar knots are included. Even if one were never to tie any of these knots, one could derive pleasure from looking at the beautiful illustrations and the ingenious variety of knots that we humans have invented for specific applications. Just leafing through this book gives one a sense of mankind's history and the technological evolution that necessitated we design these knots for quite practical, and in some cases, esthetic reasons.
Rating: 
Summary: Generally good, but frequently confusing
Review: This is overall a good book, with some interesting knots and useful illustrations. At times, however--more frequently than is acceptable--I have found the instructions a little too telegraphic and the illustrations completely mysterious. For instance, the illustrations sometimes seem to change orientation from one step to the next with no word of warning. At other times, critical parts of the knot are obscured by a hand of the person holding it. The descriptions sometimes give me the feeling that small but crucial operations have been left out, as if they belonged to the author's unconscious "muscle memory" and he never thought to include them. For example, it seems to me that it is topologically imposible ;-) to produce the Turqouise Turtle (pg. 52) following the the instructions and illustrations. You just can't get from step 3 to 4 without some missing manipulation of the rope.
Rating:
Summary: the 'key' to Ashley's
Review: you won't feel Ashley's book ungraspable anymore after reading this handsome one. and there is a more recent edition(isbn 0756603749) whose color is better.
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