The Big Book of Buds: Marijuana Varieties from the World's Great Seed Breeders

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Summary: Thank you Ed Rosenthal !
Review: A field guide for marijuana...brilliant! Clever (and useful) icons make a great quick reference guide, making me want to run out into the fields to id them all. The descriptions are informative, intelligent AND witty with more information than you can shake a stick at. I had never heard the term "couch lock" but I've had the condition and now posses the adjectives to describe it. I learned about the major differences between sativa and indaca. The pictures are plentiful and pleasing to the eye. There are so many varieties out there and this book is the first step in helping people get to know them all. I look forward to the Big Book of Buds II and so on and so forth...until every variety is known to all who wish to know.
Thank you again Ed Rosenthal and all your worker bees that helped make this book possible!

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Summary: Fun and Informative!
Review: Did you know marijuana comes in many different varities? This book gives tons of info on the most popular strains of pot: if it grows best indoors or outdoors; how long flowering time is; how big the yields ususally are; what the high feels like; difficulty in growing; special growing tips that are specific to variety, and lots of other points of interest. I had no idea pot could produce so many different kinds of highs! The stereotype of the stoner with heavy lids, stuck to the couch, stuffing his face with munchies is blown apart by this book. This is for any person who's confused by all the many varieties of marijuana. Some strains give relaxing highs, others give energetic highs, some are trippy and euphoric, while others can put you to sleep. The pictures are also great; makes you wish you could just pluck those beautiful buds off the page and smoke them!

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Summary: Mixed Feelings
Review: Ed has sort of gone downhill and things are more or less being presented here like they are in the catalogues with some extra graphics. It looks nice but I do not really think that this is a book for growers. It is more like a book for people who do not own the catalogues. So if you do not own the catalogues from the seed companies then you might like this book but I have seen a lot of the pictures before. It is good that the price has come down though. It was a bit expensive for what you get when it was more than twenty dollars.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful!
Review: Ed Rosenthal has put together the most concise AND beautifully illustrated reference book for the marijuana connoisseur. Ed's easy icons and descriptions make this a very resourceful guide for anyone who wants to know about the many strains from around the world. Simply put, a MUST HAVE for anyone really interested in this amazing plant.

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Summary: A Very Disappointing Glorified Catalogue
Review: Ed Rosenthal's Book of Buds is a Big Book of Bad Bucks. A glorified Catalogue which contains photographs that we have all seen before. You would do just as good to order catalogues (which I already have) from famous seed banks to get the same thing. When I got this book in the post I was shocked to find that Ed had repeated every single picture from the seed catalogues. Not one picture was unique. Not one. So immediately I was very unhappy with this book but then it got worse. The descriptions are not accurate and do nothing to serve the reader with factual useful information. I later learned that Ed Rosenthal got the seed banks to pay him to do this book and he did not grow the strains and has not had any growing experience with most of them. This is the last Ed Rosenthal book I will be buying. This book is proof that Ed is far too overrated as a grower and his lack of experience shows in these writings.

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Summary: Good Stuff!
Review: Everything about this book makes me happy...the full color photos from beginning to end, detailed information on varieties, essays about and by the breeders....did I mention the photographs? I say this is the "Pot smoker's desk reference."
I don't feel like I have the skill to write the review this book deserves so I'll finish with this: If you like marijuana you will LOVE this book.

Rating:
Summary: Really more of an avertising brochure
Review: I kind of agree with the last reviewer about it just being similar to a Seed Company Catalog. The sponsors featured at the back even make me think that these companies paid to be included and I wonder if that affected the choice of varieties that were included. Once again I feel that Ed has missed his chance to really add anything new to the field and I wish he would get back to the nuts and bolts of growing instead of books with pretty pictures. However, the book is not outrageously expensive and if you just want to look at pictures of buds you might as well get this book. But if you want to grow get a different book.

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Summary: great pictures, great reference
Review: I really liked the way this book is set up. It is easy to pick up over and over again. Alphabetically arranged descriptions of 100 varieties in one place makes it helpful to compare and contrast what strains might work best for different tastes or growing situations. Many entries also mention medical uses that they've been recommended for. When you get past just staring at the pictures, you won't find the descriptions disappointing. they are full of information--to the point but not dry. most important, they tell you things you want to know. I like the icons because its easy to match up information by flipping back and forth between varieties. It seems like i run across an essay or something i haven't read yet every time i pick it up. this book is great, i feel like i know more about varieties. its easy to enjoy with herb and i think it is useful for anybody who dares to grow and wants more info on the different strains.

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Summary: Biggest buddiest book ever!
Review: I received this book as an Xmas present from one of Santa's monkey-elves, and it never fails to deliver well written, informative and enticing desriptions of the buds and their virtues. Cool graphics, charts and a wealth of other information makes this a indispensable guide to the cannabis world--from the intense pictures to the essays about the history, and different hip scenes across the globe. A perfect tome. Thanks, S!!!

Rating:
Summary: Nice and informative
Review: I think this is a great book that covers many available strains today. The pictures are awsome. You'll find yourself reaching for this book over and over just to take a look at them again. I'm already hoping for a second book covering many of the strains that didn't make it to this one.