Games Books

An excellent overview of different types of chair designs and production of each. Not over the top for anyone that would like a guide to building chairs.

Chad

Excellent and clear book with very good detail on the techniques for the more unusual shapes and angles. A good series of projects starting with basic disigns and progressing onwards.
Chairmaking & Design

This is a well written book. It does an excellent job of starting off with basic chair designs and moving on to more advanced designs. A lot of good photographs show the process of chairmaking. The gallery of chairs from other woodworkers is great - inspiring.

Jeff Miller starts you out with the most basic chair ever and then leads you along to more and more complicated designs step by step. By the end of the book, you feel confident in starting to build an arm chair. Great book.

I looked all over the Internet for this book a while back and couldn't find it. Used sellers are charging way too much (over $100), so I finally just checked it out of the library (very available and no cost).

This is a good book, and is the only one I know of with general chairmaking info that covers different chair types. The other chairmaking books I've seen seem to be specific to Windsor chairs. I would like to see more books like this ... until then get this one from the library.

wow, the set of fabled lands books are brilliant, they transport you into a whole new enchanted world where anything is possible. I would well recomend these books to everyone. I just want to know what happend to the last six in the series?, i,ve been looking for them everywhere!

I strongly reccomend this wonderful roleplaying game. Absolutely non-lynear storyline, many different characters to start your game with and many mini-quests in the global quest.

I have been playing the Quest for more than 3 years, and it was a pity that only 6 books have been published. This is the most astounding Role Playing Games I have ever played. Specially for people who do not of RPG games on computers. I wish that Jamie Thomson and Dave Morris become aware of this and please publish the remaining 6 books.The descriptions in the book for places, characters and actions are so good that I have abandoned to play Fighting Fantasy Series. Best of all, for all readers, is that the adventure is unlimited and you can go back and forth.

wow, the set of fabled land books are brilliant, they transport you into a whole new world where anything is possible. I would well recomend this book to those of you who like to escape for a few hours into a land of fiction. I would just like to know what happend to the last 6 books in the series?, i,ve been looking for them everywhere!

The best solo RPG game ever!
These books create the most amazing fantasy world.
They allow you to roam about how you want to.
It was planned that enough of these books would be released to cover the map that is contained in each of this series.
However, I heard, that they charged too little for each book (in England I think they were just £5 or £6!!) so they couldn't finish the series for financial reasons!
An absolute shame - I do anything for the last few books!!

The book is complete in reviewing all the aspects of jewelry making. Very clear explanations supported by big beautiful photographs. A must for all jewelry enthousiasts who would like to start steps in this beautiful craft.

can't put this book down. My design club members are borrowing it.Probably 6 more sales of this book as it is great reference material. The book is also "fun" to read. Great down time pleasure.

This book is by far the best I have. I have no professional training and I am pretty much a beginner (amateur at polymer clay pendants and total beginner at metal). The thing is that I love sculpting....Yet, this book has more info that is helpful to me than any of the other books that I have. The illustrations in this book are more helpful to me than just drawings, like in some of the other books. The angle of the photos shows me exactly what the author is doing. Yeah, it's a lot of info, but that's what I wanted. This book is more complete, in my opinion, than the other books that I have. I love the project pictures that the author has included, as well as the pictures of other artist's work. It's a good price- cheaper than the others that I have, and I'm glad I bought it.

This is an excellent reference for the bench as well as an inspirational book. It explains in a detailed manner about metalurgy, alloys, basic techniques, intermediate and advanced. The pictures are big and the author shows an extensive variety of projects (gallery and wearable pieces) to demonstrate the different techniques. It is a big book, therefore, contains lots of tables, information and pictures.

I've been doing basic stone setting and soldering fabrication for a couple of years and have been looking for a good introduction to more advanced jeweler's techniques to help inspire me to take it to the next level. There are a multitude of beautifully illustrated and produced books that attempt to do this - but fail because they don't show you enough (in an misguided attempt to keep it simple) - The Encyclopedia of Jewelry-Making Techniques comes to mind as an example of this problem. This book - Carles Codina's The Complete Book of Jewelry Making - is the real deal. It serves as a basic introduction, but gives enough detail to really get you off the ground and doing projects. I learned new wrinkles on techniques I thought I knew - and got really good insight into new techniques I've been wanting to learn, such as bead setting, engraving, bright cutting, granulation, reticulation, patination, enamel, etc.. Impressive as getting this right is - this book goes further: it gets into the cultural history and significance of jewelery art and is full of really inspiring examples of jeweler's art. Simply having pictures of great art isn't impressive - but really connecting the achieved vision of that art with the techniques described is. So, you don't just get a good idea of how to do the technique and what it looks like - but you also get a real sense of why; of how the technique pays off artistically.

This book starts off with a brief introduction of where jewelry fits in human civilization. Then it moves to introducing the bench and basic techniques and then moves on to advanced techniques. The basic techniques section mentions important details such as collecting and organizing your scraps and assaying metals. The techniques section illustrate each technique step by step and each one shows you a finished project. Finally it does a series of project illustrated step by step that make use of multiple techniques in a real applied fashion. Each part of the book is illustrated with sumptuous photographs showing the technique and tools. The text is brief, but doesn't lack detail. The artistic vision of the artist is modern - but whether you love the pieces shown or not, there is no debating that they utilize and illustrate the craft in an admirable fashion. This book fires me up and gets me working.

This has got to be one of the top chess books . It is superbly written and by that I mean 6 stars . Lasker was world champion for 28 years -- you read his book and you will be champion in your small league for sure!!
I haven't gone through the whole book but already am losing sleep over it --- it is that good !! Do yourself a favor -- pick this up NOW . I am an average player and I do not write good reviews like this . Lasker will show u how and why to play . Will definitely improve your rating to 2000+ -- NO MATTER WHERE YOU START FROM !! If you do not see any improvement , I will say this --- you have not read this book ! It probably stayed on your shelf for too long .

"Lasker's Manual of Chess" doesn't mess arround. It is absolutely perfect for someone who needs a brief reminder of the basic rules and then is ready to get quickly into the strategic parts of chess. It is a well written book for an adult reader or older teenage reader; younger kids or someone who is a super beginner should start with "Chess For Jrs" or possibly "Learn chess: A complete Course".
This may be an older book but it is very well written and a largely forgotten about classic.

This is one of the best Introductory Chess Books ever written for an adult. The only drawback is that it needs to be written in Algebraic Notation.
The former world champion also covers some more advanced concepts throughout the text.

This wonderful classic is very well written for an adult (would be difficult reading for most kids) who is either a beginner or a player who has aquired basic skills. It provides a good mixture of basics with even some more advanced concepts. Lasker was a great chess teacher.
Then why 3 stars instead of 5? This is because the book requires some serious updating. For the more advanced player the openings are very outdated. The book needs to be written in the more modern and efficient Algebraic form of notation. And, as already mentioned, it is difficult reading for possible use by a young reader.

I like this book. It starts off with the basic rules and quickly gets into openings and strategy. I wish they would put it out in "algebraic chess notation" which is the only drawback. Since I get an A in all my classes as a 7th grade student I can understand this book well even with the old form of chess notation.

This is a fairly useful accessory by itself and a great companion for the Menzoberranzan boxed set and Complete Book of Elves. It goes into great detail about Drow ways, customs, etc, and I found this to be slightly boring.

I enjoyed a lot of the magical items it introduces, but didnt find it to be terribly useful for player characters.

This is by far the most detailed resource book ever about drow that I have found besides just reading the novels. It is very enjoyable to read if you are a drow fan or a underdark DM, or simply wish to have a basis on how to rp your drow. I use it as a bible when it comes to my players bickering on how drow are and what this book says is final as far as I am concerned. If you do not give this book 5 stars I suggest you look at yourself and ask how anal you really are. If you can find a better resource book please let me know. So far this is the winner in my opinion.

This is the best D&D rules supplement I have ever purchased. It contains so much information about the drow (dark) elves. It talks about their religion, their language, and a sect of drow that are good aligned. If you have any interest in ever including drow in your campaign this is the book for you. I use the drow- english dictionary in it all the time. It makes interesting puzzles for my PCs. Even when I am not playing D&D I use this book; it has some cool drow names that I like to use as names for some of my MUD characters. Without a doubt this is the most useful D&D book I own short of the Monsters Manual.

AN EXCELLENT BOOK THAT GIVES SOMEONE THAT IS NEW A VERY GOOD UNDERSTANDING AND BACK GROUND OF THE DROW UNDERWORLD

A detailed journey through the drow world. The Drow of the Underdark is perhaps the only book which will give you precise details and also a lot of aid in creating a drow PC or NPC. Going through everything from drow history to magical items, the Drow of the Underdark is a must for all players. It's adaptability is unmatched yet, and is useable by all players.

Better yet, it has a cover unlike many of the other Forgotten Realms expansions. A black paperback cover inlaid with gold.

Exquisitely illustrated, beautiful layout and easy to read, this book provides insight into the making of these groundbreaking computer games. Richard Kadrey has created this volume clearly showing his love and appreciation of the Myst game. This book should be included in the library of every design college, as it shows the development, mapping and design process of the creation of Myst.

The book has an introduction by Rand and Robyn Miller and is divided into four parts: Inception, Preparation, Construction and Completion. Included is even a lexicon of the D'ni grammar.

Well worth the wait and the price!

Despite having read all the five star articles, about how wonderful this books is. I was still utterly blown away by it when i received mine. The book cost me about 85$ with shipping, but I live in DK so in addition I had to pay extra tax totaling a cost of over 100$, despite that this book is still well worth it. note however if you live outside the US. you might want to check shipping options since this book is very large (about 35cm in height)and it will cost a great deal to ship, thus you might get it via regular mail (witch takes forever). For anyone interested in CG, computer game history, Myst, D'ni, or Multimedia, This book is an absolute must!

"From Myst to Riven" is a positively amazing book that follows the arduous journey of the Cyantists from creating two of the greatest games ever made. All the way through Inception, Preparation, Construction and Completion, Kadrey takes such an in-depth look at the inner workings of Cyan that you feel as if you helped them along in making it. Breathtaking visuals and intriguing narrative make this a book that's a must-have for any hardcore fan.

Most computer games don't much for me. I'm not into shoot-'em-ups, and I learned back in the days of the original ADVENTURE and ZORK that I wasn't that great at puzzle-solving. Oh the other hand, I've been playing MYST and RIVEN regularly for years, even though I haven't solved that many of the puzzles. I'm what this author calls a "tourist," a player who just likes to wander about the Ages of these games and gawk at the exquisite artwork and music, and marvel at the fantastic realism the design team has managed to put into their worlds. This book brings all that out in some detail, describing how Rand and Robyn Miller came up with the basic ideas, how Richard Vander Wende turned all their plans on their heads and made the game the masterpiece that it is, how even the sounds you hear are apt to be clues (I never knew that!), and -- above all -- how none of the team let themselves be hurried in their quest for something as close to perfection as they could manage. Like Tolkien, they even invented a detailed language for the D'ni. Amazing stuff.

This gigantic book features stunning full page renders of key scenes from Riven, as well as various high resolution screencaptures. It also takes you through the entire process of making Riven, from the completion of Myst to the completion of Riven. It shows you how the story was developed (and additional bits to the story), how the stunning photo-realistic graphics were acheived, how the sound was done, how the design and visual look came about. In the background, it tracks Cyan's rise from a small company in a garage into one of the most profitable independent game designers in the world. Being a fan of the whole Myst universe and of computer technology in general, I absolutely love this book. I have it on my coffee table. While I have other things to attend to, my guests can flip through it until I have time to sit down. The process that went into making Riven was enormous and complex, and I salute Mr. Kadrey for getting down into words.

If you think the book was about bragging rights, think again! I read the book with the intent to satisfy my interest about the "drug game," and this one did it and then some. I had read some so-called drug stories, but this story is so different in a sense that you can feel the remorse of Azie, through details about this lifestyle that is still glamourized by "rap stars." Azie takes you from his innocent early childhood, to his administrative position in dealing with drugs, to the aftermath of his envied lifestyle. You actually get to understand the relationship of everyone involved. With every page I read, I was piecing together alot of the mystery about the drug game. When I finished this book, I walked away with a fulfillment of why and how Harlem and other black communities were lured into a pseudo life of selling drugs.We all should give one copy to a young person as a gift. IT may save their life. I want to aknowledge the co-author Agyei Tyehimba for his literary skills that also kept me glued to the book. I, too, look forward to more projects from these two. Talk about being real...

Bought this book on Friday, Never put it down til early Saturday Morning. Such compeling hard gritty truth !

I thought this book was absolubtly "wonderfull"!
As a former resident of Harlem during AZ's reign, I can assure you of the accuracy of this well written, informative book. I laughed, I cried, I felt fear, and I celebrated, as I was entertained. I believe this book should be a required text of all schools; for it is a lesson that both teachers, and students can benefit from. I applaued AZ for his candid accounts, and his chosen co/author (Agyei Tyehimba). This Authors abilities breathed litterary life into a story now not soon to be forgotten. I look forward to Mr. Tyehimba's next projects, and Az's future accomplishments. Wishing you both continued success... Mochabreez

THIS AUTHOR HAS BEEN THROUGH HELL AND BACK, WHAT WITH THE LOSS OF SO MANY FRIENDS AND LOVED ONES!!!! I AM SO VERY PROUD OF THE FACT THAT YOU ARE NOT GLORIFYING YOUR FORMER LIFE,BUT YOU ARE UPLIFTING YOUR FAITH AND I APPLAUD YOU FOR THAT!!!!!I REALIZE IT PROBABLY TOOK A LOT TO DIVULGE ALL THE INFORMATION THAT YOU DID,RELIVING THE PAIN OF THE DEATHS, THE ATTEMPT OF YOUR OWN LIFE,AS WELL AS HAVING THE COURAGE TO LEAVE THE FAST MONEY BEHIND AS YOU'VE SAID IT'S VERY ADDICTIVE!!!! A COPY OF THIS BOOK SHOULD BE GIVEN TO ALL OUR STREET VENDORS,I'M SURE SOME OF THEM NEED TO BE ENLIGHTENED AS WELL!!!!!

This book was excellent and should be passed out at every juvenile system and prison. I wish I had read this book before my son turned 20 and moved out. I would have made him read it and right me a full report about! I have a younger son and it will be a must read in a couple more years!
Thank you for sharing and writing a powerful and enlightening book.

We absolutely LOVE this book. I pulled my son out of Kindergarten to homeschool him because he was miserable with all of the worksheets and it made him hate writing! This book saved us. These games are fun and it doesn't really even feel like "work". Writing doesn't have to be boring. He has improved 100% and no longer complains about writing... It's even fun for me!

This book has lots of good ideas that can be implemented in writing workshops for any age.

This book gives great ideas on how to stimulate your child's interest in writing it's ideas are so practical and user friendly that anyone can start to apply it right away.

This is a great book. I just received it and have put it to good use with my students. I look forward to using it with my own children too!

This is a wonderful book for the homeschooling environment. First, the author is a tutor for children struggling with public school methods, so she offers enjoyable, imaginative alternatives to the plug and chug kids get in school. Second, as a tutor, the author works with children primarily one-on-one. These games, therefore, lend themselves naturally to the experience of home schooling. Third, the author provides meaningful explanation of the kinds of writing and thinking skills each game addresses; in this sense, these games are more than games. Finally, many of these games can be tied in easily to whatever other content you may be covering at the moment. For example, I found a wonderful game in here that I plan on using when my son and I cover the artistic concept of "line". I also appreciate the chart in the back of the book that categorizes each game according to grade level.

On the whole, the author takes a "bottom up" approach to writing. Ditch the spelling tests and grammar grind for now, and teach kids to love writing by providing writing exercises that they'll love. She respects and celebrates the kidness of kids.

You can really get several years of use out of this book, even with no other writing book.

This is just one of those mangas you can't help but become addicted to. The story is SO CUTE! And it's hella funny. Kyo (the girl posing as a guy) is not your normal manga style girl, she seems to be more guy-ish (espically once you get to vol.6 and up-she seems to have a perverted mind-) It was non stop laughs when I was reading this book ( I was kicked out of my school library for laughing too loud..*cough*). The art style is also very well done, the funny expressions will catch you off gaurd :p Bottom line: TRY THIS SERIES!-you won't regret it----

I'msure if you've read the other reviews, then you know what this book is about by now.

I really loved this series. It's a bit like a modern-day Mulan, only the main character was forced to do something against her will, while Mulan was completely on her own with the important decision.

Awesome for teens. Especially if you like basketball. Highly recommended!

Girl Got Game is one of my favorite manga series. I haven't read that many series, but i still like it a lot. Its about a girl who's dad loves basketball, but when he was in collage he injured himself and couldn't play nationally, so he enrolls her as a boy in a co-ed school so she can play basketball as a guy for him.
She meets a guy who she hates at first, but eventually falls in love with, and its just a really nice story of a girl who has some problems but gets over them and falls in love along the way. I like the story most because she learns to like a guy she once hated, which shows that you can fall in love with anyone, no matter who they are, and i can personally relate to that (not with a guy i hate, but a friend who was very unexpected). So yeah, i think its a great manga, probably more for girls than guys but whatever.

Power!! (Girl Got Game) is a very good shoujo series. It's about girl named Kyou Aizawa, who ends up entering a high school known for 1. their very cute uniforms, and 2. their elite basketball team. It turns out that Kyou ended up entering the school as a GUY rather than a girl (poor Kyou, she didn't get to wear the pretty uniform>_< this was all her dad's plan).
So, anyway, when Kyou started school, she met Eniwa Chiharu, who is on the team. She didn't have a very good start with getting to know him, and later, they end up being roommates in their dorms.
Kyou has to go through many difficulties to be act as a guy and not be found out. When taking a bath, she has to make sure that the coast is clear, and that no one would come in, so she takes it while everyone else is having dinner. She has to wear the boys' uniform, and so no one will become suspicious, she also straps down her chest.
This is all I'm willing to share, for those who have not read this series. Good series, and has the same cuteness as Seino-sensei's other works, such as Heaven!!, and Suki Suki Darin (those aren't released in the US yet. I read from scanalations).
If you read this series, you will find it has similarities to Hana-Kimi. Well, good reading! Ciao! (I wanted to say that, just telling you I'm not Italian or anything of that matter.)

I started reading this manga and was very happy to find yet another good manga to read. I seem to be attracted to the whole girl-acting-as-a-guy type of manga. So the story started off good. It was about a girl pretending to be a boy so she can play basketball. But as the story continued...and neared the ending...I discovered that it was becoming very dumb. The plot kinda died and people were acting in stupid ways and I'm sorry but I do not advise you to read it. It's kinda odd to right a review like this. I'm trying to explain this in the best way possible so here you go.

Beginning = GOOD. ^-^

Ending = GAHH. WTF!?!!?!? D<

I was very satisfied with this book and i know my grandchildren will love it. Thank you

I was so involved in this book I neglected my friends and family until I could finish finding EVERY SINGLE THING on the lists! I loved it, and even though it's almost useless to ME now that I've found everything, I'll keep it on the shelf and show/lend it to others who come to visit. Maybe in a few years I can pick it up again and start over; my senior moments are becoming more frequent, and I might just forget where everything was hiding!

This was another great I spy book. Keeps the kiddies interested.
I loved it too.

Item as described and received in a timely manner... an excellent buying experience!

Very difficult book, but one you can't stop playing. Great person that I bought it from.