Games Books

An excellent message and a good chapter book for those readers who are starting to gain confidence.

THIS BOOK IS AN EXCELLENT LEARNING TOOL. IT IS A CHRISTMAS PRESENT AND I AM SURE IT WILL BE READ AND EACH CHILD WILL LEARN FROM IT!

I just got this book yesterday for my son who just turned 3 years old. He really enjoyed it and after reading it, he kept asking me to read it over. He was very interested because he started asking questions at the end. He just started preschool and I wanted to introduce him to possible situations he might go through while in school. This story gives a great lesson on how to handle a situation when someone says something mean to you. My son also enjoyed it because the situation takes place in school and at a basketball court, which he can relate to because he started school and he loves to play basketball.

I was looking for a book to help my 9 year-old deal with other kids who say cruel and demeaning things. My son and I sat down and read the book together and then discussed how saying "so" when mean things are said takes away the bullies power. We decided that "so" was his new secret weapon.

My son was so excited when the very next day at school he used his secret weapon and it worked. He has also shared the book with a few of his classmates and it has helped them too.

GREAT BOOK!

The Meanest Thing To Say is not about saying mean things back to mean people. And it isn't even about mean people. What it IS about is children learning self-control, level-headedness and heart. When the new kid, Michael, calls Little Bill names, and says he has to think of the meanest things to say back the next day, Bill is frustrated and anxious. This comes up at home and his dad tells him to just say, "So?" to everything. Little Bill does this and it halts Michael. It takes two people to fight. But the moral of the story doesn't stop here. Bill observes Michael is a new student and maybe just needs a friend. So he invites him to play basketball with him and they become friends.

Unfortunately it is reality that children can be very mean and hurtful. As parents, we need to teach our children how to handle bullies and it's equally as important to teach them not to BE a bully. Also, just ignoring mean actions and words doesn't always work. Everyone has good in them and we all, ages 2-102 need to offer kindness instead of anger. Great job, Cosby! Thank you and please keep writing. Peace & Soar!o8E

I found this a fantastic guide to finding many of the hidden gems that we all take for granted when visiting Disney World. You blink you will miss them. I like some of the history and meanings behind many of the items that I would have missed otherwise. I think this guide would be great to entertain and the teens on your trip.

This lets you see the ins and outs of Disney. It lets you look at Disney in a different way. It's just fun and it's great. So it's great fun!!!!!

My husband and I are avid Disney goers, visiting at least once a year. We always try to find something different to do when wer're there (i.e. tours around the parks). This book has provided that new fun thing to do on our next trip. It asks a lot of questions and you really have to hunt for answers. There are differnet levels of hunts so it's great for kids, teenagers, or kids at heart. Enjoy!!!!!!

I'm sure this is a perfectly wonderful book and I'll give it 5 stars based on how well it's written and how much fun it looks like it would be. However, I bought this book along with the Hidden Mickey's book and we soon learned it was impossible to do both, so we chose looking for Hidden Mickeys. I think the Treasure Hunts would be a lot of fun for large families, church or school groups.

This book is a necessity for anyone who visits WDW. We have been 11 times now, and thought we knew everything. WRONG. We had more much fun on this last trip using this book than ever before.

If you look around at WDW, everyone is hurrying, running, to get to the "next" thing. What you may not realize is that every step IS the next thing.

WDW is not just about shows and rides. It's all the little details that create the whole fun effect. We had never even stopped to read all the handprints in front of The Great Movie Ride, examine the fountain in front of Muppet Labs, notice all the details inside Country Bear Jamboree, or a million other things. Treaure hunting gave this trip so much more and really made this trip more "magical" than ever.

Since I was about 11 years old I always played the queens gambit (I am 23 years old now but took a 2 year break from chess). I was always a strong youth player that never really had chess coaches to teach openings , but I was always though in competition .

Most of my QGD knowledge is from rueben fine's book ideas behind the chess openings. I was fine with that because I could just play the opening getting nice positions with plans and I could spend the saved time on sharper systems with black!). I wil now give my argumentations why it is great to have studied and read this book.

1. QGD has the ideas of all QP opening in it (Sadler) so you will really benefit even if you wil play the slav or QGA later on
2. It is more based on understanding (where to put your pieces, pawn structure psycholigical factors, move orders) so you will actually learn more about chess (themes like hanging pawn, minority attack isolated pawn kingside attack are all there!!)
The question and answer format really helps with this, especially people like me who dont't work much with coaches and stronger players. ( NB sadler uses a question and answer format to explain the ideas)
3. A lot of white players play it because it is safe, playing and knowing it with black gives good chances to equalize in the opening!
4. The quality of the book is great, I found only one move pair left out in game 48 that was all. The diagrams and games are very good.

some disadvantages:

1. only Be7 (no cambridge springs etc)
2. Capablanca - Alekhine match is not really mentioned
3. A bit slow sometimes, if you are new to the opening you can get bored (very subtle games, many draws etc..)

Anyway for my it is one of the greatest chess books I have read, and i will reread it in the future.

About the required audience level, great for club players/ even youth players I think, stronger players (candidate masters etc) will need more and sharper stuff i guess and will already know most of it. I am rated about 1900 but i think 1400-2100 rating level can benefit the most.

bravo sadler !

I recently purchased Sadler's QGD book because Silman had recommended this line as a solid, easy to learn response to d4 and I wanted a deeper understanding than what Silman provided in his short article(available on his web site). My initial reaction to Sadler's book is simple, "Why don't chess publishers REQUIRE all opening books be written like this?" QGD uses the typical complete game method found in most opening books. What sets it apart is the Socratic method Q and A that explains just about everything about the lines discussed. I believe that far too many opening books expect you to know a lot about the line before you begin the book, this book does not make that fatal error. In short, this book can TEACH you the lines it covers. My understanding is growing daily. Hats off to Mr. Sadler. Now let's urge publishers to follow his format with all their opening books.

First please note: I'm not an advanced player. My online rating is around 1400. I'm not in the USCF. I rarely study with a board. I just like chess and want to get a little better, without allowing it to become an obsession. It is not my life, so I won't ever become great at it.
My parents taught me chess when I was little and they taught me QGD. I have always known it a bit, and continually try to learn more about it and QGA.
Now to the review:
I bought this book about three years ago and now rarely refer to it. I have since gathered other instructive texts that are more appropriate to my level, and which I find easier to read.

I want to like this book, but find that it is not for someone like myself who merely wants to read about openings and look for the dumb moves to avoid. You really have to study this book. You should set up a board or even two or three.

The author continually starts reviewing/examining a game, then spends a lot of time on what happened in another game, or what might happen [on a long side-line] if a player did a specific move. This is great for those of you at that high rating level.

As someone who rarely uses a board with a book and who reads the book, I found the diagrams not so useful in this book, because so amny of them relate to the side-line, not the game that is actually being analyzed. I got confuded sometimes; I couldn't match a diagram with the game that was being discussed in nearby text.

Others have pointed out how not all lines are covered, and a few other things. I just wanted to point out that this book is not an intro to QGD, but is a more advanced book.
It's not for everyone, but for some of you it may be the thing to get you even higher on the food chain, I mean ratings chart. :-)
It's not the right book for me; it could be for you. be sure to consider your rating and study habits before buying it.

This book deals mainly with 4...Be7 systems, with chapters on the Lasker, Orthodox systems, Tartakover, Exchange, Bxf6 systems, and the 5.Bf4 variation. All 110 games in these chapters are complete. The notes are relevant and a joy to read, with complete sentences to explain the moves or alternate moves in question, unlike those in pretentious books that try to be exhaustive by giving too many irrelevant variations, and are just tedious and boring. The last chapter, "Queen's Gambit Declined: `General Knowledge'", is four pages long and has two classical traps and a paragraph for each of four alternatives to 4...Be7: Bb4, Nbd7, c5, and dxc4. If you want a QGD book that delves deeper into some of these variations in addition to 4...Be7, check out Bogdan Lalic's "Queen's Gambit Declined: Bg5 Systems", also from Everyman and runner-up for the British Chess Federation's Book of the Year award, the award "Queen's Gambit Declined" got in 2000. If you want a book on the Tarrasch, look at Jacob Aagaard's "Meeting 1 d4".

But missing those lines is not a problem, because the author aims to give the reader a general understanding of the opening, not a complete repertoire. To this end, Sadler uses several examples from other queen pawn openings (like Semi-Slav, QGA, Nimzo-Indian) which are not digressions, but very relevant because after all, "(t)he QGD is the original queen's pawn opening; modern systems such as the Slav and Semi-Slav or the QGA have developed by taking features from the QGD and accelerating them..." (Sadler).

Sadler uses a wonderful Q&A format to explain the ideas of the QGD. These questions and answers give the reader a more solid understanding of the opening based on general strategy, which is something missing in most chess books.

"QGD" gives advice to both sides on how to transpose into the QGD. For example, 3 Nf3 avoids the Nimzo-Indian, 1 c4 avoids the QGA, and then 1...e6! can transpose into the QGD. This flexibility makes knowing the line good for both Black and White players.

Don't let the fact that Sadler deals mainly with 4...Be7 discourage you from buying this book. You will find after reading it that 4...Be7 can be much more solid than the alternatives, and that your game against other queen pawn openings will improve.

Hi, Sadlers book revolves around systems that play Be7. You should know this before purchasing the book. That said, it is top notch work again by Sadler. The question and answer format is a pearl unto itself, found only in Sadler's books. The format is intelligent. To play an opening correctly you "should" know the mainline as well as any possible traps. Sadler scores well here, detailing both. His personal comments at the end of each chapter reflect his likes & dislikes of the presented mainline. All in all, if your wanting to know the Be7 systems inside and out, I can fully recomend this book. On the downside, like all books from Everyman press, they are without algebraic notation. In my mind this hinders any chess book from becoming more that it is. Multiple systems are given in each chapter, concerning your opponets move orders. Sadler does make it clear that move orders are very important, stating that you must know them. examples are given for each and evey case.

This is a very thorough and insightful book. The game itself is absolutely amazing at its accuracy in self realization. It may not give you any real life-skills, but it is really interesting. I want to say more, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone. Just get the book. It's totally worth it. The real fun part is playing it with other people. It takes a little practice to become proficient, but the book gives you everything you need.

When you finish this book, you will discover additional questions about yourself and others.. but besides the questions you will have answers ,on the why you or your friends or significant other acts the way they do. very thoughtful is this book. besides once you have been cube'd you can cube others!

This is a wonderful book. It is extremely accurate. I highly recommend it. Once you cube someone, you are given an inside look at who they are, and why they act the way they do. It is also a wonderful look inside yourself. I highly recommend this book.

This game is so much fun! You learn things about people that you never knew... heck, you learn things maybe *they* didn't even know. My friend introduced me to it and ever since then, I've "Cubed" everyone I know. It's lots of fun to do with new friends as well.

I have read and collected quite a library of psychology and esoterical books on many subjects and approaches involving personal/spiritual development and exploration. This book is one of the few that I've encountered that is extremely accurate, no matter who you use it with. It contains great insight, in a straight-forward way, into yourself, life and relationships. It is very thorough in it's approach, yet still leaves room for personal interpretation - a must in my own book. For though another may help guide us, we ourselves always contain the true keys. And this book even contains references and examples of others who have played the game, including named celebrities, and impressions of interpretations from others. Very helpful for referencing the games you will encounter yourself after reading this book.

Every person I've ever used this book with has absolutely loved the game and has found it immeasurably helpful. We've even had disucssion groups and all-night philosophical pursuits after playing the game. It's hard to tire of it. And it still leaves room for continued exploration into the world of visualization, personal reflection and development; an ancient art - that is yet still very alive and meaningful.

I have seen this book listed and recommended even by spiritualists, though it is marketed as a psychology book and has also been listed on recommended lists from a more scientific approach.

I personally recommend this book for anyone. Rare would be the personality who would not enjoy this book, as the game and its exploration is so intriguing. I first purchased this book on a whim, not entirely knowing what it was about - and have NEVER ever regretted it.

Thanks much to Annie and Slobodan for writing this book!
Best of luck to all and enjoy the Cube!

I love the format of the book... the flip pages make it very easy to work on each puzzle, and I like that there's a little room at the bottom if you feel like making any notes.
The only thing that I'm not as excited about is that I am able to complete the medium difficulty puzzles in one sitting- like a matter of a few minutes, while the difficult ones often take quite a bit longer. I guess I wish that either the medium ones were a little harder, or the difficult ones were a little easier, or that there were some in-between.
I would definitly buy the book again though, as at the very least when I'm stumped on a hard one I can massage by ego by going back & doing an intermediate one :) Then when I come back to the harder one's I'm typically able to pick up pretty soon after. By far my favorite formatting of Sudoko / puzzle books (flip pages). Hope this helps!

Please let me know if this item has been shipped back. it was never received.

Lisa

This is a perfect sudoku book for traveling. It is lightweight and easy to use with the spiral binding. My travel schedule requires 100+K miles per year. This book has lasted through 9 months of travel and kept me entertained.

The book has three levels. The medium is challenging but not difficult for the experienced sudoku fan. The hard puzzles are a mixture, with some only taking me ten minutes while others took me hours.

I would highly recommend this sudoku book.

i really liked this one because
1) it's not big and bulky - an carry it with you and not get bored anywhere (metro/subway, doctor's appointment, airport, whatever)
2) it's on a spiral - not a book-form, so you don't have to bend the pages to see better. It's easy to write on while holding. and once you're done with both sides, it's easy to rip out. or yo can rip out and just carry and sheet or share with somebody.
3) as someone who's already done the "easy" levels of sudoku, i really liked that it starts at the medium level and moves up. and no those super hard ones toward the end are not impossible.

I'm a beginner Sudoku player, but this little book is a good one. It is small and handy with the spiral spine. I also like that the answers are there, it keeps me interested in continuing when I am stumped on a puzzle. Good value & great fun.

This book was written when Dungeon Siege I and Neverwinter Nights I were in development, and thus lacks any information regarding their sequels, Baldur's Gate II, Diablo II, Titan Quest, Morrowind, and ultimately Oblivion. It briefly discusses UO and mentions both Asheron's Call and Everquest, the early mainstream MMOs. Don't expect anything regarding WoW, DAoC, EQ2, DDO, AO or Lord of the Rings Online. That's a lot of material that just didn't exist when this was published.

However, for what it contains, it's VERY good. It has a great introduction on the early development of RPGs. You'll find good information on the influence of Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings on CRPGs. The interviews at the end are excellent reading as well.

The book sets out to guide new RPG designers through the do's and don'ts of CRPG development, and give them a good background on why things are the way they are. It lays out what you need in your proposal and design document, with plenty of examples. It really does an excellent job in all of this. If you're looking for code, look elsewhere. You won't find ANY in this book. It's intended for designers, not programmers.

If you can grab it for under ten bucks like I did, go for it. Everything inside the book is still useful and the guiding principles are accurate even with all that's happened since it was published. I just wish there was a second volume that included all of the new stuff.

This book wasn't at all what I thought it would be, but I loved it. I finished it within a day.

Don't buy this book if you are expecting someone to tell you the steps involved in making an RPG. There are many better books for that. S&C doesn't tell you how to make a game. It tells you how to THINK when making a game. It also goes quite in-depth about what it's like to be in the role of a game designer.

So the two scenarios in which this book would be most useful are:

1. You have a game already designed in your head and just want to make it more fun or more professional.

2. You are considering whether you want to become a game designer as a career.

If you fit one of these two, buy this book right away. If not, it might still be worth a look. It's interesting, well-written, and you may just learn a thing or two.

First and foremost I have to say this book is very well written and easy to read. The only real mistakes I noticed were with release dates on some of the games in a timeline.

The concepts covered in this book will help not only individuals trying their hand at designing RPGs, but other games as well. The information is also presented in an interesting and entertaining way to keep the reader doing just that, reading.

Having recently entered the video game industry, I would recommend this book to anyone seeking to get a start in the industy or anyone just curious about game design in general.

This book provides a clear outlook of how to design an RPG though I wish there was a reference book to go with it. It even could be used as a text book for a class. It does everything it says. Includes other designers perspectives to broaden your perspective on design including designers from Might & Magic, Neverwinter, Star-Trek, and a few others.

Neal and Jana Hallford, Swords and Circuitry (Prima, 2001)

A word to prospective buyers: Swords and Circuitry is not a book about coding games. If that's what you're looking for, Prima has a number of other titles you can go to. This one's about designing games, and there's nary a line of code to be found.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, this book does have a lot to offer both for those who plan to specialize in game design and those who are running (or trying to run) one-man shops. The Hallfords offer a good deal of advice regarding the whole process of game design, from defining what it is (and having others interviewed by Neal Hallford do so as well) to details of design documents, proposals, etc. The benefits for the aspiring game designer are obvious; to the one-man shop, reading this may help clarify some things that will help when programming time comes, or shed a different light on things that may not have been thought of in quite that way. Definitely worth checking out, but know what you're getting. *** ½

I remember Ralph Miller's Oregon State teams while growing up in the Midwest. I rarely got to see them play on Television(no cable), but when I did, there was something about the way they played that made me want to play like them. As I grew up, I realized it was the fundamentals, limited turnovers, uptempo transition game with a disciplined offense that were the keys. They played the game the way it should be played. When I came across Mr. Seidler's book/tape, I just had to see what Ralph Miller's "secrets" were. As I read and watched the tape, I soon found out that it was the system that made the difference. Not one or two things that a coach plucks out of the book. That was engrained into my head by numerous e-mails with Mr. Seidler. He kept telling me to re-read and continue to watch the tapes. As I did, things became clearer and I began to see how the whole system worked. I began to see a little of what Coach Miller had spent 40 years working to perfect. Now I'm starting to teach it to my players and were getting results. It's simple, fundamental and proven. I'd highly recommend this to ANY coach at ANY level. And use Mr. Seidler as a resource. He's very gracious and has "lived it" while assisting Coach Miller.

I too am a girls' basketball coach for a northeastern US High school at the JV level. I want to begin by saying that I wish I had found Steve Seidler's book when it was first published. It is THE single best resource for total implementation of a sound basketball system.

For years I had been scouring the many basketball publishing catalogs looking for just the right mix of titles to build my team system. I was searching for a full court defense that would recover into a ball pressuring half court defense. In addition I did not want a rote pattern offense but instead was interested in a ball control offense which allowed the players to learn basketball and react to what the defense gave them (after trying to secure an easy fast break basket). After having spent hundreds of dollars, if not more, in an attempt to find all the ingredients I needed to implement a successful basketball system, I finally found it all in one neat package. I had stumbled upon some of the important aspects of "Cappy" Miller's scheme with my investments, but it would have taken years to figure out which variables were contributing to the varying degrees of success I had achieved. This book and video package is exactly what I have been looking for as Coach Seidler has quite ably conveyed the 38 years of experience Ralph Miller had already accumulated. Not to mention coach Miller's relationship to Naismith and Phog Allen as incredible resources and connections to the history and development of the sport.

Now that the varsity coach would like to implement Miller's 1-4 offense after the JV's succesful deployment - I can better understand the purpose behind the 7 drills Coach Seidler outlines. The offense is difficult to run successfully without using each drill (my able, and very successful in his own right, colleague does not yet see the value in the split post drill, for example). This was evident as I struggled implementing the scheme in our summer league without fully understanding the drills. In other words, Coach Seidler is correct. It is true that one may find it difficult to implement pieces of the system without the 7 drills. The video is a must watch for one to understand how the 7 drills are to be implemented.

I highly recommend purchasing this set. I look forward to finding out how well it works with a 13u AAU girls' team as well!

Well, where do you go when you are asked to coach your daughters sixth grade team and you have limited coaching experience. I grew up watching Ralph Millers teams and went to OSU so I do have a bias toward his ideas. Finding a book (the only book?) about his systems was a godsend. The ideas were exactly what we needed, a simple plan that they (and I) could learn thru repetition. We started out looking like the bad news bears in shorts. By the start of the seasons they could handle the ball reasonably well and run a rudimentry offense. Our defense became very good in a short period of time. When we reached the mid-point of the season they could set up the backdoor and executed it very well. Hearing the parents in the stands become more excited and cheer as the play was set up and then executed was very rewarding. I know the girls derived much satisfaction from playing as a team. We went thru the regular season undefeated and won the City championship. This year we have the same 10 girls from the same middle school that can now compete with the "A" and "Select" teams at tournaments. This is not due to my coaching ability but to drills and ideas outlined in this book. This does not mean its easy, it takes a lot of work and thought to implement the ideas, but it does show you how to do it. In my opinion you need the video also. Not for the kids to see but for you to visualize what is discussed in the book. All in all, the best money I could have spent.

I grew up in Corvallis as a rabid Oregon State University Beavers basketball fan, and I was in my mid twenties when Coach Seidler was an assistant to Ralph Miller. "The Orange Express" was by far the best coached team I have ever seen, and, as Sports Illustrated noted in 1980, those players "could pass a pumpkin through an inner tube!"
Coach Seidler has taken a personal interest in the growth of my team, as he communicates the details of this system to me by email and by phone.
This system is exciting to coach, and my team has improved a great deal in a short period of time because of our coaching staff's committment to the 1-4 offense, and to the pressure defense techniques that are outlined, in great detail, in this book.
This book clearly explains this system in a user friendly fashion.
I am currently coaching at a new high school in Oregon, with a team comprised of only freshmen and sophomores. We are competing against some of the best teams in the State of Oregon.
To see the growth of the players, and the joy that they have in creating turnovers and backdoor opportunities against much more experienced teams has made our committment to this system worth far more than the relatively small price of this book.
I am proud to be developing a program that honors the memory of Coach Miller.

I have over 50 books and videos relating to baksetball coaching. Some deal with certain aspects of the game, others deal with a system. A System of Game Execution is by far the best coaching book I have ever seen. It tells of the history of basketball, how that history is related to the system, the philosophy of the system, drills for the system, and how everything within the system ties together. The book is written by Steve Seidler and explains in detail the system used by the late Ralph Miller at Oregon State University. Steve was an assistant to Ralph at OSU. Steve also provides his e-mail address and is very good about replying to e-mails. The system is sound and easy to teach and learn. The drills help the players to teach themselves the system. The system is based on team concept and pressure on the opponent at all times. I feel every basketball coach on any level should have this in their library. It is a book you can read again and again and learn something more each time.

I really don't care of teletubbies. But boy did both of my kids. They loved this book because they ask questions like who's hiding behind the tree and the kids would flip it up or down and find who it was. They were anxious. A very enjoyable book to read and fun!

It's a great book for older kids. My daughter tore all the pop up parts out of the book so now we pretend that it's peek-a-boo.

This pop-up book asks you who's hiding behind different things, with the Teletubbies being behind the first four hiding places. Then comes Noo-noo & finally all the Teletubbies are hidden. While 1 or 2 year olds who like the show will probably get some giggles out of it, the book's art work is lacking. It's pretty stale fare, especially the sky. Couldn't they have put at least one bird, or maybe the sun with the baby's face in it up there? This seems to be a rush-job to capitalize on the popularity of the tv show. Looks like it worked - the copy we have is a 5th edition. There's many other pop-up books out there that are done much better, but if your little kiddies love the Tubbies, I'm sure they'll dig this.

I know most parents cringe at the thought of the Teletubbies,me too, but my one year old loves them. In "Teletubbies Play Hide and Seek" little ones are asked to find the Teletubbies under the flaps. After just a couple of readings she understood how to wait until mommy reads the words before she lifts the flap. She also learned the word boo. It's a little word, but it's a start. You might not enjoy the Teletubbies, but it's worth it to watch your child's face light up.

My 8-month old daughter LOVES this book! It makes her laugh out loud and she already has figured out how to lift the flaps on her own when we read it! It's a cute little book for babies and toddlers. I don't mind the Teletubbies so much anymore! :-)

The thing that I love about not only this, but but both of Taylors books is that he has a great sense of humor. I tend to think that in real life, Taylor and I would clash rather strongly on some issues, but that's OK. I will buy every book he comes out with (and here is hoping it isn't just these two) simply because the man has a gift for telling stories. I have read tools of the trade probably 25 times since I bought it years ago at a B&N, and I anticipate reading it another 25 times!

I was given this years ago, read it in a week and loved it, then forgot the title when trying to describe it to a friend. It is a shame it is out of print.

Everyone should read this book, and anyone you know who likes to build things should get this for Christmas.

I picked up this book about 6 years ago at a B&N store...and finished reading it in one sitting in my yard. Trust me when I tell you that it is not often when I feel overwhelmed by anything. But this book, with its simple prose, made me gulp several times. Keep in mind that it is not a depressing read. On the contrary, it can be funny as heck at times!

It's a shame that this book is now out of print and likely to become scarce, as I have given it on several occasions and have always received many thanks in return.

The author fills the reader, even a reader with minimal knowledge or interest in carpentry, with a true respect for the tools, their usage, and the history behind them. Not just the history in a greater sense, but also the history these tools have in the author's life.

I'm now reading this book for the third time. I usually like to pick it up when my office job is making me dream of a life building and remodelling houses.

The beauty of this book that the problems in it do not require any special knowledge. It can almost equally be tackled by old and young. I was 11 or so when I read this book and was able to enjoy many problems ... I still enjoy them when I am 31. Please, reprint the book!

At the time this book was written, Raymond Smullyan was one of the world's leading experts on Godel's Incompleteness Theorems -- some of the deepest mathematical results of the 20th century.

This book is actually a gentle intro to these topics, and the most amazing part of it is that Dr. Smullyan keeps the level suitable for children.

That does NOT mean this book is not suitable for adults. It is extremely entertaining no matter what your age is.

The book is mostly a progression of logical conundrums. You are started out on the island of knights and knaves. These two types of people are visually indistinguishable, but knights always tell the truth while knaves always lie.

You are then presented with various scenarios where the objective is for you to ask one question from which you obtain some meaningful information without knowing whether or not the person you are asking is a knight or a knave. The classic example is that you meet two people one of whom is a knight and one of whom is knave. Your objective? Ask one of them one question that allows you to determine which one is the knight and which one is the knave. Answer? "If I were to ask your friend if he was a knight, would he say 'Yes'" A knight will always answer this question "Yes" and a knave "No". If you can follow the logic through to conclude this, you are on your way!!

The situations through the book grow more complex. For example, later you find yourself on a similar island where the natives no longer speak English. They words for yes and no are "boo" and "da". The problem is, you don't know which is which!

At the end of the book, you are presented with the ultimate level of complexity where not only do half the people always lie and half tell the truth, and not only do they use the words "boo" and "da" for yes and no (without you knowing which is which), but half of the population is also insane which means that whatever is true, they BELIEVE the opposite. So an insane liar always inadvertantly tells the truth because what they believe is false...and then they lie about it.

Sound hard?

Yeah, that's the point.

Nonetheless, the book is a nice progression, and you definitely get better and better and following the logic through and thinking in these terms, which makes this book GREAT mental exercise! Some of the best I have found, in fact.

One final comment, John Houston's review is very wrong on the point of implication: an implication of the form a->b, is ALWAYS true when a is false. This is elementary logic -- a subject in which Dr. Smullyan was a world renowned expert.

I have no doubt that Dr. Houston is a very knowledgeable physicist, but unfortunately -- in spite of his apparently strong feelings to the contrary -- this has not prepared him to comment competently on formal logic.

An amazing book that trains you to use your brain effectively through a careful structure that increases in complexity as you progress. I read it when very young and would like to get copies for all my staff as it is an excellent tutorial on logic and perfect for orienting systems programmers into looking at complex problems with a fresh viewpoint. Sadly it appears to be out of print and I join the cry in asking the publisher to pull it out of the archives.

This book is a chockful of puzzles and riddles, humorous and bizarre. The author (Raymond Smullyan) uses these puzzles to introduce formal logic in a particularly fun and interesting way. This book also illustrates the unique sense of humor many mathematicians. He characterizes a drunken mathematician as one who says, "I can prove anyshing!"

Added January 2003

I used some questions from this book in my college physics class last fall (2002). I noticed a couple problems with the book and what it tries to present. The book is still fun and amusing, but not fully accurate. Consequently, I reduce my rating to a four.

I believe that logic is nothing more than reading (or hearing) and comprehending sentences, and identifying whether sentences are true or false. This book does an excellent job of training the reader to read what he reads. This is something the modern reader needs desperately -- witness the success of persons like Hugh Ross in persuading people that the Bible says what the Bible manifestly does not say.

However, the book emphasizes something that is very wrong: the claim that "A false statement implies anything" and its logical equivalent, "Anything implies a true statement."

"If we hadn't stopped and turned back, we would have been caught in an avalanche" would be just as true (after stopping and turning back) on the hottest summer day in the desert as on a stormy snowy day in the mountains in winter. Likewise, "If Al Gore had been allowed to take office as President, 9/11 would have not occurred" and "If Al Gore had been allowed to take office as President, 9/11 would have occurred" would both be equally true without considering what might have happened had Gore been President.

If "a false statement implies anything," then we cannot discuss intelligently what might have happened if we'd made different choices.

The book does prove that "If 2 + 2 = 5 then I am the Pope." It is possible that false statements of a certain type are guarranteed to imply anything.

I would like to see this book back in print. Most of it is excellent and on target in logic. Perhaps a second edition could be published, adjusting its take on these issues.

A true delight to read, although the one reviewers comments (John Morrison from Houston) brought to mind the truth of Pope's comment,"A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again." As you read this book hopefully your brain will be stimulated to ask questions AND to dig deeper to learn ther answers. Smullyan is NOT wrong when he says that a false hypothesis yields a true conditional statement. I haven't read the book in decades, so I can't comment on whether or not Smullyan explicits says this, but conditional statements do not express causal relations (I can understand how a physicist would think this.)
Anyhow, this is a great book for young children with inquisitive minds and even for old children who think they know it all.

MB