Indoor Books

This book is quite a treasury of entertaining games, clearly and simply explained. Card games, word games, solo or group...they're all there. Everyone's getting this for Xmas from me. A perfect guide to social fun and creativity of play. Chuck the electronic toys and happy times will be yours.

This is the best book a family can have! We use this book more than our dictionary! Whether I am spending time with my pre teen kids or my toddler nephews this book offers us something fun and easy to do. All the classic games, indoor and out are in here - it is a great reminder to see them again, and learn new ones as well. All of the directions are easy to follow. Buy this book and start having fun!

Finally a great "rule" book that has it all. User friendly and great layout. Now when the family gets together we will not waste time and energy disagreeing on how a game is to be played, especially when the instructiuons have been misplaced. I am giving a copy to each of my kids and to friends to enjoy with their families.

What a great book! My family & friends sat right down and played a round of Charades, then some of the word games. We laughed so hard, our faces hurt from smiling so much. It's wonderful to see the old games we'd forgotten about, and we can't wait to try some new ones. We're definitely taking it on our next car trip and I plan on buying one for every family we know for Christmas. A real find. I heartliy recommend it to anyone who wants to have fun.

The BBO Rules is fabulous! Not only do you get the most comprehensive book on the subject ever, the writing is clear, concise, and fun to read. Bits of historic information and trivia are included as well. This is the perfect gift for at least 3 people on my holiday list.

Outstanding! This is the best and most interesting book on fungi. I highly recommend it to anyone with any interest in the subject. One of the best books I have ever read on any subject.

All things black and slimy. I loved your book Dr. Money. Lets add the nasty Chaetomium next time also neurogenic fungus.
How about the politics of the wood industry and Dr.Jeff Morrell who appears to be teaching that "mold and mildew do not cause wood rot". Is this related to the wood industry and building industry not wanting mold reported in inspections and promptly forgetting about soft rots while endangering occupant health? I have this in print from the State of Washington Department of Agriculture- what fun we could have with them.

A well written book .Vary interesting and easy to understand .Great picture of Hunter The Mold Dog .

If Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) were reincarnated as a mycologist, he would have written this book. Dr. Money's liberal dose of irreverent humor makes his very detailed, erudite book on toxic mold easy and enjoyable to read.

In the preface, Dr. Money says, "Widespread fears about black-mold toxins are a product of the new millennium and deserve a critical, balanced, scientific inquirty. Though I cannot promise anything that boring, I do hope I can dispel some of the media myths about these microorganisms while identifying the real threat that can be posed by a few of these fungi."

Stachybotrys plays a key role in this book. In Chapter 5, Dr. Money discusses the 1993 outbreak of pulmonary hemmorraging (bleeding lungs) in poor children living in Cleveland. When Dr. Money began his book, he first thought that stachybotrys might be an innocent victim of media hype. However, he discovered that stachybotrys chrtarum can produce highly toxic spores. Along with the Cleveland outbreak, he discusses an outbreak of stachybotryotoxicosis in the Soviet Union in the 1940's, and illnesses linked to Stachybotrys among horticulture workers in Europe. Dr. Money also talks about the science used to evaluate the links between Stachybotrys and illnesses, and some of the political issues at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that caused the CDC to soft-pedal Stachybotrys.

This book has a thorough, although daunting, discussion of how allergic reactions are triggered in individuals. The body's allergic reaction is, as Dr. Money points out in Chapter 3 -- Carpet Monsters, an intricate mechanism. Until I read this book, I didn't realize that four types of cells primarily respond to allergens - dendritic cells, T lymphocytes (T cells). B lymphocytes (B cells) and mast cells. Dr. Money talks about each cell type's responses to allergens, and the creation of immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies.

"Your Verdict, Please" (Chapter 6) is an overview of mold litigation. It has a very thorough discussion of what happened to Melinda Ballard's home, the resulting litigation, and a breakdown of what the jury awarded Ms. Ballard - and why. Dr. Money also discusses the reduction of the $32 million award to $4 million. This chapter also has a good discussion of how the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Daubert affected the Ballard case.

Dr. Money also discusses mycological warfare -- and he is not using the term as an analogy to what happens in a house with mold. He is discussing the development of mycotoxins as a weapon in armed conflicts.

Nicholas Money is an amazing writer who manages to entertain and instruct at all times. I found myself learning and laughing from cover to cover. "Carpet Monsters and Killer Spores" is a book for everyone. Not only does it provide a wonderful introduction to the study of fungi; it explores the way our lives and destinies are inextricably linked to those of the fungi. Homeowners, attorneys, and people in the insurance industry will find much to enjoy (and fear!) in this book, as will biology enthusiasts, naturalists, and readers of all persuasions.

As Money explores the "black molds" that have received so much attention in our news media, he also explores the cultural event surrounding their reception. The book is fascinating not only as a biological work, but also as a sociological study. Thorough research and diligent attention to detail provide Money with a unique, scientifically grounded perspective, and his quirky humor will have you laughing out-loud all the way through.

Importantly, Money does not provide any easy answers to the pressing questions raised by black molds. Instead, responsibly, he shows us what science knows and what it does not know, giving us a sound, factual basis for interpretation of the many wild claims we see in the media. The only negative factor involved with this book is the fact that readers everywhere have had to spend many hours (and dollars) cleaning their bathrooms like maniacs and replacing moldy shower curtains after reading it!

This is the most easy to read & comprehend book about houseplants that I've ever seen. Each plant is shown in color and rated on an very easy - very difficult basis, which is extra important when deciding on which plants to purchase. The book tells you commom problems of each plant and tips & hints on how to care for them. I check with this book before I purchase ANY plant!

A must buy for the houseplant lover!

Equipped with beautiful color photographs and clearly written text. Specific care and problem info boxes are provided for each plant, each of which is listed by both Latin and common names.

Before this book, the few plants we had were just barely surviving. Plants received as gifts invaribly died. It was horrible.

Then we got this book. We have filled our house with a variety of planets and our plants are doing extremely well. We now give cuttings and detailed care instructions to other people who love plants. Evans' book is very easy to use, it is an extremely attractive book with a color photo of each plant, and we consult it all of the time both as a reference and as guide to which plants we would like to add to the house. It is a pleasure just leafing through this book!

This is a great reference book for all levels of houseplant lovers (I have about 30 houseplants spread throughout my small house). I think the most useful part of this book is how the author rates each of the 200+ plants referenced as "Very Easy, Easy, Difficult, Very Difficult." These ratings refer to the ease (or difficulty) in growing these plants indoors. I've already consulted the book probably a dozen times before buying a particular plant, i.e., if I know a plant is going to be "difficult" or "very difficult," I usually think twice about the amount of time and work that might be involved with sustaining the plant.

In addition to ranking the plants like I've described, the author lists common problems associated with each plant, the fixes for these problems, how to proprigate, the average life-span, where to place the plant, how big/small you can expect the plant to get, and much much more information.

I'm a plant lover and consider myself knowledgeable on houseplants, but I get this book out at least once a week to either reference something about my existing plants or plan my next purchase. I enjoyed this book so much, I recently purchased one as a gift for my mother, who is also a plant lover.

If Amazon has this book in stock (it frequently goes on backorder I've noticed), get it. You won't be disappointed.

This book has a short "introductory" section that goes over the basics. I've seen a number of books that have more general information than this one. However, I think this book does an outstanding job of giving very specific information on each plant in its listing of 100+ plants.

Each listing shows a color photo or drawing of a typical specimen. At the top of each listing is a rating from "Very Easy" to "Very Difficult" on the difficulty of caring for this plant. This can be very useful when selecting plants. (It also makes me feel better when I look up a plant that just croaked and found that other people don't have much luck with it either!) Another handy bit of information is the section on "Problems". Each plant listing has a "Problem" section that includes more than just pest problems, but issues like overwatering, light issues, etc. When I get a new plant I like to look it up here so I know what I'm getting into.

This is definitely a great book to have on hand if you have a number of houseplants.

I am almost finished reading The Frozen Toe.. and I must say that Brookelyn Bellinger is a wonderful author. Not only is she a wonderful storyteller, but a funny quick witted woman.

Everyone says that we are crazy for wanting to uproot ourselves and move to Alaska, but this book made me feel like I could really do it.

This book made me realize that some people are just called to live in Alaska, and some arent. I hope that our journey will be as fascinating as Brookelyn's..


((and shes very nice too, she answered a quick email question I had about moving.. I almost peed my pants when I saw she replied back! An email from a celeb, who would have thought! haha))

A+++++++++ all the way!

I really enjoyed reading this book, after I returned home from my first trip to Alaska (in the summer, of course). Alaska is spectacular, but many of us harbor romantic ideas about what it is really like to live in the wilderness. This book will absolutely bring you back to earth, with wit and humor, and will educate you on living in lonliness, darkness and cold! A great beach read on a HOT day.

Boy, Brookelyn Bellinger makes being an Alaskan sound like lots of fun.
She also makes Alaskans sound like lots of drunks, but ...
Bellinger's book, "The Frozen Toe Guide to Real Alaska Livin'," is a compendium of anecdotes, how-to information, advice and snarky commentary on living in the 49th State. From its do-it-yourself acknowledgement, which I found quite amusing, to the off-the-cuff introduction ("I figured most people would skip over the introduction - I usually do ...") and beyond, Bellinger throws zingers right and left on subjects as diverse as working in Alaska, dressing in Alaska and not going insane in Alaska.
Bellinger came to Alaska as a 19-year-old Minnesotan dreaming of adventure. She'd long thought she belonged here, she tells us, because it is "... a place where all kinds of oddballs fit in."
But seriously, she actually longed for the independence, adventure, wide-open spaces and "plethora of espresso stands.
Landing here with $200 and a backpack, she managed to find two jobs right off - working at a B&B in exchange for food and a piece of ground on which to pitch a tent, and selling fishing tackle and other "fish-killing" accoutrements.
Bellinger has had quite the gamut of Alaskan experiences, and she's not shy about telling us about them - successes and failures alike. She talks about the time she and her husband took on a homestead caretaking job on Unimak Island for the winter. Sharing excerpts from her diary (with added "If I knew then what I know now" comments), Bellinger carries us through a winter of too much fish, too much wind and not enough beer. She also shares the life lessons learned - if you're going to go for seven months of isolation, choose someplace with trees (for firewood) and "large animals to kill for meat." Her husband, however, would never do it again. "Seven months is a long time to be isolated."
Bellinger picks up a lot of what attracts most of us to this place. The outdoor life, of course - hunting, fishing, dog mushing, road trips to extremely civilization-challenged places - but she also mentions the intangibles as well. The lack of concern over fashion and following trends and keeping warm versus looking good are my favorite part of being Alaskan, although I've yet to go for the extreme (read "formal") Carhartt look Bellinger advocates.
I definitely enjoyed the "Twelve Simple Ways to Look the Part." These rules should be read to all newcomers as they deplane or deboat or de-car, because, frankly, it would make their lives much simpler. Bellinger tells us to lose all our suits, unless we want them for Halloween, and to keep the swimsuit for the PFD vacations to Hawaii. "Showers and clean clothes are overrated;" fur is the best way to stay warm and immediately buy stock in Carhartts.
But Bellinger also celebrates the spirit of Alaska: the ability to fend for oneself in any situation, the breathtaking beauty of the natural surroundings and the challenge of facing (and sometimes) beating Mother Nature at her worst - and her "children." I particularly enjoyed reading about wild animal attacks - especially the killer porcupine. Oh, yeah, she talks about mean moose and biting bears as well.
Inevitably, the "dry cabin" comes up, because, I suppose, most Outsiders think we all live in log cabins with no plumbing. There's advice on that as well, and some prophecy - eventually, you get used to biting cold on your bare cheeks as you dash out to the john in minus-40 weather.
Bellinger's guide to life here in the Frozen North has a bit of a magazine look to it - lots of sidebars and fact boxes, lists of "resources" and recipes tucked here and there. In a couple of places, she throws in a Q&A session with a noted Alaskan. (Conflict of Interest note: I really don't like the Q&A format - seems rather lazy to me. But I digress.)
"The Frozen Toe Guide" is fun to read, an enjoyable way to spend a rainy afternoon in the armchair. Bellinger's style is sarcastic and smart-aleky, with a class-clown tone of voice that makes fun of herself as much as anything else. She writes well, and obviously knows of what she writes.
If I have a complaint, it's that she's not sure what this book is supposed to be - a how-to guide, a tongue-in-cheek memoir or what. The book starts out so jokingly (I mean, really, fill-in-the-blanks acknowledgements, while hilarious, aren't meant to be taken seriously. Are they?), it's hard to pull back into serious mode. And when Bellinger does throw in cautions ("Just have a good time and be safe out there."), inevitably, she tacks on a smart remark ("Always carry a gun."). It's jarring, this juxtaposition of sarcasm and seriousness.
Don't get me wrong - I loved this book. It's also probably something I'll send off to the relatives at Christmas so they see how much fun I'm having. And how much we drink up here, but you'll have to read the book to see what I mean.

Either for vacation or to live permanently, this book is an insight into the great state of Alaska. Brookelyn did a great job combining humor, wit and truth to some serious subjects that are overlooked from the lowerfortyeightians. Enjoy the book..

There are plenty of coffee table and rather bland tourist kind of books about Alaska. An ample supply of glacier cruises, salmon bakes and float planes flying in front of mountains .

But as an Arctic Alaskan I know that many "Outsiders" would like more. Well here it is! Author Brookelyn Bellinger knows the real Alaska. She lives without running water and well beyond our "big city" of Anchorage.

To become the Alaska woman, she advises, "Being able to butcher a moose is a skill that will be able to get you a date."

And to become the Alaska man, "Once in a while you should make your dog team sleep on the floor."

With two Greenland Huskies in our household, I don't know if I could go that far!

Bellinger understands that Alaskan men rarely consider washing their Carhartts bib top overalls. And that all the cake and ice cream in the world won't make the winters any shorter.

Read this book and learn the importance of duct tape, outhouses/honey buckets and (where I live) lots of dog hair,ice/mud and gravel all over the house and car or truck!

Enjoy!

This has been a joy to go through. I am a novice at this. Its hard finding a good first book to start with. This is it. It has great pictures for you to match your plants to and enough detail on how to take care of them without loosing you in a bunch of detail. I would recommend this book to anyone starting out.

Good photos of plants and great information on care with pest and health issues of plants included.

As a novice houseplant keeper, I rely heavily on the books I read for information I need to keep my plants healthy. This book helped me identify ALL the plants I own, which was no small feat in that most were given to me by others who didn't know the variety. It has easy to read information on caring for plants, and I am able to understand the language used. Some other encyclopedia type books make it difficult to get the info needed, and are geared toward professional horticulturists, rather than laymen like myself. I found this book to be very useful, and would highly recommend it to others who have "hobby" plants. The pictures are great, too! They provide a good explanation for the written description of problems common to houseplants, and are a great guide to diagnosing ailments.

This is amazing beautiful book.
We have got lot's of flowers in our office and
now finally we can identify all of them and
what's more important, we now know how to care about them.
If you enjoy indoor flowers you must have this book!

The photography and text of this beautiful book are well-done and easy to follow. The authors cover most aspects of plant care, from basic watering and lighting to reproduction and pest control to extensive entries on houseplant varieties. Every plant entry seems unique, breaking from the dull template of information that the more encyclopedia-like plant books have. This engaging style is a strength of the book, but it is also a weakness because the style lends itself to inconsistency. For example, the entry on Saintpaulias (African Violets) specifies the height at which artificial lights should be placed above the plants, but many of the other entries do not give such information. Another complaint is that the secondary plant list in the back does not feature a photograph of every plant. For the price I paid, I would have willingly give up a few of the extra photos in the front if it would result in a more comprehensive photo collection in the back. Identifying p! lants without pictures is very difficult. Nonetheless, no plant book is perfect, and this one comes very close. It combines two types of books -- the coffee-table book and the reference text. All too often plant books do one at the expense of the other.

Many other pros in the marijuana horticulture writing field have described in detail the simplistics of growing, but Robert Bunch does so in a off-the-cuff fashion like I've never seen before.

The psychedelic-splashed book starts with a dedication that sent me to the floor in fits, "I would like to dedicate this book to Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey, Attorney General Janet Reno, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, our lying President Willie Clinton, the DEA and all of the other pieces of sh*t hypocrites out there I might have missed. When one of your family members suffers needlessly because of the ludicrous laws you create and enforce, you will then know the pain that caused me to write this book."

It only gets better from this point. He finishes the tribute to all prohibitionists, "May your ignorance and intolerance be rewarded tenfold."

Borrow, buy, or steal this book! It's a funny look at a really serious topic.

"Marijuana prohibition has ruined countless productive lives, clogged our justice system, overcrowded prisons and wasted countless taxpayer dollars. The purpose of this book is to foil the efforts of the authorities by using my method of gardening," writes Robert Bunch.

And what a method it is. Whether or not you use the author's tips for keeping marijuana and mushrooms covert, this book is extremely entertaining. With wit and humor, Bunch relates where to put your stash in the backyard, treetops, house, auto, or airport, how to grow a mushroom garden, and even how to adopt a puppy and train him to be your drug-sniffing co-conspirator. The final chapter is a cookbook-Tres Trip Dip, Soup a la Psilocybin, and so on. Packed with anecdotes and hundreds of inventive tips, this oversized volume is the perfect gift for any friend who is sick and tired of the drug war.

Eye Magazine October/November 1998

I only want to touch a little bit on what this fine book has to say about growing mushrooms, which is surprisingly little; out of 21 chapters, only one is about growing shrooms, the rest are for growing weed. The cultivation techniques are simple and effective, but taken nearly verbatim from...., which in turn was an adaptation of the techniques by Oss and Oeric in the Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide, I believe. Buy this book if growing shrooms is an afterthought to lessening your chances of being caught growing marijuana, for that is where the author earns your money. Mr. Bunch is obviously knowledgeable about growing high-quality, clandestine weed, and is also very fun to read, but unfortunately he is little more than a novice mycologist. I highly recommend this book to anyone intending to cultivate marijuana, but for those intending to grow psilocybe mushrooms, I must refer you to the Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide and the Mushroom Cultivator, by Stamets and Chilton.

If you ever wanted to grow your own treez or mushrooms, this is the book for you. Put it in the bathroom and read it when you have some time - worked for me!

This is a brilliant very informative book ,it is set out in such a way that it is very easy to read and follow the techniques used.It explains how to grow marijuana and mushrooms and other more interesting information very well with everything you need to know.This is definately the best book i have read on how to grow mushrooms ever guarenteed, as all of the other books i have read on this subject have been to confusing to follow or not informative enough and therefore this is the only book on that subject alone with the marajuana growing also as good.

this book helped me go from a person not caring about chess to now being a very big part of my off duty time i take my magnetic set with me to all my appointments or anywhere i might have a waiting period,i get valuable time on my set and i also refer to the games in the book and try to learn from the great games illustrated in the book ,now i am trying to teach my family and friends how to play ,i am 30 yrs old if i had learned when i was younger i would be who knows,playing deep blue in a series :) ,i dream big . i also beat my friend i have been only playing for 1 year and he has been for 8years or more ,but he told me that i will never beat him in chess ,i love when someone tells me i am never going to do something i stayed with what i learned in the book and he underestimated my abilities and the day i beat him i will never forget the surprised look he had on his face. since then i have won matches 3 to be exact and counting i hope i can get more training from on line because i will be better than him or at least get to the point where we are splitting games, he has alot of chess books and he knows i am closing the gap real fast and i like the fact that he opened me up to this wonderful game.

I used "An Invitation to Chess" when I taught a grade school course in chess fundamentals. Of all the chess books I have seen geared purely toward the beginner, I found this to be the clearest, best organized, and, just as the subtitle claims, it is "A Picture Guide to The Royal Game."

Lots of pictures help explain the moves and motions of a piece in the context of a larger strategy. Chernev and Harkness used photos of the board as well as standard board drawings. They require modernized, as the photos are a bit blurry, and the drawings have an old newspaper keyline look. The copy is succinct, but not dry. As a reader, I found it less clinical than many of the chess books with dozens of lines per opening.

This is a long way from anything Lasker or Fischer wrote, but the audience intended here is looking to play the game effectively, unworried about becoming a grandmaster. At least, not yet.

The content list breaks things down to subsections like "How the King Moves and Captures," and "How the Pawn Captures 'en passant.''" They provide a special section cautioning the new player of common mistakes, like "Premature Attacks," and "Pawn Grabbing with the Queen." This is invaluable because young players routinely shoot for point control over game control.

I fully recommend "An Invitation to Chess" by Irving Chernev and Kenneth Harkness. Use this to teach your children, or use it to study up when they start to beat you.

Anthony Trendl

this book helped me go from a person not caring about chess to now being a very big part of my off duty time i take my magnetic set with me to all my appointments or anywhere i might have a waiting period,i get valuable time on my set and i also refer to the games in the book and try to learn from the great games illustrated in the book ,now i am trying to teach my family and friends how to play ,i am 30 yrs old if i had learned when i was younger i would be who knows,playing deep blue in a series :) ,i dream big . i also beat my friend i have been only playing for 1 year and he has been for 8years or more ,but he told me that i will never beat him in chess ,i love when someone tells me i am never going to do something i stayed with what i learned in the book and he underestimated my abilities and the day i beat him i will never forget the surprised look he had on his face. since then i have won matches 3 to be exact and counting i hope i can get more training from on line because i will be better than him or at least get to the point where we are splitting games, he has alot of chess books and he knows i am closing the gap real fast and i like the fact that he opened me up to this wonderful game.

When I first learned the rules of the game, I found this book to be of great value, if only for the simple advice of "always ask yourself why your opponent played a certain move. What does he attack?" and "before your make your move, ask yourself what your opponent's best reply would be." You can find more comprehensive books, but this is my choice for a useful, friendly, quick guide to better chess. I'd buy this for a younger player or newcomer in a heartbeat. Why intimidate someone with a huge tome when you can painlessly improve with this volume?

Though this book is getting a bit old, a better beginners book has yet to be written. Getting into the habit of asking yourself "what does he threaten?" is crucial to the beginning player. They really should update it to algebraic.

If you like to think about mathematics, this book will be a real pleasure read. Some of the math presented is practical, as well as interesting, while other examples are much less so.

I believe the book does a good job covering all aspects of the math behind games.

This is a 500 page mathematical investigation of games using probability theory, game theory, and a variety of mathematical methods. The author finds winning strategies for many games, some of them surprisingly simple. For most games, the point is less to find a trick to win but to clearly explain how the game works and to answer some interesting questions. The author's ability to present mathematics in an understandable manner is possibly unsurpassed by any other writer.

In Chapter 16, entitled, "Games of Chance", the author presents an explanation of Markov chains and how they can be applied to Monopoly and to Chutes and Ladders. The explanation is clearer here than I have found elsewhere. The result of the calculation for Monopoly is two charts detailing the best investments in Monopoly. One chart ranks the monopolies according to how much rent income they will generate for the owner. The second chart ranks monopolies according to their return on investment or ROI, expected rent divided by cost. Thus we see, for example, that the highest rent comes from the green color group, Pennsylvania, and the best monopoly measured by ROI is the orange color group, New York. The author suggests these charts may be useful for deciding what properties to buy and where to buy houses.

The problem is that the results of the Markov chain calculation are not really useful for the important decisions Monopoly players must make. Players must buy nearly every ordinary property they land on in order to advance their chances of getting a monopoly and to block opponents from getting monopolies, so properties' ROIs and rents are almost completely irrelevant to the property buying decisions. After players trade properties, almost every player has one monopoly, not two or three or four, so the problem of deciding where to build the next house is not an issue...the player must put the house on his (lone) monopoly. Only after reaching the later stages of the game, usually after one of the players has been eliminated, do players have a choice about which monopoly to build out. Even in this regard, the chart is not useful. There is too much data to memorize and Monopoly culture discourages players from consulting charts in the middle of a game. Monopoly players bring snacks and drinks, but not charts.

The truly important decisions Monopoly players must make involve trading--which monopoly to take and which monopoly to allow an opponent to take. The data from a Markov chain calculation simply do not help much. What Monopoly players need to help them make this decision is the Monte Carlo method, which the book describes but does not apply toward Monopoly. A Monte Carlo simulation involves programming a computer to play the game, play the game thousands of times, and study what happened. This is exactly what I did for my Winning Monopoly book in 1987. A more detailed review of this book-at least, the portion dedicated to Monopoly-is posted on my web site, [...]

So many books about the mathematics of games are either long out of print, hard to find, or fairly esoteric and not something I'd recommend to just anyone. The best book I've found for someone new to game math is Luck, Logic and White Lies by Jörg Bewersdorff. It introduces the reader to a vast mathematical literature, and does so in an enormously clear manner, which never takes one very far away from either the math or the games behind them. I love Winning Ways and On Numbers and Games, but they're definitely not for the faint of heart. LL&WL is the perfect book for gamers who are interested in the mathematics that underlie the choices they face and decisions they make. Just great stuff.

As this book points out, games fall into three broad categories:

1. Games of Chance
2. Games with a large number of combinations of different moves
3. Different states of information among the individual players.

And this book is broken into three main sections, one for each of these.

Before you get too turned off, yes, there is some math in this book. But it is really not heavy duty. (After all, John Nash of A Beautiful Mind won the Nobel Prize for his work on game theory and his work was not simple math.) The authors explanations of the situations described in the games are very good are very good, and the minimal amount of math is really helpful.

Virtually all of the common games from from the lottery to chess and even Monopoly, as well as the casino games such as blackjack and Roulette are discussed in detail. For anyone interested in what's really going on in games they play, this is an extremely interesting book.

The author knows whereof he speaks, he is the general manager of a game design company based in Germany.

Written by the general manager of Mega-Spielgerate, a game design company based in Limburg, Germany, Luck, Logic & White Lies: The Mathematics Of Games is a no-nonsense instructional in basic probability, geometry, and mathematics as they apply to popular games. Topics discussed include popular myths among those who the lottery, to the question of whether it is possible to reconcile chance and mathematical certainty, to testing dice, the possibilities of distribution in a roulette, modern theories as applied to the classical game of Go, whether bluffing in poker can be done without psychology, and so much more. Written in plain terms, Luck, Logic & White Lies teaches readers of all backgrounds about the insight mathematical knowledge can bring and is highly recommended reading among avid game players, both to better understand the game itself and to improve one's skills.

I bought this book for my son (6 years old) and he like it so much. good present to motive his imagination.

I love this book for being simple and yet smart enough to bring up an animation from static images. Low price also makes it very affordable. Could be a great gift to one who likes optical illusions.

A fascinating concept. The illusion is very real and deceptively simple. This book does a good job of presenting a very clever idea. Everybody who sees it is flabbergasted.

this is the coolest book i've ever seen. it should entertain kids that come to visit for a long time...and you know how hard that can be...

If you're one of those who loves the zoetrope at the local museum, this book makes you feel like you took a piece of it home with you! My whole family enjoyed it. I think it will make a great birthday present for some of our young friends.

A new version of the Marvel Super Heroes game. Certainly without the
short, fun factor of all the FASERIP ranks, karma, and bad jokes that
all of that could entail.

A different look at things, and in the end, nowhere near as
successful. There was no real reason to do this except for change of
licensing.

Ever since I was 10 or 11 I've been into role-playing games. I've owned many over the years, and think the gaming system introduced by Marvel for their Marvel Super Heroes Role-Playing Game (both Basic and Advanced sets) is by far one of the easiest to learn and run. The rules aren't complex, and the Marvel system is in my opinion the most enjoyable to play.

This was the first RPG system I ever roleplayed in. It was simple to learn, challenging to master, and always fun to play. I fondly look back at this as the definitive Super Hero Roleplaying Game system. Especially using the Marvel license, no other "Marvel RPG" has even come close to this one. Great stuff.

This is the best role-playing game for people who don't want to have to wade through a 200 plus page rulebook. It's easy to learn and its popularity is phenomenal, it stopped publishing in 1992, and twelve years later I still have no trouble getting players to sign up for the game at Los Angeles area conventions. This is the best game that carries the Marvel license, it's vastly superior to the new Marvel Universe game, and it's quite a bit better than the Saga card game. I give this game my highest recommendation.

If you're more of a comic book fan than a roleplaying game fan, and you're determined to tell a story in the action-packed style you're used to in the comics... then this is the game for you. There's a newer, card-based Marvel Super Heroes system coming from TSR, but call me nostalgic; the original dice game is a classic.