I went into the biggest bookshop in Belfast today, and, as I usually do, I checked out the indoor games section. There was 1 book on chess, and 0 books on Go. Most where on Sudoku, Scrabble, and Poker, with various other card games and IQ things flung in as well.

How are things in your city?

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North Lecale

There is typically around one go book that's intended for beginners in the stores near where I live.

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be immersed

Here in Kassel, Germany is is the same. At least here are a few books about chess (although quite uninteresting for me).

I've been to Singapur in July and was -- according to my travel guide -- the biggest bookshop in South asia. Besides begin quite small for my european taste there were a handful of Go books, most seemed like introductionary ones. Yes, that was a sad moment for me

- Michael

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Go is easy: don't play bad moves.

The B&N nearest to me usually has a few books on Go (a Janice Kim book or two with that one introduction to Go book). I haven't been there in a while, though. Mayhaps I'll check it out tomorrow to see the current selection.

There are 2 shelves, each about 4' long, of Go Books at Powell's City of Books in downtown Portland. I do, however, realize that Powell's is an outlier in many ways.

yeah, Powell's is awesome -- and an exception

Mainstream bookshops here in Gent, Belgium usually have absolutely no go books whatsoever. There used to be a few copies of Korschelt's 'theory and practice of go' in a large second hand bookshop, presumably overstock that was bought from previously mainstream bookshops.

I guess that's not really what javaness asked, but do you have specialty bookshops where you live? There's one in Gent at a very weird location, somewhat out of town (but luckily it's like a 5 minute walk from my parent's house). The owner's really friendly, and I've bought over 100 different titles there, and they almost always have the latest go world in stock as well.

Big chain stores here in Ottawa, Canada seem to always have 0-1 Go books and 10-15 Chess books.

I haven't been to a specialty book store, so I don't know about that ...

This is the case in most cities in Australia too (I haven't checked them all). Basically no Go books...

The one exception is John Hardy in Brisbane.

That's why I think that it's more effective to make Go books more easily available online. It's apparently a lot of work to do that too though .

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David

Go Game Guru: Learn Go | How to Get Better at Go | Go Game Shop | Go Boards | Baduk TV

Pretty good, tons of Go books available in many of the bookstores here.

In fairness.. if you went to a bookshop (other than a University bookshop) you wouldn't find many books on physics or maths at a high level..

You would in London. You can find shops with a shelf-ful of books on baseball, which amazes me. The game is virtually non-existent here. Yet Foyles has more baseball books than the biggest shop I found in San Francisco. But English go books are hard to come by except in games shops. Foyles usually has a few on go (5-6), but maybe hundreds on chess (though pruning back heavily in recent times, I suspect).

In Los Angeles, Kinokuniya had about 20 go books in Japanese (and also more go than shogi books, which is not unheard of but a little unusual) for which must be a tiny Japanese-reading population. Mark told me it had several English go books, too. I was surprised at how English books there were on origami - dozens.

It's all so patchy. But rather than blame the booksellers, I think we need to accept that the problem is that people don't buy many go books (even from established go publishers). I was told in Santa Barbara that the reason so few book reviews appear in the AGJ is probably that the editors and most of the AGA administrators don't buy go books themselves, so they pay no heed to books. They will publish a review if offered one, but won't actively seek one out, nor are books highlighted in other ways as a valuable resource (e.g. there is no handy list of books that can be passed to booksellers). The same seems to apply in other associations. As individuals they are entitled to ignore books, of course, but as journalists and administrators this seems likes bad journalism and bad administration. Or maybe I'm the one who's out of touch.

Foyles doesn't count!!!

It has almost certainly got books on Go but the place is so large (is it 30 miles of bookshelves?) if you did find a book on go someone would have to be sent out to find you...

whta is curious is that in every book shop I go into there are shelves full of books on Sudoku.... I believe it's a Japanese game played on a grid.. can't see the attraction myself..

If it's been some time since you went to Foyles you might not realise it has become a proper modern bookshop instead of an Aladdin's cave where, as you say, the Hansel and Gretel trick of dropping stones was necessary to find a way out. Foyles even has two branches now, both in London. Oddly enough, this change was due partly to a go player, Bob Ochser, who wrote in and complained about said logistical exercise (and other things). The head honcho phoned him and asked him in a very long conversation how to put things right.

that's a shame... I often got lost in Foyles for an entire day... but that was thiry + years ago.

In San Diego, there is not a go book to be found except for in one used book store...and that only because I own it.

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Help make L19 more organized. Make an index: https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5207

Most large bookstores in the USA, such as Barnes and Noble, have some go books. Often there is a copy of Iwamoto's Go for Beginners, for example. I've seen some of Janice Kim's books and Peter Shotwell's books. Small independent bookstores usually don't have much on Go. I suspect there are different reasons for the dearth of go books. Primary is the fact noted by John that the population of go book buyers is so small. Another factor is the way book stores get their stock. Book stores get books to sell from wholesalers, not usually directly from publishers, and which books they buy from the wholesalers is by-and-large based on lists put out from various sources. Wholesalers who supply bookstores most likely don't know about the major go publishers. Thus I doubt whether simply asking a store to stock go books would have much of an effect. On the positive side I've noticed that most stores that specialize in games (all sorts: Monopoly, chess, etc.) have some go sets for sale. To a go fan the equipment is not of high quality but it is there. I take this to mean that there must be a regular demand for it. The presence of Go for Beginners on bookstore shelves is about the right level for the demand for go sets in game shops. The demand for more advanced books like those from Kiseido, or John's wonderful Slate and Shell books, would be too low for most "brick-and-mortar" stores. Having a more advanced book or two on the shelf in a shop can be a good thing, even if they collect dust for years before selling. The first books I read after learning how to play from Arthur Smith's book were Ishi Press's Basic Techniques of Go (Haruyama and Nagahara) and Strategic Concepts of Go (Nagahara) which I found on the shelf in a local bookstore 40 years ago, and which sparked my serious interest in the game.

I'm surprised by the results of this thread. I had thought that every Barnes and Noble had one or two of Janice Kim's books, as well as one or two other introductory books, and that it would be the same for other large/chain stores. Guess I was wrong.

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Occupy Babel!

Eh, that seems about right for Texas. It took a good while to gradually collect all the volumes of Janice Kim's books, but I got there.

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Someday I want to be strong enough to earn KGS[-].