I was in a game store the other day, just about the only place in town with go books. Browsing through the collection, I was struck by the most incredible lust and strong desire to buy them.

It may be that I'm a bit of a book-worshipper to begin with, but I don't see how reading go books can be bad. Books of problems aren't going to have many errors and are considerably easier on the eyes than doing tsumego online is. Books on theory and strategy are going to maybe clarify something that you kind of understood already, they might open your eyes to a new concept that you never thought of before, or they might say something that you completely disagree with. And in either case, whether you agree with the author or not, the conversation you have with the author should improve or at least enrich your go, to my mind.

Plus, there's so much variety available! I wanted to buy Cho Chikun's guide to positional judgement, since counting is such an important skill, and I'm so bad at it. I wanted to buy Rin Kaiho's Golden Opportunities. Also Reducing Territorial Frameworks, since that seems to be such a big part of the middle game. And Step Up to a Higher Level. I got Graded Go Problems for Beginners v3 a while ago and worked through it twice, but I'm wondering if maybe I should buy v2 to practice speed reading, or if I'm possibly ready for v4. Plus there's that great classic, Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go.

But I've also heard contrary opinion. Benjamin Teuber, in his guide to becoming strong, says that the most important things you can do for your game are doing tsumego, playing games, and reviewing your games. He doesn't consider books to be important at all-- he says that if you've got a book, read it if you like, but otherwise don't bother, and don't take the book too seriously anyway. I've also heard that most beginners just buy too many books, especially theory books, and don't spend enough time actually working on their game.

(Plus there is the not insignificant matter of the $$$. No way could I afford all those!)

So what do you all think? How helpful have books been in general to your game? Are there any books in particular that you found really helpful? Or do you agree with Teuber and say that you don't really need them at all?

I found them invaluable. I think there are some simply superb book resources out there, particularly these days.

You need some sort of study material. There is a lot online but I don't think it is a good substitute for the real thing. Go for it and buy as many as you want - it will not be too many.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

this is probably true, but when you can't play a game, read a book

Playing instead of buying books is better for the environment.

Buying used books is good for the environment.

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That's an odd thing for a person with a book-reading avatar to write.

While doing tsumego is a very good thing that has helped me improve a lot, other kinds of Go books have also helped me improve significantly as well. To only focus on one type of book to the exclusivity of all others seems to me to unnecessarily deprive yourself.

Plus, reading a theory book is easier than doing tsumego, so you'll probably find it easier to just pick up and read.

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The books, that helped my play the most, were indeed Tsumego- and Tesuji-books (especially the Graded Go Series and "Get Strong at Tesuji").
For textbooks: "Attack and Defense" is by far the most important book, then comes in my opinion the "Direction of Play". Both give you really a lot to think about.
Somewhere inbetween is "Tesuji", a must-read for a solid foundation in Tesuji and reading.

Then there are "Opening Theory Made Easy" and "Reducing Territorial Frameworks". The latter offers A LOT (of middlegame-Josekis) to study and reading this book without laying down sequences on your board is not advisable.


Those are the one I can recommend; well already ten books ^^ But I can understand your urge to buy Go-books, there are still 44 books on my whishlist and only six are not in English : D Sadly, I, too, have not enough money to buy those : /



post scriptum:


For me it's the opposite. I rather do Tsumegos than start reading a book ^^

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I think having too many Go books around is never a bad thing. (Actually, that's true of books in general -- literature, science, history) If you're like me, it doesn't really matter if you read them or not. The point is to create a Go Literature collection.

Its a good thing - buy them all. Esp those SoDesuNe mentions + Kageyama's popular book.

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I think in general doing the things you enjoy will be more productive and reading certainly can't hurt your game.

As to the environmental issue; most books (especially if published in the US) are printed on farmed wood which the companies replant in order to continue to meet demand. The more books you buy the greater the demand, the more area these companies will need to plant. Wasting paper saves the environment, just as long as it's the right type of paper.

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It's a separate issue but people reading this thread may be the ones to know the answer.

You know that pile of books you keep by your bedside which grows and grows as you buy books but never read them? I'm convinced I saw a great word to describe that phenomenon recently but I've forgotten it. I know what it is in Japanese (tsundoku) but a good English term escape me. Help!

I'm not sure if it's exactly what you are referring to, but "bibliomania" comes to mind when you mention this kind of condition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliomania

Maybe "bibliomania" is a more extreme case of the word you are referring to.

I'm reminded of a saying, "The bad student carries a bag with a lot of books".

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be immersed

tsundoku might mean "book addict" concisely but I don't think it quite captures the "buying books but not reading them" sense. I call it my desert island syndrome, preparing to have to live the rest of my life with the books I have in my house.

Some interesting viewpoints on unread books: http://www.markbernstein.org/Mar0801/UnreadBooks.html

Of all human vices, buying books that you would like to read but may never get around to reading is surely one of the least pernicious (at least if you can afford it).

With Go books there are additional justifications for purchasing books you won't read right away in the form of small print runs and uncertainty as to when a book might go out of print.

As is often the case, a night's sleep unlocks the brain cells. I have now remembered the word I was searching for was bibliotaph.



From the etymological point of view (tsumu + doku) it just means piling up books, but there is an extra nuance. In Shinfuseki-ho, for example, Yasunaga says his book was designed as "Small octavo format to make it easy to carry on the train and to make it less likely to end up as tsundoku", so there is a clear implication of tsundoku meaning books you don't get round to reading.

Out of interest, I checked with Kojien but that just gives the "piling up books" sense. However, kenkyusha says (under tsundokushugi), "acquiring but laying aside books without reading them".