Life In 19x19 :: Bookoholism

Spending about 10 hours figuring out how to order books through dangdang (which no longer works) is another....

1000 books! I never knew there was that many. Who do people think are the most reliable suppliers of Go books?

There is a Korean phrase that says something along the lines of, "A bad student carries a lot of books."

The idea is that having a lot of books in itself doesn't make for a good student. You can learn a lot from just a single book, sometimes.

That being said, I "carry a lot of books"...

(going thru it I won 2 stones!)

A one time read is by far not enough for me. For instance: I might solve a problem book with a decent probability of success but when I look at the problems a week later I need too much time to find the answer again. So, right now, I have ten problem books in a cycle, which will be repeated until I can lay down every problem without even opening the book. Just kidding. But my goal is to clear the problems' main variations under at least 30 seconds.

Author:	Dokuganryu [ Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:58 pm ]
Post subject:	Bookoholism
Well, I recently keep finding myself on multiple webpages/webstores that provide us with go books. As a mere kgs 3-4 kyu player I already built a what most probably is quite a huge collection of books... And I keep looking for more books. I just wanted to order Lee Chang Ho tesuji and life and death sets from Yellow Import page, but the paying something like 140$ for it (including shipping). I guess it still isn't that expensive, because each book is 250 pages long, so something like 12$ per book is quite cheap. But I already have following problem books: 1001 Life and Death Problems (mastering the basics series) 501 Tesuji Problems (mastering the basics series) Get Strong at Tesuji Get Strong at Life and Death Art of Capturing Stones (ordered from Yutopian and waiting for its arrival) Rescue and Capture (same state as Art of Capturing Stones) A small tsumego book in Polish language by Akinobu Tozawa for 6-8 kyu players Printed versions of Elementary and Intermediate Cho Chikun problems without answers provided by Tasuki on his website. Other problem books I have are: Get Strong at the Opening Get Strong at Invading Making Good Shape Attacking and Defending Moyos All About Ko The truth is I only solved Get strong at Tesuji, 1001 life and death problems, elementary Cho Chikun problems and the small Polish tsumego book once till now, and haven't started any of the other books I mentioned. I also have as many or more theory go books to read. Buying Lee Chang Ho 12 problem books would multiple the amount of material I could work with, and sounds exciting, but also somehow wrong... I am almost sure that something must be wrong with my approach to this, I guess that solving problems from books I already have once will take me much time and yield a significant boost to my playing abilities, so what's the point of buying more of them, besides the ill urge to hoard stuff.. What do You think about this situation, and how do You deal/would deal with it? What is Your bookoholism story?

Author:	CnP [ Tue Jul 03, 2012 2:27 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
Well I'm a weaker player and I've got lots. I think there are optimum books for a persons level at any particular time - so I don't see why not buy them all! I've got most of the English language problem books and quite a few chinese/Japanese ones. Ordering the Maeda set and the "the book to increase your fighting strength at Go" http://senseis.xmp.net/?TheBookToIncreaseYourFightingStrengthAtGo from Amazon.jp is probably one of the worse examples of how far I'll go to get my fix. Spending about 10 hours figuring out how to order books through dangdang (which no longer works) is another.... that said I do think you have to commit to a book properly to get the benefit from it (which I'm only just learning).

Author:	BaghwanB [ Tue Jul 03, 2012 2:30 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
Personally, I read to much and don't play enough to keep advancing at a steady pace. So my self diagnosis is to play more if possible and focus more on problems (tesuji, L&D, etc.) that might have more practical applications in my limited actual play time. Also 9x9 against computers to at least do some actual playing that might help my real game. If I truly understood 1/3 of the books I have I'd be at least 5 stones stronger. Bruce "Bookie" Young

Author:	Bartleby [ Tue Jul 03, 2012 4:40 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
Gorim, you are a pretty mild case. I own close to a thousand Go books, and the vast majority of them are tsumego/problem collections. I could spend the rest of my life solving tsumego and not make it through them. And there are members of this forum whose collections dwarf mine. I guess the best thing you can say about this kind of thing is that there are worse habits than collecting books. Anyway you are doing your bit to encourage Go authors without overdoing it, so you should pat yourself on the back.

Author:	tchan001 [ Tue Jul 03, 2012 5:43 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
You can look at a part of my humble collection of go books by visiting my blog If I know 1% of the material I own, I'd be a wee bit stronger CnP wrote: Spending about 10 hours figuring out how to order books through dangdang (which no longer works) is another.... http://tchan001.wordpress.com/chinese-g ... -go-books/

Life In 19x19 http://www.lifein19x19.com/

Bookoholism http://www.lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=6278	Page 1 of 2

Author:	Boidhre [ Tue Jul 03, 2012 6:03 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
I get told to hold off buying more books as a measly ddk.

Author:	chiwito [ Tue Jul 03, 2012 11:08 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
I have to admit that as a book collector I am a bit baffled by this thread. Why would one Only buy books one intended to [or was able to] read?

Author:	Dokuganryu [ Tue Jul 03, 2012 11:56 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
Oh men, only words of encouragment to buy more, should know it comming I always thought that I buy a book to have it and to read it, but if I keep my pace I most probably will have to shift to the "have" part of the idea Congrats on Your great collections gentelment, as a bookoholism padawan I have much to learn from You PS: these Segoe Kensaku problem books looks very interesting!

Author:	tchan001 [ Wed Jul 04, 2012 12:33 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
Well, it gets really bookoholic when you start collecting historical go documents such as this. http://tchan001.wordpress.com/2011/08/0 ... ihon-kiin/ I recently acquired something even more amazing but I'll save it for a later go sighting post. hehe.

Author:	Dokuganryu [ Wed Jul 04, 2012 1:31 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
For now I am safe from such ideas, buying from China/Japan is to hard and expensive for now. But should I make a trip to these countries I will surely return with nothing but underware and go stuff in my luggage

Author:	oren [ Wed Jul 04, 2012 8:45 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
Until your list is a few pages and well past your time to read, you have no problem. I have a slight case of bookoholism. It's gotten better lately.

Author:	markeemark [ Wed Jul 04, 2012 2:47 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
I am way down the ranking of you folks an unimpressive 21 Kyu on KGS (only been playing properly around 4 weeks). I have about 10 15 books and 5 more on there way (three from the USA and two from Holland). It's a small collection but growing. As my background was in chess, (how I wished I kept that Library!) buying books and using them was an integral part of developing. I think as has been mentioned that there are many worse things than collecting books. Whilst some (most) may be outside my level at the moment, I am looking at what might be the longer term benefits of my investment. If I become stronger all the better, if I don't then I will at least have a Go education (and having done my bit for the community)! Yilun Yang is my favourite author I like his clear style. Kageyama is one of my favourite book (although it may need many more re-reads to has his ideas sink in). Regards Mark 1000 books! I never knew there was that many. Who do people think are the most reliable suppliers of Go books?

Author:	oren [ Wed Jul 04, 2012 4:12 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
markeemark wrote: 1000 books! I never knew there was that many. Who do people think are the most reliable suppliers of Go books? There are a lot more than 1000 if you count everything available in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

Author:	kirkmc [ Thu Jul 05, 2012 12:15 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
I'm a bookaholic too. However, having more or less stopped playing go, and realizing that these books weren't helping me get better, I decided to sell off most of my collection. (You can see what's left in a thread in the Trading Post forum.) I did keep a core set of books, though, if I decide to come back to the game. I've taken breaks of several years in the past, so it's likely I will play again. But, yea, why not buy books? They only cost money and take up a lot of space. And tchan001 can certainly attest to that!

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Author:	Kirby [ Thu Jul 05, 2012 5:27 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
There is a Korean phrase that says something along the lines of, "A bad student carries a lot of books." The idea is that having a lot of books in itself doesn't make for a good student. You can learn a lot from just a single book, sometimes. That being said, I "carry a lot of books"...

Author:	tchan001 [ Thu Jul 05, 2012 6:57 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
Kirby wrote: There is a Korean phrase that says something along the lines of, "A bad student carries a lot of books." The idea is that having a lot of books in itself doesn't make for a good student. You can learn a lot from just a single book, sometimes. That being said, I "carry a lot of books"... Kirby learns the most from a brand new blank moleskin notebook.

Author:	dankenzon [ Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:07 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
I must confess I have a good and big collection of books.. and may be I just read like 4-5 completely and most of them I just made a light pass over all. I've worked out with problemas collections a lot, like Maeda book 1 (going thru it I won 2 stones!) and recently some other L&D from China buy anyway I have a culture of collection: my mom inherit a huge collection from his grandpa (latin literature and classics)... she helped me to grow my own and now I have my own go collection with more than 100 books the jewels: - an original first edition in english of Kato Masao Attack and kill (got it for only $50) - and one of the few editions of the life and death dictionary of Segoe Kensaku. a first edition! I get it for only ... $10!! one goy already offered me $100 for it. No thanks and I keep my eye in 2-3 other rare books Recently I got "Beyond forcing moves" for only $60 ... very good price!

Author:	CnP [ Thu Jul 05, 2012 1:38 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
Quote: (going thru it I won 2 stones!) hope it works for me - that's what I'm doing now

Author:	SoDesuNe [ Fri Jul 06, 2012 1:51 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
I love to buy books, too, and it always itches me to enlarge my Go book "collection" (at the moment just around 40 books, but at least I worked with at least 30 of them). But since that's a pretty expensive hobby and since my main goal is to become stronger, I, now, focus more on getting everything out of the books I own, respectively, out of the ones I can borrow from friends or my Go club. A one time read is by far not enough for me. For instance: I might solve a problem book with a decent probability of success but when I look at the problems a week later I need too much time to find the answer again. So, right now, I have ten problem books in a cycle, which will be repeated until I can lay down every problem without even opening the book. Just kidding. But my goal is to clear the problems' main variations under at least 30 seconds.

Author:	Boidhre [ Fri Jul 06, 2012 4:09 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Bookoholism
SoDesuNe wrote: A one time read is by far not enough for me. For instance: I might solve a problem book with a decent probability of success but when I look at the problems a week later I need too much time to find the answer again. So, right now, I have ten problem books in a cycle, which will be repeated until I can lay down every problem without even opening the book. Just kidding. But my goal is to clear the problems' main variations under at least 30 seconds. I've found this too. I need to do and redo problem sets over and over again. I bought a few different problem books to keep the problem of memorisation at bay. Any excuse to buy a few more books eh?