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Books
There is a growing library of available Go books in English.
They are written for many levels of players, from complete novice to strong
amateur. The following list includes only books perfect for newer players that
I have personally read and studied. The link to the Go bibliographies near
the bottom of the pages will lead you to many other books appropriate for
other levels of players.
Books for Beginners:
- The Learn to Play Go Series by Janice Kim: There are currently five
books in this series. The books are well laid out and provide a solid
framework for beginners, including even a simple yet complete treatment of the
rules of Go. Books 3-5 of the series, while very appropriate for beginners, are
still very useful for stronger players as well.
- Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go by Toshiro Kageyama: This book
leads to reader through discussions, examples and problems related to the
fundamentals of Go. The author chides even strong dan players for what he terms
as amateur moves, by which he means that the player has ignored one of the
fundamentals. This book is appropriate for players after they have learned
the rules of the game and have become somewhat comfortable with the material
presented in the first 4 Janice Kim books mentioned above.
- Elementary Go Series by various authors: This series of seven books
published by Kiseido, cover the opening, basic joseki, tesuji, life and death,
attack and defense, the endgame, and playing handicap Go. These books, like
Kageyama's above, take more time to work through than Janice Kim's books, but
the time and work put into studying them are worth it. It is not necessary
to study them in order. you will find that you will skipp around and even
revisit them over time. I have read all or part of the book on attack and
defense three times. I found I learned something different each time.
The Go Book Bibliography Site:
As Go books can be expensive, especially if you feel you have
to read them all, as I do, you might want to get another opinion before
shelling out $10-$20 to an internet retailer. The following link leads to
David Carlton's Annotated Go Bibliographies site. I have found it very helpful
in getting a feel for what a book offers, but be warned: as you read the
descriptions of what these books offer, it only makes you want to order more
books, and read more books, and play more Go. What a vicious cycle!
http://www.gobooks.info
Most of the books listed on this page or in David Carlton's
Go Books site are available from the various retailers listed on the "links"
tab of the main section of this web site: http://csgo.org/links.php
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