38 Basic Joseki (Elementary Go Series, Vol. 2)

Rating:
Summary: Good book for the beginner to make sense of corner plays.
Review: A well organized study of standard corner plays. As a beginner, this book helps prepare me to see and avoid blunders. When I review my games it helps me see opportunities lost. I have found this book very useful for improving my game.

Rating:
Summary: Studying Joseki will make you 2 Stones weaker
Review: As a beginning Go player, you always seem to get the short end of the stick in the corners - a very compelling reason to buy this book, but be warned that you will only learn enough to get into trouble. Eventually you will need to get the classic (but slightly dated) 3 volume "Dictionary of Basic Joseki". 38 Basic Joseki is decent for the beginning go player on a budget who need to get an idea what joseki is all about, but it tells you too little. As you progress through the ranks, it will collect dust on the shelf, something which "Dictionary of Basic Joseki" will never do.

Rating:
Summary: Great place to begin with joseki
Review: Initially, I got all the other volumes in the Elementary Go Series, but skipped this one based on some of the mediocre reviews that it got here. I bought one of the alternative joseki references instead.

After a while, I came back and bought this book. While some of the other reviewers have downrated this book for covering only a limited set of joskei, I found that to be precisely what I needed.

By sticking with a set of the most basic joseki, I find that I get less overwhelmed by the sheer number of possibilities, and I also find that the book is able to spend more time explaning each one. This gives me more of a chance to grasp the underlying concepts. It's less of a reference book and more of a textbook.

So, I plan to come back to the more complete reference books later. But when you're just trying to get your hands around the material, this is the place to start.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent series but the least important book in it
Review: The Elementary Go series are all excellent, but joseki -- opening patterns -- are the least important thing to learn when you start the game. So I rate this lower than the other books in the series althought the quality of it is high.