Rating: 
Summary: Revised Edition
Review: This is not a review per se. Instead I'd just like to point out the fact that a revised edition of this book should be coming out in May 2003 (ISBN 0520239490), so if you are thinking about purchasing this guide you might want to wait for the new edition.
Rating: 
Summary: The best book for beginners
Review: This is THE book to start with. The book is so well-written and contains so many interesting genuine texts from stelae that the novice reader remains enthousiastic, and will continue to read through the more difficult parts. A very interesting aspect is 'human interest' the use of stelae from 'lower' people than kings: you get a glimpse of a man, his wife, his children, his servants, his position in society, what they thought to be important... Ok, the book is a bit limited in that it only deals with certain types of texts (Middle-Eg. stelae, offering formulae...), but be sure that, after reading, your next visit to a museum or Egypt will be very special: you can read!! A great experience. Thanks to the momentum gained from this book, you can now read the second monumental book on ancient Egyptian: James P. Allen's "Middle-Egyptian". A bit tougher, though, but complete.
Rating:
Summary: Cat Square Squiggle God-symbol
Review: Well, what title should I give for a book on Egyptian hieroglyphs? Actually, the information blurb from the Library Journal linked to the book's entry here states: 'Reference collections desiring more complete coverage will want Alan Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar (1957. 3d ed.) despite some obsolescence in the treatment of the verbal system.' I actually learned hieroglyphs using that text at the University of London in the 1980s. But I have assembled a collection of more accessible books on how to learn hieroglyphs as refreshers and for sharing. I have four texts, and this was the first of the lot. If you are truly interested in learning Egyptian hieroglyphs for an upcoming trip to Egypt or to visit a museum with a collection (I amazed a friend once by being able to read an inscription at the museum; I confessed that of the hundreds of 'paragraphs' of hieroglyphs in the collection, that that was one of only two I could decipher without my notebook), Collier and Manley's 'How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs' is a good choice for learning. It begins with a basic description of the way in which hieroglyphs are used (some signs are words, but actually very few, and others are sound-meaning symbols). Collier and Manley introduce a transliteration system to ease your way into pronunciation (and pronunciation is very sketchy, given the fact there are no recordings from ancient Egypt). Symbols can vary occasionally for sound, meaning, and determinative value. The pattern of hieroglyphs is also variable. Generally, you always want to 'read into the face', i.e., the picto-glyphs will be facing the direction from which to start -- more often right to left than left to right, and columns go top to bottom. There are no punctuation marks and no word breaks -- this can make meanings hard to decipher. Consider the example: IAMNOWHERE
which could be broken into
I AM NOW HERE
or
I AM NOWHERE
and in this case, context might not help provide which meaning is the true one. Or perhaps the author is poetical and sees the trouble of distinction and means that trouble to be present. No wonder hieroglyphs are hard! Collier and Manley's book is excellent in basic vocabulary building and basic grammar. And, if you're like me and will make flash cards, you'll become a better draw-er too. There are exercises, and pictures of inscriptions to practice on, and a key to the exercises in the back of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Brief and basic
Review: You won't become an expert on ancient Egypt's writing, but you'll be able to read and decypher common writings from popular museum exhibits, and tourist destinations. This book has been used as a textbook for a college egyptology class, that ought to tell you something! The exercises are easy to do, and the entire text is well written. I'd like to see an advanced hieroglyphs book put out by the authors of this one, as I'm very interested in the writing style after going through this book. As I said, if you want to be able to read and decypher hieroglyphs, this is the best book I've found for the layperson.
| 
