Rating: 
Summary: It's Ok
Review: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Buddhism by Gary Gach, Michael Wenger may work for some but for those people who want easy to read information, it is an often confusing book. Sorta scattered or all over the place for me. The orange coloured reference card in the front of the book is good and basic, but the "Hear and Now and the "Along The Path" and "This Is" bits and pieces on every few pages were a distraction and to cute for my tastes. This does not mean it isn't a book others may well find very useful.So I will now check out Buddhism For Dummies by Jonathan Landaw, Stephan Bodian and see if it is any different. I am by the way a Buddhist and am always looking for good books to buy on the subject to donate to my local library. Thus the books by the Dalai Lama and Pema Chodron are ones I always recommend. Also Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen. E-Mail me if you have good recommendations.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: There's a whole lot more to Buddhism than meditation. This fascinating, fun book gives it to you in simple terms and simple steps. How to discover the power of tranquility and discipline of deep listening.
Rating: 
Summary: Avoid this book...
Review: This book is just plain poor. I purchased the Idiot's Guide to Understanding Buddhism because I had previously read the Understanding Hinduism and Understanding Islam book of the same series. I enjoyed those books and felt they were well done. This book fails to live up the other two. As one of the reviewers below notes, right from the beginning you get a taste of what is to come when the author describes the first Noble Truth as "Life involves dissatisfaction". Please. I have read several other introduction-to-Buddhism type books and they were all better than this. In fact, I think if one did not already have a basic understanding of the concepts of Buddhism they would not be able to understand anything in this book. Perhaps the author tires to do too much and as a result I felt the book lacks focus. The 'humor' is kind of annoying but that is something I have come to expect in the Idiot's series. What I think is more annoying is the way the author dumbs down the subject matter and jumps around from topic to topic. Also, the author seems to focus more on Buddhist culture than the core Buddhist beliefs and the practice of Buddhism itself. For example, there are chapters on Buddhism and Fine Arts, Buddhism and the Sciences, Buddhism and Popular Culture and so on. All these topics are mentioned but none of them are addressed in any detail. The author barely scratches the surface then moves on. The book is 409 pages long and only sixteen of them are spent talking about the core principals of the Three Jewels and Four Noble Truths. The Eight Fold Path gets twelve pages. Further, the book does a terrible job of describing the different schools of Buddhism (Mahayana, Theravada, etc.) and explaining their differences. If you are looking to read an introduction-to-Buddhism type book, I would recommend "Buddhism" from the Teach Yourself series.
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