To ipcress12:
If that was Millern's point then it wasn't well made and it took at least two posts to make it so.
Regarding which is the easier of the two -- collecting or reading -- goes without saying. Who, with a few brain cells intact, doesn't know that before they buy a chess book?
The point you guys are trying to make is "Don't buy more than you can read!" I get that point! I still collect. Do you get mine! Stalemate.
To Littledragons:
I will be bold enough here to speak on behalf of the "Don't buy more than you can read" group as they have spoken to some degress for the "Chess book collector" group. Here is their bottom line: The best chess book is the chess book you actually read.
A grade up from this crude statement is: The best chess book is the book you actually read at your present chess level.
A slight but very subtle notch up from that is: The best book is the book you actually read which is also one of the best books written on the chess subject you are interested in.
Who would know that better? The A class player who has 5 books or the A class player who has 500 books? I'll let you have three guesses at that one.
You could take the advice of actual readers at Amazon. For instance, if a book has lots of reviews and star studded then there's a good chance it is a good book. John Watson and Jeremy Silman and John Donaldson are three reviewers who are both chess masters and collectors. Many put their faith in those people for their chess purchases. Some chess authors have well recognized and good reputations (ex. Watson, Nunn, etc.)
What part of your game needs work? That's a personal matter that can best be revealed in an analysis of your own games. Not sure about how to analyze yet? Your best best would be to study tactics. When you stop losing most of your games due to tactical shots, buy middle game strategy books. When most of your loses come late in the game buy endgame books.
The easy part is getting a book and the hard part is reading it, but it's the second part that makes the difference, which I believe was Milliern's point.
Exactly. Words can be mysterious to less proficient readers. I try not to be offended: sympathetic reading is something of the past. We live in the world of Derrida and the postmoderns, where the meaning of the writer is whatever the reader intended it to mean.
I've got a book or two... and a clock or two as well.
Very nice collection <3
Some books are difficult to get hold of, if an opportunity to get a book that was beyond my current (pathetic) level that might be useful later on I would pounce on it like a ravenous wolf.
The point you guys are trying to make is "Don't buy more than you can read!" I get that point! I still collect. Do you get mine! Stalemate.
That's not my point and I don't believe it is Milliern's either. I've got about three times as many books as your bookcase and more than a few are collector's items.
The point you guys are trying to make is "Don't buy more than you can read!" I get that point! I still collect. Do you get mine! Stalemate.
That's not my point and I don't believe it is Milliern's either. I've got about three times as many books as your bookcase and more than a few are collector's items.
Yep.
--A. Edward Newton
Someone else also said something to the effect that buy books is an expression of the mind's curiosity, and that buying more books than one can read is the expression of the soul's wonder; and so it would only be just if a few of these were chess books. Can't remember the exact quote or author. Big readers tend to be even bigger bibliophiles, so I certainly don't knock owning books. in this context, I was simply advocating, as an inspired chess player, the reading and understanding of high-quality chess books.
To Milliern:
I leave you with my best chuckles .
Laughter is good for the soul, too.
Excellent chess book collections.
.
Reshevskyk wrote a book on Positional Play and he has a games collection. The most complete games collection for Reshevsky was produced by McFarland and Company, Inc. I forget the author.
You could do worse than read Reshevsky's books. I liked his book on positional play -- read it twice actually.
Some of the best chess books ever written have been written in the last decade or two.
Which books would you list as the best?