The Second Book Of Go by Richard Bozulich (GRADE: A-)

I've finished The Second Book Of Go by Richard Bozulich.  This took me well over a month to finish.  It is about 150 pages long.  I ended up reading many of the pages two or even three times over before I continued.  I thought this was a great primer for players who don't want to play 'RANDOM' GO anymore.  I rate this book an A-.

This book is broken up into two main sections, strategy and tactics.

The strategy section is about the beginning moves, capturing and maintaining ownership of the corners and sides.

The tactics section is about josekis and tesujis, counting liberties and ko fights.

Personally, I don't mind losing GO games.  What I do mind is losing GO games and not knowing why.  This book has help me to understand the game at deeper level than playing stones randomly.

I really liked this book.  Each section is only a few pages long, providing enough information to wet one's appetite for that part of the game without begin so long that one starts losing interest.  For example, Life and Death was only covered in about 5 pages in this book.  It provided a brief overview of each time of Life and Death solution types.  Now, if I read a whole book on Life and Death problems, I'll have the tools to be able to understand the intermediate books a little better.

Overall, I thought the book was easy to understand and very accessible.  I plan to read it again in a few months; there were things that were mentioned that I am already forgetting.  I recommend this book to anyone who doesn't want to play RANDOM Go anymore.  This is a great intermediate book between a beginners book explaining the game and the intermediate books that cover each aspect of the game.  I grade this book an A-.  The A grade is only reserved for book that I plan to read again.

Good times.