Subject:
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Re: Getting Started with LEGO Trains - Wait for the 2nd edition!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.books, lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Sun, 28 Mar 2004 12:26:04 GMT
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Viewed:
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12512 times
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William Howard wrote:
>
> My final impression of this book is one that has been rushed and missed a myriad
> of opportunities with shoddy production. It could have contained so much more,
> and the numerous references to the Bricks On The Brain web site imply that the
> author wanted it to contain more. With the lack of general content, this book
> is little more than instructions for three models and a few track plans and,
> with the atrocious production of the freight train plans, if I had bought this
> book from a UK shop I would certainly be returning it for a refund, however, as
> it was bought at discount from the US it will spend its life gathering dust on
> the book shelf. Anyone considering this book should certainly wait for the
> second printing to correct the building plans, if not for the second edition
> which (hopefully) will add all the missing content.
I can only agree with William's analysis of the book, but wanted to be
careful in making what might be seen as overly negative comments about
something that is likely to be strongly defended.
What I really wanted, but certainly wasn't expecting, was a 7777 like
production - lots of ideas, from relatively simple bricks. As William
has suggested, there are too many complex pices in the models. I have
an extensive collection, but I'm not sure I could build any of the models.
Some of the content was obviously copied from various websites (track
layouts, stuff on includes) - especially from the Train Depot.
I think it really could have done with better proofing. Apart from
a few spelling/grammatical errors (I have sent in corrections although
no reply yet), there was too much repeated content, or stuff said in
different ways. This, along with the too detailed instructions meant
that much more could have been fitted in - after all, 100 pages is
potentially a lot of content.
Good things about the book - well, the price was right at under 10UKP -
user group bulk order plus UK postage.
Conclusion? It's tried to be too many things to too many people,
and not really been anything in particular to anyone. The book needs
more focus, and if it's really an introduction to lego trains,
there needs to be a good progression of development of ideas, and not
just a few complex models. Wait for the 2nd edition, and hope there are
some considerable changes.
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