The book I wish existed when I started using D3
357415
This book is very short. In my opinion this is a very good thing. Instead of padding it out to get to some arbitrary amount, Mike tells you what you need to know, when you need to know it. The  learning pace is brisk, but perfect.

The ordering of learning is excellent, covering the strange world of D3 in just the right order, and I really wish I had this when I was stumbling through D3 the first time!

I think the book might stop a little short of getting in to some of the more advanced/esoteric/weird uses and extensions of D3, but it's not billed that way :)
1282032
First things first: If you already have Third Edition, you probably don't need this book unless you're the Dungeon Master. The material is by and large similar enough to 3.0 that you can continue using your PHB and trust your DM to advise you of any important changes.
If you don't have 3e, though, or if you're a DM, this is the most usable, accessible, thoroughly playtested version of D&D yet. 3.5 came out of tons of feedback WotC received on 3rd edition, particularly through the RPGA's Living Greyhawk (basically a huge international multi-party campaign for D&D). It seems that there were a lot of play-balance issues that were not obvious during in-house development, but quickly emerged in the face of thousands of min-maxers trying to game the system. Some things were too strong, others too weak, etc., for the game to be as fun as it could have been.
3.5 is an attempt to fix those imbalances, as well as make everything just a little easier for the players and the DM. Examples:
  --Skills have been condensed, so your hard-earned skill points go farther
  --Rules for concealment and cover have been simplified. No longer does the DM have to try to figure out whether that rogue sniper has three-quarters' cover or only half cover.
  --Spells that were being rampantly abused, such as haste, were doctored to fit the original design intent -- no more hasted sorcerers walloping your party with two fireballs per round.
Some things were just altered so they made more *sense*. For example, 3rd edition rangers all had Two-Weapon Fighting, period. But the archetypal rangers, LOTR's Aragorn and Legolas, were known far more for their archery skills than for two-weapon fighting (Legs' tricky knife work in the movie version notwithstanding). So now rangers can choose whether to primarily follow the melee path or the archery path. They also get cool new ranger-like abilities, like the ability to run for days without tiring (again, harkening back to Aragorn and Legolas).
Some people will always believe that things were better in the Good Old Days. More power to 'em -- let them curl up with their old boxed sets and dungeon modules and live in the 1970s. For those who are interested in playing a sweet fantasy RPG that has gone through more playtesting and fine-tuning than any other, take a look at D&D 3.5. Is it perfect? No. But it's the closest D&D has come yet, and it's well worth your time.
3368103
Wow, this is the best book about d3js so far.  I have very little knowledge about javascript programming and have zero knowledge about d3js library.  This book explained the topic very well.  I have read one other book about d3js library but this book is way better.
1255284
Its fine. it tells you more than you would ever want to know about Diablo 3 and allows you all the information you could need in one book.
904007
This book was a godsend that ended up making my overall experience with Riven much more enjoyable and overcoming the sense of being really dense that I had felt many times in the first half year of playing Riven. All this by not giving too much away in the early sections of the book.
I am an extremely infrequent adventure player (I fiddled with a text-based game about a mad dwarf and princess when the Mac first came out). However, I installed Riven when I bought a Mac G4 450, wanting to try something new.
After dabbling with Riven for half a year or so, I had been almost everywhere, taken copious notes, read a couple of the game's characters' journals, and created detailed, annotated maps of Riven using illustration software. Despite which, I still felt that I had no clue what I was supposed to be doing or if I was making any progress. I had grown to be more interested in understanding what it was all about than in actually completing the game. I had a sneaky suscpicion that there wasn't really an end, that it was all just supposed to be an 'experience'. Maddeningly frustrating!
Then I stumbled on this Player's Guide book while browsing in a computer store and bought it. I stubbornly read only the introduction and first chapter, not wanting to spoil the game, but also taking great comfort in knowing that I wasn't missing something really obvious or doing something really wrong. Thankfully, the introduction spells out what is to come in subsequent chapters of the book so you won't have a fear of too much being revealed.
I spent another good number of months continuing to explore with an open mind and made some more discoveries before feeling I'd hit another wall. I then read the 2nd chapter in the book which talked about geography and mentioning the things you'd need to accomplish in different areas. I was pleased to learn that I'd really done most of what I'd needed, lacking one.
When I focused my efforts on that one thing, I was able to solve it and then the game opened to a new level--I hadn't read the specific location or a description of the task or a solution--I was able to enjoy finding and solving it on my own after a gentle nudge in the general direction.
All of a sudden things started making sense, and the overall structure  and direction of play started coming together. I hit another wall and sought help after another half year had passed by--this time I needed very specific help on how to solve one aspect of a puzzle that I had to dig into one of the later chapters of the book for.
Then I was able to complete the game (with help from 'Saved' scenarios) without additional help from the book.
After all was said and done, I went back to read the complete walkthrough chapter and enjoyed seeing how it all fit together and how my two-years of working on the game had been very productive overall. How I'd missed some of the more logical flow of events that had made the game more difficult to solve. And that with just two missing pieces I just plain couldn't figure out, the book had been there to get me over the hump when I was ready for (or MORE than ready for!)
Bottom line:  I won't buy the Brady Games guide for Myst IIII: Exile right away. But I'll probably end up buying it gladly after a while... Unless I can figure out Myst III on my own! And even then, I might buy it anyway to get "the rest of the story!"
Book Contents
Chapter 1:  Roaming Through Riven
Chapter 2: The Islands of Riven: Maps and Specifics (where you should've been and what you should've seen)
Chapter 3: Puzzles and Problems: The Solutions (puzzle-by-puzzle detailed hints, and then guidelines for how to solve them)
Chapter 4: Walkthrough:  All Revealed (The title says it all and the chapter does reaveal the quickest, most efficient way to get through the whole game)
4932908
I just finished chapter one of Tricks of the 3D game programming gurus and I knew NOTHING about 3D graphics, but now I feel confident I finally am going to be able to understand all of the concepts. The author starts off by starting from nothing, but the perspective equations and a little about 3D space and in no time has you writing a complete game that fits on a few pages of code -- Raiders 3D. This little game is amazing. I can't think of any other book that delivers like this, and I am only on chapter 2 now! I have bought numerous 3D books like Principles of interactive computer graphics, and they are defintiely thorough, but they are just too hard to follow, if I wanted to read a math book they would be great, but maybe the authors think readers are just too smart -- I am a little slower and need to be shown how to do it. This is a GREAT book, but I had some trouble running some of the demos on my slow machine (only 700 mhz). I know the book recommends a 1-2 ghz machine, so I am not upset, but it would have been nice if they ran faster on my slow machine!
4412538
Might as well be called "Tableau: The Missing Manual." If you're new to Tableau, data visualization, and/or databases, you're in the right place.

This is a fabulous book, both in its depth and its breadth. The explanations are clear, lucid, and concise. The author takes great pains to explain the why and wherefore of various chart types, and how to incorporate those into Tableau. In addition, the author does nice job of explaining different types of database joins.

If you haven't made the leap to Tableau, and you want to just play around with the Public version, this book would still be a worthwhile investment, because the core concepts apply.

And by the way, as a lifelong Excel junkie, Tableau is an AMAZING program with LIMITLESS capabilities. So having documentation with this degree of detail and clarity is a priceless asset. This might be the only Tableau book you need.
2609094
Until I bought this book, I had never made a woven basket, only coiled ones.  This book has made it easy for me to progress from one to the other.  It has great technical drawings, easy to understand instructions, and beautiful photographs.  The sections covering terminology, helpful hints, and resources have also been useful to me.  This book also has a great variety of patterns, of which "Feather Basket" and "Potato Basket" are my favorites.  I recommend The Basket Book for beginning basket makers.

J.H. Sweet, author of The Fairy Chronicles, and basket maker
4938632
I still haven't had time to completely read thru it, but I haven't played since first edition and I really like the pictures and explanations that have been added to the current editions.  The information on the different types of dragons is especially cool... it talks about the different colors but then also has them by age within the colors.  I'm really glad I picked this time to come back to D&D.
1556581
Originally posted at [...], a new idea everyday!

Product- Pathfinder Player Companion Alchemy Manual

Producer-Paizo

Price-$13(PDF)

System-Pathfinder

TL; DR-Lot's of alchemy types, but not much depth. 87%

Basics- Let's Cook!  Alchemy Manual is a splat book in the truest sense.  This book moves at a rapid fire pace presenting over 10 different types of alchemy traditions in the Pathfinder world.  Each tradition gets two pages to introduce the story behind the alchemy type as well as a few potions or poisons that distinguish one from another.  In addition, numerous items, small additions to spells/alchemical items, and new ways to craft alchemical items are presented.

Mechanics or Crunch- First things first, alchemy has always been somewhat tricky in the 3. X systems.  You end up with things that are two broken for the rules or underpowered to uselessness.  This book tends to be closer to underpowered.  The items presented are on par with the standard alchemy items, but those items tend to be useless as the player has better options with spells or abilities.  The book does introduce some nice new feats and items, but those same items may not be the first thing a player will grab for when looking how to battle a problem.  Also, the book introduces several different types of alchemy.  That's nice from a flavor standpoint, but no one type gets enough of a foundation to stand alone.  Each tends to get 3/4 of a page of items, so you left wanting more for each one. 3/5

Story of Fluff-While this is an item book, I was honestly impressed with the detail each type of alchemy was given in its presentation.  Readers learn a lot about several different types of alchemist in the Pathfinder world.  The stories do make for some rather interesting reading.  I enjoyed this far more then I enjoyed the mechanics of the book. 5/5

Execution-This is a Paizo book.  I have a tradition of giving them high marks, but that's because the consistently know how to may a book look nice and be readable.  I'd like the text bigger, but I mostly read on an IPad, so the page is smaller than the print version.  Great art and a well done layout lead to excellent ease of reading. 5/5

Summary-Alchemy is always a touchy subject in Pathfinder and 3. X games.  To powerful and all the players use it.  To underpowered and it's a waste of time to introduce it.  This book is an ok.  Honestly, it won't change your opinion of alchemy.  It's well done for the story aspect, but if you are deciding if you want to buy a mechanics supplement, you really have to ask yourself "Do I like alchemy already?"
3526278
I bought the book to learn about MongoDB and Angular, but the book covered all of the components of a traditional 3 tier architecture and how all of these pieces fit together.  Eric has done a fantastic job explaining how MongoDB, Angular, Express and Node.js come together to create a "full-stack" application.

I also like the larger print; I'm a little older and the small print of some technical books gives me a headache.  That and the abundant graphics sprinkled throughout the text made it a lot easier for me to understand.  I also appreciated the abundant code snippets accompanying the text to explain how each idea works.

My one complaint about the text is that the index is not as good as it could have been; but for a step-by-step tutorial book, that's not hard to understand.  I highly recommend this book.
3368153
Anybody who is really into or owns versions of the popular Dungeon Master(DM) of the Advanced Dundeons & Dragons (AD&D) Role-playing games should definitely make an investment into this book. Not only is it very detailed, and appropriately alphabetical, but lists complete data info on each monster through fantasy, mythology, or in some cases reality.
I was much of a fan of fantasy games until I started a collection of Sony PlayStation games, and with the technology that can knock your socks off nowadays, the visuals in monster morphing are great. When you reading through chapters you may discover certain things about monsters you never knew before. For instance the different varieties of dragons; not just the most common green, but the red, black, white, and blue, and the book details their attack status and breathing weapon. Like sea monsters? There is also hydras and whales.
Real die hard fantasy fans will have fun reading over the trolls, purple worms, cerberus, and scorpions. I seem to remember an older version of this book that also listed hornet wasps. Upon damage if a hornet gets its' wings burned off, the creature is not damaged, but is now flightless.
If you love DUNGEONS and DRAGONS from old Odyssey games, witchcraft, bats, and warlocks are also listed. I found information on Golems (Frankenstein's Monster for instance is a Flesh Golem), Mummies, and Vampires informative. Did you know werewolves aren't the only lycanthropes. The book is rich with information on weretigers, wereboars, wererats, and even werebears. There are also weredragons, but they aren't listed.
Definitely worth the investment, and I would highly recommend picking it up together with the ADVANCED DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS: VOLUME 4 and the MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM ANNUAL. This will make your game playing trivia complete!
3390630
This book covers all the details of putting together a match-3 jewels game in HTML 5.

So... animations, mouse events, sound effects, tile placements, logic, sockets, lighting, vertex shaders, timing, stacks, bitmaps, SVG, and so on.  A pretty good game to design a book around.

The book also has occasional short programs, and other stand-alone programs.  You don't need to type in the whole book to see some progress.  One big project that has working individual pieces, and many small projects.

Highly recommended.
3804618
I first learned of this book when passing by Monte Cook's website, the author of the Players Handbook for 3rd Edition D&D. He had written, "I've heard some people put down this product because it's not a guide to help you build a campaign, but instead a book of lists. Well, as it turns out, I think a book of lists is pretty cool. I used to love the appendices in the back of the 1st Edition DMG that were just lists of things, and that's basically what this book from Troll Lord Games is. They make for great idea generators when you're stuck as a DM or as a writer."
So, I picked up a copy. The layout could be improved no doubt, and there were some obvious typos, but there is still an enormous amount of generic information useful to a fantasy writer or Dungeon Master. I would have to spend hours digging around a library or Google to find this sort of material.
Not perfect, and not what the title might imply, but good.
889881
I got this book a very long time ago and I still find myself pulling it out to check on things. This book lists all the types of weapons, their damage ranges, requirments, every helmet, every piece of armor, every shield, their armor class ranges, and requirments as well as every magical  prefix and suffix and what each does. You'll also get a full list of the  spells as well as a 1/2 page to 1 1/2 page description of the spell. Also  listed are all the quests in the game. Before long I got a level 50 warrior  and a level 50 sorcerer with mainly the help from this book plus 15% skill  and 85% luck on my part. All in all, this is a great book and even if you  think you've mastered the game, this book is worth the price of admission.
165218
This book is great. I play with a large group and it helps me easily set up a session a lot faster then scaring through a bunch of modules and handbooks. I think it could use a little more variety on some things but for most of them it is spot-on. I just wish it had more Town names. The hardest thing for me to do is name things, people, and places.
4457965
This is a must have for both players and GM's/DM's in the pathfinder world.

I had previously owned a digital copy of this, but when attempting to actually run a game - having the physical copy is just so much easier on my sanity.  Everything you and your players need to know to get started is in this book.  At first it is daunting to look at - especially for first time players.  I advised them to skim the races and pick one, then actually read about that race.  Then skim the classes until they found one they liked and then read that one in detail.

As a player you will probably need about 10-15% of this book to play your character.  As a GM you will need about 50% of this book - but you won't know what 50% until your characters start their chaos.  Everything is laid out in a logical fashion, the artwork is spot on, the feel of the book is great and it's well made so it should stand up to the abuse.  Mine is already covered in post-its.

For those coming from the DnD world - the transition to Pathfinder is a very simple one.  For those coming from other gaming systems - similarity will vary.  I have also played savage worlds and I would say that this system (Pathfinder) is far more complex, but no less entertaining to play.

In the meantime I have to keep my adventurers busy - and lucky for me, on my less creative days there is plenty of pathfinder material published to draw from.