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Black friday; Book Reviews

Recently the first MINDSTORMS books hit the shelfs, some are written for the Educations (45544) set and some are for the Retail (31313) set. It is important to pick the right book, or else you end up with a good book about the EV3, but you cannot recreate any of the models inside.

A book by Daniele Benedettelli the creator of guitar bonus model. He is an expert on MINDSTORMS and as MCP he was closely involved in the development process of the EV3. The book starts with explaining the 31313 set details and how to build some good structures. Then with the help of a comic you are guided into the new features of the set, like the IR control, and on-brick programing. in the end you build some amazing robots, and the code how to run your models is nicely explained in the book.
It is in Black white, and sometimes this is a bit harder to follow the building instructions, but let not lead you there, this is the BEST EV3 31313 book out now! Here or here is a link if you want one!

But what if you rather shop for an adventure?

Megan H. Rothrock, wrote a beautiful sequel to her first book, and now she invited some of the world's most gifted writers to join the adventure, I loved the creations and the different stories all shown in great detailed LEGO models, including a cute little robot. To me this book was a wonderful adventure, and I sure can rec-comment it.
Here and here are the links.


Nathanael Kuipers also wrote the second book, on his amazing creations, As a former LEGO designer he sure knows how to build the most stunning models, and all those models are just build with only one set!, Amazing is the only word I have. the book is like Megan's in full color and that shows the high quality of the building instructions even more. Here and Here are the links.


Now if building models is not your cup of tea, here is a wonderful book with full color pictures of amazing creations build by the best builders on the planet. Mike Doyle put them all together in one book. it was great fun to browse through this book, and although I hade seen some of the models online there were still new and wow pictures inside this book.
Here and Here is the link.

Now the last book in this section I like to point out is a book not about models, or robots, but a book about the story of LEGO, and how they managed to return in making a profit.

The book has a large chapter about MINDSTORMS because there the company did something no other development company would ever do: " open up the design lab for the fans, and let them look along in improving the product" and that sure payed off, the MUP, and MCP story is told from various views, and that really makes the book worth reading. sometimes the book is repeating itself a bit, but if you read through, you learn why LEGO universe failed and at the same time minecraft boomed.
Here is the link.

Enjoy reading!

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