"an idiots guide to.."

[Rowan]

Has anyone ever read books from this series? In case you didn't know, they are a series of books about... pretty much anything and everything you could think of. The purpose is to give people a basic understanding of the topic. Topics can range anywhere from hunting, to psychology and even heart surgery. Now I'm not asking if these books are academically worthy since im sure an idiots guide to heart surgery is the last thing I wanna see on my surgeons bookshelf, but in terms of gaining general knowledge, and most importantly, useful knowledge, how good are these books?

Can anyone recommend anything or say anything about this series of books?

[Michael Swayne]

If you learn things better by reading things, then read them. Otherwise, why waste your money?

[Pete]

I think it depends on what you're interested in, and what kind of learner you are. Sometimes, for more physical tasks and skills, watching an instructional video can be more useful.

The books are good for reference and for being very well laid out, so you can easily find what you need. They're generally written by a professional in their field. You'll definitely learn about whatever you're interested in, and enough to have a conversation about the subject.

I bought Golf for Dummies when I first started to play, and it definitely helped me learn things like scoring and etiquette. As for something like learning to swing the clubs and hit the ball even somewhat accurately, I found that watching YouTube videos and physically going to the range was the best.


True story. The other book was a gift from an ex, who saw I was watching Platoon one day.

[Alpha]

Books in general (and probably these books in particular) are a really good way to get an introduction to a topic. They'll mostly give you breadth of knowledge, so you won't have any fundamental gaps in your knowledge. Learning things from instructable videos alone has the problem that you don't know what you don't know. That is, you'd have gaps in your knowledge and not even know. Books like this are a great way to avoid being in that situation, which is hard to get out of.

[Spooniest]

If they ever release the complete idiots guide to human relationships, I could use that.

Unfortunately Complete Idiocy of that kind of can't be cured by a book....

<.<

[Rowan]

Just purchased World history for dummies. My learning journey starts now! Depending on how good this is, ill extend into other areas, and then perhaps research other deeper texts within certain subjects that interest me. anyone know if theres an idiots guide to hunting or self sufficiency though? Couldn't find one =/

[Unknown Entity]

I own only three:

An Idiots Guide to Excel
An Idiots Guide to Visual Studio
An Idiots Guide to Japanese

They're okay books. I didn't really need the first two at college, but they've come in handy. The third one was just for fun.

[Pete]

Necropostingggg

We need an idiots guide to posting more.

Step 1: Post more
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit

[Spooniest]

How to post more:

Learn to type 90 wpm.

[Taco-Calamitous]

I think you need to get the Idiot's Guide to HOW TO NOT BE A BITCH, pete! OOOOOOooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooohhhhhhhh h-just kidding xoxo

I should get an idiot's guide to how to not procrastinate. Like, on my taxes. Or mowing the lawn for half a year. That was a bad plan, right there.

[Pete]

Everyone knows you don't mow the lawn like a sucker. You get a goat