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Three essential guides to understanding LEGO robotics and the LEGO system (continued)
The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book: Design Invent and Build
 Inside you'll find some of the NXT Step bloggers' best ideas for creating cool and sophisticated models including instructions for eight robots you can build yourself.
The book explains the fundamentals of programming and design accompanied by CAD-style drawings and an abundance of screenshots that make it easy for you to master the MINDSTORMS NXT system. You'll get an overview of the NXT parts (beams sensors axles gears and so on) and clear instructions for combining them to build and program working robots.
The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book delves into the complexities of the NXT programming language (NXT-G) and offers tips for designing and programming robots using Bluetooth creating an NXT remote control troubleshooting and much more.
Computing Unplugged's evaluation
This book is a nice start if you mostly want some more robot plans. It's a good addition to any robot-builders library, but if you want more of a getting started tutorial, we recommend The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Inventor's Guide over this one.
The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book: Design Invent and Build by Martijn Boogaarts (and friends), published by No Starch Press, is 350 pages and has a retail price of $29.95. We give The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book: Design Invent and Build a rating of 3 out of 5.
OUR RATING: 3 of 5
The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide
 What exactly is a slope? What's the difference between a tile and a plate? Why is it bad to simply stack bricks in columns to make a wall? The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide is here to answer your questions.
Focusing on building actual models with real bricks The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide comes with complete instructions to build several cool models but also encourages you to use your imagination to create your own fantastic creations.
The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide also includes the very cool Brickopedia, a visual guide to nearly 300 of the most useful and reusable elements of the LEGO system, with historical notes common uses part numbers and the year each piece first appeared in a LEGO set.
Computing Unplugged's evaluation
We never knew LEGO was this complex, but this book helps you understand the system behind the bricks. It turns out that these little plastic LEGO pieces can be quite involving for adults as well as kids.
The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide by Allan Bedford, published by No Starch Press, is 344 pages and has a retail price of $24.95. We give The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide a rating of 4 out of 5.
OUR RATING: 4 of 5
Joe Dolittle is an associate editor at ZATZ Publishing. Earlier in his career, he worked for Component Software, where he was tech support manager for the FileFlex database engine.
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