This book has seven essays, three game commentaries, and twenty problems. The essays are, for me, the best part of the book. He talks about becoming a professional, being a professional, amusing stories involving professionals, and about all sorts of things involving go. They're a joy to read, and do a much better job of putting a human face on go than anything else I've seen.
The commentaries talk more about the players than most commentaries do. It's been a while since I've read them, so I don't have much to say about them. The problems are almost all ladder problems - there are typically stones on the board making some amusing shape (e.g. the Japanese characters for Japan), and you have to tell whether or not a ladder works. There are stones in just the right places so that the ladder usually makes all sorts of strange twists and turns around the entire board before ending.
The book is a lot of fun. It was published by the author and distributed by Ishi. It's now out of print. I hope somebody else publishes more of his work; in particular, I'd like to see a volume consisting solely of essays by him.
Last modified: Sun Aug 10 20:53:27 PDT 2003