Elementary Go Series are quite old and still some of the best buys IMHO.
In the Beginning was first printed in 1973 for example and is, again, IMHO one of the best books about the opening for SDK players (possibly for weaker, and stronger, players too).
So yeah, some books are dated, or just aren't that good, so they go OOP, or not because the first printing never sells enough.
BUT some books are good enough to get a second printing.
And I disagree about having to unlearn 10 years old joseki, they are all still valid if you understand them.

/Mats

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mohsart - games & books
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You don't have to unlearn ten year old joseki, but often sequences given in older books as joseki have been improved upon, and once you get to a high enough level, you will have to unlearn it or it will cause problems.

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"Those who calculate greatly will win; those who calculate only a little will lose, but what of those who don't make any calculations at all!? This is why everything must be calculated, in order to foresee victory and defeat."-The Art of War

I disagree, let's take a example:
(This is not outdated joseki, but two that most players know, so easier to understand.)

A player learns the joseki that starts out with the opponent invading his 4-4 stone on 3-3 and ends with him getting a wall.
He learns this joseki very well and when he should direct his wall to either direction, when it is time to close the corner etc.
After having played this joseki many times, a stronger player introduce him to the double hane and a couple of variations.

Now, would knowing the first variation help in understanding the new variations or make learning them harder?

I think that it is very similar with outdated joseki: "this move was OK before white had komi, but now it is considered to slow", or "Korean professionals have discovered that *this* move exploits a weaknes in this joseki, so now most pros play here instead" are much easier to understand if you first understand the outdated joseki in question.

It would be interesting to know what a stronger player think about this...

/Mats

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mohsart - games & books
http://spel.mohsart.se/

How much has the advent of set theory changed the way you teach arithmetic to 5 year olds?

The advice to only read new books might be reasonable for joseki, but it's preposterous for opening theory for a DDK. The kind of principles that you're capable of learning at that stage really have not changed. At that level, you're mostly learning rules of thumb, and very broad ideas like corner, sides, center or urgent before big.

I think that part of the difference is that where joseki are specific sequences, the opening in general is much more open ended. What you need to learn is how to approach the essentially unlimited variety of board positions you'll see. To do that, you need a blend of intuition and principles, and to get that what you need is a good book for learning, not the newest fuseki being played.

So long as your books are new enough that they tell you it's ok to play a star point as your first move, I'd think they're new enough at that level.

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