Some books for beginners

I actually do not recommend buying books for beginners. Why? Because it is much easier, faster, and less error prone to learn the basics from videos instead of books. In the past many people   who could not get someone to teach them (which is still the best way to learn)   learned from books, and beginner books were really important, but today with all the great tutorials you'll find in YouTube, it is just insane to try any other method. Once you have learned the basic techniques, you'll be pretty much ready to buy a good reference book, which I do agree can be quite useful, but this will be the subject of another post.

I don't recommend them, but I do review some here, in case you want to know my opinion. Although I can't possible imagine why you would.

• "Knitty Gritty: Knitting for the Absolute Beginner" by Aneeta Patel is a bestseller on the knitting books  category in the UK. If anyone wants my copy they can have it (please take it, it is occupying space in my library). This is a terrible book and I regret having bought it. The only good thing about this book is that the photos that illustrate the basic techniques are quite good. So if you want to learn the very basic from a book it is a good option. On the other hand I've said it before and I'll repeat it here, you're much better off watching a good tutorial video than looking at these, so in my opinion they're actually useless. The bad thing about this book is most of its patterns, which are supposed to be very easy for a beginner, are also pretty ugly. Trust me on this one, you can make equally easy patterns that are much better looking. Also most of the patterns are for babies (the author states everyone has one baby they know!?). This is because there is no mention of gauge, or requirements to do a gauge swatch before you start the project, so the end result will have a size that is impossible to determine in advance. According to the author, you should have no problem finding a baby your finished project fits, because you surely know plenty of babies of all sizes and whose mothers are not too stylish either. The worst thing about this book is the terrible advice it gives. Basically there is plenty of advice of the type 'don't think or understand anything, just follow these instructions blindly and you'll be OK', which I think is the worst advice you can get. Didn't I make it clear enough on this post? I think the title of this book should be "Knitting for the Absolute Retarded".
• "Stitch 'n Bitch Handbook: Instructions, Patterns, and Advice for a New Generation of Knitters" by Debbie Stoller is probably the most read and popular book on knitting. Why? I don't know. It is not terrible. It's not very good either. It has a long chapter on how crafty the author's Dutch family is, in case you're interested, and similar personal stories and opinions that are plain useless. It has the required chapters on basic techniques, that are not very good and then, I said it before and I'm still not tired of  repeating it, you better learn from a video tutorial. There are some minor mistakes, nothing very important, but I think that Ms. Stoller would greatly benefit from following the advice on her own book. I refer her to the section "About Annie" where Annie Modesitt states "I only care that you understand why your stitches look the way they do". Indeed if Ms. Stoller understood her stitches she wouldn't be mistaken about the basics and giving incorrect advice (minor ones I admit, I'm being a little bit of a bitch here. I guess I'm being influenced by the title). The patterns are quite trendy and, if you like them, they might be a good reason to buy the book [lots of better, and free, patterns on Ravelry, just saying]. The big statement on this book is that knitting is not for grannies but the latest fad for fashionable, trendy young things. So if you're the kind of person who is really insecure and cares too much about what other people think and are afraid that people will laugh at you or despise you for taking such an old-fashioned hobby as knitting, you absolutely need to buy this book to convince you of just the opposite. You'll learn that "you ain't shit if you don't knit" and other similar pearls of wisdom. I must congratulate Ms. Stoller on her way with words, some of the puns on her book are quite brilliant, but the idea of heavy-on-the-slang as the opposite of granny-style is a bit... well...
• "Knitting Rules!" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. Very popular book too, if not as popular as the above. I hate it. The author is supposed to be hilarious, but the truth is she is not making a living with comedy, is she? Well, there is some good advice, pretty much drown in inane comments and opinions. Still I must admit, there is a couple of reasons that people buy it. One, because they want to be entertained while learning to knit and they don't mind that they have to spend more time going through useless information than useful one. Two, the instructions on how to knit basic items, like scarves, socks and so on, are pretty good. It was bad luck that I picked up this book intending to get advice on how to knit my first sweater. The chapter on sweaters is the last one and I guarantee you there is not one piece of useful information on it. I put it aside thinking this is the worst and most useless book on knitting ever published, but later on I heard someone saying they had knitted some socks using this book so I went back and took a look at the other chapters. They're not that bad, some bits are actually good, but I still don't like the fact that I have to read so much to get so little out of it.

So any books I'd recommend? You'll have to wait for a post on more advanced (but not really advanced) books.