FredL

I love these books and this man. As has been pointed out before on this forum, John Naka is not the incredibly gifted artist that some others are. Maybe that is what makes his books so great. He seems to understamd how to explain what he knows (which is alot) in a way that the common enthusiast can understand. When I read Naka's books, I am filled with confidence that I can do this.

If I get to his level, I will be more than content.

When I worked in IT, I had a guy working for me that was a far more gifted technician than I was. Well, than anybody else in the departmant was. He had tried management and failed. Nobody could figure out what he was talking about half the time and he was incredibly frustrating to work for. It was hard enough to try to manage him. Yet the things he could do with software systems were amazing. I could understand maybe half of what he did. I'd say he was about 5 to 10 times as productive as I was on individual assignments, and I was considered pretty good.

Yet, he was nearly fired the second time he failed as a manager.

The reason I bring this up is merely to point out that different people have different gifts. John's gift is to be able to explain to the rest of us bonsai basics. Nobody ever has or ever will become a truly outstanding bonsai artist through the use of these books. But for guys like me, they will bring us through the ignorance and confusion that are so discouraging for the average person trying to master bonsai to a basic competence that is hugely satisfying.

Fred