In the spirit of getting a Brazilian jujitsu book that finally was on sale down to ten dollars (I know, the sacrilege etc, I need the reference though), I figured hey why not review what I already have. For example, Jiu Jitsu by "Professor" Robert Clark. The cover bills it as 'The Black Belt Syllabus' and 'The Official World Jiu Jitsu Federation Training Manual.' Which I might have cared about if there was any effort at explaining what the hell that means, because it's actually denigrating in my mind without any reference. I mean, he spells the name of the martial art like the Brazilians usually do, but the book is obviously for Japanese jj, not that he ever indicates that he is operating with either. In fact, the terminology he uses for the throws seems to be coming from old school Western wrestling, or somewhere less sensical, and is just confusing if not misleading.
      The technique sequences are stiff and stilted, and the pictures are little aid to the small amount of textual explanation, and as such often require deciphering. There is no explanation of principle whatsoever, and the pins range from esoteric to doesn't-actually-quite-work-like-that. The one somewhat useful section is a short survey of mid-range strikes and a few drills for chaining them together, though even that seems to be taken from a generic karate style.
      For the complete opposite of all that, there are Small-Circle Jujitsu by Wally Jay (the closest school to Ko Sho jj I know of), and, to a lesser extent, Jujitsu: Intermediate Techniques of the Gentle Art by George Kirby. Basically I don't feel like writing the opposite of everything I already wrote.

-fun clock

-Cave Hunter - can't figure out why it's called that, but hey it's kinda fun. The most interesting part, as Wyatt pointed out, is that in some ways it plays with what one might define as "up," especially when you try to figure out what the original "up" was after progressing a a ways (via Wyatt)