I've got Midori's book and although beutifully illustrated it was rather too complicated to follow for a beginner like me. This on the other hand doesn't have pretty colour photo's (hence not being 5 stars) but does have clear instructions starting from the most basic ideas and working up to eleborate designs; my wife loves the idea of the rope corsets although we do need about 60 feet of rope. Pictures are in B&W and the printing quality is pretty low, think laser printed photos, but there are lots of them!