The LEGO Neighborhood Book: Build Your Own Town! Paperback – Illustrated, September 14, 2014

It's a 200-page 20cm-square softback book, so a bit different to other No Starch LEGO books, but its shape and size does suit the contents, and in particular the instructions, well.The first half of the book contains six chapters which cover the foundations of constructing modular buildings:The 'Cafe Corner' standard -- a useful reference on what exactly the modular building standard is: where the connection points go, how the sidewalk/pavement should be constructed, how high and deep the building should be and so onThe design process -- how to decide what you're going to build and in what coloursBricks everywhere -- how to look at real buildings and 'see' them as LEGO partsThe details -- how to construct windows, columns, cornices, lights, benches and so onThe interior -- how to build internal details for houses and commercial buildingsGallery -- photos of the author's buildings, provided for inspirationIt contains some great practical advice, in the form of photos of parts of buildings re-imagined in LEGO, ideas and inspiration for constructing aspects that they all need, such as windows, and also instructions for stand-alone models such as park benches, street lamps, beds, recliners and so on.

I have been buying plans from the Brick City Depot site for a year or 2 now, and when I heard that the plan builders from the site were releasing an instructional book, I was very excited and pre-ordered a copy of my own. I was not disappointed when my copy finally came in the mail. What I liked most about the book were (of course) the plans that were included in the back. I particularly enjoyed the "base plan" where you could build a base modular building and then design facades to attach later. There were several facade ideas that were included, and I look forward to trying out my own ideas! I am also particularly excited about the Corner Drugstore plan! I, myself, am a pharmacist in the real world, and I love the idea of adding a drugstore to my modular builds since Lego has not officially released a pharmacy set of their own. The floor plan looks especially cool, and I think that the shelves containing all the stock medication bottles look very interesting! Anywho, this book is awesome, and you need to buy it for the Lego lover you know. Keep generating cash flow for the bricklink.com sellers!!!

I really like this book! I just got the book today and have already read it cover to cover. I’m very impressed overall and will be using it for reference when experimenting with my own custom Lego builds.I’m biased towards this type of a Lego book because it’s oriented towards folks who like the Architecture and Creator sets and would like to create their own custom builds but could use some ideas on how to add those little details that really make your sets stand out.About 1/3rd of the way through the book, you’ll see a custom Chili’s restaurant. I’d purchased those designs from the authors and built the set last summer. The set sits on a shelf at my house and gets as many compliments as my purchased Lego sets do. It’s nice to see their other creative work in this book.This isn’t one of those books filled with giant, complex Lego builds that the average user never has the time or brick collection to build. I love those books too, but this book is one that I’ll have splayed open on the dining room table this weekend playing around with the step-by-step designs they’ve included in their book. Highly recommended!

This is a really great book for LEGO city/modular fans - a lot of great structural + furniture building ideas, and just a lot of great pictures to inspire. I find it hard to give things like this five stars, since you can see a lot of great stuff online for free, but you get a lot of nice detailed pictures.I got the paperback version (at the time it was less expensive than the kindle version); even if it were a few dollars more, the paperback version is definitely a better buy if you don't live in a country with astronomical shipping costs.

I love this book, great illustrations, simple to follow instructions and parts lists! I bought the 2nd book in this series too! can't wait to sort out all the my grown up son's old legos and start playing! Maybe I'll share this with the grand children!

this is a great little lego book. the included instructions for all the various custom buildings make the book well worth the $15 price tag. Gives step by step instructions with tons of pictures for creating buildings and also has instructions for furniture and city accessories to outfit your lego city. would def. recommend this book to any lego enthusiast, especially anyone just starting out who wants to learn HOW these types of buildings are put together. book may not have much to offer for a hardcore lego collector, but it was just perfect for me. Happy I bought it.I bought the paperback version and its reasonably well constructed. I don't regret the decision, but as much as I like the book, I wish I would have opted for a hardback copy.

I have a 14 year old who has moved passed the need to follow directions with his Lego's. He has an entire Lego city that has taken over his bedroom and is now really into the modular builds that are very complicated and structural. This book was the PERFECT compliment to his new building style.It really clearly displays how to build structures correctly and has lots and lots of brick-built things like furniture and lamp posts and such. He LOVED it.Using information in this book, he built a hospital with three floors, a working elevator and surgical suite, waiting area, revolving doors and -- well -- who knows what else is in there.If your Lego person is looking for brick-built ideas to expand a city -- this was a great one for us.