I would like to attract your attention to these two brand-new Mindstorms books that I consider as the MUST for any NXT user who wants to become a real specialist.

First there is Mike Gasperi, Philippe Hurbain and Isabelle Hurbain’s “Extreme NXT” book (Apress) that I had the chance to see during the development, being its technical reviewer and foreword writer. This outstanding book takes your NXT to the next level. It shows you how to think outside the box. With more than twenty-five exciting electronics projects that range from a simple light switch to a cool magic wand writing words in thin air. The projects are explained with easy step-by-step instructions, and whether you are a novice or an expert you will be able to successfully construct them.

The second book is Brian Bagnall’s ”Maximum LEGO NXT” (Variant Press). This excellent book invites you to build amazing robots and go beyond the basic LEGO programming tools with leJOS NXJ, the open source Java virtual machine. You will realize and program an exciting collection of projects: a chess playing robot, an exoskeleton for your hand, a Mars rover, a robotic arm controlled through the Internet, a 3D object scanner, and many more – all using only NXT kit parts.