A Guide to Picking Locks #2 by Nick Adams, how to make Soap without burning your face off by raleigh briggs

(Microcosm) These are two handy, but very different, do it yourself books. The guide to lockpicking is pretty thorough, explaining all the different kinds of locks and keys and giving practical advice on how to practice and hone your skills. But the best part of the book is the writer representing himself as a thief who has been on hundreds of jobs and seen it all. "I have witnessed specialists actually attempt to pick a lock with with keyway tools before even checking to see if the lock is actually locked," he chuckles, thoug hhe could have offered the suggestion since he was there. In contrast raleigh's very zine-like handwritten guide is very safety-oriented, and she never claims to have robbed anyone's home (or carved a gun out fo soap). What's best about her zine is how clear it is, with charming diagrams that are halway between visually sublime practical illustrations and phone doodles. Best of all, you really feel like you could make soap. Unlike in the lockpick book: after the fifteenth page of making cardboard practice locks and mounting wooden faux doors in high traffic areas of your home to encourage frequent practice I not only knew lockpicking was not for me, but I felt safer knowing the lazy crooks in my area didn't have that kind of discipline either.