Are either of these Xing Yi books any good?

[Eight Diagram Boxer]

Has anyone read these:Hsing I Chuan by Douglas H.Y. Hsieh and Hsing I Kung Fu by Tim Tackett? I already have a teacher so I'm not looking to learn forms from the books, I just like to read different books and check out the applications.
Opinions?

[NafAnal]

Is that the same tim tackett of JKD fame? I know that JKD tim does know hsing-i.

Isn't it out of print?

[cagey_vet]

not familiar with the first i reckon, but tacketts book leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion. i have only seen volume 2 (well at least i havent seen volume 1, i can say that for sure). i may stand corrected, but from what i remember, he was/is a robert smith adherent? anyways, taking that into consideration and how mr smith never really specialized in one art... apply that here and you have someone who merely dabbled in hsing-i. now write a book with very few real descriptive techniques and no explanations of how hsing-i derives its power and you have rivaled that of mr tacketts efforts.
add to your library and file under 'dont do this' category.

[Eight Diagram Boxer]

I'm not really sure about Tackett's background, but I have a feeling his book isn't great. The other book is really the one I'm surious about. Anyone read that one?
Thanks for the responses by the way..

[Mojo]

I agree with cageyvet on the Tacket books. He doesn't show the 5 element fists nor does he go into power generation.
The Doug Hsieh book shows the 5 elements and the 12 animal forms along with a 2 man form. Good info but I just don't like his body shape as he does his forms, it looks like he lacks internal dynamics.

[Rockwood]

Both books are awful. But, if you didn't like awful books, you are going to hate 99% of kungfu books anyway.

Tackett learned in Taiwan for a year or two, not from Robert W. Smith. Its funny to read, and perhaps it does represent his teacher's method, who knows. It just shows the diversity of whats out there.
Hsieh's book is from Hong Kong. At least is has all the forms in it, but its horrible too. Clunky, ugly postures bad writing.

Both books are from a very primitive time, the 1970's and 80's. Hardly anyone in the west had any clue about this stuff nor published much on it. So you have to be merciful to these old pioneers. As far as I'm concerned, with a few exceptions, internal martial arts writing began with Dan Miller's Pa Kua Chang Journal.

-Jess O