Instant Arabic: How to Express 1,000 Different Ideas with Just 100 Key Words

I assumed from the title of this book that it would give you 100 words, take you through them and cleverly contruct 1000 ideas you could express from them. It is not like this at all. Instead you are just given reams of phrases with no explanation of the structure of the language. There are not 100 words to learn: there are 1,000s of words and this is a hard book to start with as a beginner. On the other hand, if you know a fair bit of Arabic and are travelling to the country soon, it's probably not that bad.

...which really packs a lot into it's size. It's great that phrases are written in both Arabic and English transliteration, which is perfect for rubbish Arabic speakers like me. An absolute bargain!