Lonely Planet guides are known for their no-nonsense, off-the-beaten-path advise, and their reliable hotel and restaurant recommendations. However, this guide does not come up to the quality level of the dozen or more Lonely Planet guides that I have reviewed.
There are various editing errors found in the guide. For example on page 27 the guide states: "Bolivia is thinly populated with just 1 million people". Wrong. Bolivia has nearly 9 million people.
Though this guide was published in 2004, most of the research was done in 2002. That means the information on accommodations and eateries is four years old and may not be reliable. For example, in Sucre, a delightful historic city, I went to nine of the twelve restaurants that Lonely Planet recommended. I found three of the restaurants permanently closed. In the other six restaurants, three had mediocre to bad food, and in the other three, the food was fair to good, but none of the restaurants had food that would justify a recommendation. The recommendations for accommodations were more useful than those for the restaurants.
The guide's section preparing you to journey to Bolivia (visas, health, getting there by air, etc.) is just bare-bones basic. Some of the maps in this guide are completely unusable, like the map for Sucre. The `Walking Tour Map' for La Paz is nothing short of a joke.
The strength of this guide is found in its excellent descriptions of the seven geographical areas the guide covers. Each area has its history and climate explained. This is one of the few guides that will give you the population and altitude of major cities and towns. Kudos! The descriptions of the towns and cities are top rate. The "must see" sights are listed and explained and you should attempt "to see" these places. The sidebars or text boxes found throughout the book, i.e., "Bolivar - El Liberatador," "Traditional Andean Musical Instruments," etc., are great sources of information.
In short, if you are not concerned about hotels, accommodations or needing good, reliable maps, then this guide, because of its excellent descriptions and history of each geographical area, is recommendable. Your best bet would be to use this guide as a supplement to either Pocket Adventures Bolivia (Strongly Recommended) or Footprint's guide on Bolivia.
Finally, also consider two additional books that can enhance your time in Bolivia. The first is, "Chasing Che" by Patrick Symmes and also excellent is Herbert Klien's, "A Concise Short History of Bolivia" (see my reviews on both).