This XML book is heavy on bad jokes and light on examples in the early chapters. If you are looking for a solid introduction to XML please don't buy this book. Its like learning to ride a bike by building your own bike out of paper. The author enjoys including bad jokes and then making you read footnotes explaining the joke. The author also devotes many pages on the exact use of terms. Most of the time an explanation of terminology is useful, however the author convolutes each definition with his own jokes and exhaustive list of misuses that you are often more confused after reading the definition. Sometimes the author will say "This term should only be used to describe <a> and not <b,c,d> but we will still use it for <b,c,d> if the context fits. This is very confusing. Also, the author does not seem to think examples are important. The first 100 pages contain almost no examples. Often, XML concepts are illustrated with juveniles cartoon pictures and described with equally juvenile metaphors designed to be amusing instead of instructive. The author does not make it clear which concepts are essential and which elements are less important and throws them all together so you are forced to read 100 pages in order to glean 20 pages of useful material. If I was reading a book on how to ride a bike I would like to know where to put my feet and how to pedal. I don't care why the wheels shouldn't be called tires or who invented the first bicycle lock. In summary: This book has few examples in the early chapters. The content is mashed together. The content is confusing. It is filled with terrible jokes and annoying useless footnotes. This book is in DIRE need of an editor. The authors make a big deal of how they are experts in the field. Perhaps their importance in the XML field let them get away with light editing. Its a shame since the result is a terrible waste of a reference book. I would recommend the NUTSHELL series if they have one for XML. NUTSHELL books are usually concise, well edited, extremely informative, make excellent reference books, and are light on corny jokes.
