Despite detractors, this book is structured well to skim for an overview, and dip into sections required to do specific tasks.
I used the 2nd edition over a 10 day period to learn HTML, and design a website with scanned content, bespoke images (using Corel Photo), more than 500 hyperlinks (laboriously found through lots of search engine use), and create a well structured site that 5 years later still works well (with content additions by present webmasters). This book also proved useful in teaching masters engineering students about html & cgi basics, for use in developing intranet demonstrators in industry.
The key strength is that you understand the basics without relying on packages like Frontpage or Office2000 to "bloat" up webpages unnecessarily. Overall a good basic text and web building block, to be read with something like "Futurize Your Enterprize" by David Siegel to inspire passion in web-pure-play businesses.