I purchased this book when I first began homebrewing about 7 years ago. I found it was very easy to read and Charlie's "Don't worry, have a homebrew!" attitude towards beer brewing took the fear out of brewing my first few batches of beer. His carefree approach is a "180" from Dave Miller's approach. I would actually suggest to a novice, if the cash is available, that you purchase and read both Papazian and Miller's books thoroughly before staring your first batch of beer. All the information may not sink in at first, but it only takes a few batches of beer and everything will make sense. They both contain good points on brewing your first beer.
I would like to point out one step in Papazian's book that should be avoided at all levels of brewing, and that is, the aeration of the wort when it's hot. Please keep this in mind as you read this book. It will make sense after you read the first section for beginners. Papazian suggests, for simplicity sake, that you pour the 3 gallons of hot wort from your brew pot into a container that already contains 2 gallons of cold water. This is not a good practice at any level of brewing. Aeration of the wort is a two way street. Although necessary for the proper yeast life cycle necessary for the conversion of the sugars to alcohol and carbon dioxide, If you aerate the wort when it's too hot, or after the beer has began fermenting (which Charlie does warn you about), you could ruin your finished product. If you read the later chapters in the book, you'll find reference to wort chillers and chilling the wort quickly.
Most books written to date suggest that you cool the beer to below 80 degrees F before aerating. This is what I practice, as do most of the other homebrewers that I keep in touch with. You don't have to buy an expensive copper or stainless steel wort chiller to accomplish this quick cooling of the wort. All you need is a bathtub filled with cold water. You can take your brewing pot straight from the stove to the tub and simply submerge it in the water for a few minutes (remember to keep the pot covered!). Hope this helps out, happy homebrewing. Also, you can get some very good info at the following site; www.skotrat.com. This is a private homebrewing site which contains lots of good info on homebrewing. Also, there is a live chat room there where you can ask questions and get some free technical info on starting your first brew.