Ok, this is a very good book. I bought this book, with very limited programming experience. I had only really tinkered around with PHP.
I found this book very easy to read, and use when I needed it later for a specific job. I think this book is better used going through it from start to finish, taking notes, or however else you learn. There are about 200 pages of Appendix with some handy references.
I skipped the installation chapters as I had PHP already installed on my web host.
At the end of many chapters, there are exercises you do that links to the chapter you just covered. For the first few chapters you work on a online job application, and build that up at the end of each chapter. Then it moves on to an address book...
At the end of the chapters(before the appendix) is 4 case studies: Shopping cart, Phorum discussion board, Email application, and Database browser. Here they write these web applications, and show you how it's done!
There are not many mistakes in the writing. I think there are two mistakes in the code, but that is covered on their website.
Overall I think this is the best book on the market for PHP. It is interesting, very practical, and is a great book for learning PHP.
What are you waiting for? :)