Sometimes the line between hobbyist and professional can be a blurry one. And regardless of your chosen niche, whether it be cooking, knitting or coding, there are the essential readings, books, magazines and, nowadays, websites that everyone reads. The WordPress Bible, 2nd Edition is just that book for WordPress.
While reading it I was constantly reminded of the Haynes Manuals for car enthusiasts.
Where the Haynes manuals shows you how to disassemble and rebuild an entire car, Aaron Brazell shows you how WordPress works and how to work with it. Every aspect of WordPress is coverd and is done so with little fanfare or flourish.
But this is in no way a complaint.
Explanations are clear and concise with lots of tables, screenshots and code samples. Narratives for the most part are left completely out. The book seems to be written with the assumption that the majority of readers will not read it starting at page one. Instead, I imagine it sitting on people's desk ready to be referenced when a new solution or knowledge of a particular aspect of WordPress is needed.
There are also some truly standout sections that go beyond WordPress, including BuddyPress, caching and backing up. Additionally I have found myself flipping to Appendices A (WordPress Hook Reference) and B (Template Tags) rather than going to the WordPress codex site or doing a Google search. It might be my personal tastes but I find the simple descriptions and tables easier and faster for referencing.
Living in Austin I had the benefit of meeting with Aaron Brazell at a local coffee shop to pick up our review copy of the book in person. We spoke for a short time about himself and the book. He explained some of the many changes he had to make between the first edition (which came out around the time 2.9 was released) and the second edition. These include adding custom post types, custom taxonomies and totally rewriting Chapter 22 which covers multisite functionality.
Aaron has worked with WordPress since 1.2 and as one of the founders of WP Engine he works daily with optimizing, scaling, and protecting WordPress sites and his expertise really shows in the WordPress Bible.
While it doesn't feature an iconic Terry Davey cut-away cover illustration like the Haynes series did, the WordPress Bible goes just as deep into the nuts and bolts of what makes WordPress work as the series of automotive manuals does for cars.
