I find this book better than the XML for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide by Elizabeth Castro. I went to a bookstore and browsed both, read the first 35 pages of each book, and this book by Emily Vander Veer has far more info per page, and so I ended-up buying it on Amazon. It is easier to understand (at least for me) because of the way the book arranges / presents the examples. Your mind doesn't get too overwhelmed/distracted too much by searching for info on a page. Only disadvantage is the smaller font on the examples... It's a great start. As long as you don't ask too many "why" questions, it will tell you "how to". I now know more about XML today than I did last week - and the year before. This book won't teach you everything about XML, you'll need a more advance book afterwards. But hey, I don't know too many "complete, all-in-one" books. A minimum background on HTML would help. If you have done Java/Servlet/HTML/ASP programming, this should be perfect, and with just a bit more imagination you can see the bigger picture. I totally do not agree with the negative feedbacks given about the book.
