Customer Reviews
from a very keen newbe to HTML and CSS - By: E. Rogers, 13 Feb 2008 
I can not recommend this book highly enough. While I am sure the professionals find it's lay out too simple. IT WAS IDEAL FOR ME! I have had it now 3 weeks & have just published my first web site & it looks good!! Can't believe it!
Clear concise layout with easy to follow instructions on things that reallly are complicated. (Trust me I have three other books that make it look like code that only people with degrees in computer science could understand!)
If you can't get a basic page up & run by the end of this book I strongly recommend you pay someone to do it for you.
It has made me keen enough to perhaps get a book that goes into some of the areas in more detail now that I have the grounding knowledge.
But saying that I still think this book will always be close to hand as a quick reference point for many years to come.....
Difficult read - By: DP, 10 Feb 2008 
I'm afraid I have to agree with other reviewers that have criticised the writing style of the author in this book. She seems to be targeting the beginner with an introduction of how the internet & world wide web evolved & what a web page is but then the actual instructions dive right in at a deep end of assumed knowledge. I have some knowledge of computing but am not an expert by any means. I bought this to accompany an evening class I am attending but I am finding it a hard read. Not one for the complete beginner but might work as a useful reference book when I acquire a bit more knowledge.
The raw information. Up to you to make sense of it. - By: Mr. D. F. Poisson, 23 Jan 2008 OK, I'm not a complete idiot, I taught myself basic html bit by bit in short spurts at my local bookstore without ever buying a book. Now I wanted to start understanding a bit more about XHTML & CSS, so I asked for this book for Christmas.
It has turned out to be one of the worst written 'teach yourself' books that I have ever read, & by golly, I've read a few. What kind of teacher uses jargon in the first chapter of her book to explain more jargon? Instead of using simple examples involving nothing but the elements learned in a given chapter, she introduces code that hasn't yet been covered as illustration!
One might expect some kind of systematic order in a book this expensive... otherwise, you might as well go to any random techie website (some of which are actuallly much clearer than this book!) & hope that some reccurent piece of gobbledigook will start making sense after enough repetition. Same experience, a hell of alot cheaper!
The information is there, which is why I give it two stars instead of one, there's just not way for a novice to access it. ANd if you're not a novice, then you don't need this book. I expect a book that anounces itself as 'quickstart for beginners' to to the teaching for me in layman's terms, not for me to have to assimilate alll the information before being able to start making sense of it for myself & processing it so that it becomes useful. Believe me, try something else. This is poor.
Awful - By: Mr. T. Pope, 17 Dec 2007 
ALthough I have voted Mr Fulcher's review as helpful I feel it is utterly necessary to formallly register my complete & undeviating agreement with what he has written. I can add no more than say that this book as about as helpful as a smalll teaspoon is in shifting a pile of rotten manure.
Possibly the most badly written text book in the world - By: H. S. Fulcher, 16 Dec 2007 This is the most badly written text book I have ever tried to read. It is possible that the author, Elizabeth Castro, may know her subject but she is unfortunately incapable of conveying information in a straightforward & logical manner. The first four pages of chapter 1 read as gibberish. I am amazed that her publishing house has not taken her to task.
I was initiallly baffled as to why favourable reviews of this book exist but the 75 or so reviews published on this Amazon site date back nearly ten years to 1998 & very few of them pertain to recent editions of this book.
I cannot sell this book second hand or even give it away with a clear conscience because it is so appallling.
I recommend instead "CSS The Missing Manual" by David Sawyer McFarland. It is very well written. Information is imparted with clarity, logic & the style remains friendly. I am grateful to another reviewer (who also found Castro's book unsatisfactory) for steering me towards it.
