It seems unnecessary to point out that this book is only for the true political junkie, since it's unlikely that anyone else would pick up a 700-page book with Clinton, Bush, and Perot on the cover in the first place. But for diehard politicos like myself, this book is a terrific account of the '92 campaign. The lengthy passages on political strategy may be trying for some, but the behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the three major campaigns (not to mention those of Jerry Brown, Pat Buchannan, et al) are fantastic.

I found this book to be extremely interesting and full of insight about the candidates and their campaigns. It also effectively represents the overall mood of the campaign and the issues facing the US at the time. Fascinating for anyone who is interested in presidential elections, and politics generally.

This is a very good book for those in the military establishment to study and heed. One point though, it is quite complicated to follow and requires a bit of technical knowledge of simulations and how the military runs exercises in order to fully grasp RAND's conclusions. Not for the faint of heart or curious reader.

Dr. Molander et. al. do an outstanding job bringing home the dangerous reality of warfare in the information age. The scenarios are well-designed and plausible, and the entire work is engaging and readable.

Dr. Sacco truly answers many of the questions that people have about relationships. If you are like me anw want to know why marriages fail and why women pick the men that they do instead of good guys like yourself this book has the answer. The situations Dr. Sacco relates to have happened to many if not all the people in this nation. By reading this book you can gain a better understanding of why certain situations occur in the hopes of being able to correct the problem.

This is a great self-help book for understanding men and women. Itprovided great insight into understanding why women stay in an abusive relationship and why men leave good marriages and become unfaithful. I have read other self-help books, but this one was much more of an easy read and highly informative. I think this book is what every woman who wants to better understand relationships as well as themselves should know. I highly recommend it and as an EAP consultant for my place of work, I am recommending it for a reference book for management and employees. Read it, you won't be disappointed! I definitely found it more interesting and user friendly than other "understanding women and men books"!!

What a book..."The Book of life." Why it's a modern cartoon book of paleontology. Though its wonderful life-like illustrations and tree-of-life charts are delivered as scientific facts, they are simply graphic theories that illustrators doll up into hypothetical reality. If you like science and fiction, here is a book for you. The realistic pictures belie the text, which says: "We do not even know how to conceptualize, much less to draw the worldview that would place Homo sapiens into proper relationship with the history of life."

Its authors caveat is that "science can only operate as a work in progress without perfect knowledge, and we much therefore leave a great deal out from ignorance --- especially in a historical field like paleontology, where we must work with the strictly limited evidence of a very imperfect fossil record." It's that fossil record, that the book presumes is accurate in its layer-by-layer record through time, that requires scrutiny. The oldest fossils are found in the bottom layers and the youngest in the top layers of rock, but little or no evidence is presented to provide skeptical readers information they can decipher for themselves as to the accuracy of fossil dating by rock layers. Are we to believe, without exception, that the fossil record is progressive from bottom to top? What about fossilized trees that protrude through millions of years of time? They are conveniently omitted. Michael Benton of England's Bristol University, one of the book's contributors, says "All the periods in the geological time scale receive their names in recognition of obvious changes in the fossil record." Yet, to the contrary, Benton adds, "the history of Earth's crust has been far too violent to preserve much more than a random sample."

Its general editor, Stephen Jay Gould, is magnanimous in his promotion of a single theory of man's origins, from monkeys he and most other fossil hunters say.

There may be missing pieces to the paleontological puzzle, but the bone diggers cliam they have finally filled in the evolutional blanks and can conclusively attest to the idea that life evolved from simpler single-celled organisms into modern man. The book's most ardent opponents are taken head on by Gould: "The lack of fossil intermediates had often been cited by creationists as a supposedly prime example for their contention that intermediate forms not only haven't been found in the fossil record but can even be conceived." But Gould holds a trump card. He says: "a lovely series of intermediary steps have now been found in rocks.... in Pakistan. This elegant series, giving lie to the creationist claims, includes the almost perfectly intermediate Ambulocetus (literally, the walking whale), a form with substantial rear legs to complement the front legs already known from many fossil whales, and clearly well adapted both for swimming and for adequate, if limited, movement on land." Oddly, the book never shows a drawing of Ambulocetus, but does have an illustration of a skeleton of a 400-million year old fish with a small underside fin bone the authors claim "must have evolved" into legs in four-legged animals. Man's imagination is not found wanting here. Out of millions of fossils collected and stored in museums, is Ambulocetus the main piece of evidence for evolutionary theory?

Richard Benton says that Charles Darwin had hoped the fossil record would eventually confirm his theory of evolution, but "this has not happened," says Benton. Darwin hoped newly-discovered fossils would connect the dots into a clear evolutionary pattern. The book attempts to do that with its fictional drawings of apes evolving into pre-humans (hominids) and then modern man. Yet the book is not without contradictions. It says: "It remains uncertain whether chimpanzees are more closely related to modern humans or to the gorilla."

The horse is shown as evolving from a small, four-toed to a large one-toed animal over millions of years. There are different varieties of horses, yet there is no evidence that a horse ever evolved from another lower form of animal, nor that horses evolved into any other form of animal.

Another evolutionary puzzle that goes unexplained in the book is the pollination of flowers. How did bees and flowers arrive simultaneously in nature? What directed the appearance of one separate kingdom of life (insects) with that of another?

The book describes 6 1/2-foot millipedes and dragonflies with the wing span of a seagull, but gives no explanation for them. Life was unusual in the past and not all forms fit evolutionary patterns. Consider the popular supposition that life evolved from the sea onto land. That would make more advanced forms of intelligence land bearing. But the aquatic dolphins defy that model, since they are among the smartest mammals.

The book maintains an "out of Africa" scenario for the geographical origins of man, but recent fossil finds in Australia challenge that theory and even the book's authors admit that "a single new skull in an unexpected time or place could still rewrite the primate story." Consider Java man (Homo erectus), once considered the "missing link" and dated at 1.8 million years old. Modern dating methods now estimate Java man to be no more than 50,000 years of age, a fact that was omitted from this text.

Creativity, invention and language are brought out as unique human characteristics. Yet the true uniqueness of man is not emphasized. Humans biologically stand apart from animals in so many ways. Humans can be tickled whereas animals cannot. Humans shed emotional tears, animals do not. The book does not dare venture beyond structure and function, beyond cells and DNA, to ask the question posed by philosophers --- does man have a soul? The Bible speaks of a soul 533 times, this "book of life," not once.

Gould's temple is science. He calls the scientific method "that infallible guide to empirical truth." Science works by elimination. It can only work from experiment to experiment, eliminating what is not true. It can say what is probable, it can never say what is true. Gould appears to begrudge the shackles of science by stepping outside its boundaries in overstating what it can accomplish. Whereas creationists await the day they will stand in judgment before God, for the evolutionists Gould says "Someday, perhaps, we shall me our ancestors face to face." Imagine, standing there looking at a man-like monkey skeleton.

One cannot fault the flaws in this book. After all, it was written by highly evolved apes.

You would have expected more time and detail to the ermergence of the nervous system and the Cambrian Explosion. A more up-to-date section on human evolution (no mention of Ardipithecus Ramidus) but on the whole the book is a good synthesis of the state of the knowledge in this field.

This singular book gives a very nice popular overview of the state-of-the-art in paleontology, chronologically covering everything from the Archean to the evolution of man. It is a beautifully illustrated and well-written book, although the text is perhaps sometimes a bit too technical and dense for the paleontological novice.
And please don't buy some creationists' claims that this is science fiction. The contents of this book is based on material from thousands of scientific articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals such as "Nature" and "Science", representing the fruits of the hard labour of paleontologists from all over the world. And the fossil record, even if it is convincing in itself, is far from the only support for evolution. Independent evidence for evolution can also be found in biogeography, development, molecular analyses (gene DNA, junk DNA, mtDNA etc), anatomical analyses, and even field observations of new species evolving. This large amount of evidence is why evolution is considered an established and undisputable fact. Of course, if one rather than facts wants comic book fantasies such as humans coexisting with dinosaurs and evil scientists conspiring to hide the truth, then one should look for creationist books instead. Or comic books.

It is about time AF Special Forces gets some recognition. While primarily intended for someone planning on entering AF Special Operations and wishes to prepare for the grueling indoctronation course, it offers an excellent regimine for keeping fit. All too often the public assumes that only Army, Marine and SEAL special forces demand a lot physically and the Air Force is "Soft". With a higher wash-out rate and longer, more intensive training required than any other Special Forces group, CCT's and PJ's often get applicants who fail within the first few days as they are not in condition. A great book for the fitness nut.

I bought this book hoping to get information that taught me a little something about PJ's and what they go through to become one. And it full-filled my needs and exceeded my expectations. I am now on my second week of training with their workout plan and I am loving it and experiencing the change. Thanks

During my first year of AFROTC, we worked out to the above mentioned 12 Weeks to BUDS. That was grueling in and of itself. I purchased this book to prepare for field training, and so far it's pretty decent. People have complained "where's the workout" - it says in the book that they compiled the information so you can mix and match a workout that is good for you. And you don't have to be a physical trainer to do this - the sets are there, the combinations of exercises are there - you simply have to do them. Finish this workout COMPLETELY and I guarentee the book will live up to what it says "you will be in the best shape of your life." Oh, and don't forget the running...

One thing I always ask myself when I pick up is why is the author writing this book? What makes the subject interesting to him? Where is the writer coming from?

Answers here are in the subject. Andrew Carnegie was once the richest man in the world. At the height of his wealth he had $100 billion dollars in today's dollars. Bill Gates had $50 billion at the height of the stock market bubble.

By the time he died Carnegie gave almost all of his money away. Carnegie was the first of the super-rich to become famous for his giving and tried to justify himself and build a philosophy around it.

That philosophy centered around Herbet Spencer's theories of social darwinism that justified his accumulation of money through a fight to the death against competitors and cost cutting that brought slave wages to many of his workers. Krass notes that the money Carnegie committed to libraries in the 1880's was almost the same that he spent on wages.

Carnegie wrote an important essay called the "gospel of wealth" in which he tried to explain his position in society - calling people like himself people who rose to the top due to superiority and whose wealth they used as a "trustee" for the better of society.

That essay is Carnegie's central importance in history - he provided the philisophical underpinning for the "robber baron."

Krass's book is the first major biography of Carnegie written in 30 years. It provides an excellent window into the era that Carnegie lived in and the more open and individualistic capitalism of the times. After Carnegie big business would be dominated by "trusts" and the "finance capitalism" of interlocking directorates and bankers. At one time the bank of Morgan had a person sitting on the board of directors of the 30 largest companies in America.

But Carnegie orgininated the modern foundation and giving programs of the super-rich which continues until this day.

Krass starts his book off with a discussion of the wide disparity between Carngies money and his treatment of his workers. As the book goes on though his portrayal of Carnegie mellows. In fact if you just read the first few pages and stopped you wouldn't get a good idea of what this book is really like. However, those first few pages give you an idea of what drew Krass to Carnegie - the role of the super-rich in society and the contradictions that they reveal. Although Carnegie thought he was superior to most people he believed he had a responsibility too.

I enjoy reading a good biography every once in a while, which prompted me to buy this book. What a pleasant surprise it turned out to be! Peter Krass does a super job of writing the "play by play" as we follow the life of Andrew Carnegie--a man who goes from being the biggest shark in the wealth creation sea to becoming a man proficient at giving all that money away! This book reads like a well written novel--its like sitting back and watching a well played game of Monopoly! It is on a par with the Lindbergh story and many other recent best selling biographies that I've had a chance to read.

For anyone who didn't see the Barron's review last November, the reviewer declared this Carnegie biography "the definitive Carnegie." It brings Andrew Carnegie alive and tells it like it is. Also, in March 2003, Library Journal named Carnegie one of the best business biographies for 2002. It's a great read that pulls you into Andrew Carnegie's world. The research the author conducted is astounding. Better than Chernow's Titan.

Normally I love each of the books in the Dalziel and Pascoe series. They usually have everything you could want in a good mystery - interesting main characters who grow throughout each novel, a suprising and logical conclusion to the mystery itself and a gripping story to tide you over along the way. Unfortunately I'd have to say this is the weakest entry in a very deep series. Dialogues of the Dead ends up abandoning the hallmarks that have made previous stories stong in favor of a conceit, i.e. the murderer is a word game fanatic. The reader is then challenged, as are Dalziel, Pascoe, etc., to sift through the clues the author has provided and try to discover the identity of the murderer.

Sounds good right? I thought so to until I picked it up and started reading. Maybe it would have come off better if I hadn't already guessed who the murderer was just from reading the synposis of the book! (And I make no claim to being particularly good at puzzles so if I could solve it...) Who needs to plow through 300+ pages to discover something they already know? Besides the fact the murderer is easily guessed, the other characters that Hill tries to trick you with are too obvious to be credible. The ending was a cop out as far as I was concerned, leaving the characters in the dark but allowing the reader to know the true identity of the murderer. I also thought that the motivations of the murderer didn't seem to really make sense given their portrayal in the book.

A good idea badly executed. Skip this installment and wait for Death's Jest Book, the next (and one can hope) better installment.

A new Dalziel and Pascoe novel is always a cause for celebration but "Dialogues of the Dead" is a special treat for puzzle and word-game lovers. Hill's books are celebrated for sly and clever wordplay but this novel takes it further, making a word-puzzle central to the plot.

Two accidental deaths are proved murder by "Dialogues" submitted to a local Yorkshire literary contest. The pieces contain clues, but the local police, including fat, crude, razor-sharp Supt. Andy Dalziel, and the refined and dependable Inspector Peter Pascoe, as well as several academic consultants, are baffled. Meanwhile young constable "Hat" Bowler begins to romance the attractive librarian Rye Pomona while finding numerous suspects among the sniping literati, except for one problem - they keep getting murdered.

Word mavens might follow clues to the solution, but Hill leaves the key hidden until the end. Intricately constructed, with well-drawn characters and diabolical murder scenes, this novel will dazzle puzzle fans. Those less in the know, like myself, may feel many of the sophisticated clues flying right over their heads.

I have long been a fan of Reginald Hill, prefering his Dalziel and Pascoe to most other things he writes. And with this book, he has truly surpassed himself.

This is the best book i have read in 2001. (it was published in march 2001 here) and i enjoyed it more than i think i have ever enjoyed anything. Hill's plotting is superb, and his characters equally sublime.

This is truly a word puzzle, he lays out the clues for you along the way, but in such a way that you dont realize youre being fed clues (and in some cases red herrings) When you get to the end, it all makes some kind of glorious sense, and you wonder how stupid you were for missing all the little hints.

This IS his best d&p. and perosnally, it is probably my favourite book ever. (i speak nay in jest). the characters in this book are superb, especially Hat Bowler and Rye Pomona. They are rather simple, (alright, only Hat is, Rye is as deep as the maraianas trench) but his simplicity is compelling. He holds some kind of innocence, a son-like quality, which just makes you care for him and want it all to work out well for the poor lad.

It was a great book, until the end. Upon which it became a SUPERB book! Hill really outdoes himself with the end (and i really really hope they didnt change it one iota in the american version, as they sometimes tend to do, because it really was a great ending). For pages he's tricking you, then suddenly you see it all. You're in shock, then he explains it, making you feel like an idiot for not spotting it sooner.

Really, you should read some of the previous d & p books, as there are some vague references to them. You can probably get by without having read them, but if you read An Advancement of Learning, it will certainly help you.

As ever, Dalziel brings forth many a chuckle. But in this book he seems to take a back seat, becomeing much more the overseer of events, taking on a somewhat god-like quality. He isnt always right there, but his prescence and influence can almost always be felt.

This is, in short, nothing less than a superb book. If you miss it, you are definitely missing out, on a great reading experience.

You dont even have to like word puzzles. Whatever sort of book you like, this is one not to miss. Under any circumstances.

and just revel in the ending

This book was an astonishing biography about Princess Diana. It gave you insight into the life that she led both privately and in the public eye. The Princess of Wales had a good heart, even from the time she was young. She enjoyed being with people and helping those in need. Diana was also a very generous person and she liked to have fun and laugh. She seemed happy, but underneath she was suffering from depression. I was shocked at what I learned while reading the book. Whenever I pictured The Princess of Wales,I always thought of her smile, but she was really hurting inside. It all started from the disappointment that her parents expressed when she wasn't born a boy, to her bulimia nervosa, and her numerous suicide attempts. Not to mention, she was constantly being criticized by her own husband, family, and the media. I can't imagine being put in the position she was without any words of encouragement or guidance. The author did an excellent job giving examples and supporting his stories with quotes from friends, family, and the Princess herself. His style of writing gave you a greater understanding of what she was going through with very detailed stories and descriptions. There were also pictures throughout the book showing the Princess with her children and doing the things she loved. If you are at all interested in learning about the life of Princess Diana, this book is well worth reading, though at times it can be difficult to follow. It gives you a greater comprehension of her life as well as greater respect for her as a person.

This book has been called "the longest divorce petition in history", and when you read it, you would have to agree with that statement. But what you have to remember is that at the time when Diana agreed to co-operate with Mr Morton, she was feeling sad, lonely, and unhappy, but she was never allowed to express that publicly. She was unhappy with her life, unhappy with her royal image, and most of all, unhappy with her marriage, yet she couldn't do what anyone else in that situation would be able to do - she couldn't visit a local solicitor and obtain a divorce. Poor woman, she couldn't even go to the gym without being followed by a throng of photographers.

When this book was published in 1992, it was dismissed by the establishemnt as being a pack of lies, but ultimately they, and the public too, discovered that it wasn't when Charles admitted his infidelity with the redoubtably ugly and gauche Camilla Parker Bowles, and when, in her astonishingly frank Panorama interview, Diana candidly shared the harrowing details of her eating disorder, bulimia.

This book succeeded on many levels. It certainly exposed the shocking truth about the Royal marriage and portrayed the Royal Family, for the first time ever, not as cherished icons but as ordinary individuals with more than their share of character defects (and this means Diana, too!) But it ultimately succeeded in its portrayal of an immature twenty year old girl, who won the hearts of the world when she kissed the Prince, only to have him become a toad, to the beautiful, compassionate symbol of kindness, caring, and humanity that she was when she was so tragically snatched away from the world. For it was the publication of this book that enabled Diana to seek a new life for herself, and in doing so she developed the character traits that enabled us all to fall in love her, this time more completely, again and again and again.

I have read all of Andrew Morton's books on the life of Diana, Princess of Wales. I believe them to be the most accurate accounts of the real story surrounding her life. The fact that he had her approval meant to me that his books were not meant to hurt her but to tell the real truth. They are a tribute to her and her sons. Had Prince Charles not betrayed her from the start, she would be alive today and would have made him a good queen and queen mother to his son, the future king of England. In searching for the happiness she was denied, she met with trajedy, which could have all been avoided had her life not been devastated by him. My heart was saddened as I read this particular book, thinking all the while if Prince Charles will ever accept any responsibility for her death. It was a wonderful book, I highly recommend it.

I purchased this book so I could stay in shape and compete with the younger kids in the youth sports I Coach. This book is excellent and easy to read and follow. Good Pictures and great routines for beginner to advanced. This book got me in the mood to excersize and keeps me there.

This book is worth a read if you are intending to become a Navy SEAL or are just trying to get in shape. It contains beginning and intermediate levels; although, it lacks an advanced level. This books workout programs take no mor than two hours a day. I thought it was worth the money.

This book is an excellent primer on Navy SEAL conditioning. Seems to be pimarily for people interested in setting the stage for the kind of intense training that being a SEAL entails without demanding that they subordinate their entire lives to a Navy SEAL's fitness priorities. Basically, I'm this type of person. I have no chance of matching the physical prowess of a Navy SEAL, and thank heavens this book doesn't require me to. What it does is open the door to using the kinds of exercises that will keep me in great shape and even enable me to raise my workout intensity a notch or two without severely altering my lifestyle. The workouts are all straightforward and well-presented, and I felt comfortable mixing them into my regimen. Pretty cool. I recommend it.

The book covers too many topics and just few are developed in deep while others are superficially introduced because not yet standardized at the time of print. The book claims it covers the following topics: XML, XSLT, DOM, DTD, SOAP, XLink, XPointer, XPath, WAP, WML...and more; but just XML, Schemas, DTDs and SOAP could almost fit the book's size.

Chapters don't follow a very logic thread and it doesn't deal enough with very relevant subjects. Wrox probably planned to make this book the XML bible but I think they are far from the target.

The XML declarative language, with its adaptability and expressive power, is continuing to become the language of choice for reporting and classifying information. XML is a formal grammar that captures the syntactic features of a document type definition, and its properties, syntax, and applications are discussed effectively in this book. It covers XML as formalized by the W3C and the authors show how to use XML in Web-based and database applications. Readers who have developed applications in HTML will probably view XML as somewhat more abstract, since the visual representation of the content of a document is not emphasized in XML. Readers are expected to have a background in HTML, JavaScript, Java, and ASP in order to read the book. Although XML can be learned by reading the W3C specifications, these documents are frequently difficult reading, and this book makes the learning of XML much easier than reading these specifications. They include the W3C specifications for XML 1.0 in an appendix to the book for the interested reader. The book is a little dated, since the W3C has been updating XML specs since the time of publication (especially with regard to schemas), but there is a 2nd edition coming out soon.

In Chapter 1, XML is introduced as a mark-up language and its inherent extensibility emphasized. This is followed by a detailed treatment of XML syntax in the next chapter, with emphasis placed on the hierarchical nature of XML. The authors do include a discussion of Processing Instructions (PIs) for users who want to use XML in this fashion.

Document Type Definitions (DTD) are the subject of Chapter 3, where the authors communicate effectively how DTDs formal grammar is used to specify the structure and permissible values of XML documents. The formal DTD structure is discussed, and the principles behind writing DTDs are effectively outlined. They also discuss the problems with using DTDs.

Data modeling with XML is discussed in the next chapter, with information modeling via static and dynamic models treated in detail, and the authors carefully distinguish these two approaches. The actual designing of XML documents is given a nice overview as well as the role of schemas in XML. This is followed in Chapter 6 by a discussion of the (tree-based) Document Object Model, which overviews how XML documents can be accessed by various programs. Some helpful examples are given on how the DOM can be used to create an XML document programmatically. An alternative way of processing an XML document is discussed in the next chapter on the (event-based) SAX interface. The authors outline in detail the benefits of using SAX rather than DOM. In Appendix B the reader will find the Internet Explorer 5.0 XML DOM 1.0 W3C specifications. In addition, in Appendix C, the specification for the SAX 1.0 interface is given.

The shortcomings of DTD are addressed in terms of XML Schemas and namespaces in chapter 7. Since this book was published, XML Schemas have reached W3C recommendation status as of Nov 2000. The authors give a good overview of namespaces and schemas, with helpful examples. This is followed in chapter 8 by a discussion of how to link and query into XML documents using the XML information set, XLink, XPath, XPointer, XML Fragment Interchange, with XLST covered in the next chapter. For database applications, the authors outline the differences between relational databases and XML documents. A very detailed treatment of how XLST transforms the source document is given, and the authors compare XLS and DOM transformations. An Internet Explorer XSL reference is included in one of the appendices of the book.

More details on the relationship between databases and XML is the subject of chapter 10, wherein the authors show how to store XML and how data can be communicated between different servers using XML. The issues involved when moving data from RDBMS to OODBMS or from Oracle to Sybase, are discussed by the authors. This is followed by an interesting discussion on how to use XML as a distributed component model for server-to-server communications via XML-Remote Procedure Call and Simple Object Access Protocol.

E-commerce applications are discussed in the next chapter, with EDI and its improvement via XML. The business markup language cXML , which allows business to business electronic commerce transactions across the Internet, is also treated in detail.

The authors then finally discuss how to render XML documents more readable and pleasing for the viewer in the next chapter using the style languages CSS and XSL. The discussion is really interesting, for the authors dig a little deeper into the foundations of style languages. The discussion of style languages as rule-based languages is particularly illuminating.

The next chapter is very interesting and its inclusion is actually very surprising, namely a discussion of the Wireless Application Protocol. The authors give an introduction to the Wireless Markup Language and WMLScript. The book ends with four useful chapters on case studies for data duality, distributed applications, a book catalog information service, and SOAP.

There are many applications of XML in many different areas, such as CellML (proprietary) used in cell biology, CML (Chemical Markup Language) for molecular chemistry, IML (Instrument Markup Language) for control of laboratory equipment, BSML (Bioinformatic Sequence Markup Language) for gene sequencing, and MathML for formatting of mathematical equations. I find XML an extremely powerful approach to information reporting and I am currently developing a package called NMML (Network Modeling Markup Language) for use in reporting results in simulation and mathematical modeling of networks, and FMML (Financial Modeling Markup Language) for use in reporting results in the modeling of financial instruments. This book, along with the W3C specifications, has been a tremendous help in the development of these applications.

Awesome "self-teach" book. I've been programming for years, but was new to XML and needed to start using it in my applications, so I had just the very basic concepts of what XML was before I started reading. This book is very complete, gives tons of practical examples and guidelines, and provides many external references. This is the ONLY book you will need to learn XML effectively on your own.

As others have stated here, the only real downside to the book is that it repeats many concepts more than once, so it is NOT the best choice for a reference book.