A book is almost as labor intensive and detail oriented as the software package. The last two books that I got from Carrara software where atrocious. Features had been changed and the book had not been updated. Very frustrating. I just wish now that the software is really gaining traction, that someone could come out with a 3rd party book that is worth getting. This is how I learned Photoshop, QuarkXpress, Flash Actionscript language and Painter. Some books definitely are better then others. Took two books to learn Flash scripting :) The first book was not very good, but it did get me started.