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Reading "The book behind the book..." answered most of my burning questions, such as, How did a book with a cover like this (i.e., not a cute animal) get to be so good? I can't help wondering whether the book would have been more successful with O'Reilly--it seems to me that philg's audience would zero right in on it that way, while I consider it a minor miracle that I found the book (in my local Waldenbooks no less!) at all with ZD as the publisher. OTOH, I suppose the O'Reilly folks would want to push Website, eh?Regarding blurbs, they had no net impact on my buying decision: if anything, seeing Dertouzos listed on the front page gave me pause. Robert Thau's blurb should have been featured prominently, in large type, instead!
Why did the book work so well for me? It's a lot like sitting down with your favorite nerd friends over a cup of coffee and getting the unvarnished stories of their trials, tribulations, and hard-won wisdom. In my experience, that's how most pe...