Personal Pages Books

This book is great at showing you how to do individual tasks with ASP.NET, but fails to bring it all together into a coherent picture of what a complete ASP.NET application should be like. If you want to quickly find out how to do one of the 130 or so tasks that this book covers (i.e. "Request Single Line Input", "Declare a Variable", "Work with XML Data Sources", and "Using Forms Authentication"), it is explained clearly. It also explains clearly the changes needed to migrate from ASP and VBScript to ASP.NET and VB.NET, from JavaScript to JavaScript.NET, and has plenty of C# examples.

I was misled by the title of the book, it's more of a set of building blocks than a blueprint.

This book was a major disappointment after having read other Maran Graphic books. There are alot of errors and the screen shots have been reduced down in size to the point where they are barely legible. Instead of putting the related subjects together, the book jumps around. For example, the book should put all of the "Request" statements together and all of the "Response" statements together. The authors were either in a hurry to get this book to press or just didn't know ASP.Net as well as they should have. You cannot teach a subject unless you know that subject like the back of your hand.

In learning a new language, its imperative that the book is 100% accurate, some of the code in the book was incorrect and caused errors. I emailed the publisher and eventually it was resolved. However, after losing confidence in the book, I can not recommend this book. I can recommend with five start the ASP 3.0 which they publish, which is my most used book, but this dot net version was a let down. If the book gets fixed, I would consider updating my review. The book does have other good information, but since there are no "bubbles" that say,, this code is bad, and will not work.. I would pass on this book until the revised.

This is a well written book. As a programmer I find that most books are either cumbersome references (i.e. Microsoft books) or are tutorials for the novice coder.

This book combines those two styles into a coherent and easy-to-read reference that gives programmers not only the tools necessary to create robust, flexible applications but the means by which to create them.

The authors have experience as programmers, architects, project managers as well as technical trainers. All these facets of their career show up in the style and content of this book. As a programmer on medium- to large-scale projects, I found this book to be very useful.

This is an absolutely fabulous intro to .Net. I do agree with the other readers the title of this book is slightly misleading given that it concentrates only on C#. However the beauty of .Net is that it really doesn't matter what you're coding in, your money will still wind up in Bill's account.

What I like about this book is that it starts out with building applications on the command line witch gives the reader a bottom up view of how C# applications work. The reader is then transitioned to web controls. All of the examples shown are practical applications that only a web developer would be interested in so there is no wasted time on the learning curve. This book really doesn't get too deep into the .Net environment or language but it makes a good intro, especially for people like myself who are only interested in the web application side of C#.

Another thing that really works for me is the examples are laid out very clearly and the reader sees the code as it actually exists, so there are no difficulties with assembling the examples into a finished product. I am a visual learner and if you are as well you will find that this book's format works well. Less talk...more work. Great book.

I was studying for the Microsoft exam 70-310 on XML Web Services and they suggested this MS press book on web services, but the MS press book is ONLY in C# even though the exam they want you to take is for Web services in VB.NET! Had to return that book. I got this one instead. I was happy to see that this book covered XML Web services in both VB.NET and C# and I was able to use this book to study for my exam. Passed!

Excellent book on webservices. Chapter 23 was something I had never seen before. WSDL is used extensively in the book, and Chapter 23 shows how to build take a standard HTML page and turn it into a WSDL document. What does this get you? Now you can screen scrape HTML pages and access the data as a property of the WSDL Document. I had never seen this before. Totally cool and unique technique!!

I have purchased three books on XML Web services and this one was the most comprehensive and got right to the point on how to not only build webservices, but also to how consume them in my applications (.NET, VB and classic asp). It is interesting that this is such a talked about topic everywhere, but there are not too many books out on this subject. You won't do yourself wrong by getting this book.

Any book on ASP.NET will mention Web services development, but "XML Web Services for ASP.NET" is an entire book dedicated to explaining all of the different sub-areas within the technology platform. And very well done. It's written by everyone's friend in .NET, Bill Evjen, one of the most outspoken advocates of .NET technology around.

The book is outstanding and takes an in-depth look at XML Web services, and Microsoft's specific implementation of the paradigm. All of the major considerations are explained well and adequately to become productive in developing your own library of Web services, or by extending the functionality of your applications.

The book's tone is very friendly, and non-intimidating, so it's a very easy, quick read. Bill also uses lots of practical analogies to make the more complex topics relevant, so it's an added bonus that this book appeals to the beginning as well as the seasoned developer.

Bill discusses areas critical to a thorough understanding of WS technology using .NET such as SOAP, UDDI, remoting, security, authentication, performance, and client development for calling an XML Web service from an ASP.NET WebForm or Windows Form, VB 6.0 app, or an ASP 3.0 Web page. The book also features some really good appendices, especially those on .NET's Web service classes, and an XSD primer for schema development.

The book is not about ASP.NET development, and so providing the reader has some experience with building third-generation Web applications, gets right to the meaty stuff. The chapters are short and to the point, and Bill's overview of ADO.NET is one of the better ones I've read in recent times. The most outstanding thing to me is that Bill liberally uses real-world code samples, with all code presented in both Visual Basic .NET and C#. Snafus in the code are very minimal, and I know form personal experience that good ol' Bill is extremely available and answers all his e-mail...about anything.

However, the book's printed code samples (I haven't checked the downloadable source code from the publisher) tend to reflect code generated from Visual Studio .NET, which in my opinion become confusing and therefore more difficult to replicate in an IDE environment like Dreamweaver MX or ASP.NET Web Matrix or non-IDE environment like Notepad due to all of the proprietary code VS.NET generates, and in doing so, using code behind. It's been my experience that it's easier to go the other way - provide the raw code and leave it up to the developer to implement in whatever means they see fit.

Another thing I did not care for (some of you may agree, I'm assuming most may not) was the physiology of the book itself, which was beyond the author's reasonable control. The binding is very flimsy and the spine breaks without much trouble. The paper isn't very durable, and doesn't lay flat for very long. I hope Wiley Publishing take into consideration that books of this nature get used & abused for their content more than most, and consider making corrections in the book's composition to make them last longer.

But beyond this, the book is a must-have for a user group as it's cross-language, multi-developmental platform, multi-subject appeal make it applicable to many different levels of developers, and is great for team environments.

When I purchased this book, hope will find examples, information about Web Services to help my projects. But I only found identical MSDN information. I could not believe my eyes but several of sentences was same with MSDN. If you want to buy a Web Services book this should not be one. I have purchased several books on XML Web services and this one was the most identical (also just copy and paste) one.

I was excited when I got this book, I read the database portion with great interest but the problems began when the code is not written in vbscript, even on pages that specify vbscript. The code is full of erroneous mistakes. I have had to take out any code I trried to use and go to another book writers site for help. By the way, Wrox always has its authors where you can email them, I cant find the guys who wrote this, I suspect they are hideing out somewhere but I guess if my code was this messed up i would too. This book should be outlawed and these men should have to repay any money they made off it.

This is THE book to buy if you want to learn to write ASPs in Javascript. I have done much searching, and have found no other useful books on this subject. Zero. Sure there are some books that claim to cover Javascript on the back cover, but usually their code is limited to a few examples.

If you're planning to use VB, then there are probably better books out there for you. But if you want to learn to write ASPs in JavaScript, this book is extremely helpful. Though ASP objects are the same no matter what scripting language you use, there are subtle differences in the way you manipulate them. If you try to start coding ASPs in JavaScript from a text that uses Visual Basic, you will undoubtably suffer through a lot of frustrating trial and error.

This book starts with the basics, and works up to some complex examples like a BBS and an online catalog. The writing style is clear and to the point. The CD is no frills, but at least you get all the code. Needless to say, you should already be familiar with JavaScript before you tackle writing ASPs in JavaScript.

A final caveat: There are a number of typos in this book, including a nasty one on page 153 that mixes up the constants for reading and writing files. If not for this, I probably would have given it 5 stars.

I found this book to be a well written guide addressed to an experienced developer who wants to learn ASP using Javascript (or jscript as microsoft calls it). The examples are of the right length and number.

I don't understand why some of the above reviews on this book came out so poor. This book is one of the very few to show large and useful examples of ASP written in JavaScript (JScript). I found this book straight forward, and with direct application to what I, as a developer, needed to know.

To me this book spoke clearly. Not coming from a Microsoft server-side background I needed to get up to speed with ASP. I already knew JavaScript from client-side programming, but most of my server-side programming was done in Perl. I didn't really want to learn a new programming language, and this book took that idea and put it to work. I was able to leverage my knowledge and quickly become proficient at ASP. Most if not all of the features available to ASP are shown using JavaScript, and most things have associated code examples with them.

True, this book is geared for programmers wanting to write web applications. If you are not a programmer you WILL need to get additional references - the authors don't really waste anytime to teach you HTML, or server side scripts or how to program - but that is not what the book is about and the book's preface tells you this. The authors have also included two appendices that will get most programmers up to speed on JavaScript and VBScript.

In terms of organization the book spends the first couple of chapters motivating why ASP is a great development platform and what sets it aside from other technologies out there. From there you get immersed into the basic 5 objects (Request, Response, Application, Session and Server) that provide most of the functionality that you'll need to develop your apps. In my case this was enough to give me a working knowledge of ASP for many projects. Continuing sections show you how to incorporate ActiveX components into your projects, access the file system and access databases. Other chapters are devoted to web issues like application persistence, error handling and debugging. Lastly this book also sports chapters on some less frequently used (but powerful features) server-side includes (SSI) and access control (authentication). Three of chapters are dedicated to `real world' type examples. One of them even shows you the code as most developers would initially write it, but then refactors it so that most of the code can be reused easily. This chapter provided great insight to me on how to take a web app and make it really easy to maintain.

I have looked for additional books on this topic, but none provides the breadth or depth for this one. GET IT.

Contrary to what other reviews say, this book does take a good look at ASP and how it can be used to create e-business solutions. ASP is in reality a very simple technology, and a competent programmer shouldn't need much beyond an exposition of what ASP provides and a few examples of how to use it efficiently. In this regard, this book is a success -- and a very easy read to boot. The initial chapters describing the different ASP objects seem disconnected from the rest of the text however, and the book would benefit from a better overview of how to practically use it all properly. The reader often has to search around to get to various concepts, but most are there. One thing to note is that the authors use "JavaScript" and "JScript" interchangeably in the text, when in reality there are some serious differences between the two. This text is one of few ASP references that provide a meaningful amount of JScript examples -- most are hopelessly mired in the VBScript found in Microsoft's documentation. The reader should check out Microsoft's MSDN site (msdn.microsoft.com) for ASP tips not found here.

This callendar will give you some mental strength sometime although it is in black. And the design is very poor and it is very difficult to hold the page on the right date. Anyway, if you need some advices, you can take it

I was given the I Can Do It! page-a-day desk calendar for Christmas in 2002. This calendar helped heal alot of dysfunctional attitudes and thoughts. I have since been searching for another one. I would like to start over again. I took each thought with me each day I left for work and the healing ability within it helped transform a negative outlook on life to someone who enjoys getting up each day and looks forward to new challeges! Thank you and please put it back in print.
Cindi

Lincolnton, NC

This is the WORST product ever It was psychologically irresponsible and emotionally scarring. It presents an entirely egocentric and narcissistic view of reality. The ideas, carried to their logical conclusions absolutely prevent meaningful interaction with other humans. There is not a shred of psychologically sound information. If you really want to mess up your life, buy this. For example, "I am filled with a strong sense of worth and I increase my ability to attract abundance into my life." - Excerpt from January 24, 2003. What could that possibly mean? It is barely even coherent and lacks any substance. However, if you are interested in a good, hearty laugh, by all means indulge yourself with this product. Just remember, not to listen to anything it says.

Daily I feel I am given pearls of wisdom. I often quote the daily calendar to my coaching clients. It hits the mark more often than not.

A good IQ exercise book that helps me to kill time while travelling in the train and waiting for somebody. It also provides great exercise for keeping the brain power in motion.

"The Ultimate IQ Test Book" is a collection of 25 IQ tests (mostly drawn from "The Times Book of IQ Tests" books 1, 3 and 5 - no idea what was wrong with the tests in books 2 and 4). The questions in this book are culturally unbiased (unlike those in some other IQ test books that I have seen) and cover the three main areas of intelligence that are typically covered by IQ tests, that is, verbal intelligence, numerical intelligence and spatial/visual intelligence. However, the word "ultimate" in the title is a bit of an overstatement.

The biggest drawback about this book is that the tests are unstandardized. What this means is that you can get a score for each of the tests in this book and you are told whether you are average, excellent, exceptional, etc, based on this. However, it is not possible to convert these scores to IQ values. Furthermore, the questions in this book are slightly different from those that are typically found in most standard IQ tests. Mensa's website recommends the books of H.J. Eysenck, for those wishing to practice for their entry exam, and the questions in this book are quite different from Eysenck's questions. Also, the solutions to the questions are not always well explained. There are several questions in this book that I still can't solve, even with the answers.

This book is a reasonable puzzle book and may provide some assistance to those intending to sit an IQ test in the future, but only if you're run out of other practice problems. For people actually wishing to calculate their IQ, then this is not the book for you. A more suitable book is Test Your IQ. "Test Your IQ" is not a perfect book either, but at least it allows you to get a numerical value for your IQ, rather than simply telling you that you are "exceptional".

If you're looking to exercise your brain, these tests will certainly stimulate and strengthen your noodle and result in improved brain function and longevity - the medical community is in consensus with this. But, if you're trying to see what your IQ is, these tests might not be the most representative. The tests in this book are actually HARDER than real IQ tests, or at least the one I was given.

Several years ago, a former employer sent me with a group of employees, all part of a management training program, to take a series of tests and evaluations. A professionally administered and proctored IQ test was given as part of the process. The main difference between the tests in this book and the REAL IQ test was that the ladder was multiple choice and the tests in this book have many questions that require a written answer that doesn't allow for guessing. This in fact makes the tests in this book more difficult than a standardized IQ test.

These tests are challenging, to say the least. But after you've done a few, you'll better understand the logic that goes into conceiving the questions and your scores will improve.

I'm contemplating applying for membership into MENSA and I am confident that doing these practice tests will significantly improve my entry score compared to if I went in cold.

But I feel the best use of these tests is for brain exercise. Unless you're in school or actively learning new, complex things, your brain gets into autopilot mode and starts atrophying. Consistent challenges like problem solving is one of the best ways to keep you mind sharp.

If there were more books available, my rating would probably be a little different. However, I would say that this book was pretty good. I went through the entire book and obtained a pretty good overview of the material that would be on the exam. I believe that it was quite helpful to me and would be to others. I would recommend that you purchase Transcender practice exams (...) along with this purchase as they provide a real good view of what the test will be about. Good Luck!

I took 70-152 today with a score of 938 (I'm a very experienced ASP developer with some Interdev knowledge), and I only used two sources for my studying - MeasureUP testing software and this book.

Ultimately 70-152 is for developers who have already been developing in HTML, ASP/ADO and Visual Basic (preferably under MTS) for at least a year, and possibly longer. Also, some experience with the Visual Interdev product helps, but there's not a lot of coverage of Interdev either in the book or on the test.

But there is a particular reason you have to use THIS book, as opposed to just going on your own knowledge, or using another book - and that is Chapter One. Take a look at the list of what is covered on the test, and you notice that most of it has to do with "Analyzing Business Requirements." It's obviously emphasized in the list of topics, it's also strongly emphasized in the MeasureUp exams, and (though to a lesser extent than I thought) the test itself.

If you've already passed both of the VB tests -- review Chapters 5 and 6 (which are all database related, mostly focusing on ADO) but don't study too hard. Skip chapters 7 and 8 -- there should be nothing new here. A warning though, be able to understand COM from the C++ point of view on the test.

If you are an experienced ASP developer, you should still give chapters 3 and 4 a read as they deal with topics you probably haven't encountered before or could use review on (scriptlets, PageObject, etc.)

Chapters 1,2,9 and 10 are the chapters you should focus on with regards to the test -- unless you aren't an experienced VB/ASP developer, in which case you should look for a different test to take.

Unlike some past study guides, most of chapter 1 can't be found in MSDN :( So you need the book. You won't pass without knowing chapter 1 most likely. It seems simple, but it isn't.

Be warned, neither this book nor the MeasureUP exams will fully prepare you for the test. It helps if you've dealt with quirks and problems before. Some topics that could have been covered better are Content Replication Server, Index Server, FrontPage (98) Server Extensions, Posting Acceptor (3.0), Site Server Replication capabilities, testing and debugging, and of course deployment and replication. Also give yourself a HTML review, particularly on tags whose function is implied in MS's study outline.

I studied this book cover-to-cover in preparation for the 70-152 exam and don't feel it contributed much to my passing the exam. It covers all the relevant areas but tends to avoid detail in most sections. Some sections (like DHTML and scriptlets) are over-emphasized for the weight they carry on the exam. My background in IIS and ASP/VBScript got me about 75% of the way to passing, and the Transcender did the rest. This book might be useful if you're already very comfortable with all the subjects and you want to know exactly what topics are on the exam, but for an exam prep alone, this book is insufficient.

I think that, in spite of the errors it contains (part of which are reported and corrected in Microsoft's site, included the unexplainable one of the Response.Buffer default), this book is a must reading in order to know the subjects of the exam.
Now, the cons.
I got 923 at my first test in spite of taking it in a foreign language (I'm Italian). However, If I had relied only on this book for taking it, I would have scored 200. The problem is that for some parts it is a very theoric exam. So, the questions are subject to very varied interpretations, and it's not enough to know the subject: you've got to know WHAT THE AUTHORS OF THE EXAM MEANT WHEN THEY PRODUCED IT. And it is only the simulation tests which helped me with this.
That's why most of my exam points are accounted for by the "MeasureUp" online exam simulations. I don't know about Transcender (I visited their site but it seemed a bit more expensive to me), but if you wanna take the Interdev exam, listen to me, go to Measureup. 50% of the questions of the real test were very similiar to those of the simulations, at times only the names of the variables changed! Moreover, the online test simulation suggested me there were subject I should study which absolutely weren't in the book. For instance:
WHERE IN THE BOOK do they say that a stored procedure must have a "CREATE STORED_PROCEDURE @var int AS ............" (this question WAS in the real test).
Or:
WHERE IN THE BOOK do they talk about the "System DSN"? They only speak about File and Machine DSNs! Yet the System DSN WAS in the exam!
And:
WHERE IN THE BOOK IS "CRS" (for multiple deployment) cited? NOWHERE!
So if you wanna take the exam buy the book, but do the online tests too, or you'd better not try at all.
Thanks Riccardo

This book is an excellent study guide for the MCSD exam. I passed the exam easily with this as my only resource. But...(there's always a but), this guide doesn't go into depth on the inner workings of InterDev or teach you how to use it. If you want to lean Visual Interdev 6.0, get a different book.

PROS: If you need to study for the MCSD exam, get this book. The MTS section is excellent! The ADO and RDS sections are also very good. The book (and the exam) concentrates on interactive database-driven web site design.

CONS: Like all MS Press books, there are several inconsistancies, and the labs have errors. Look at it this way, by figuring out what's wrong with the labs, you actually learn a lot.

TIPS: A couple hints, if you're taking the exam, brush up on HTML, HTTP, and web technologies in general. Don't overlook the architecture section of this book! Understand the sections dealing with why to use Client side as opposed to Server side scripting.

The title is a misnomer; the book is really about half reference and half tutorial. Unfortunately, it does neither well. The tutorial coverage is hit or miss and shallow. The reference section is less useful than MSDN.

You can do better than this, and you should.

Sams has provided another quality book. This ASP reference is very clear, concise, and provides the information that developers would otherwise need to seek out in other sources. Excellent productivity tool for those who are in the know.

The good: This book is small in size, so you can carry it anywhere without straining yourself. It's very easy to understand the writing.

The bad: The reason the book is small is because there is a tremendous lack of depth to the content. Perhaps the book is so easy to understand is because they say the same things over and over again. The next sentence of this review talks about how often the author(s) reference something that will be talked about next. The author(s) reference something that will be talked about next a lot! Very annoying and adds to the pagecount. Cut that stuff out, and cut out the repeated sections of HTML (which are the same) for both C# and VB.NET code, and the book would probably be reduced by 40%. Then they could add more depth and more examples to each class. Another annoyance is coding convention, or lack thereof. I realize it's inconsequential to the functionality that the code can be written in whatever mixture of upper and lower-case, but isn't it good practice to stick to a standard and be consistent? Obviously, the writers could care less about this as well. Maybe I'm used to books in which the authors have a little bit better programming discipline in regards to how they write their code.

Before buying this book, I was encouraged by the previous reviews and the marketing hype in the title itself. Who could argue with a "code-intensive premium reference"?!? Unfortunately, this book contains little that isn't already available free to the public online at MSDN both in the form of a simple framework reference and in the form of quality examples. The last third of the book is merely a rehash of the .NET framework docs on the classes most relevant to ASP.NET developers. The earlier content is decent, however, and does a fair job of demonstrating the basic ASP.NET controls and in demonstrating some of the interesting configuration aspects of ASP.NET applications. The examples never touch more than the surface, however, so once you hit a wall, you're back at the (generally good) MSDN documentation anyway. The moral of the story here is that this book is a fair reference, ideally suited for someone who wants a concise, ASP.NET-oriented subset of the MSDN docs/tutorials in an easy-to-hold-in-your-hand format. If you like to read printed documentation, this book will be good for you. If you're happy with HTML-based documentation online, then you won't find much value in this book -- certainly not enough to justify the cover price.

The quality of this book is the lowest.
Its boring, code won't run, sentences repeat themselves.

I don't think there was any QA reading done on it.

It looks like trying to be quick outside at the market
with a .NET book without making sure that the code supplied
in the book actually runs.

As a curent MENSA member, I find this book completely irritating and inaccurate! It should by no means be held as a traditional example of an IQ intelligence measure, due to the complete innanity of some of the questions put forth. Please find yourself a better-suited test of intelligence that broaches the lines of a half-way normal brain.

_I bought this little book of IQ tests as a retest. Now that I am nearing 50 hard-won years I wanted to know if I had "slowed down" to a measurable degree. I had always done well on standardised tests in school (PSAT, ACT, GRE), plus I had qualified for both MENSA and INTERTEL when much younger. So I took all four tests. The results were in the range that the more formal tests always yielded (except that the first was a little low- 119, 142, 163, 140.) On the basis of this I have to assume that, 1) these tests compare favorably with the formal, professionally administered versions, and 2) no, I don't really seem to have lost much of my old ability. On that basis I recommend them.

_As for the tests themselves they include "odd one out" problems, language tests, calculation, and pattern logic. They test your powers of deduction, reasoning, and innovation. All the tests are timed- and that is an important factor in their accuracy.

_There is a section describing the MENSA Society (founded at Oxford in 1946) and giving contact addresses for chapters in the UK, Australia, Canada, the USA (obsolete), and International.

One word of caution- if you qualify, don't let it go to your head. Nothing is more irritating than an intelligent person that thinks that their uninformed opinion is consistently infallible. You can be quite conventionally intelligent, yet extremely ignorant in an almost infinite number of areas. Remember Socrate's words: "I know that I don't know." Now that is intelligent AND wise...

The book has 10 tests with 40 questions each, and with a time limit of 90 min. While I by no means am an expert in IQ books, I think this book is a little annoying. I am not sure that the tests have been really standardized, and there is no chart for calculating an IQ apart from a relative scale. In general I do not think that the tests appear to be 'culture fair'. People who do not have English as first language can forget about solving the questions where English is needed. All together the tests and questions are varied, mistake-free and well thought, but I think that the average person would find other books more interesting. This book is for people who as 'sport' has IQ testing and the authors, well-known IQ writers, must also be said to belong to that category. The questions are certainly challenging and in the upper end of what one finds in IQ test books. I recommend the book but it is not for the beginner.

The book is fairly comprehensive and well indexed. It covers topics and has a very similar format to other books in the same field. However, as with these other books, if you are looking for a comprehensive, one stop shop you'll be disappointed. Since the book is broad ranging, each topic is covered rather thinly. The author may have been advised to narrow the range of topics by cutting out, say, the travelog stuff and beefing up the topics that people might really want and need to know. For example, it is illegal for an insurance company in any EU country to deny third party motor insurance cover for an indefinite period while you're driving anywhere in the EU. Also, much of the information is well out of date and the book needs serious revision.

All in all a pretty good book... sure convinced me to really really look hard and long into buying in Italy. Much romantic notion in the idea... but probably a really big cluster headache.

The book however, is very Euro Centric. The author is from England and it is written from an English perspective. For American buyers a book written by a US resident would have been more informative.

JP Saleeby, MD
www.saleeby.net

Believe it or not, I got to re-read the Foreword and the Introduction to check whether the objective of the book is that of the book title. I must praise the publisher for being able to get the endorsement from Financial Times, The Independent, Futures Magazine and even a Sir in the back cover. However, I really doubt whether those critics (no personal name given indeed) had read the book at all.

As a pro mechanical (using TA with as little personal judgement as possible, vs the large judgement needed of, say, Elliot Wave Theories) trader/CFA/trading book lover I really dislike the book. I admit that I am prejudiced against Cycles/Elliot Wave Theories coz it's nearly impossible to tell what phase/stage of what cycle one is in and thus what high profit probability action one should take, except from hindsight which may already be hundreds of pips away. Pathetically, the key theme of the book, if present, is to provide academic background of various types of cycle theory. Psuedo science/psychology/economics, forgive me.

In case you really want to read something to sharpen your trading/investment edge, I strongly suggest you to give it a pass.

Many technical analysts like to forget that they live in the real world. Technical analysis is based on the idea that the patterns drawn by stock prices can be used to forecast the financial markets. The field of behavioral finance essentially looks at this psychological give and take from an academic perspective, while technical analysis is largely a real life application. Tony Plummer brilliantly bridges this gap by showing how and why these patterns develop. He also discusses his own take on Elliott Wave Theory in a cogent and interesting manner. (Disclosure: This reviewer wrote "Applying Elliott Wave Theory Profitably" and Mr. Plummer wrote the foreword to the book.)