PC Upgrade & Repair Simplified (Idg's 3-D Visual Series)
I'm not really into the "3-D visual approach" to anything about  computers. Visually, the world is 3-D enough for me. In books, I want text and  2-D illustrations. Yet, I know from reading my e-mail that lots of people glom  onto the overly illustrated approach. "PC Upgrade & Repair Simplified" is my  very first exposure to one of the vastly popular Maran Graphics titles from  Hungry Minds Books. The jacket boasts 6 million satisfied users--a huge number  of users, when you consider that there probably are a few more who are  unsatisfied, but uncounted.The first thing I noticed about this book is that it took the entire Maran  family clan to create it. They're from Canada, so right away you know they pay  way too much in taxes.The book really is lovely, with many colorful illustrations ("full color on  every page"--except for the order form in back [ha!]) that show a computer in  various stages of disassembly, hands and implements conveniently placed to  illustrate proper upgrading procedures. It's exactly what you'd expect: little  text, lots of pictures. That works fine for, say, pornography, but when it comes  to computers I feel people really need more text and tables than cute pictures.  Information-wise, the book leaves me wanting more. It's like a lava lamp: pretty  to look at, but not much in the way of expressing ideas.Most of the book concentrates on adding or replacing hardware. You see various  steps and their corresponding illustrations. So, instead of reading, "Plug in  the memory module," you see a wonderful Adobe Illustrator-like image of a hand  shoving a SIMM into a slot. But that isn't enough. The book rarely mentions  anything about the follow-through with the software side of upgrading and  installing. The troubleshooting information reads like foam peanuts--i.e., space  filler.On the subject of hard-drive partitioning, this book devotes one paragraph and  one illustration. Hey, thanks, guys; that really helps--not! In fact, the  illustration that's next to the paragraph, and depicts a disk track and sector  on a hard drive, is incorrect. Oh, well; so much for the simple approach. I  mean, a certain group in the computer-book-buying public might be drawn to this  colorful stuff, but they're going to leave the four-color, 3-D, PC-upgrade table  wanting more.--Dan Gookin