Facebook: The Missing Manual
by E. A. Vander Veer
ISBN 10: 0-596-51769-6
ISBN 13: 9780596517694
US$19.99
Well, I finally received my review copy last Thursday of this new offering from O’Reilly. That’s the down-side of living down-under — it takes ages to receive anything sent by surface mail. This took so long that I was beginning to suspect some irony in the “missing” part of the title!Anyway, I have it now — and it’s a beautiful thing! I’ve bought O’Reilly books before (“Programming Perl” was top of my bedside reading pile for a long while), and I’ve always been impressed by the quality of the production and the content. This new offering (published in January) doesn’t disappoint. The book exudes quality; the typeface is clear, and I love the fact that the colors used match those of the Facebook site. (I’m sure that was no accident.) (And unlike the manuals of another well-known publisher of IT-related books, the content appears dense and detailed — there isn’t so much whitespace that you suspect the book could have been half the size!)The content is well organised, and immensely detailed. While I’d like to think of myself now as a FB “power-user”, I did discover a few things I didn’t know, which is a tribute to the thoroughness of the author.Writing manuals for software is hard to do well (god knows I’ve suffered through enough of them in my time). Usually they fall into the mind-numbing and ultimately pointless trap of taking you step by step through on-screen functionality — which you can see on the screen anyway! E.g. “Telephone number field — enter your telephone number.” (Duh!) However, while Vander Veer does take us step-by-step through every function on Facebook, she manages to do so with humor and insight. More important than the what is the why, and her she excels, giving us important information about the implications of each field and option, and warnings where necessary about pitfalls.
In summary, I would have no hesitation recommending this book for beginners, and in particular for those who are a little reluctant to join in. The section on privacy is excellent, and the author is at pains throughout to point out where caution might be advised — enough to reassure the most cautious of users. At the same time, she never loses sight of the essential core of Facebook, which is that its fun.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
2 Responses to “Book Review: Facebook, The Missing Manual”