Book details of 'The Little PC Book'

Title	The Little PC Book
Author(s)	Lawrence J. Magid, Darcy Dinucci
ISBN	0938151541
Language	English
Published	November 1993
Publisher	Peachpit Press

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'The Little PC Book':

Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
As with other installments in the rightfully popular Little Book series, Lawrence Magid's The Little PC Book takes readers through a lively, illustrated tour of their new computer. Unlike other "beginner" books, however, this one is concerned not just with teaching you how to use your PC, but also with initiating you into the culture of the PC. The first chapter, for example, ends with several pages about places where you can get help and advice once you've got your machine out of the box. In addition to the obvious (it includes a full page of tech support numbers and Web addresses), Magid offers the User Group Locator hotline number and a survey of magazines and newsletters that are essential to PC fans. Also, because this is a PC book, it recognizes that Windows and PC are not synonymous terms; Magid begins his discussion at the very beginning, and describes several things that can go wrong (and how to fix them) before Windows has booted up on your machine. In the end, The Little PC Book does much to clarify the jargon that surrounds PCs and makes them intimidating. And Magid's first-person sidebars (e.g., "I'm not naïve or egotistical enough to believe that you're going to pay attention to everything I say, but in this case, please do") make this beginner's guide feel like a tutorial with a benign master. --Patrick O'Kelley --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
The cover blurb describes this book as a "gentle introduction to personal computers." Indeed, the introduction is so gentle, that it would be a wonder if any information got exchanged at all. Part one (barely more than a "hello") has indications that Magid is more comfortable with the Mac. Part two is supposed to advise you on buying a PC, but it gives you little more than the terminology that you need in order to talk to salescritters. (Although an ad for a PC is featured in one cartoon, there is no "how to read ads" guidance, as there is in other such books.) The "Rules of the Road" in part three are definitely *not* enough to get you started running programs. The DOS and Windows "Cookbooks" at the back of the book are probably intended to fill the gap. If so, the back of the book is an odd place for them. In addition, the DOS command examples (both in the cookbook and other places) contain numerous errors. None are major ("dir/s" does find files in subdirectories--but it doesn't search the whole disk unless you specify that the search should start in the root), but there are enough to make this guide frustrating, to say the least. For those looking to get an MS-DOS computer, there are enough concepts and terminology here to start your study. But before you purchase, you'd better get some additional help. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995
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