Amazon.com Review
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