As someone who is completely new to Adobe Photoshop having always used CorelDraw before, I purchased this book after a brief look at the contents suggested it covers all of the features of Photoshop CS2. As a complete beginner and a very action orientated pragmatic learner I love to be able to read and practice as I work my way through a book. Unfortunately with this one there is no opportunity to do this - there isn't a cd containing the images/lessons illustrated so there is no opportunity to replicate the effects for yourself, and neither are these files available to download from the internet.
I would suggest that this book would best serve someone who is familiar with at least the basics of Photoshop and just needs a reference book to act as a reminder on how to do a particular thing. So to summarise; this is book is great as a reference tool but I am sure there are far better books on the market (with supporting CDs) for complete beginners hoping to learn at home at their own pace.