I love this book, it's not your average learn to build a CD or Book database in XML. If you want to learn the XML, buy a generic fat red book with the lots of faces on it, if you want to learn how to apply the XML to practical situations, get this one. It's not going to take you years to read and the selection of applicable quotes at the start of each make it quite amusing and exciting. Add a bit of method to your madness, buy this book and apply a Software Engineer's approach to your data modelling.