Yes, I both write and read computer books. In fact, I have quite a computer book library. A good title on my shelves is relished. Not every book is perfect, though. I’ve paid good money for books and been truly disappointed — and use that experience as motivation to write my own books better. Recently, I bought one of the Adobe Classroom in a Book titles. Man, what a let-down!

I paid $54.99 for Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Classroom in a Book. It’s a striking book, a tight 350 or so pages on heavy stock. Beautiful 4-color illustrations. Obviously the high price-point is due to the production values. No complaints there. But I didn’t buy an art book; I wanted to learn something.

When your desire is to learn something then obviously a title like Classroom in a Book would seem to suit you well. At first flip, the book appears to work on its theme: the chapters are organized into lessons. Each lesson is split up into careful steps. There are glorious figures, well-formatted call-outs, tips, and everything you’d expect. Again, it’s a handsome book.

Technically, the steps are flawless. Rarely have I made my way through a book and found that all the steps work. There were a few times that I got lost. Some of the steps are split up too tiny, which can be confusing. But that’s not the book’s big problem.

Where Classroom in a Book fails is that I didn’t learn anything. The book well-explains the how, but never bothers with the why.

For example, I’m told in several steps to “insert a key frame.” I know how to do that. The book tells me how, it explains where the key frame goes. It tells me what a key frame is. That’s good. But it never tells me why I need a key frame.

Now please don’t e-mail me to tell me about key frames. I know. But I know because I experimented on my own. For a $55 title that purports to be a “classroom” that’s disappointing. There was no homework in the book. I learned because I experimented on my own. But consider a student/reader who isn’t motivated. In that case, the student could work through the entire book and truly not learn how to do anything on their own. Their level of understanding would be minimal, which is where Classroom in a Book fails.

In my programming titles, I make an effort to teach the topic so that the reader understands it. Often I use the method of introducing mistakes on purpose. But more importantly, I want to ensure that all readers know why they do something, not simply that it be done.

I’ve only purchased one of the Classroom in a Book titles. At $55 a tome, they’re too expensive to me to risk my money trying to see whether another topic in the series may actually be taught, as opposed to recited.