Rating: 
Summary: For it's topic, extremely complete
Review: This is a very complete concise reference to the PACKAGES of LaTeX. It won't teach you well how to use LaTeX, but more how to use all of the standard packages. It is far more of a reference book than a read-to-learn book. An excellent reference book at that.
Rating:
Summary: Well written, deep LaTeX walkthrough and reference
Review: This is an amazing piece of work. It's obviously a well refined second edition where the authors have listened to the readers and understand how to present this very deep information in a lightweight informative way. I can't imagine any more material that could be poured into this book. Which isn't to say that the book is a dumping ground of material, what is in there is all well organized and integrated.
What's more, the formatting of the book itself stands as an example of design to be aspired to.
This is a phenomenal piece of work. It gets my highest recommendation. This is a fantastic book for anyone who uses TeX seriously. For those looking to start with TeX you should probably AW's Guide To LaTeX as well as this book.
Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding Book
Review: This is, by far, the most useful book I own. The first edition was great, the second edition is nothing short of spectacular. The two-color print is very helpful. Compared to the first edition, which I've been using for just about seven years, the updated package descriptions in the new edition improved my typesetting substantially within only a few days after I got it. Well worth it's price. I hope the authors make a good buck on this, since they are making my life so much easier.
The stated intention of the book not withstanding, I think this is all you'll ever need to use LaTeX, no matter how serious a user you are. Well, maybe a two-page primer of the basic commands in addition. Anyway, I've never used Kopka's book and I never touched Lamport's. Not because they're bad, but because I never had to.
The one small issue I have with the second edition: where did the cute pooch on the cover go?
Rating: 
Summary: Agree about frustrating aspects, but more depth than kopka
Review: Yeah, the index is pretty appalling; yeah, learning LaTeX via this route was rough; nevertheless, short of trying to decipher the minimally commented LaTeX source code, it's the only place to find a wide variety of facts.Speaking of the source code, isn't it about time that someone wrote up a nice thorough plain-English description of what exactly LaTeX contributes to TeX, and how it does it? That way there would be a way to learn everything at the highest level: read the TeXbook, then read what I envisage. At present, the vast number of `@'-commands, which you need to grasp for writing macros, aren't documented anywhere outside of the source code. Also, does anyone know the inside scoop on the progress of NTS/LaTeX3?
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