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Another LWG User Group Book(shelf) Review:

SAFARI ONLINE BOOKSHELF

by O'Reilly

I've been using the Safari Bookshelf for a couple of months now, and I have a pretty good feeling as to what it is good for, and what it isn't. I've been lucky enough to receive this service free for one year, and I'm really trying to take advantage of the opportunity. The big decision is going to come next February... do I renew and actually pay the 14.99 monthly fee?

What is Safari? It is an online book service provided by O'Reilly. You might think it's just another way to get O'Reilly books, but it's really much more. On Safari, you have access to all of O'Reilly's titles, plus scores of books from other publishers such as Sun Microsystems, Addison Wesley, and Peachpit Press (publisher of the QuickStart books). At any given time, you can have up to ten titles on your own bookshelf, ready to be searched, browsed, and read. The other limitation is that you must keep a book on your shelf 30 days before you can remove it.

I started my visit to my empty bookshelf by doing some searches on items that currently interest me, such as Cascading Style Sheets and PHP. I was able to search the entire library, and when I was interested in a particular book, its entire Table of Contents, as well as some excerpts from the book, were available. It was one easy click to add it to my bookshelf, giving me immediate access to the entire content of the book.

I currently have six books on my bookshelf, and all of them are reference books. Here's the list:

Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL

Webmaster in a Nutshell

Programming PHP

Mac OS X Unleashed

PHP Cookbook

Google Hacks

All of them are O'Reilly titles, except for Mac OS X Unleashed (SAMS Publishing). I tried to buy a "print edition" of Google Hacks, but they were on back order. Bummer! But then I remembered my Safari Bookshelf, and I was reading it a minnute later!

My biggest beef with Safari is something I dislike about all online books-- I can't curl up on the sofa and read it (OK, I could use my laptop, but it's still not the same experience!). And when I'm reading a tutorial to try and learn something, I want a paper book. It is a similar problem when actually trying to do something on the computer while reading about it... I would rather have the book in hand than clutter up my computer desktop with another browser window.

I'll try to summarize the good and the bad:

SAFARI IS GOOD FOR...

Reference books.
You can look something up in seconds, without take up space on your physical bookshelf.
Books you didn't know you needed.
Always leave a few slots open on your Bookshelf-- you never know when the info you need is in a book you haven't seen yet.
Instant access.
Need a new book? Don't have time to run to Barnes & Noble? Can't wait for delivery? No problem! You can be reading it before you could hit the CHECKOUT button on Amazon.
Cut and paste.
Technical books are filled with code examples, especially the Cookbook titles. With Safari, just grab 'em! No need to type them in or go searching for the author's web site.
Access to unavailable books.
As I was telling you earlier about Google Hacks-- it's a great way to get a copy of a book you just can't find at the local bookstore.

SAFARI IS NOT SO GOOD FOR...

Sitting under a tree and trying to learn JavaScript syntax.
Reading a Nutshell book when your broadband is down.
Books that are not available on Safari (not really a big problem so far).
Looking up PHP functions on your laptop in the airport, and there's no WiFi.

So basically, Safari is great for getting access to a lot of different technical books, and it's wonderful for looking up stuff, as long as you have an internet connection. And if you really like one of the books on your bookshelf, but the print edition!

If you are interested in trying out Safari, you can still take a 14-day trial run courtesy of the O'Reilly User Group Program. Just click here for more info.

Last modified 10/12/2003.

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