Book review: UML Bible

UML Bible is the third book in the Bible series that I have bought; it is also the best among the three. One reason for this is its relatively smaller size compared to the other two (XML Bible and BEA Weblogic Server Bible). It could have been made even smaller if the author hadn't heeded the publisher's threat of canceling the book contract if he turned in a manuscript less than 500 pages long (I think this a standard clause in all the Bible book contracts). Another reason I like UML bible is that there are no typos.

Content-wise, it's sort of OK. I was not disappointed, but neither did it excite me. It probably has something to do with the way these Bible books are structured. They present a lot of information, but there seems to be a deliberate intent to fill pages at the cost of sacrificing succinctness. This may find approval with the kind of folks who judge a book by the number of pages or a PowerPoint presentation by its duration, but it doesn't satisfy those who want to get up to speed about something without wading through pages of laboured explanations.

One thing I simply hate about the Bible series is the incredibly stupid saying on the back cover: "If UML/XML/<insert book topic here> can do it, so can you...". WTF is this supposed to mean?