The book just arrived, but I've already read a nice chunk of pages. So far so good, I love the humor and the clarity of the explanations. Even though it's not really suitable for people without any programming knowledge, it's very straight and a pleasure to read.

A nice work, Mr. Neighborly :)

I've been trying to learn Ruby for about 6 months. After purchasing several well known books, including the pickaxe, I still could not wrap my head around Ruby. This was the first book the explained every topic deep enough to understand the concept but not so deep that you get lost. Plus, the humor is actually pretty good. After reading this book, moving to rails was a snap.

I'll admit that I have only read 20 pages of this book thus far. I am so impressed with it that I felt I had to write something here until I can finish the book. It has rumor, yes, but the most powerful thing about the book is the clarity with which it presents the language. I instantly understood not just the examples but their implications within larger systems. I was immediately thinking about how the methods and ideas presented could make my programming easier. I recommend this to anyone who found the Pickaxe too daunting as an introduction to Ruby.