this isnt a good book if you are a newbie.
i am a newbie.
i have this book.

it says right on the book= userlevel:intemediate-advanced
but you get the distro that is the bonus.

http://tldp.org

lots of good reading there and free. go on kazaa and do a search....for text documents you will find tons of books .pdf format to keep you busy reading for the next couple of years.