Eric... If I knew that I could give .5 stars I would have; I unwittingly overrated him at 1 star. I am also a LW Newbie (v. 6.5) but if you would like to buy books that ARE good, Dan Ablan's "Inside Lightwave" would be my #1, followed closely by "Lightwave Applied" 6.5/7.0 By Dave Jerrard, Joe Tracy and Jennifer Hachigan. I haven't gotten through them all yet, (poor self discipline) but you can't go wrong with them. "Inside Lightwave" gets into subpatch modeling and such, as well as extensive texturing, etc. I like Patrick's book because it gives you a bit of a "tour" of the different functions, which is fun and gives you ideas, I agree with you.