I took a look at the help thingies for both illustrator and photoshop today. As was said, they seem very very comprehensive and useful. I'm gonna give them a go for a week and see how it goes before going out and spending 60-70 on books. Still, thanks for the help everyone! Manticore

I thank everyone who's replied constructively to my request for information regarding recommended reading. Thank you very much. As for the rest of you, I'm disgusted that for a simple slip of the tongue I get pounced on. I'm sorry that I'm so casual and informal is a simple web forum. Perhaps I should wrote in academic standards with footnotes just so I'm not misunderstood? Having recently spent over $400 for the education versions of the software in the adobe web design collection, I'm outraged that my very first post in the photoshop forum is met with accusations of piracy and thievery. Manticore

I didn't know that Photoshop/Illustrator had an electronic manual. I'll check it out. The reason I haven't used the manual that came with the CDs is that I recently moved to the UK for university. Software manuals aren't exactly the lightest things in the world and if I were to bring them along with my leisure books(I'm an avid reader) I'd be carting probably about 50 or 60 lbs of just books. I figured it was just easier to leave them at home and buy a book here. And as slynky said, if manuals were all people needed, there wouldn't be a market for other "how to" books. Manticore PS it was nice to have the 3th reply to my question be an implicit accusation of piracy.