Comments on: The Smashing Book Review

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:26:28 +0000

Just got my book in today (loooooooong wait) and am hugely disappointed. While I haven’t yet spent much time in the book, the design of it makes me want to run away as fast as I can. It is too thick for the type of binding, requiring too much force to keep the pages open to where you want them. When you open it wide enough to actually read, you quickly realize that pages will start falling out with much use. For such a great online magazine with such amazing content, they really botched this book from a design standpoint.

By: Shawn

Shawn — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 04:06:33 +0000

I aslo ordered mine as a pre-release..but I am also still waiting. So far based on all the comments I have read, my impression is that the content of the book is good (i guess thats the most important thing) but the quality, physical size and binding of the book is really poor quality. I guess I’ll just have to wait until next year to know for sure. Also maybe I missed it somewhere, but when I was ordering the book it was under the impression that it was being shipped from the US, I never saw a note anywhere stating it would be shipped from Russia otherwise I would pay the extra for shipping because the estimated ground shipping time is 30-40 Days to the US.

By: RH

RH — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:54:17 +0000

I pre-ordered a copy back in August as a Christmas gift and didn’t bother with faster shipping to North America because I figured it has 3 months to arrive. Now, it looks like all that will be wrapped up under the tree is a picture of a book. :(

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:06:59 +0000

Thanks Phillip – fair point!

Yeah, the first chapter was excellent, looking forward to receiving the book :).

Dan

By: KJ

KJ — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:20:40 +0000

I received my book yesterday and, although I agree with you, the content is fab, the physical book is awful. I’m bitterly disappointed at how poorly put together it is.

The binding is simply wrong for the size of book – 311 pages with a glued spine. It’s so stiff, I can’t open my book properly without wrecking the binding and many people are complaining on the Smashing site that their book has already fallen apart.

My advice – save your money and wait for the inevitable second edition.

By: Julian

Julian — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:26:41 +0000

Hi, a few words about the quality of the book would be nice too. I’ve found that the content is great, but the quality of binding / amount of space in the spine is quite bad.

By: Phillip

Phillip — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:19:34 +0000

Hey Dan – Thanks for your comment and no offense taken!

The reason I did not go into the details of each chapter is due to the fact that the book is brand new and I did not want to ruin it for people who have not yet received it or haven’t had time to read it. I just wanted to point it out that it’s a great read and people should check it out.

Even though you already ordered, if you are interested in full chapter details or want a teaser chapter, I would suggest checking out the free 1st chapter download over at Smashing Magazine.

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:14:03 +0000

Hi,
I’ve ordered, and was excited to read this review –
But (no offence intended), this isn’t much of a review. You talk about the packaging, list the chapters, but don’t really give any insights into the content – or perhaps just brief notes on each chapter.
Thanks,
Dan

By: ZoRdAK

ZoRdAK — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:08:32 +0000

I received it yesterday and seems to be great !

As we say here : “Merci beaucoup ;)”

By: Phillip

Phillip — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:00:27 +0000

Hey everybody! Thanks for all your comments.

For those who still haven’t received the book, hang in there! I have had the same issue when ordering books from the USA. Sometimes it takes a bit longer than it should but I am sure its on the way.