Rating:  - Easy to understand
I really enjoyed readig this book! It's written in a simple and undestandable language that even CSS beginer can unterstand everythig, well almost everything, the sky is the only limit... But i really recomend this book for those who is seeking something to start from with CSS. Its NOT a waste of your money, believe me!
Rating: - Improve Your Knowledge of CSS
Prior to owning this book, I was involved in web design of different types for about five years. I picked up various aspects of CSS from visual editors like GoLive and Dreamweaver, just by visually creating elements and tweaking the code. However, if you really want to understand the way CSS is structured and what the best methods for achieving certain types of looks are, this is a good place to start.
This book is neither pure code reference (you should get that at w3c.org), nor a tips and tricks book (though it does have some good code samples for how to achieve certain things in CSS). Rather it will teach you how to create your own "tricks", by explaining how to: structure CSS code, understand the differences in syntax, and understanding the differences between seemingly similar properties and property values (padding and margins for example).
One qualm I have is that the first book I received had a really poor glue-binding (pages were falling out, and the backing was detached from the binding). The replacement book (Amazon was very quick about it) also had a detached backing, but the binding itself was OK so I kept it. Also, I will say the book is a little dry / difficult to read more than a chapter at a time, but it's just as well because it's hard to retain things from technical books when you read straight through them (usually).
While this won't be the only CSS book you'll ever need by any stretch of the imagination, it's definitely a nice one to have around. I find that after my initial reading, the way I most often use this book is as a sort of "CSS Dictionary".
Once you're ready to start learning how to implement CSS in earnest, I recommend "Cascading Style Sheets: Separating Content from Presentation" by Owen Briggs. Similar in size and depth, this book is more accessible and more of a hands-on tool, while maintaining the important code references.
Rating:  - It's definitive
I have the supposedly "out of date" first edition of this book, which is now on its second edition (which is the edition that Amazon is selling right now, even though it's not that clear from the title--dont' worry, Amazon won't sell you an outdated book).
This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for nearly a year and I finally got around to reading it carefully, and I must say that it's extremely worthwhile reading.
First of all, let me point out that even the first edition of the book is not outdated. It was ahead of its time when it was written. Back then, not all of the browsers supported CSS1. At the moment, not much of CSS2 is supported, so learning CSS2 is a waste.
If you've tried to design web pages usings DIVs, you will probably get extremely frustrated with your DIVs not positioning the way you think they should. This book has the most thorough description I've ever read about how DIVs and other block elements are positioned. Confused about padding vs margin, or floating and clearing? This book explains it all in detail.
The only out of date part of the 1st edition is when the text contains specific mention of obsolete browers. No one cares that IE3 or Netscape4 doesn't support a particular feature, so hopefully the new second edition takes that stuff out of there.
What this books lacks is examples and advice on how to DESIGN web pages. What it does contain is a detailed tutorial on HOW CSS works. But while there are plenty of books about designing web pages, complete with lots of pretty color pictures, the world also needs a book about the HOW.
Rating:  - This is the old edition. It was a 5-star book 4 years ago.
Eric Meyer is the master. This edition is way out of date. Instead, buy Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition. It explains everything about CSS2 in detail. For examples and workflow, buy Eric Meyer on CSS and More Eric Meyer on CSS. Just don't buy this outdated version of The Definitive Guide.
Rating: - Great resource
The subtitle claims this volume is the definitive guide, I believe it. This book provides comprehensive coverage of the current cascading style sheets specification and how it is being of being implemented (or not). The focus is on the CSS2 and CSS2.1 specs. My first impression of the book was that it would be a valuable reference manual, but as I began to read it, I soon realized it would serve as a great instructional source also. The writing style is as if a good friend sat down to explain style sheets. I found the pacing of the material to appropriate and the detail of the explanations to be exhaustive.
The chapter on selectors (chapter 2) was extremely valuable for me. It helped me to understand why some things did not work as I thought they should. Throughout the book, differences between the specification and the implementation in certain products are explained. Additionally, the differences between various levels of CSS are highlighted. The book has numerous examples for the CSS elements and variations.
This is a great book on CSS, but I wish that electronic versions of the examples were available. This is the only shortcoming of the book that I see. This book is a great tutorial and a valuable reference. Regular practice of the techniques contained within this volume can assist the reader in voiding the abuse of the table and fonts tags.
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