Rating:  - Good reference for what CSS can do
The CSS Cookbook is a nice reference for seeing CSS in action. This book focuses on examples grouped by Typography, Page Elements, Navigation, Lists, Forms, Tables, Page Layouts, Printing layout, CSS workarounds, and design tips.
Christopher Schmitt writes in a clear, concise manner. Tips and information are presented in a "no nonsense" way, getting straight to the point. I just wish there were more points made. For a 250 page book, this is a nice manual of solutions to common problems that CSS can solve, but I feel like more could have been added to bring the page count somewhere around 350-400. One of the main things that CSS can do is address the need for "tableless" web pages and while Mr. Schmitt discusses this topic in his chapter relating to page layout, I feel more examples should have been provided for a book which calls itself a "cookbook".
Having said that, the calendar example in Chapter 6 is worth the price of admission alone, and the samples provided relating to font typography are well written. The thing I like about Oreilly's "Cookbook" series is the fact that these books get right to the point. Too many times authors spice up their books with humor-filled writing and for a reference guide you just want to be able to open up a book and find relevant examples. The author does a nice job of providing an excellent companion to "Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide" and it would benefit any CSS developer to have a copy of "CSS Cookbook" next to their computer.
**** RECOMMENDED
Rating:  - Not sure who this book was written for...
After reading the other reviews about this book, I thought that it'd be a handy reference guide to add to my collection. I'm an experienced web developer and already know how style sheets work and how to use them - I just wanted a book where I could quickly look up specific syntax, etc.
This book definitely doesn't work for that - the index is sorely lacking and the information isn't well-organized at all. So, since a lot of the other reviewers wrote that this book isn't for beginners (I agree) and, since I'm an experienced developer and it's not working for me, I'm not sure who would find this book useful. Especially when there are so many other CSS books to choose from.....
Normally O'Reilly books are really good, so I'm a little bit surprised that they published this book without having an editor clean it up and organize it. In any case, I would not recommend this book, period. I'm glad that my employer paid for it and not me. ;-)
Rating:  - Great book!
Finally! A CSS book with real-world examples that allows the user to find what they are looking for and put it to work. I don't want to read pages and pages about the history of CSS, I just want to find the code I need and be done. I carry this book with me everyday. A truly valuable resource, highly recommended.
Rating: - Find the complete answer and instructions fast
If you do any programming at all you soon learn of the immense value of programming cookbooks. This particular one came at a good time for me as I was trying to figure out how to create a particular effect for a web page and knew that it could be done with a cascading style sheet. A quick turn to the correct page and the code was right there along with an explanation of how it works. Twenty minutes later it was completely coded and working correctly.
The author lists many common problems and for each of them provides a problem definition, a solution, and a discussion. For many of the problems the author also includes a "See Also" section that points you to further reading. With so many problems and solutions it is important to organize them in a way so they can be located quickly. To achieve this goal the book is divided into ten distinct sections. These sections are: Web Typography, Page Elements, Links and Navigation, Lists, Forms, Tables, Page Layouts, Print, Hacks and Workarounds, and Designing with CSS. A top quality cookbook title from O'Reilly Media, CSS Cookbook is a highly recommended read for anyone working with web pages and cascading style sheets.
Rating: - Cook up a CSStorm with this reference
If you're not familiar with O'Reilly's cookbook series (...), they're books with a basic formula: Problem, Solution, and Discussion sections for every 'recipe.' The link takes you to an image showing how the format looks. Each recipe is a script, program, command, or piece of code for implementing within a large part of a whole.
In CSS Cookbook, get recipes for using CSS to create pull quotes, to add a background image, to build various types of layouts, and to manage forms. It is not about building a Web site from scratch, but getting bite-sized markup for implementing pieces of the site.
This book is for those who know HTML and have a basic understanding of CSS. Like any food cookbook, the recipes are there when you're ready for them. It's not for reading from cover to cover. When you get stuck on a problem or want to know how to create a printer-friendly page, refer to the recipe.
The main issue with the book is its use of tables in some of the recipes. With the growing number of Web sites moving towards Web standards compliance, tables are finally going away as a layout tool. Their only purpose is for organizing data.
Don't expect recipes on fly-out or drop down menus. This is not a bad thing as CSS is not the ideal way to create such menus as there are many problems with implementing them. So it is understandable why they were not included. If you want to learn how to do these menus, there are many resources on the Internet showing how.
The book could use more recipes as others in the Cookbook series have 400, 500, and even 700 pages. This one is just 270 pages.
As in his other books, Schmitt does an excellent job of explaining each problem and solution with his minimal jargon and easy writing style. The table of contents (...) provides the list of the types of problems covered in this book. If these are things you wish to implement, then you'll be happy with the purchase.
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