This is a very helpful resource for those of us who are new to GPS.

This is a great font of GPS information. You can get the basics of a GPS and begin to enjoy It. Then as you get more proficient with your GPS, you can return again and again to the book for in-depth information about the many different uses for a GPS and of course, a chapter on geocaching.

I have had a GPS unit for almost a year now with no hope of understanding just what it can do or how to use it due to the arcane nature of the owner's manual.I have no clue as to why the manufacturer's write such poor manuals but they do. In response to my frustrations I decided to try Joel's book as a means of understanding what this small device could do and just how to get it to do what the promotional materials say it does. After reading most of Joel's book I was able to go to work using my GPS unit and understand how to negotiate its features with relative ease. Realistically it isn't perfect but it sure is a great place to start if you are like me, clueless as to how to interpret the gibberish in the owner's manual.

I bought this book because I had recently purchased a GPS and was frustrated by the techno speak in the manual. I was looking for something to help me through the jargon.

Only about 1/3 of the book is specificallly about your GPS. A small section is about cartography and the rest deals with "digital mapping" (more jargon for computer software dealing with maps). All of the information is at least loosely tied to a GPS. There is no glossary section but the author does embed many clarifications of technical terms that are helpful for dummies like me.

The GPS sections are an improvement over my manual but still only partially sucessful. Priorities in choosing and mastering a GPS are miniscule. The cartography portion has information that is both interesting and helpful and does not bog the reader down with irrelevant information. These two topics are discussed in the first seven chapters.

The book then turned to digital mapping and I almost gave up on the book. I had no interest in mapping and I wasn't totally satisfied with the previous sections. Luckily I continued on. The mapping chapters are almost exclusively about mapping software (and little utility programs that help). The software information includes commercial, shareware and freeware programs. It discusses programs for the beginner on up to some heady stuff. You may want to take up the subject as a hobby even if you never were interested before. If I had the time I would be tempted to just play with this stuff because it is so cool.

If you buy the book, I would first just skim this "software" portion of the book when you go through it the first time. I think there are 14 chapters. It is amazing what is available but also sometimes redundant. I would use it only as a reference and study only the sections you need at that moment. Reading it word by word might be wasteful.

I do wish that the author had separated the utility software into a separate chapter so that those jewels could be returned to easily. I found them very useful.

The book is a mixed bag. The software chapters are the best part. The GPS info is not going to thrill you. The reading is pretty easy for a technical book.

Copywrite date was 2004. Seems a little outdated in some places. Other than that, it was very helpful and full of useful Websites.