SlashNOT

Matthew writes: Security Jumpstart (2002, Sybex) by Matthew Strebe, is a largish trade-format sized book of 300 pages–rather thin for this size format. The cover is a glaring red and white separated by a bolt of black, with two jumper cables and a spark emitted in the gap between them. Frankly, the cover art seems a bit low-brow.

The choice of fonts in the book was courageous although perhaps misguided. One doesn’t often see sans seriff fonts used for the primary text of technical book. The font does convey a certain sense of whimsy, but it’s odd proportions and lack of seriffs can be straining on eyes more accustomed to Garamond or Times New Roman.

The format uses an inovated side-bar approach to define terms contained in the text in a way that is neither distracting nor inconvenient. These terms are in bold face in the text, which seems an appropriate way to indicate a digression, although underlining might become more popular as the web absorbs the bulk of our reading now.

The artwork throughout the book is typical fare for technical books, and each chapter is prefaced with a black and white lead page that repeats the cover art.

In summary, the book’s oddly tall size, thinness, and bold red cover art will make it standout on your shelf. Whether that’s good or bad is up to you.

Our grade: C+

[Note: This review was written by Matthew Strebe, the author of the subject book]