I don't use reviews as the sole basis of deciding to purchase a book (I have a dust pile too) but I do use them as a starting point.

Based on your comments about the book I will take a closer look at it however.

>I agree the 5 star review was worthless, but that is not the point.
>The 1 star is worthless as well. To say the book does not come close to the complexities fo the exam is flat out wrong. Are other resources required? Perhaps. However, the context of the original question had NOTHING to do with the cert exam. In fact, the book is good nutshell for those wishing to get up to speed quickly on the Windows application dev. in .NET.
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>Based on the context of the question, the book is on target. The same could be said for the web development book as well.
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>What do I do? I go to my book store and take the time to actually thumb through the book. If I think it has value, I will order through Amazon. Reviews are almost worthless, and if you rely on that as a basis of making an informed decision, you will end up with a lot of books that collect dust. That is the ultimate point I am making...< s >...
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>>John,
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>>An excellent review? I'm assuming you mean the "ChunkyButt" review. The one where he mentioned he has "never layed (sic) eyes on this book yet [felt] compelled to review it"?
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>>As for the the 2 three-star reviews, they are duplicates of each other. So out of 5 reviews that leaves 3:
>> 1 three-star
>> 1 one-star
>> 1 four-star
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>>I don't consider that a glowing recommendation when the one-star reviewer says "If you expect to pass the exam... skip this one! This book doesn't come close to the complexities covered on the exam..." and the other two reviews also make a point of recommending supplementing this book with other books.
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>>I use reviews as a guide to determine which books to take a closer look at. The sheer number of .NET books have made me decide to do it this way. Since you said you used the book and thought it very good why don't you post a review at Amazon?
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>>To everyone else, do I get some sort of UT Purple Heart now for receiving a JVP blast?