On the positive side, I have learned a lot from this book and it probably is the very best print resource to improve your use of Vim.
On the negative, I get annoyed almost every time I pick it up.
The main reason why is that he very often refers to what he calls "most other text editors". An example is on page 106 where he talks about working with split windows. He says "The classic GUI for a text editor presents the file explorer in a sidebar." What is he talking about? I have never seen anything like this. All of this is just confusing and I end up needing to construct a mental picture of some other editor I never have and never will see.
My guess is that he is thinking of some editor he used once on a Windows system, but my guess could be wrong and his background may be on Mac. Whatever the case it doesn't matter. I don't have the same background as him and he shouldn't assume that I do. Tear all that stuff out in the next revision of the book. Let's just stick to Vim and we will all know what we are talking about.
A second reason why I get annoyed is that I am not entirely sold on the quasi-cookbook way of organizing the book. I have learned a lot from the book, but only in conjunction with frequent use of the index and online searching. Let's be frank. This way of organizing the book is/was a quick and dirty way of getting the book into print. As someone has pointed out, the book is most useful as a set of examples about how to think about things and to be more efficient at using Vim than anything else.
In spite of these complaints, I still encourage anyone who has gotten started using Vim to get the book. As I say, I have found it helpful and useful.
Drew Neil has another book, "Modern Vim" that reportedly talks about NeoVim. Whether or not that is a major topic in the book (probably not), I don't yet know. I just (May, 2026) ordered a nicely priced used copy and it is on the way. I will have more to say when it arrives.
Tom's vim pages / tom@mmto.org