I"m not really into the "3-D visual approach" to anything about computers. Visually, the world is 3-D enough for me. In books, I want text and 2-D illustrations. Yet, I know from reading my e-mail that lots of people glom onto the overly illustrated approach. "PC Upgrade & Repair Simplified" is my very first exposure to one of the vastly popular Maran Graphics titles from Hungry Minds Books. The jacket boasts 6 million satisfied users--a huge number of users, when you consider that there probably are a few more who are unsatisfied, but uncounted. The first thing I noticed about this book is that it took the entire Maran family clan to create it. They"re from Canada, so right away you know they pay way too much in taxes. The book really is lovely, with many colorful illustrations ("full color on every page"--except for the order form in back [ha!]) that show a computer in various stages of disassembly, hands and implements conveniently placed to illustrate proper upgrading procedures. It"s exactly what you"d expect: little text, lots of pictures. That works fine for, say, pornography, but when it comes to computers I feel people really need more text and tables than cute pictures. Information-wise, the book leaves me wanting more. It"s like a lava lamp: pretty to look at, but not much in the way of expressing ideas. Most of the book concentrates on adding or replacing hardware. You see various steps and their corresponding illustrations. So, instead of reading, "Plug in the memory module," you see a wonderful Adobe Illustrator-like image of a hand shoving a SIMM into a slot. But that isn"t enough. The book rarely mentions anything about the follow-through with the software side of upgrading and installing. The troubleshooting information reads like foam peanuts--i.e., space filler. On the subject of hard-drive partitioning, this book devotes one paragraph and one illustration. Hey, thanks, guys; that really helps--not! In fact, the illustration that"s next to the paragraph, and depicts a disk track and sector on a hard drive, is incorrect. Oh, well; so much for the simple approach. I mean, a certain group in the computer-book-buying public might be drawn to this colorful stuff, but they"re going to leave the four-color, 3-D, PC-upgrade table wanting more. --Dan Gookin