Spent a little more time with "Learning Web App Development" until I got to the point where I got frustrated with the book. Part of my frustration with the book is it doesn't make it clear what's changed in between sections. That and a lot of "I left this as an exercise for the reader". That's great and I'm sure it's a fantastic learning tool for some but if I'm learning these things then leaving it as an exercise means I have to figure things out. And if later sections build on those concepts then it means there's a gap between where you taught and where I may or may not have caught the concept. That really irritates me in books, especially ones where it's more about self study. Worse is when the sample code pretty much has everything in a "solved" state (which is cool if you got lost, but absolute rubbish if you got lost mid-chapter).

I don't know of a good way to fix this sort of issue but it's one that makes me start searching to see if there are other more cogent and coherent books on the subject.

Ever onward.