O'Reilly needs to have a color of book for those books which fit between Nutshell books, and what I like to call the "learning books" (ie. "Access Database programming and design"). This book would be one of those books.

I don't think I could learn DAO from this book. I first realized DAO's potential from reading Steven Roman's Access Database Design & Programming. However, if you realize the capabilities of DAO and are ready to move on to the next level, then this is the book that you need. While the nutshell books are good "ticklers" (you just need to know the syntax), they don't go into a whole lot of depth. This is the book you need when you are thinking "there IS a way to program this, but what is it?". After you have mastered DAO, and just need a "tickler", then you can graduate to DAO in a Nutshell... whenever that comes out.

I have used this book many times when I knew that DAO could do the job, but, I needed a little bit more background info than just the syntax.