Peter Norton's Inside the PC, Eighth Edition, and holds your attention better than most other technical books. It is written in a conversational style, which is easy to understand. Norton lays out his topics logically beginning with basic hardware information and becoming increasingly more complex. He uses pictures, graphs, and tables sparingly, only when necessary. Some of the most interesting sections are his Historical Asides, Notes, Technical Notes, Tips, Standards, and his own Principles, which come from his personal experience. There is a Quick Navigator inside the front cover that tells you where in the book to find general areas of information. The book has a useful glossary and a cross-referenced index. This is a good informational book at an intermediate level.